WESTHAMPTON — With Hampshire Regional High School’s boilers near failure, member towns are considering a large-scale renewable energy system that officials say would be among the most ambitious such projects in the Hilltowns.
Superintendent Vito Perrone and Daniel Abrahamson, a municipal energy manager for the school district, made clear at Monday’s Hampshire Regional School Committee meeting that action needs to be taken on the boilers.
“There are only a year, maybe two years left before we need to put significant investment into them, and it is causing discomfort in the school during the winters,” Abrahamson said.
The school also needs a new roof, and has no cooling system.
Abrahamson presented four options at the meeting, ranging from the cheapest short-term fix at about $4 million to the most ambitious long-term solution at about $16 million.
The larger projects depend on grant funding and, Abrahamson said, could cost the district and member towns nothing. But several School Committee members noted there is no guarantee the grants would be awarded. Abrahamson said he has identified six programs that could fund the most expensive option within the next three years.
Because Monday’s meeting was introductory, the School Committee did not choose an option, but members signed a letter of support to pursue at least one of them. Abrahamson has presented the options to the select boards in nearly all member towns, and many have expressed support for a project.
Abrahamson became energy manager last summer for what’s called the Hampshire Regional Partnership, consisting of Westhampton, Southampton, Williamsburg and the Hampshire Regional School District. Goshen and Chesterfield, the district’s other towns, are not part of this partnership.
Abrahamson’s position, which will last three years, is made possible through a Mass Save grant program, allowing multiple communities across the state to hire energy managers with the goal to reduce energy use and carbon emissions for municipal buildings.
Abrahamson, a Hampshire Regional alum, has already helped members secure funding for multiple projects since his arrival, though this would be the biggest project yet, Perrone noted at the meeting.
“This school is the biggest consumer of energy in all five towns,” Perrone said about the high school.
The three boilers at the high school are roughly 20 years old. One is working, one needs repairs and the other is no longer functional, Abrahamson said. Along with the boilers, Abrahamson said the high school’s roof, which is more than 15 years old, needs replaced. This can be accomplished in each of the four options he presented to the committee.
Abrahamson provided cost estimates for each of the four solutions, but emphasized that these amounts have likely increased since they were estimated in a 2024 report. That report was also created through a Mass Save program that provided an in-depth energy analysis of the high school. Abrahamson told the Gazette that he is hoping to gather more accurate numbers in the near future.
The first option would be a straight replacement of the boilers, which Abrahamson called a short-term solution. This $4 million option would not fix the cooling problem and there would be no grant funding available.
“We wouldn’t be introducing cooling to the school and you would not be aligning with what the commonwealth is setting out to do in terms of decarbonization goals,” Abrahamson said.
Option two would install above-ground air-source heat pumps, but they would also not provide cooling. This option, estimated to cost about $10 million, could be achieved through grant funding.
Option three would also install above-ground heat pumps that would provide cooling, bringing the estimated cost up to $13.3 million. This option would not provide any energy cost savings.
Option four would install underground heat pumps, provide cooling, full weatherization measures and other benefits. The project is estimated to cost about $16 million, and could be funded through grants.
Abrahamson called the fourth option the “Hampshire Regional Energy Transition Project,” saying it provides the most value, while also bringing a system that gives learning opportunities for students. Additionally, it would be a model for clean energy initiatives in the region, he said.
“We could get a lot of intrinsic value from this project,” Abrahamson said. “It’s extremely innovative, there’s a lot of educational opportunities. The state would get behind it, get excited about it and there’s funding sources that we know are coming up that could help support this project.”
When it comes to grants, time is of the essence, Abrahamson said. An initial grant opportunity starts in January, with multiple others trailing shortly after. Abrahamson said if all five towns are committed to the project, the grant applications would have a good chance of getting selected.
“There’s a chance we don’t get any of them (grants). I don’t think that’s the case,” Abrahamson said. “From what I’ve experienced over the last year in my conversations, if you can approach this as a collaborative regional effort, everybody’s on board, you become that much more competitive.”
The committee moved the topic to the finance subcommittee, and the topic will be taken up again by the full district committee at its next meeting, planned for Nov. 2 at 6 p.m.
