Concord is eligible to apply for up to $1.15 million in state clean energy grants after earning Massachusetts’ Climate Leader Community designation.
The Department of Energy Resources announced the certification Oct. 21, naming Concord among nine newly certified municipalities. The fourth round of designations brings the statewide total to 44, according to the state announcement.
Certification opens access to two funding programs: up to $150,000 for technical planning and up to $1 million for projects that reduce emissions from municipal operations. Communities must apply, and each can receive each grant type only once.
Concord already has a framework for identifying potential projects. Its municipal decarbonization roadmap, adopted by the Select Board, Concord School Committee and Concord-Carlisle Regional School Committee, examined 17 municipal and school buildings along with municipal fleets.
The roadmap identifies opportunities for energy efficiency improvements, heat pumps, geothermal systems and solar installations. It emphasizes replacing fossil fuel equipment as systems reach the end of their useful lives, according to the town’s sustainability page.
Those recommendations do not establish which projects Concord will submit for the newly available grants.
To earn certification, municipalities must be Green Communities in good standing, maintain a local clean energy committee and commit to eliminating on-site municipal fossil fuel use by 2050. They must also develop a decarbonization roadmap, adopt a zero-emission-vehicle-first purchasing policy and adopt the Specialized Energy Code.
The Decarbonization Technical Support Grant helps communities hire vendors to develop recommendations and engineering designs. Accelerator grants support work such as solar installations, heat pumps and energy storage, with projects required to align with the community’s roadmap.
Nearby Acton offers an example of how the funding can be used. The state awarded it $150,000 to design an electric school bus charging depot incorporating solar power and battery storage. Acton also received a separate $25,000 Municipal Energy Technical Assistance grant for HVAC work.
Acton and Lexington received Climate Leader certification in April 2025 as members of the first cohort.
The program builds on Massachusetts’ Green Communities initiative, established under the Green Communities Act of 2008. State officials say projects undertaken through that broader program save municipalities more than $30 million in energy costs annually.
