Mashpee eyes solar panels for town buildings
MASHPEE — Town officials hope to expand plans to put solar panels on the senior center to include other municipal buildings.
In 2008, a town meeting approved spending $50,000 to install solar panels on the senior center, but that work has been delayed while the town considers options.
Now the town’s energy committee is looking at installing solar panels on the town hall and high school as well, said Tom Mayo, committee member and the town’s coordinator of geographic information systems. In addition, discussions continue on building a solar farm at the closed landfill on Meetinghouse Road and harnessing wind energy through turbines, he said.
But some are skeptical and believe another full year will pass without the town harnessing green technologies.
“Their proposals sound good,” Peter White, manager and co-owner of La Plaza Del Sol Motel and an unsuccessful candidate for selectman, said. “But we need action.”
White, who petitioned the solar panel article, criticized town officials for filling seats on the energy committee with only town hall employees.
In April, Town Manager Joyce Mason said the committee was stocked with town hall employees so they could work on committee initiatives during their work day without scheduling conflicts.
The committee is hard at work trying to maximize the $50,000 approved by voters, Mayo said.
After last year’s vote, the energy committee got a state grant to look at the cost effectiveness of a solar hot water system, Mayo said. The board switched its focus to photo voltaic renewable energy in February after the study found there would be a 25-year payoff.
“It takes time to do things right,” Mayo said. “It would have been irresponsible to spend $50,000 without performing a due diligence research effort.”
The committee plans to have a recommendation to selectmen to go out to bid on solar initiatives by early August, Mayo said.
Within a few years, the committee hopes to have technologies that can harness around 1.1 megawatts per year in renewable energy, far more than the 10 kilowatt system proposed at town meeting, which would almost make town buildings completely energy independent, he said.
By Matthew M. Burke
9 July 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
Some possibly related stories:
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.
