The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services has announced the planned departure of Director of the Division for Children, Youth and Families Joe Ribsam on June 1 after five years of service. According to a press release, Ribsam has accepted the position of Director of Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Policy at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a nationally recognized foundation focused on the well-being of children and youth. Under Ribsam’s leadership, DCYF and the broader child welfare system have implemented several child welfare system improvements, including a children’s system of care for behavioral health; Kinship Navigator programs to support extended family and caregivers of children; a new juvenile justice assessment process that has prevented many youth from having to enter the formal justice system; community-based voluntary services that provide support to at-risk families; peer support for parents; expanded support from foster care health professionals and specialists; new evidence-based programs to increase children’s safety; the HOPE program, a voluntary foster care program that allows foster families to provide continuing support to youth ages 18 through 21 for voluntary foster care, and partnerships with housing authorities to prevent children from having to enter foster care due to a family’s housing instability. Over the past few years there has been a 25 percent decrease in the number of children placed in out-of-home care, and New Hampshire currently has the lowest combined rate of youth detention and commitment in the country. DHHS Interim Commissioner Lori Weaver will work to ensure continued support for the child welfare transformation efforts developed during Ribsam’s tenure.
Caregiver honored
Easterseals NH, VT and Farnum, Easterseals NH’s substance abuse treatment program, will honor Roberta Coutu with the Eliot Priest Founder’s Award at Farnum’s 10th Annual Spirit of Hope Event on Tuesday, May 2, at 6 p.m. at The Factory on Willow (252 Willow St., Manchester). According to a press release, Coutu, an eight-year employee of Farnum, supports individuals with substance use disorders on and off the job and helps them enter sober living. “Roberta’s commitment to Farnum and the people we serve is boundless,” Annette Escalante, Senior Vice President for Substance Use Treatment at Easterseals NH, VT and Farnum, said in the release. “She makes everyone who comes through our doors feel safe and at ease at a difficult time in their lives. We are all inspired by her connection with our clients and their families.” The public is welcome to attend the event, and tickets are available at easterseals.com/nh/get-involved/events.
Bike month
New Hampshire celebrates National Bike Month in May with a variety of events throughout the state to celebrate bikes and the people who ride them. According to a press release, this year’s schedule includes National Bike and Roll to School Day on May 3; the Chester Police Department Bike Rodeo on May 6; National Ride a Bike Day on May 7; National Bike to Work Week from May 15 through May 21; The Tour De Francestown 25/50 mile gravel rides on May 20; the New Boston Rail Trail 6-Mile Bike Event on May 21 and more. Visit bwanh.org/calendar to see the full schedule of events.
Energy week
New Hampshire Energy Week — a five-day series of events highlighting prominent energy topics and issues and bringing together leading experts to discuss energy solutions and share their knowledge — will take place Monday, May 1, through Friday, May 5. According to a newsletter, this year’s schedule includes a virtual kickoff event on Monday at 10 a.m., featuring the City of Nashua’s Energy Manager and environmental TikTok influencer Doria Brown and others live via YouTube; followed by a virtual “Investing in Resilience” panel on Tuesday at 11 a.m.; energy trivia and an electric vehicle showcase on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Smuttynose Brewery in Hampton; and a virtual energy career and resource fair on Thursday at 11 a.m.; concluding with an event at the Bank of NH Stage in Concord on Friday at 1 p.m., featuring a number of speakers discussing “Powering New Hampshire’s Energy Future.” Visit nhenergyfuture.org/nhew for details and to register for events.
Old Man
A virtual remembrance event marking 20 years since the collapse of New Hampshire’s iconic rock face known as Old Man of the Mountain will be held on Wednesday, May 3, at 11 a.m., at OldManNH.org. According to a press release, the event will feature storytelling and an opportunity for attendees to share their stories and memories of the Old Man. “People from around the world still have an emotional attachment to the Old Man,” Brian Fowler, President of The Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund board, said in the release. “We want to collect and share these stories during this special year, so we’re inviting folks to share their stories with us to highlight just how fondly we all remember the Old Man.” The Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund board has also organized The Old Man of the Mountain Scavenger Hunt Challenge, which will kick off the same day and continue through the summer in Franconia Notch State Park, concluding with a family fun day at the Old Man Plaza on Aug. 3.
One lane of the bridge that carries Route 111A in Fremont over the Exeter River will be closed for several weeks for maintenance work, according to a press release from the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. Traffic will be restricted to a single lane, with alternating travel controlled by a temporary signalized system. Real-time traffic news can be found at newengland511.org, and travelers can sign up for “My511” alerts to stay informed about incidents and construction work.
New Hampshire Roller Derby returns to the JFK Memorial Coliseum in Manchester (303 Beech St.) with its season-opening doubleheader on Saturday, April 29, at 5 p.m. Tickets cost $12 at the door, and admission is free for kids age 12 and under and veterans, according to the website. More home bouts are scheduled for Saturdays, May 20, June 24 and Aug. 5. Visit nhrollerderby.com.
