The Dukes County commission agreed this week to consider buying electricity from a startup wind energy company.
The commission voted Wednesday to approve a memorandum of understanding with Plymouth-based energy company Future Generation Wind LLC.
The Dukes County commission agreed this week to consider buying electricity from a startup wind energy company.
The commission voted Wednesday to approve a memorandum of understanding with Plymouth-based energy company Future Generation Wind LLC.
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.
On Thursday, Oct. 4 at 7:15 p.m., the Martha’s Vineyard Commission is holding a public hearing on the draft for the Wind Energy Plan for Dukes County. This plan was widely distributed last year and can be downloaded from the commission website, mvcommission.org (search for Wind Energy Plan September 2012).
The stage is now set for the development of a massive swath of ocean south of the Vineyard, as the federal government pushes forward with plans to open a 1,300-square-mile plot to wind farm developers beginning 14 miles offshore.
At a press conference staged in Charlestown Friday, federal officials announced they were moving ahead with plans to open up a large area south of the Vineyard for offshore wind development.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it would begin an environmental assessment for the 1,300-square-mile area that lies about 14 miles south of the Vineyard.
“There is great potential here,” bureau director Tommy P. Beaudreau told The Boston Globe. The press conference was held at the state’s wind technology testing center in Charlestown.
A proposed Wind Energy Plan for Dukes County was released for public comment yesterday by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
The document includes two fundamental options regarding possible offshore wind energy development. One would allow development in certain areas defined by the analysis; the other would hold off on short-term development within the waters of Dukes County.
