Chilmark will contract with the local energy cooperative Vineyard Power to build the town’s first solar array.
Pending final approval from town counsel, the Chilmark selectmen Tuesday voted to approve a contract for about 530 solar panels at the town landfill off Tabor House Road. The 173-kilowatt system is planned to produce up to 215,000 kilowatt hours a year, enough energy to power the town buildings.
The project will cost $1.25 million to build and is being financed by an unnamed Chilmark resident.
A soft buzz of 250,000 watts of energy echoed off of Watcha Path in Edgartown on Thursday afternoon.
“Listen to that hum,” Bill Bennett told a group of Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School students standing next to several transformers at Mr. Bennett’s new solar array.
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.
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.
An unusual possible conflict of interest could delay a Martha’s Vineyard Commission vote this week on a plan to build a solar canopy over the parking lot at Cronig’s Market in Vineyard Haven.
The applicant for the development project is the community-based energy cooperative Vineyard Power. Of the 15 voting members of the MVC, 11 are members of the cooperative. On Monday land use planning committee chairman Doug Sederholm announced that the commission must wait for an opinion from the state ethics commission before voting on the project.
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.