Aquinnah Selectmen Will Seek Bylaw to Regulate Energy Use
By IAN FEIN
With the energy demands of large homes a growing concern across the
Island, Aquinnah selectmen this week unanimously endorsed a regulation
that would require new homes over a certain size to include renewable
energy sources such as solar panels or wind turbines.
"This is an important measure," selectman James Newman
said at the regular board meeting on Tuesday, after proposing the energy
requirement. "And I think that this community should be a leader
on the issue."
Foundations for the new Martha’s Vineyard Hospital won’t be poured until spring, but already the hospital has big plans for the rooftops.
This week the hospital received notice from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, the state’s development agency for renewable energy and the innovation economy, that the hospital will receive a $198,000 design and construction grant for solar electric panels atop the new building.
Eight months from now, the Vineyard could finally be able to boast its first significant, working, zero-carbon energy project. And the power will come not from wind but from the sun.
By the start of July two towns, Edgartown and Tisbury, could be harvesting all their municipal energy needs from several acres of solar panels, and doing it affordably.
Construction for a solar array at Katama Farm is set to begin this winter, now that the Edgartown planning board approved a special permit for the project this week, clearing the last hurdle for what will be the Island’s largest installation of photovoltaic panels.
Calling it an inappropriate use of prime agricultural land, the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society appealed to the Edgartown selectmen this week to reconsider a plan to use five acres at Katama Farm for a solar panel project that is not yet built. Town leaders responded that they intend to stay the course with the project.
In a letter sent to the selectmen this week, agricultural society president Dale McClure urged to the town to find alternative sites for the photovoltaic panels.
Chilmark police are investigating the theft of 21 solar panels from the Grey Barn on South Road stolen sometime over Presidents Day weekend.
According to the police report, the crate containing the panels weighed over 1,000 pounds. The 270-watt panels are valued at $14,000. Farm owners Eric and Molly Glasgow are currently outfitting their four new barns with solar panels, about 300 of which have already been installed.
It was an unusual week in front of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission for the developers of a $1.1 million, 210-killowatt solar canopy project over the parking lots at Cronig’s Market in Vineyard Haven. Last Thursday commissioners wondered aloud why there wasn’t more opposition to the project, then on Monday the commission announced that it faced a possible conflict of interest and would likely delay a vote on the project.
Aquinnah selectmen this week inched closer to a final contract with Vineyard Power to install a solar array at the landfill, but pressed for clearer contingency plans from the community energy cooperative in the event of a problem.
Summer shoppers seeking shade may be able to do so this summer while powering up. Vineyard Power hopes to install a 12,200 square foot array of solar panels over the Vineyard Haven Cronig’s parking lot. The array, which will supply a quarter of the store’s energy needs, is made up of three “solar canopies,” which will also feature six electric car charging stations.
Do Islanders like it, not know about it or just not care?
A nearly-nonexistent turnout at the Martha’s Vineyard Commission Thursday night for a public hearing on a new 12,200-square-foot solar canopy over the parking lot at Cronig’s Market in Vineyard Haven had some commissioners scratching their heads.
“There certainly doesn’t seem to be an outcry of public concern about this project, but I’m curious whether people are really paying a lot of attention,” said commissioner Linda Sibley.
