Worcester, MA

Worcester is a mid-sized city located in central Massachusetts, under an hour’s drive from Boston, Providence, and Hartford. It is the second-most populous city in New England, with a growing and vibrant community of over 205,000 people, 9 colleges and universities, and access to diverse culture, sports, restaurants and entertainment.

Worcester has had a long-standing commitment to climate protection, energy efficiency and sustainability. Examples include the City’s curbside recycling program (1993), its resolution to join the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign (2003), a Clean Energy resolution (2005), adoption of a Climate Action Plan (2007) and The Green Worcester Plan (2021), designation as a Massachusetts Green Community (2010), the creation of the Worcester Green ElectriCITY Aggregation program which provides green electricity to residents and businesses (2019), and its SMART Energy Advice program (2023) – which helps residents navigate and access energy saving programs.

From 2010 to 2018, the city managed an $80 million energy efficiency and renewable energy project, which was enabled by an Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC). The ESPC is a self-funded mechanism that allowed the city to pay for the work through guaranteed energy savings, instead of more limited capital improvement funds. Following a comprehensive energy audit of 171 city facilities in 2009, the city embarked on the implementation of a robust suite of recommended energy conservation measures.

The ESPC enabled the city to upgrade 92 municipal facilities, most of which were public school buildings. In CY 2016, the measurement and verification report showed that the city saved approximately 66,000 MMBtus of energy, resulting in $1.7M in saved energy costs and prevented emissions of 7,000 tons of greenhouse gasses.

2017 was a landmark year for the city’s sustainability work. In the summer of 2017, the city installed and began operating one of the largest municipally-owned solar arrays in New England – an 8.1 MW-DC photovoltaic installation on top of a capped landfill. In the winter of the same year, the city completed conversion of its 14,000 streetlight fixtures to energy-efficient and long-lasting LEDs with intelligent controls.

While Worcester is reaping the environmental and financial benefits from the completed projects, it is exploring opportunities to further reduce its energy use. The city is looking to implement a new ESPC to take a deeper look at energy efficiency opportunities in its buildings and bring the city to its 20% energy use reduction goal.

PORTFOLIO-WIDE LEADERSHIP COMMITMENTS

50% GHG reduction in 10 years

20% reduction in energy intensity

Video

VIDEO: Tapping Into the Power of Utility Scale Solar State and Local Perspectives

Webinar

Renewables and Advanced Controls: Why Now is the Time

Showcase Project

Worcester, MA's Department of Inspectional Services

Performance Data

Solutions

Leadership Commitments

Better Climate Challenge

Goal

Commitment

Better Buildings Challenge

Goal

Commitment

Progress

DOE Program Participation