The Island’s largest wind turbine to date was installed Monday morning on the rolling hills of the Allen Farm in Chilmark. Once complete, the turbine will be 149 feet tall.
The turbine will produce 125,000 kilowatt hours per year, double the amount of energy the pastoral sheep farm uses, and is expected to be in full operation within the month.
“I hate the wind,” farm owner Mitchell Posin said of the salt spray that usually covers the land he and wife Clarissa Allen own. “Now we get to use it for something good.”
The team from Great Rock Windpower of Oak Bluffs arrived at 7 a.m. to begin staging the area. The first of three sections was in place by 9 a.m. Once fully installed, 42,000 pounds of machinery will sit atop the hill off South Road.
Mr. Posin and his son Nathaniel Allen-Posin helped hoist the turbine into place, screwing in the last bolts of the base of the tower. Mr. Posin said he hoped it would set a precedent for future farmers.
“If every farmer could do that it would help the world tremendously,” he said.
The turbine was approved in January after the Chilmark zoning board of appeals upheld two building permits for the Allen Farm and Grey Barn, also on South Road. The permits were issued under a special agricultural exemption that allows working farms to skip the normal permitting process.
Mr. Posin said he invited the entire neighborhood to the installation and hoped to be as transparent as possible.
“We’re hoping it’ll be here, people will see it and the tension of the anti will subside,” he said.
Construction is expected to last all day. The blades should be rotating by tomorrow.
This article appears in November 18, 2011.
Congratulations Mitch and Clarissa,
Your effort is helping to drag the Vineyard kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
This is a great use of the land and resources at hand for Allen Farm. Hats off to Mitchell and family for taking this step. Currently Vermont is adding working towards using wind as a resource, so it’s encouraging to read this.
It’s a sad day when we allow a farmer or anyone to destroy the environment to feed their greed for energy.
Wow! What’s better than this? Great work guys.
“Thinker”. Your name is Oxymoron.
Thinker…I apologize for the simple putdown of my previous post. If the tone of your post shows anything, it’s that you care about the environment. That’s good. Even better is your life is lived with care for the planet. I do disagree with your comment, however. Your characterization of the Allen Farm folks as “greedy” is particularly off the mark, and insults good, hardworking people who have rejected many chances to (greedily) profit from the sale of their land. We’re talking millions of dollars. Mitch and Clarissa have again and again demonstrated that they choose constructive building, not destructive money-seeking, as a basis for their lives here.
It is incomprehensible that a 15 story power plant overlooking the beauty of Chilmark, which benefits one family, while financed through our tax dollars is somehow a good thing. As mentioned this family sits on millions of dollars of property. Why are the 99% paying half the tab for these 1 percenters? The detrimental physical effects on both humans and farm animals from wind turbines are well documented and should not be dismissed by the feel good crowd. If supporters of wind energy took the time to become truly educated there is little doubt they would see the folly of such endeavors.
Too think of the Allen’s as one percenters if foolish. Just cause the land that they own is worth millions does not mean that they have millions. That land has been in that family since the 1700’s. They did not recently buy it.
Please Vineyard Gazette. do not make the same mistake the other paper made,and allow bashing by unnamed persons, such as “Thinker”. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but by allowing unnamed bashing, or even a letter of support, they both can be equally dangerous. To date, your newspaper has demonstrated the highest of ethics, do not take that slippery slope by allowing unnamed comments. By the way, for my opinion, I love wind power, as long as it not upsetting to any neighbors. The value of a persons quiet enjoyment of their home is just as important as clean energy.
Interesting comments. Are the so called one percenters defined by the liquidity of their wealth? Is inherited land somehow more sacred than inherited gold bars, trust funds or other investments? Did the Allens get the approval of their neighbors before building this tower? Finally, Mr. Adler, would your opinion regarding the danger of “unnamed persons” contributing to the public dialogue also apply to the Federalist Papers? Sadly, you probably have no answer.
In reply to the fellow who calls himself thinker, yet doesn’t do his research.
Detrimental physical effects from wind turbines are NOT well documented and even then can only be attributed to megawatt turbines. This small turbine at the Allen Farm (1/40th the size of Falmouth’s turbines) will have no physical effect on humans or animals other than to clean the air we breath.
The Allen Farm turbine will offset the burning of over 100,000 pounds of coal annually. That means 715 pounds less sulfur dioxide floating over the island every year and about 150,000 lbs of CO2 not going into the atmosphere. Please do your research and start thinking!
Dont mean to get off target here, but in reply to Thinker, the Federalist papers were political statements about a new government, not personal bashing of members of our community. If you want to bash, which is your right, then use your name and not act as a terrorist hiding in the shadows. This paper should not support cowardly attacks on anyone.