The Craftworkers’ Guild’s Spring Craft Shop opens on Thursday, May 4, at the historic Kendall House in Bedford (5 Meetinghouse Road). Browse handmade items by more than 50 juried artisans and craftspeople, including seasonal decor, photography, fine art and prints, cards, gourmet treats, woodworking, fiber and fabrics, sewn and knit specialties, stained and fused glass art, mixed media, jewelry, doll clothes and more. The shop will be open through Saturday, May 13, daily, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to the website. Visit thecraftworkersguild.org.
John Craigie and Langhorne Slim co-bill in Concord
Every John Craigie concert has two sides. His songs are sweet, lingering earworms, with lyricism that’s soothing, provocative and often hilarious. The latter trait is the other part of experiencing Craigie; his comedy talent has earned him comparisons to Mitch Hedberg, even though he’s a storyteller and Hedberg was an absurdist with a skill for the one-liner.
Both share a beat poet delivery. Marry that jazzy cadence to Arlo Guthrie’s breeziness and perhaps feed it an edible, and you’ll have a sense of why fans love Craigie, and the reason other musicians tend to find ways to work with him, such as Jack Johnson, Mary Chapin Carpenter and, most recently, Langhorne Slim.
The two met at last year’s Newport Folk Festival. Craigie played two sets that weekend. The second was a last-minute addition when another artist canceled their appearance. Billed as John Craigie & Friends, it consisted of Beatles songs. He’d just recorded Let It Be Lonely, the latest in a series of live Fab Four cover records; Revolver will be next.
Slim joined him for “I Dig a Pony,” and the two were quickly smitten. “We had mutual friends,” Craigie said by phone recently. “I’d never met him before, but we started talking and he agreed to do that one song with me, and it was really fun.” A short tour, stopping in Concord April 24, resulted.
“I’m really excited to have our crowds mix together and kind of bounce off each other,” Craigie continued. “He’s got a great stage presence, as you probably know. At the end of the night, we’ll do a handful of stuff together for sure…. I think the audiences really like that, because you get something that really makes the show unique.”
Layered with electric texture, Craigie’s studio albums are the opposite of his live shows. For example, “Microdose,” which leads off 2022’s Mermaid Salt, ends with a jazzy dreamscape of multiple guitars. That’s not happening when Craigie hits the stage. On tour, it’s typically just him and his instrument, which suits him fine.
“You’re still very free, and you can talk just as long as the crowd will have you, but when there’s four or five people, kinda twiddling their thumbs behind you, I’m not quite as relaxed,” he said, adding, “my audiences have never said to me, like, ‘Where’s the band?’ It seems to me that what they want is what I’ve been giving them.”
Born in Southern California, Craigie found his musical voice while attending UC Santa Cruz, a few hundred miles north. “L.A. felt very particular and precious; I didn’t feel very free to sit and play my guitar casually,” he said. In the laid-back beach town, “music felt like a much more natural thing … to sort of practice to an audience of people that was very nice, forgiving and pleasant.”
There’s a lot of religious skepticism in Craigie’s lyrics. “It’s a war of the gods … I never picked a side,” he sings at one point. “Is this the Rapture or just the first wave?” is his refrain on “Laurie Rolled Me A J,” one of the best depictions of lockdown neurosis to come out of the pandemic.
Some of this can be attributed to his attending parochial school in a milieu where “there was no way for them to shield us from anything,” he said. “A vague Christianity was how I like to call the way that the Catholics raised me.”
The ’90s milieu offered a weird melting pot of belief and non-belief systems, Craigie continued.
“Kids at that time were going through this born-again thing, so I was meeting hardcore Christians, getting that sort of window … meeting Mormons, people like that,” he said, “All that coming together gave me an understanding, while the society I was in was also heavily rejecting Christianity. I think it was a combination of all that stuff.”
Langhorne Slim & John Craigie When: Monday, April 24, 8 p.m. Where: Bank of NH Stage, 16 S. Main St., Concord Tickets: $30.75 and $53.75 and up at ccanh.com
Featured photo: John Craigie. Photo by Keith Berson.
Dracula’s familiar would like to reevaluate his toxic work situation in Renfield, a gore-filled and yet very cute comedy.
Renfield (Nicholas Hoult), he of the bug-eating and the “yes, master”-ing, is sick of working for Dracula (Nicolas Cage), a total diva of a boss who makes Renfield bring him people to eat. And, much in the manner of Miranda Priestly demanding very specific coffee from Starbucks, Dracula can be picky about the quality of the humans he’s offered. Dracula is also sort of low on funds after centuries of having to make getaways when his bloodlust is found out, so Renfield has to take care of an injured and slowly recovering Dracula in an abandoned hospital in New Orleans. And to procure these people for which he is shown little appreciation, he has to eat bugs, which give him a shot of Dracula strength.
