Imagine a future in which you join a farm share program and receive, along with your in-season fruit, vegetables and flowers, cheap electricity.
A future where you receive a wider range of produce over a longer season, maybe even year-round, as greenhouses proliferate on those farms, taking advantage of that cheaper, price-stable, renewable energy.
As many as 166 wind turbines, generating enough electricity to power some 200,000 homes, could be built in Vineyard waters under a state draft ocean management plan released on Wednesday.
The plan sets aside two areas, one on the far side of Noman’s Land and the other off the Elizabeth Islands, as the sites which would provide almost all the offshore wind power for the state of Massachusetts.
A proposal to allow the only commercial wind farms in state waters close to the western end of the Vineyard has been advanced without due consideration of the views of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), tribal historic preservation officer Bettina Washington said yesterday.
Under the draft ocean management plan released last week by the state, as many as 166 wind turbines might be built in two areas, around Noman’s Land and off Cuttyhunk, as near as three miles offshore.
Great Rock Windpower installed and commissioned the first off the production line endurance model S-343 wind turbine in Edgartown last week. The S-343 has a rotor area of 343 square feet, runs at 166 RPM and is rated at 5.3kW. It is designed to produce more power at lower wind speeds than its predecessors.
Recent Gazette articles on the state’s draft ocean management plan have raised questions about the plan, especially the renewable energy opportunities it identifies for Massachusetts waters. On behalf of Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles, I would like to address a couple of them, namely, alleged “new” powers granted the Energy Facilities Siting Board to override local authority, and whether the Martha’s Vineyard community will have a meaningful role in potential development of wind energy off its shores.
On Sunday night opponents of wind development off Vineyard shores — including selectmen, fishermen, Wampanoags and a Republican candidate for Massachusetts governor — were given a megaphone to voice their views.
Hosted by POINT (Protect Our Islands Now for Tomorrow), a group led by Andrew Goldman of Chilmark, the forum drew a large crowd to the Chilmark Community Center.
“We will have the largest concentration of turbines anywhere in the world,” declared Mr. Goldman, who moderated the forum.
Vineyarders Jonathan and Linda M. Haar work in wind power technology, but one thing they share with wind energy opponents is an objection to seeing enormous towers built in pristine places.
And their concern is not just aesthetic, but practical. It would, they reasoned, make much more sense to generate the power as close as possible to where the power is used.
Hence their innovative new turbine, tested for the first time at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport this week: a turbine standing just 20 feet tall, intended to be mounted on city buildings.
Wind developers pressed ahead on two fronts this week, as two new players entered the fray with proposals to develop wind farms in waters west of the Vineyard and Cape Wind put the final touches on a deal to sell electricity to National Grid.
