Edgartown energy committee chairman Kitt Johnson outlined a priority list for projects before the town selectmen on Monday. The most complex and expensive is an experimental tidal energy project that hinges on the completion of an extensive pilot plant application due at the end of February. The idea was introduced in early 2007, when Edgartown joined forces with Nantucket and Cong. William Delahunt to pursue energy independence. At the time, the town expected extra research money to be provided to establish an offshore energy zone between the two Islands. The projects included both wind and tidal energy generation.

The tidal energy project did secure $600,000 in funding from the Federal Department of Energy for environmental studies in September, but it could take millions more to become operational and remains in its earliest planning stages. The ultimate goal is to install tidal engines in Muskeget Channel to generate electricity for the town.

The next step in the process is to apply for a pilot plant permit with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The energy committee has not yet begun the application, which is due by Feb. 28.

But finding the appropriate experts to complete the application could get expensive, and the town would need to find grant funding to finance it.

The costs would only expand if the project moved forward. “This particular permit is laying out a program for the next several years for a pilot plant,” Mr. Johnson explained on Monday. He estimated that the total cost of the plant, if the project gets that far, would be approximately $33 million. “I could see us getting by with a smaller pilot plant, but I don’t see a way of getting by without recognizing that we’re going to have some large expenditures,” he said.

But the town will not spend money on the project. Instead, it will count on volunteers like Mr. Johnson to oversee the process and research grant funding options. He will continue to work on the application process and reassess the situation in a month.

“The real hurdle here is whether or not we’re going to be able to find enough grant money to actually produce this document,” said selectman Arthur Smadbeck in an interview on Tuesday. “We can’t be using municipal funds on something that might or might not happen . . . This isn’t something that anybody in Edgartown can do. Kitt, with all of his knowledge, doesn’t have the resources.”

Mr. Smadbeck said he hopes the FERC would be flexible if the town is not able to get the entire 900-page document completed by the February deadline, because he believes Edgartown would be an ideal location for the ground-breaking project. “I think that we’re the perfect example of the kind of entity that the government should be looking to work with because we’re a small, local, grassroots, on the ground entity. We are the end user of this product, the electricity,” he said.

Also on Monday, the selectmen and Mr. Johnson agreed that solar energy projects should be the town’s top]] priority.

“The price of energy has taken a little hiccup [and] everything is cheaper,” said Mr. Johnson. “That’s a temporary phenomenon. Basically our bills are going to keep going up . . . The wisest thing the town can do is to put in place the ability to make some of its own electricity at a fixed price . . . That would make us somewhat harmless to the market rise over the next 10 years.”

Mr. Johnson suggested installing solar panels first in the Edgartown School and the highway department building. “We can drop solar arrays on the school and the town highway department and account for seven per cent of our electrical consumption immediately, on essentially a fixed-price basis,” he said.

Also on the horizon is the possibility for wind energy projects. Mr. Johnson spoke of the plan to build a wind turbine at the wastewater treatment facility and said he remains skeptical about the project. “Nobody’s actually run any formal economics on it that I’m aware of yet,” he said. “My point of view on the windmill is that it’s going to cost a whole lot . . . My concern is that we’re going to have difficulty financing [the project].”

On Tuesday, Mr. Smadbeck explained that the town’s top prioity should be to tackle projects that can be started immediately. “The solar project really looks like it’s going to be the easiest to grab right off the bat. [But] we’re not turning our back on anything. We’re looking at wind, we’re looking at solar, we’re looking at tidal . . . The whole idea is to get electricity at a lower price than we’re paying now,” he said.