Perhaps it’s good that Renfield has found a support group for people who are also in toxic relationships. He can listen to other people talk about how hard it is to stand up to the people who have power over them — and he can go find those bullies and drag them to Dracula, which makes Renfield feel like all his murder isn’t, you know, all bad.
But a complainy Dracula sends Renfield out to find a better group of people for his boss to eat — nuns or cheerleaders or something, Dracula says, with much the same energy of a louche aging rock star demanding a better class of groupies. Renfield heads to a club to do just that but ends up in the middle of a gangland hit. Tedward Lobo (Ben Schwartz — just 100 percent doing Jean-Ralphio from Parks and Recreation), son of Lobos gang head Bellafrancesca Lobo (Shohreh Aghdashloo), is there with a bunch of goons to kill Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina), a police officer who is determined to bring down the Lobos (who killed her police officer father). Rebecca doesn’t blink when Tedward holds a gun to her head, instantly dazzling Renfield with her strength and bravery. Thusly he finds a bug to eat and helps her defeat the Lobos. Of course the Lobos don’t love this, so they go looking for Renfield just as Renfield starts to make a serious attempt to break away from Dracula, getting his own studio apartment and buying some pastel sweaters from Macy’s.
Renfield is good-naturedly silly — a good-naturedly silly movie where sometimes dudes get their arms torn off. It keeps the vampire lore to a minimum, goes easy on the quippiness (it’s there but it’s not wall to wall) and offers plenty of opportunities for Nicolas Cage to just take center stage and do his thing. And does he! He dives in with enthusiasm and fully commits to every increasingly hammy bit of Dracula-ness. I’ll bet those spiky teeth he has to wear were unpleasant to have in his mouth but he really does make every moment count with his open-mouth hisses and big vampire smiles. Everything about him, from the increasingly slicked back hair to his specific style of imperious whining, is just note-perfect. B-
Rated R for bloody violence, some gore, language throughout and some drug use, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Chris McKay with a screenplay by Ryan Ridley, Renfield is a brisk hour and 33 minutes long and distributed by Universal Studios.
The Pope’s Exorcist (R)
Russell Crowe eagerly tucks into the plate of spicy meat-ah-balls that is his Italian accent in The Pope’s Exorcist, which is based on the real life of the Rev. Gabriele Amorth — have fun with that Wikipedia page.
Crowe’s accent is great in the sense that he seems to be having a great time with it. I mean, does it have a stagey quaility that reinforces my theory that this movie is a low-key comedy? Sure, but the kid with the veiny skin and the devil voice is pretty standard-issue possession movie stuff, why not have a little fun with it.
The Rev. Gabriele Amorth (Crowe) is a noted exorcist in the Catholic Church. He is also, as we witness in his opening exorcism, a guy who appreciates that sometimes what people need isn’t an exorcism but to believe they’re getting an exorcism. As he explains to a skeptical panel of Vatican dudes later, 98 percent of his cases need doctors or therapists. The other two percent are E-vil, much in the style of the Paramount + TV show Evil, which is a giddy delight particularly if you’ve ever spent any time in CCD as a kid.
Meanwhile, it’s the latter half of the 1980s and a widowed mom, Julia (Alex Essoe), moves with her two kids — angry teenager Amy (Laurel Marsden) and traumatized little brother Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) — to a castle/former abbey in Spain that is her late husband’s sole asset of value. The plan is to renovate and flip this property to raise some cash to take back to the U.S. Neither kid is happy about moving to Spain — not Amy, who flips her mom the bird when she’s not ignoring her, and not Henry, who has been silent since he saw his father killed in a car accident. Very quickly, though, they figure out that this ancient church structure in Spain is not a particularly happy place to have moved (once you see it you’ll think that it would have been more shocking if an ancient evil didn’t dwell in its crumbling walls). Naturally, one of the children is quickly possessed and, because it’s more disturbing for younger kids to say sassy things to priests in a deep voice, Henry is the child who wins the demon lottery.
Eventually, Gabriele is sent by the pope (Franco Nero) to Spain to investigate Henry’s situation. There, Gabriele teams up with the Rev. Esquibel (Daniel Zovatto), who was told during his initial evaluation of the demon-Henry that he’s the “wrong priest.” It seems that whatever evil entity that has possessed Henry has a plan that involves Gabriele.
