In December 2015 the Town Board of Nassau, NY voted to source 100% of town power from renewable energy by the year 2020.   The rural community of Nassau, located outside of Albany, NY aims to gain their energy independence by connecting to renewable energy. As a town of just 5,000 people living in a 50 square mile region, they have been drawing up plans to convert the official town buildings and the nearby landfill to house solar panels which should be able to fulfill all of Nassau’s energy needs.  Other renewable options could include deriving methane energy from the landfill as well as a potential wind farm in the town’s blustery wind corridor.  The town would like to create a plan that will allow it to disconnect all of their official town buildings from the grid by making the change to 100% renewable energy. The state of New York’s Reforming Energy Vision Initiative hopes that more small communities will follow suit and move toward a reliance on renewable energy for their cities and towns. What  might our rural communities plan along these same lines?