by Marty Green ·
Friday, April 10, 2026
Last month, Harvard received two substantial grants from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER). Together, the grants total more than a third of a million dollars. The goal of both grants is to help the town “decarbonize” its municipal buildings, reducing the amount of fossil fuel they use.
The larger of the two grants—for $206,851—was announced March 12. Andres Correa, the municipal energy manager Harvard shares with three other towns, applied for the grant last fall through the Massachusetts Green Communities program. The money will go toward improving the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system at the Harvard Public Library.
As the library nears its 20th year, many of its HVAC components are reaching the end of their expected lifetimes and would soon require replacement even without the town’s efforts to decarbonize. According to Forrest Hodgkins of the Energy Advisory Committee, the new grant will be combined with $200,000 from the Capital Stabilization and Investment Fund that was approved at the April 2024 Town Meeting to help the library reduce its fossil fuel usage. The first step, Hodgkins said, is to upgrade the building management system that operates the HVAC. The next step will be to replace the library’s current air handling units with ones that also function as heat pumps, thereby reducing the building’s reliance on its gas boiler.
The second Department of Energy Resources grant for Harvard was announced March 26. Harvard will receive $150,000 to support the development of a schematic design for the heat pump conversion project at the Bromfield School.
At its March 9 meeting, the School Committee had approved a contract with IMEG Consultants Corporation for $185,000 to develop the schematic design of the new HVAC system for Bromfield. This state grant will cover most of that cost, with the remaining $35,000 coming from funds approved at the September 2025 Town Meeting.
Ellen Sachs Leicher, who chairs the Climate Initiative Committee and is also a member of the Energy Advisory Committee, applied for the grant. She explained Harvard was eligible because the town was just designated a climate leader in January as a result of a year’s work by the climate and energy committees. “We couldn’t have applied for [the grant] if we didn’t have that designation,” she wrote in an email.
As a climate leader, Harvard can apply for up to $1 million in state grants every three years. There are currently only 35 climate leader communities in the state.