Last Sunday morning, Harvard’s radio listeners may have been surprised to hear their town featured on “Living on Earth,” a weekly environmental news and information program distributed by Public Radio International.
Two weeks earlier, “Living on Earth” associate producer Bobby Bascomb toured parts of Harvard and interviewed people about the Harvard Solar Garden. She could be seen, microphone in hand, listening to people in the General Store and at the solar project site. Bascomb distilled what she heard into an 11-minute segment, “Generating Community Solar Power,” which aired on almost 300 stations across the country.
Local voices; national audience
With brief nods to Louisa May Alcott, the town center’s church spires, and the General Store’s creaky stairs, the segment included comments by three of the volunteers involved in the solar project: volunteer Karl Schwiegershausen, project manager Worth Robbins, and Steven Strong of Solar Design Associates. Board of Selectmen Chairwoman Marie Sobalvarro and solar finance analyst Jason Coughlin from Colorado also contributed.
When asked about some of the challenges the solar project has encountered, Schwiegershausen told Bascomb, “In the town, I think there was more concern that if they were to give us a certain arrangement, that there might be an opening or a precedent set for larger commercial ventures to come in a way that the town might not be comfortable with.”
When asked for a comment on the program, Robbins was reluctant, saying that although he was featured, the project rested on the work of a large number of community volunteers, the town’s demonstrated interest in solar energy going back to the Green Community vote, and, after a brief hesitation, the state’s strong and consistent support for the community solar project.
The audio program and transcript for “Generating Community Solar Power” are available at www.loe.org.
