Process for Towns & Cities | Keep Lights On Massachusetts

Benefits

How Your Community Benefits Directly.

Six concrete benefits your community can confidently present to residents at town hall — with no surprises buried in the fine print.

Electricity you generate locally — and costs you can actually control

When your community generates its own electricity from solar and storage, you stop being entirely dependent on what the regional grid charges. Local generation reduces what your community pays at municipal facilities. Costs become something you manage, not something that happens to you.

You own it. The complexity is handled for you.

This isn’t a lease or a power purchase agreement. HERO Hubs are designed for municipal ownership — but ownership doesn’t mean your community needs an energy engineer on staff. Professional management, ongoing maintenance, and eventual decommissioning are all built in from the start.

Real revenue for your community

A HERO Hub doesn’t just reduce costs — it generates income. Your municipality earns multi-million dollars in revenue over the 20-year asset lifespan from infrastructure it owns. That revenue can fund municipal services, reduce tax pressure, or be directed wherever your community decides.

Smarter management of your largest electricity loads

Schools, the DPW, the library, town offices, fire and police, water treatment — your municipal buildings are among the largest electricity consumers in your community. The HERO Hub system is designed to optimize these loads. And when the grid goes down, your critical facilities stay on.

A realistic path to climate and sustainability goals

Many Massachusetts cities and towns have committed to ambitious Net Zero targets, Green Community standards, or fleet and building electrification plans. The gap between those commitments and the capital available is real. A HERO Hub helps close that gap.

Less dependence on aging grid infrastructure

The regional grid was built for a different era and is increasingly stressed by extreme weather and growing demand. Over time, communities in the initiative build meaningful independence from the vulnerabilities everyone is starting to see more often.

Join Requirements

Everything Starts With a Feasibility Study.

The Feasibility and Scoping Assessment (FSA) is not a commitment to build. It is a commitment to study — alongside the other municipalities in the initiative — whether a HERO Hub makes sense for your community.

What the 8-12 Week Study Covers

Site feasibility and geotechnical analysis
Load analysis for municipal facilities
Financial modeling specific to your community
Key risks and mitigation strategies
Permitting pathways and interconnection requirements
Climate and sustainability alignment assessment
Community engagement and education plan
A refined project timeline

Quick Fit Check

Five quick yes/no questions for your select board. If you can check three or more, we should talk.

Our community is in Massachusetts.

Our community has municipal buildings with meaningful electricity load.Schools, DPW, library, water treatment, public safety facilities.

Our community has, or could identify, suitable land for siting.Disturbed land, brownfields, capped landfills, rooftops — not forested areas.

Our community has climate or sustainability commitments to meet.

Our community would benefit from a non-binding feasibility study.

Request a Conversation →

FAQs for Municipal Leadership

Select Boards, Mayors’ Offices, City and Town Administrators.

High-level answers for the questions most often raised in early conversations. More detailed FAQs are available once we’re engaged with your community.

Does signing the FSA commit us to building anything?

No. The FSA is a scoping and study agreement only. It funds an 8–12 week analysis that gives your town everything it needs to make an informed go/no-go decision. No commitment to design, build, or operate anything attaches until the town votes to authorize the next phase — which happens only after the feasibility study is complete and its findings have been shared publicly.

Will this require a vote by our legislative body?

Typically, conducting the FSA does not require a formal vote. However, every phase that follows — Design, Development, and Operations — requires explicit authorization from your community’s legislative body. In Open or Representative Town Meeting communities, that authorization comes from a Town Meeting vote. In cities and council-governed communities, authorization comes from the council.

What does it cost to get started?

Less than $100,000 — a fraction of a percent of what the microgrid infrastructure itself would cost. Funding assistance may be available. If the project proceeds to construction financing, your contribution is treated as a pre-construction project cost and reimbursed. See How It Works — Financing for the full picture.

What does our community contribute beyond the feasibility study?

If your community votes to proceed past feasibility, it joins the Keep Lights On Fund as a limited partner and contributes equity — structured to be supportable through forgone land lease value, grants, and low-cost financing rather than capital appropriation or tax revenue. Specific amounts are modeled in the feasibility study based on your community’s site selection and energy profile.

What do investors in the Fund receive?

Investors in the Keep Lights On Fund receive the majority of project revenue during an initial period, while your community begins receiving reduced electricity costs and a share of revenue from day one. After that period, ownership of the physical asset transitions to your community along with the substantial majority of ongoing income.

What does our community actually own, and when?

Your community becomes a limited partner in the Keep Lights On Fund at the outset, meaning you hold an ownership stake from day one — not just a promise of future ownership. After the initial investor repayment period, ownership of the physical infrastructure transitions to your community.

Will our community face unexpected operating costs?

No. Professional management, ongoing maintenance, and eventual decommissioning are all built into the structure from the start.

What does our community actually have to do during feasibility?

Your community’s primary responsibilities are providing access to sites and facilities for assessment, attending coordination calls, and sharing energy usage data for municipal buildings. NextGen Energy handles the analysis, the community engagement process, and the deliverables.

Does this affect our relationship with our utility?

Signing the FSA does not change your utility relationship. The interconnection process is studied during the FSA and addressed in detail only after Town Meeting authorizes proceeding to Design.

What if residents have concerns or oppose the project?

Resident questions and concerns are a formal part of the feasibility process. Community engagement is a required deliverable of the FSA. If Town Meeting votes not to proceed, the process ends. Full stop.

How do we get started?

The first step is a conversation. We’ll walk your municipal leadership through how Keep Lights On works, what the FSA covers, and what it doesn’t — before anything is signed. Request a conversation →

Your Community’s Energy. Your Community’s Choice.