As I said, this movie has a strong ribbon of goofiness that runs throughout — from Crowe’s accent to Gabriele’s little Ferrari scooter to the vein-y stage-blood-heavy representation of the demon to Gabriele’s own jokiness. Some of this comedy is intentional, is what I’m saying. The rest of it — eh, I don’t think the movie minds if you find some of its lore cornball, particularly with the very “episode one” way that it ends. The idea that your child would be in the grip of something no one can diagnose and that is clearly killing him is terrifying. But this movie doesn’t really lean much on that, even though it is probably the chilling element of the movie, and as a result the movie isn’t really scary as much as it’s a kind of non-scary gothic horror that at times almost tips into camp. That said, this movie also isn’t quite as goofy as I would have wanted either, which I say as someone who, again, loves the cheeky Evil.
The Pope’s Exorcist doesn’t do anything you haven’t seen before but it lets Crowe’s Gabriele have just enough lightness to make it a basically entertaining endeavor. B-
Rated R for violent content, language, sexual references and some nudity, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Julius Avery with a screenplay by Michael Petroni and Evan Spiliotopoulos, The Pope’s Exorcist is an hour and 43 minutes long and distributed in theaters by Columbia Pictures.
Derry native Joey McCarran fondly remembers Romano’s Pizzeria, a town institution for nearly two decades. After several years spent on the West Coast post-college, McCarran and his wife, Lauren, are now back in his hometown — they’re known as “Jo and Lo,” and they’ve just opened a new restaurant together in the same storefront he used to frequent growing up.
The couple’s own experiences traveling across the country and returning home, McCarran said, inspired the name of their new eatery: The Ricochet. Gourmet pizza pies, calzones and hot subs are among the stars of the menu, which also features appetizers, salads, craft beers and cocktails.
“We like to say that the whole thing about this place and what we tried to do here is that it’s a feeling,” he said. “You’re going to ricochet off the walls here but at the end of the day you’ll end up where you’re supposed to, and that’s kind of what we were thinking we did. … We were here, there and everywhere. We hadn’t really planned on moving back to New Hampshire, but I grew up here, my family is still around, and I wanted our daughters to be able to come back.”
The couple took over the space last July and have been hard at work ever since on renovations and menu development. Ricky Alback, who McCarran said had been an employee at Romano’s at the time of the ownership change, has stayed on to serve as The Ricochet’s head chef.
“Ricky and I, we’ve been working tirelessly over here, just to make sure that we have something that we really like and that we can share with everybody,” he said. “It’s been fun to hear all of the feedback. Some days everybody orders all of our sandwiches, and we’re like, ‘Wow, I guess we were a sub shop today!’ … Then we might have a pizza day, and all of the pizzas will be gone.”
McCarran also recently started a company called Little Wild, which aims to provide locally grown hydroponic produce for area restaurants and other wholesale customers.
“I’ve got an investment down at a farm in Haverhill, Massachusetts, that’s going to [have] 30,000 square feet of hydroponic produce production,” he said. “All that produce will be coming to The Ricochet. … The idea is that … a restaurant like ours can really benefit from a local supplier that is consistent and can keep delivering, so customers will want to come back.”
The Ricochet boasts a unique aesthetic McCarran likened to a zen garden, with low lighting and plenty of vibrant plants. While it has been somewhat heavy on the takeout clientele at least to start, he said he has steadily noticed a surge in the volume of dine-in customers as of late.
Pizzas, McCarran said, feature a thin crust reminiscent of a southeastern Connecticut style.
“My wife is actually from the Mystic area, and so we really like that style of pizza,” he said. “We do a small and a large, and then any of our pizzas can also be a calzone.”
Among the several fan favorite pies out of the gate have been the El Jefe, featuring local pulled pork, barbecue sauce, red onions, pineapple and bacon; the Reaper, a spicier pizza with ghost pepper cheese, chorizo and hot honey; and the Figgy P, which has fig jam, Gorgonzola cheese, fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced prosciutto and a balsamic drizzle.
Subs feature rolls McCarran picks up fresh every day at Tripoli Bakery, just over the state line in northern Massachusetts. Many of the tried and true classics are represented, from a house meatball sub with marinara and provolone cheese, to a BLT, a chicken Parm and a steak bomb.
Salads, meanwhile, start with a garden or romaine base before they can be built in all kinds of different ways with proteins, toppings and dressings. There’s also a modest selection of made-to-order appetizers, like onion rings, crispy cut fries, chicken tenders and wings.
The Ricochet is also fast becoming known for its beverage program, which includes a rotating lineup of craft beers and creative cocktails. McCarran has even partnered Ali and Rob Leleszi of Rockingham Brewing Co. to brew a house Mexican-style cerveza, which he calls “the perfect pizza beer.” It’s available on tap now and will soon come canned when the second batch is ready.
“The beer is called Cerveza de Lechuza, and Lechuza was the beach [where] we would be pretty much every day when we lived out in Malibu,” McCarran said. “It directly translates to ‘owl beer,’ and so that’s how we always talk about it. Like, ‘Hey, come sit with us and have an owl.’”
Despite its small space, The Ricochet features a small stage in the corner of its lounge space for live performances. McCarran is also working on adding outdoor seating at the end of the plaza.
