The town could also opt into a specialized code that would require all fossil-fuel-based heating systems to be wired for future electric use and have solar power capability.
The town could also opt into a specialized code that would require all fossil-fuel-based heating systems to be wired for future electric use and have solar power capability.
At exactly 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning, a beam of sunshine peeked out from behind a cloud to envelop a treeless hill in Aquinnah in golden light. A small crowd, bundled up against the 15-degree chill, had gathered at the town landfill, but at the morning’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for Aquinnah’s first-ever solar array project, the sun was the guest of honor.
“This is really a great occasion for all of us to be here today,” Aquinnah town administrator Adam Wilson told the onlookers, shortly before selectman Jim Newman snipped the official red ribbon.
The Martha’s Vineyard Commission last week approved a wind energy plan that will regulate wind turbine development on Island land and waters.
The commission will use the plan as guidance when reviewing turbines. The commission plans to review the plan again in five years, though members emphasized that the plan could be changed at any time.
Don Ogden is correct in response to my letter when he wrote that conservation would “go much toward reducing CO2 emissions.”
While searching the depths of the sea floor for marine life, Jesse Ausubel realized something else. Out of the sea floor sediments leaked methane, a natural gas, which mussels, tube worms and other creatures thrived on.
“These animals were living off what we call methane seeps,” said Mr. Ausubel. “That was one clue that methane is more abundant under the sea floor than we had believed.”
A note to Gazette readers and letter writer Larry Lewis. If more attention was given to energy conservation and efficiency in this wasteful society we live in, the need for problematical wind turbines would be lessened. Coincidentally, saving energy rather than making even more, will go much toward reducing CO2 emissions and addressing the climate crisis. A major contributor to climate change is the epidemic of carelessness, especially in the United States, regarding the use of energy already being generated.
