Tisbury Town Turbine Study: 2006
Henry Stephenson and the Tisbury Renewable Energy Committee applied to the Mass.Tech.Collaborative for a grant
to study the feasibility of using a large wind turbine to power the town sewage treatment plant.
West Tisbury School Wind Turbine Study: 2007
The West Tisbury Renewable Energy Committee started the process of studying the installation of a wind turbine to
power the West Tisbury School. They have since applied to the Mass. Tech. Collaborative for a grant for this study.
Nelson Mechanical Design Farm Projects: November 2007 Contact with Mass. Dept. of Agriculture
Brian Nelson discussed the concept of using a wind turbine on one farm to power another farm through the use of
net metering and power assignment with Gerry Palano and Bill Gillmeister from the Mass. Dept of Agricultural
Resources. They were very receptive to the concept but knew that until the green energy bill was passed into law as
the Green Communities Act, further development of this concept would have to wait.
Aquinnah Wind Energy Committee: January 2008 Meeting in Boston with Energy and DPU officials
Members of the Aquinnah Wind Committee (Carlos Montoya, Brian Nelson, Jeff Burgoyne, Jeff Madison) met with
Mass. Undersecretary of Energy Ann Berwick (owner of a home in Chilmark), Commissioner Phil Guidice of Mass.
Dept.of Energy Resources, and Chairman Paul Hibbard of the Mass. Dept. of Public Utilities in Boston. We
discussed the Green Communities Act and what net metering and power assignment might look like. Chairman
Hibbard presciently noted that the action on net metering and power assignment would probably start with the
Vineyard.
Charter School Grant from MTC in May 2008
Sam Berlow hired Nelson Mechanical Design to study the Charter School and develop a net zero roadmap to make
the school fossil-fuel free. This led to the concept of powering the school with a large wind turbine and exporting
the excess electricity.
NMD applied to the Mass. Tech. Collaborative on behalf of the Charter School and in May 2008 was awarded a
$40,000 grant to study the feasibility of using a large wind turbine to power the school.
Bob Tankard and Brian Nelson meet with Denys Wortman and Henry Stephenson: July 2008
Bob Tankard and Brian Nelson met on July 11th, 2008 with Tisbury Selectman Denys Wortman and Henry
Stephenson (Tisbury’s energy committee chair) to discuss the possibility of using the Tisbury turbine site at the
town dump to erect turbines serving all of the Vineyard's schools through power assignment.
Sam Berlow and Dr. James Weiss (Superintendent of Schools) discuss possibility of collaboration: July 2008
In a similar vein, Sam Berlow (Chairman of the Board of the Charter School) and Dr. Weiss (Superintendent of MV
Schools) began to discuss assigning power from a large turbine to multiple Island schools.
Northern Pines Farm Grant Application to Mass. Tech. Collaborative: Oct 2008
Brian Nelson (Nelson Mechanical Design) applied for a Mass. Tech Collaborative grant for a wind turbine feasibility
study for Northern Pines Farm. In this grant application, a concept was presented that used electricity from the
wind turbine on Northern Pines Farm to power a greenhouse on another farm. This project, combined with the
passage of the Green Communities Act, finally gave the Mass. Dept.of Agricultural Resources the test case they
needed to develop their support of connecting farms with wind turbines.
Another concept, that of assigning power to all members of a Community Supported Agricultural (CSA) program,
was also presented in this grant application.
Mass. Dept of Public Utilities Call for Comments: Early Oct 2008
Brian Nelson contacted Mass. Dept. of Public Utilities to determine the schedule for public hearings that would be
held to craft regulations implementing the Green Communities Act.
Due to interest in the school and farm concepts and the Vineyard, he was asked by Director Barry Perlmutter
(Director of Electric Power at the Mass. Dept of Public Utilities) to present written comments at the Oct 30th
preliminary hearing in Boston on net metering and how power assignment will be regulated (as described in the
Green Communities Act of 2008).
Island Grown Initiative Meeting with Dept. of Agricultural Resources Commissioner Petersen: Oct 2008
The Vineyard farm cooperative concept in which all farms on the Vineyard could be tied into a large wind turbine on
one farm (made possible by net metering and power assignment) received support at the Mass.Dept.of Agricultural
Resources at the highest levels – Commissioner Petersen stated that he is highly supportive of this concept and
wants to do whatever he can to make it a reality.