The Ricochet Where: 35 Manchester Road, Suite 10, Derry Hours: Tuesday, 4 to 8 p.m.; Wednesday and Thursday, noon to 8 p.m., Friday, noon to 9 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, noon to 8 p.m. More info: Visit ricochet.pizza, find them on Facebook @thericochetderry and on Instagram @lovethericochet, or call 434-6500
Featured photo: Photos by Annie Hardester, on Instagram @annie.the.baker
Local printing company celebrates creativity of craft beer labels
On Thursday, April 20, printing company Amherst Label in Milford will display the art of the beer can label with a showcase called “Canvas,” featuring artwork from 18 craft beers brewed in New England and New York.
“We’re always about shelf appeal and asking, ‘How do you tell your story,’” said Amherst Label’s president, Nye Hornor. “These breweries have knocked it out of the park.”
Hornor and his team will welcome 150 guests at the opening show. At the time of reporting, approximately half of the slots had been filled for the opening.
The plan is to have the artwork on display for a year, Hornor said. He hopes to either have private showings for small groups or have another larger gathering later in 2023 to continue celebrating the artwork.
This is not the first art show Amherst Labels has hosted, Hornor said. For the company’s 40th anniversary it hosted professional artists. A few years later, before the pandemic, it held small shows of artwork by employees and their family members.
With this year being Amherst Label’s 45th anniversary, Hornor wanted to do something special.
“We have a passion for breweries,” he said, noting that labels tell a story. “Breweries make a story on their can and we have put it in a gallery.”
Hornor and Ruth Sterling, who is the marketing manager at Amherst Labels, reached out to their clients and had them choose the 18 label designs that would be featured in the show. Five of those designs come from New Hampshire breweries, including a design from Nashua’s Rambling House Food and Gathering and one from Concord’s Feathered Friend Brewing.
The artwork is set up with a 11- by 14-inch print of the artwork on the can, the can itself, and a quote from the artist telling the story behind the design. Visitors can scan a QR code to see more information about each of the artists and the art on display.
In addition to looking at the cans, visitors will be able to taste the beers that are displayed, have some tasty snacks and take a tour of the printing facilities.
While the show highlights the artists who design the cans, Hornor said it was important to recognize all the skill and effort that go into making each beer look perfect.
“Press men are artists,” said Hornor. “We have artists in house that work on artwork on a daily basis to … match up what the artwork is meant to look like and have it at the end of the press as art.”
Canvas Where: Amherst Label, 15 Westchester Drive, Milford When: Thursday, April 20, from 2 to 6 p.m. More info and to RSVP: www.amherstlabel.com/canvas-rsvp
Featured photo: The label for Formation 3 by Feathered Friend. Photoshop image by Tucker Jadczak.
Tyler Costa hasn’t had regular electric billssince 2021. Instead, he has lease payments of less than $150 a monththanks to solar panels installed on the roof of his Nashua home.
“I decided to get solar panels as I believe in renewable energy sources and wanted to reduce my carbon footprint,” Costa said.
While production is reduced during the winter months, any accumulated snow on the roof comes off fairly easily due to the dark, slippery surface of the panels, which warm up faster than shingles. “Lucky for me, I produce more than I consume, and the money I make comes back to me to make up [for] the small differences during the winter months,” Costa said.
This past year, utility costs skyrocketed to all-time highs in New Hampshire. This increase was in part due to our reliance on natural gas.
“In New England we rely heavily on natural gas to generate electricity,” said William Hinkle, media relations manager for Eversource, New Hampshire’s largest utility. “When the price of natural gas changes, we also see significant impacts to electric supply prices through New England, and that’s what we saw last year.”
One way to combat this is through the use of renewable energy sources.
What is renewable energy?
According to Rebecca Beaulieu, communications director and an organizer of 350 New Hampshire, renewable energy is defined as energy that is able to be harnessed continuously.
“Specifically, we mean clean renewable energy,” she said. “Ones where they’re not generating large amounts of waste or putting carbon dioxide, methane or other harmful chemicals into the air.”
Examples of such sources include solar and hydropower, and wind, biomass and geothermal energy.
“New Hampshire … is really far behind on renewable energy production,” Beaulieu said of New Hampshire compared to other New England states.
According to the New Hampshire Department of Energy, more than half of the energy generated in the state comes from nuclear power. In 2021, renewable energy sources accounted for 16 percent of our in-state electricity generation, compared to Maine at 72 percent, and Vermont at nearly 100 percent, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. (More than half of Vermont’s power comes from out of state, with the largest share coming from hydroelectric power, much of which is generated in Canada, according to the EIA.)
One of the most accessible forms of renewable energy for homeowners is solar power.
Around the sun
Solar power is sunlight converted by technology such as solar panels into electricity, as explained by the U.S. Department of Energy.
