By Janet Hefler, Martha's Vineyard Times, Published:
January 22, 2009
A wind turbine project proposed at Northern Pines Farm in Tisbury,
designed to provide energy for several Island farms, received a
$40,000 grant last week from the Massachusetts Renewable Energy
Trust (MRET). The Large On-site Renewables Initiative (LORI) grant
will fund a feasibility study for the project, including the installation
of a meteorological (MET) tower to measure wind speed and direction
for one year.
The project proposed by applicant John Packer, the owner of Northern
Pines Farm, calls for installing one or several 900-kilowatt wind
turbines, up to 270 feet tall, on his 42-acre property, located
between Lambert's Cove Road and the west side of Lake Tashmoo.
The goal of the project is to generate enough power from wind energy
for use at Northern Pines Farm and to "assign" extra power
produced to other Island farms.
"This concept of using a wind turbine, or several, on one farm
to serve other farms is unique and has received extraordinary support
of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources [MDAR],"
consultant Brian Nelson of Nelson Mechanical Design
said in a press release about the LORI Grant last week.
"This ability to send electricity from one farm to other farms
makes the Massachusetts Electric Farm Model possible - a concept
in which farmers with greenhouses could receive electricity from
a remote wind turbine on another farm at a long-term reduced rate,"
Mr. Nelson wrote.
He already has received permission from the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) to install a 165-foot MET tower at the Northern Pines Farm
site. In addition, Mr. Nelson noted, "Preliminary analysis
indicates that the FAA would approve wind turbines up to 270 feet
tall on the Northern Pines Farm site." That height is measured
from the ground to the tip of a blade at the top of its rotation,
Mr. Nelson explained in a phone call Tuesday, adding that a wind
turbine that size will definitely have a visual impact.
By way of comparison, the proposed wind turbine's height falls between
that of the Island Home ferry upended, at 255 feet, and the MVY
Radio tower, at about 285 feet tall, according to the station's
staff. Mr. Nelson said architect Bruce McNally will be creating
photo visualizations to give people an idea of what one or several
270-foot wind turbines would look like from different viewpoints
around the farm.
The decision to erect one or several large wind turbines of that
size would be based on the number of Martha's Vineyard's approximately
21 farms that ultimately are assigned power from Mr. Packer's project
and their electrical loads, Mr. Nelson said.
After speaking with Douglas W. Petersen, commissioner of the Massachusetts
Department of Agricultural Resources, about the farm wind turbine
project last fall, Mr. Nelson received a follow-up letter from him
expressing his support in mid-November.
"The proposal seems most fitting," Mr. Petersen wrote,
citing Mr. Nelson's description of a possible collaborative wind
turbine effort, using Northern Pines Farm and Thimble Farm as two
Island examples.
Mr. Petersen also included an opinion from his department regarding
the applicability of Massachusetts General Law (MGL) as it relates
to wind turbines used for commercial agriculture. Because of the
protections afforded agriculture under MGL, Chapt. 40A, "In
essence, Section 3 prevents a local general or zoning by-law from
prohibiting, unreasonably regulating, or requiring a special permit
for activities on land used for commercial agriculture," Mr.
Petersen wrote.
Tisbury building and zoning inspector Ken Barwick said in a phone
call Tuesday that he is seeking legal advice from town counsel David
Doneski regarding the appropriateness of recognizing wind turbines
as farm structures.
"I am not totally one hundred percent convinced, if you will,
that that type of power generation would be exempted from local
zoning ordinances, nor that it would be exempted from Mass General
Law, or protected, I should say, from Mass General Law requirements,"
Mr. Barwick said.
While everything Mr. Packer and Mr. Nelson talked to him about seemed
logical in terms of what they want to do regarding the farm and
agricultural use, Mr. Barwick said the obstacle for him is the stanchions
and turbines for power generation. "That makes up the majority
of my questions that I have for legal counsel, which I am anxiously
awaiting for them to get back to me about," he said.
Siting Island wind turbines is difficult, as the Martha's Vineyard
Wind Energy (MVWE) website www.mvwind.com explains. Because Martha's
Vineyard's Airport is centrally located, the FAA's limitations on
turbine height greatly restrict the size of wind turbines allowed
on a large portion of Martha's Vineyard. The other main constraint
on wind turbine size is transportation through Five Corners in Vineyard
Haven, which would be limited to a 600 to 900 kW turbine.
The MVWE website also notes that the Northern Pine Farms project,
combined with the passage of the State's Green Communities Act (GCA)
of 2008 last July, "provided the MDAR with the test case they
needed to develop their support of connecting farms with wind turbines."
"What's exciting is that the state sees us as a pilot project,"
Mr. Nelson said. "I really want to build support on Martha's
Vineyard for this concept. We'd love to have this project be a model
of sustainability for Massachusetts and to have farmers across the
state look at this to help them stay in business."
Mr. Nelson said the goal is to connect all of the Martha's Vineyard
farms together, possibly by forming a wind co-op. "The LORI
grant only funds us to do consultation - it won't fund us to buy
anything," Mr. Nelson explained. "It's a feasibility study,
so nobody's losing money or risking anything."
In addition to wind data analysis, the feasibility study will address
the project's economic, regulatory, environmental, and electric
interconnection issues. Figuring out who will own and pay for the
turbines, which cost about $2 million each, is part of the process,
Mr. Nelson said.
"We're just at the permitting and exploration stage,"
he emphasized. "There are no commitments at this point to do
anything, other than to study it."
"We didn't want to sign onto it until we got the Department
of Agriculture's support," Mr. Nelson added. "If we didn't
have the Green Communities Act, we could have put up an enormous
turbine but we would have to sell the power to NSTAR wholesale,
and the other farms would have to buy the power at retail."
The GCA requires NSTAR to deliver the power from a wind turbine
such as the one Mr. Packer proposes to any NSTAR account the turbine
owner designates, for free. The GCA will allow a small number of
renewable energy projects, such as wind turbines, into a quota for
participation in net metering and power assignment.
However, the quota currently set by state law is one percent of
NSTAR's peak load, about 50 kW, which has to be shared throughout
the utility's territory statewide.
Mr. Nelson attended a Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities
hearing in Boston on October 30, to present written and verbal comments
regarding net metering and power assignment for wind turbines on
Martha's Vineyard. His written comments and information about net
metering, power assignment, and wind energy also are available on
the MVWE's website. |