Meeting Between Charter School and West Tisbury School Renewable Energy Groups: Oct 2008
Superintendent Weiss, Sam Berlow (Chairman of Board of Charter School), Brian Nelson (Nelson Mechanical
Design), John Packer (principal of the Charter School wind energy study group), West Tisbury School Principal
Halt, and the West Tisbury/Up-Island Renewable Energy Committee met to discuss the wind energy studies of the
Charter and West Tisbury Schools.
The upcoming DPU hearing on net metering and power assignment was discussed as was the possibility of erect
several large, remote wind turbines to serve all seven schools. This would represent a marked savings in time,
energy, and money over the approach of installing smaller turbines at each of the seven Island schools. This would
save on seven foundations, seven crane rentals, and seven school wind energy groups reinventing the wheel!
Meeting with Town of Tisbury and Bob Tankard and Brian Nelson: Oct 2008
Denys Wortman, Tisbury Selectman, put us on the agenda for a Town of Tisbury meeting on Tuesday, October
28th at the Tisbury Town Hall. Dr. Tankard, Dr. Weiss, and Brian Nelson presented the concepts of powering
seven Vineyard schools from a few remotely located wind turbines. They expressed the urgency of presenting this
concept to the DPU before they wrote their regulations. Tristan Israel, Jeff Kristal, and Denys Wortman
unanimously approved an official letter of support of the concept for submission to the DPU.
Mass. Dept of Public Utilities Preliminary Hearing Oct 30, 2008 Brian Nelson and Bob Tankard
The hearing was very interesting – certainly an open forum where all the players showed their cards (or at least quite
a few). The hearing seemed to be well represented by the different interest groups - the electric utilities ready to
defend their turf, the aggressive private developers, the community organizers with a multitude of small projects with
small stakeholders, the municipal folks (Cape Light Compact), Gerry Palano Mass Dept of Agriculture, and the
Vineyard (Dr. Tankard and Brian Nelson)
It impressive to see the effort the DPU took to tease out the many nuances that the different stakeholders would
present on the net metering issues – it was very clear that DPU was very serious about being informed and being
inclusive. Chairman Paul Hibbard (he remembered Brian Nelson and the Aquinnah delegation from the January
meeting) and his staff (Nathan Phelps, and Shaela Collins) led the meeting – they had to ride herd over 100 noisy and
pushy stakeholders – it was all very civil but got pointed at times.
Perhaps the most astounding moment was from one of the more aggressive private project developers. He stated
that there should be no limits and no set asides or restrictions on who got into the 1% quota – to which the hearing
officer asked him pointblank – so if 20 projects gobble up the entire quota for net metering, is this okay? To which
the developer vigorously agreed!
The Mass. Dept of Energy Resources (DOER) (and many others) were pushing for the loosest possible regulations
on this – their take was that those with projects now get in, those that wait, lose out.
From all appearances, it appeared that it will be possible to have multiple turbines at one site, owned by any
arrangement (solely by the town, by a school group, private, etc.) that assign power to any NStar account - the
DOER was pushing for NO LIMIT on the number of folks that can be assigned power!)
Gerry Palano (of the Dept of Agricultural Resources) was great fighting for the farmer. Gerry, among others, was
quite vigorous in his rebuttal of this narrow and greedy approach to renewable energy projects and the needs of the
community and the farmer.
The Cape Light Compact vigorously pushed for municipalities first (heading towards their Coop development).
Small stakeholders liked “carve outs” or “buckets” or “set asides” – basically space holders in the 1% to make sure
they didn’t get squeezed out. Some big players had already started on their projects and want to retroactively get
into net metering! Maggie Downey of the Cape Light Compact vigorously fought this – she (and others) didn’t want
the 1% quota diluted by older net metering projects.
Brian Nelson was able to speak several times – he discussed Vineyard concepts of connecting seven Island schools
to remote wind turbines and connecting twenty one Island farms to remote wind turbines. He also discussed
another concept - the possibility of power assignment to all families in the farm CSA.
Reply Comments to DPU: November 2008
On November 3rd, Denys Wortman, Dr. Weiss, Sam Berlow, Peter Cabana, Dr. Tankard, Brian Nelson, and Henry
Stephenson met to discuss reply comments in response to issues brought up at the Oct 30th DPU preliminary
hearing.
These reply comments were sent to the DPU on Monday, Nov 10, 2008. There were 84 signatories from the
Vineyard to these documents.
Martha's Vineyard Wind Energy Info Site
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A History of Large Scale
Wind Turbines on MV
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