While it may have only accounted for 1 percent of the state’s total net generation, according to the EIA, Beaulieu points out that “most of New Hampshire’s solar energy production right now comes from households having solar panels on their roofs.”
Getting solar panels installed on your house is a three- to four-month process with dozens of steps, only four of which the customer is involved in. The first step is contacting a solar installation company and working out a house’s needs and space for solar panels.
“We very specifically design a system to that customer’s usage and that customer’s house and the angles on the roof and the position it sits facing the sun,” said Mark Robichaud, founder of Merrimack Solar, a solar panel installation company that services New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Next is a site survey. Trained engineers come to your home and assess whether or not your house can support a solar system by looking at the condition of the roof, the structure and the electrical system to see if it is susceptible to damage.
The third step is getting approval from your town. Not only are towns usually happy to approve of solar panel installation, but having solar panels installed on your house can increase your home’s value.
“The data bears out that houses with solar installed on them are making 4.1 percent more in sale and selling 16 percent faster than houses that do not have solar,” Robichaud said.
Lastly, before the installation process can begin, the customer needs to obtain permission from their utility company. This involves the company installing the solar panels writing up details along with a computer-aided design drawing to send over to the utility company.
“The utility makes that final determination of whether or not we can move forward,” Robichaud said.
Overall pricing, Robichaud said, comes down to the size and power of the system. He said a general rule of thumb is about $4 per watt, meaning a 5-kilowatt system runs about $20,000.
When going through Merrimack Solar, you can finance your solar system or agree to a power purchase agreement, where the customer doesn’t pay for installation, but for the electricity, at a lower price.
“If you go … ownership overall, you’re saving upward of $40,000 over your lifetime by going solar, because once a solar system is paid for, you don’t pay for electricity anymore in most cases,” Robichaud said. “We effectively become your power company.”
According to Robichaud, 95 percent of Merrimack Solar’s panels are made from recyclable material and are designed to last 40 years.
“Instead of using gas, coal and oil and falling victim to whatever they’re charging for those, you’re taking something that’s free, the sun, and converting it into electricity onsite and using it at your house,” Robichaud said. “You go from having no control over what you’re paying for your electricity to having complete control.”
Other renewable energy sources
Besides solar, other common forms of renewable energy include hydropower, wind power, biomass and geothermal energy.
Hydropower takes the energy from falling water and converts it into electricity via a generator. This energy source was responsible for 7 percent of New Hampshire’s total net generation in 2021, according to the EIA.
The Boscawen-based Granite State Hydropower Association has 50 small power plants across 35 towns in New Hampshire.
“If you look at some of the states with a high percentage of hydropower … they have some of the cheapest rates in the nation,” Association president Bob King said. “Hydropower … has no fuel cost, so it is not susceptible to the incredible increase in natural gas prices that is felt in the wallets of every ratepayer in New Hampshire.”
Not only is hydropower emissions-free, but it also helps clean out bodies of water in the process by sifting out debris and trash as the water flows through a screen.
A turbine converts the kinetic energy of falling water into mechanical energy, which is then converted into electricity by a generator. For every 100 units of falling water kinetic energy, King said this produces about 80 to 90 units of electricity.
“It’s clean, it’s simple, it’s efficient,” he said.
When it comes to wind energy, EIA data shows that it made up 3 percent of New Hampshire’s in-state electricity generation. That could rise in the future with the Gulf of Maine wind farm, a project that New Hampshire is part of a task force for. According to the Gulf of Maine Association, this “sea within a sea” covers 36,000 square miles of ocean and has 7,500 miles of coastlines, bordering New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and parts of Canada.
“There are areas that have been designated in the Gulf of Maine and will continue to be refined for renewable energy and for offshore wind,” said Rob Werner, the state director for the League of Conservation Voters.
The Gulf of Maine receives some of the most powerful and consistent winds in the world, according to the Natural Resources Council of Maine. To best capture this power, the wind turbines, which would be positioned on floating platforms, will likely be positioned 25 to 50 miles from the coast. Harnessing the wind energy from the Gulf of Maine has the potential to serve not only Maine but New Hampshire and Massachusetts, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Biomass is defined as fuel that comes from organic materials like wood and wood processing waste, agricultural crops and waste, sewage and animal manure. Converting such materials into energy prevents greenhouse gasses from entering the atmosphere during decomposition, according to the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
Wood seems to account for most of New Hampshire’s biomass, according to the EIA, which reports that it accounted for 6 percent of the state’s total net electricity generation in 2021. Eighty-six percent of this came from the forest industry. The use of biomass is important to the forest industry as well as to landowners, said Jasen Stock, the director of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, as it gives another purpose to trees that are unsuitable for lumber.
“We have trees and we have a need to do forest management and so biomass is a great fit for managing land and at the same time making some renewable power,” Stock said. “You don’t get much more homegrown than that.”
