Next phase in wind power search
Members of the Norwell Energy Committee plans to open bids Monday that will move the search for a location for a wind turbine to the next phase.
Committee Chairman Charles Markhum said bids are due at 5 p.m. Monday for a consultant to aid the town in a feasibility study for a wind turbine on South Street.
So far, none have been submitted, but Markhum five firms have expressed interest and asked questions, and he expects at least one or two of them to meet Monday’s deadline.
The consultant who is chosen will then file an application to Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a public-private agency, for a $50,000 grant to install a monitoring station that will test if the location has enough constant wind to make constructing a wind turbine economically and environmentally feasible.
Markhum said the committee, whose name changed from the Wind Power Committee to the Norwell Energy Committee at Town Meeting this month, is eyeing an area of South Street where the roadway dead-ends at the Water Department. The site was part of a townwide assessment of possible locations over the last six months.
Other sites such as the high school are still potential locations, Markhum said, but another Water Department property, on Grove Street, has been all but ruled out for now, The town may need the site for well water exploration, and it’s uncertain how a wind turbine at the same location would affect those plans.
Markhum said the committee hopes to name a consultant and begin the application process for the money to install the wind-monitoring station as soon as possible. Once a monitoring station is constructed, the wind study could take up to a year.
“We are not in any danger of moving too fast,” he said.
By L.E. Crowley
Town Correspondent
18 June 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
Some possibly related stories:
- Weymouth High favored as site for windmill
- Assessing wind power
- Newbury eyes land for wind turbine; Study to determine potential location for ‘large’ structure
- Feasibility study will explore turbine for Greenbush station
- Town Meeting blows with the wind
- Special legislation and wind overlay district articles pass
The copyright of this article is owned by the author or publisher indicated. Its availability here constitutes a "fair use" as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law as well as in similar "fair dealing" exceptions of the copyright laws of other nations, as part of National Wind Watch's effort to advance understanding of the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development. For more information, click here.