Geothermal energy uses the heat flowing from the interior to the surface of the Earth. Wells are drilled into the earth to capture steam and hot water that can be used for electricity as well as heating and cooling.
In New Hampshire, the most commonly used type of geothermal system is referred to as an “open-loop” system, according to the state Department of Environmental Services. Groundwater is pumped out of the well and circulated through the building’s heat pump, where heat is extracted from or transferred into the water. That water is then re-injected either into the same well or a separate well dedicated to re-injection.
Used less frequently, according to the department, is what’s called a “closed-loop” system, by which an antifreeze solution or refrigerant is circulated through an installed pipe in the drilled well.
The carbon dioxide emissions from geothermal energy are just one-sixth the amount from natural gas power plants, according to the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. Despite the high upfront costs, this energy source is cost-effective, can operate in high capacity and is not affected by or dependent on weather.
Closer to a renewable future
While New Hampshire may be behind its New England neighbors, the state is taking steps to catch up. The state’s Renewable Energy fund projects that by 2025, 25.3 percent of the state’s electricity will come from renewable energy sources.
“We do have the technology that we need to move to renewable energy and prioritize our communities over [the] fossil fuel industry,” Beaulieu said.
One recent example Beaulieu mentioned is a 3.3-megawatt solar array in Manchester, unveiled last year at a former Dunbarton Road landfill. According to a press release from Boston-based Kearsarge Energy, which has partnered with the City of Manchester to complete the project, the electricity produced by the more than 8,000 solar modules is enough to power hundreds of homes annually across the Queen City.
In December, Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig announced that the city exceeded its initial projections for electricity produced from the array by 15 percent, generating about 4.37 million kilowatt hours of energy.
Beaulieu says that with solar and wind energy getting cheaper, the transition to renewable energy is becoming more feasible economically.
The environment has the ability to restore itself, she said, if we begin to take better care of it.
“There are a lot of individual people and businesses and legislatures moving this work forward,” Beaulieu said.
Local solar installation companies Here’s a list of southern New Hampshire-based companies that work to install solar panels on residential and commercial buildings.
• 603 Solar (24 Charter St., Exeter, 570-2607, 603solar.com) • Granite State Solar (15 Ryan Road, Bow, 369-4318, granitestatesolar.com) • Merrimack Solar (12 Madison Lane, Merrimack, 978-645-1261, merrimacksolar.com) • New England Solar Pros (60 Blossom St., Nashua, 318-3232, nesolarllc.com) • Seventh Gen Solar (814 Route 3A, Bow, 731-4777, seventhgensolar.com) • Sundial Solar (78 Mountain Road, Concord, 961-0045, sundialsolarnh.com) • Sunenergy Solutions (75 Gilcreast Road, Londonderry, 844-427-6527, sunenergysolutionsllc.com) • Sunup Solar (Auburn, 860-2509, sunupsolarnh.com)
Plug-in rides
Electric vehicle showcases for Earth Day and beyond
Jon Gundersen grew tired of making constant trips to the gas station during his long commutes to and from work. In 2011, he purchased his first electric car — a plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt — and he hasn’t looked back.
“I’ve been driving electric vehicles ever since,” he said. “My wife has a gas vehicle, so I’ve still pumped gas, but sometimes I’ll go several months before I visit a gas station now.”
Rivian R1T. Photo by Jon Gundersen.
Today, Gundersen is a member of the New England Electric Auto Association and volunteers with Drive Electric NH, a coalition promoting the adoption of electric vehicles in the Granite State. He has been involved in several EV showcases across southern New Hampshire, which offer opportunities for attendees to meet owners and ask questions about their cars.
One such showcase is happening at the Nashua Public Library on Saturday, April 22, as part of the city’s inaugural Sustainability Fair and Earth Day Celebration.
Electric vehicles are on the rise in New Hampshire and nationally. According to a June 2022 report from the Edison Electric Institute, more than 26 million EVs are expected to be on U.S. roads by the year 2030 — that’s up from the projected 18.7 million in its 2018 report. More than 65 different EV models are on the market today, and the EEI projects that number will grow to nearly 140 by 2024.
In the Granite State, there are more than 180 public EV charging stations statewide, according to Drive Electric NH, from the Massachusetts border stretching all the way up to the Great North Woods town of Colebrook.
The obvious perk to driving an electric vehicle, Gundersen said, is not having to pump gas. Instead, he has his own 220-volt charger in his home that, when plugged into the car’s port overnight, fills its energy to capacity. Most EVs on the market, he said, can last anywhere between 250 and 350 miles on a full battery.
“Although electricity has gone up over the years, it’s still not too bad. For me, at least, it’s been pretty consistent,” Gundersen said. “When I first got an EV, it was costing me $30 a month in electricity, but at that time I was spending $300 a month on gas. So that was a huge difference … and even today it’s still a little over a third of the cost of driving with gas, for my car anyways. It would be like buying a car that’s like 80 miles to a gallon.”
Another one of Gundersen’s favorite things about EVs is their ability to generate instant torque.
“In an EV, the acceleration from zero to 60 [miles per hour], or even from 30 to 60, is incredibly quick,” he said. “You touch the gas [pedal] and you can feel yourself push back in the seat, it takes off that fast. There’s no waiting for a transmission to shift. It’s instantaneous. … I like being able to step on the gas and instantly pass a truck on the highway or whatever.”
Then there’s a featured mechanism called regenerative braking, which feeds energy back into the car’s battery simply by using its brakes.
“What happens is that when you take your foot off the gas, the electric motor acts sort of like a generator,” Gundersen said. “It’s generating power in a different way, creating a force that helps slow down the car … [and] while you’re slowing down the car is gaining energy in its battery.”
Gundersen will be at the Nashua Sustainability Fair on April 22 with the EV he currently drives, a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt. His will be among at least eight registered models that will be on display in the library parking lot during the event, which will also feature local vendors, an electric yard equipment showcase, games, crafts, food trucks, raffle prizes, a bike repair clinic and a fashion show at noon.
“Some of the EV owners have owned one for years, and some of them are brand new to owning one, even maybe just within the last few months,” Gundersen said. “Some of them will offer test drives, so they can take you around the block or just on a short little trip so that you can get a feel for what driving an electric car is like.”
Where to go check out electric vehicles
Source: driveelectricearthday.org
Nashua Sustainability Fair & Earth Day Celebration When: Saturday, April 22, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Where: Nashua Public Library parking lot, 6 Hartshorn Ave., Nashua Cost: Free admission Visit: nashualibrary.org/attend/sustainability-fair Co-sponsored by the City of Nashua Division of Public Health and Community Services and the Nashua Public Library, this free community event will bring together dozens of local exhibitors to celebrate Earth Day, including nonprofits working in different areas of sustainability like clean energy, farming and environmental justice. There will also be an electric vehicle showcase with more than half a dozen makes and models, whose owners may offer test drives or rides at their discretion, plus an electric yard equipment showcase, games, crafts, food trucks, raffle prizes, a bike repair clinic and a thrift fashion show at noon.
Gilmanton Earth Day Celebration When: Saturday, April 22, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Where: Gilmanton Year Round Library, 1385 Route 140, Gilmanton Cost: Free admission Visit: gyrla.org In partnership with the Gilmanton Energy Committee, the Gilmanton Year Round Library, New Hampshire Sierra Club, Univix Power Solutions and the New Hampshire Electric Co-op, this free event will feature an electric vehicle showcase, solar panel and energy storage tours at the library, and a 2 p.m. all-ages hike on the nearby trails.
Durham Earth Day Celebration and EV Showcase When: Saturday, April 22, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Where: 66 Main St., Durham Cost: Free admission Visit: ci.durham.nh.us The town of Durham’s annual Earth Day celebration will feature a showcase of more than 15 electric vehicles by local owners, including some of the latest models. Some may even offer test drives or rides to attendees. There will also be displays supporting sustainable agriculture, plus information on home energy improvements and rebates, and details promoting composting as a means to reduce landfill waste.
Drive Electric Expo at the Monadnock Earth Day Festival When: Saturday, April 22, noon to 4 p.m. Where: Whitney Brothers parking area (adjacent to the Monadnock Food Co-op), 93 Railroad St., Keene Cost: Free admission Visit: monadnockfood.coop The Drive Electric Expo is happening as part of the Earth Day festival hosted by the Monadnock Food Co-op, the future site of southwestern New Hampshire’s first public electric vehicle fast chargers. Attendees will have the chance to see more than a dozen EVs, representing several different automakers and ranging from sub-compact cars to sedans, SUVs and trucks. Vehicle owners will be on hand to share their knowledge and enthusiasm and answer questions. Many also offer test drives and rides. A series of five-minute mini-talks is scheduled throughout the afternoon, covering everything from home and public charging to long road trips with an EV, electric police vehicles and financial incentives to reduce EV costs. There will also be informational literature to pick up and a free drawing for a chance to win prizes.
Lowell Drives Electric When: Saturday, April 29, noon to 4 p.m. Where: Heritage Farm Ice Cream, 163 Pawtucket Blvd., Lowell, Mass. Cost: Free admission Visit: facebook.com/lowelldriveselectric Just over the state line in Lowell, Mass., Heritage Farm Ice Cream on Pawtucket Boulevard will be the site of an electric vehicle showcase with more than two dozen makes and models to check out. Vehicle owners will be on hand to answer questions from attendees about their experiences, and some may offer to take their cars for test drives.
Featured photo: Photo courtesy of Merrimack Solar.
