Wind

The 12/6/07 Middleboro Gazette published a letter to the editor written by Kevin J. Cook that filled half the page promoting wind energy in Middleboro.

While I'm highly critical of the Cape Cod Commission and the legislature for their inaction in aggressively supporting coastal wind development, the feasibility of wind energy was not within my consideration when criticizing the Middleboro Board of Selectmen's inactions.

After reading Mr. Cook's letter, which itemizes solely coastal communities with prevailing winds, a little google searching provided the information listed below.

It appears from the DOE maps, that mountains and coastal zones are the appropriate locations for wind energy generation.

Should the G&E pursue a joint coastal venture with other communities more appropriately situated, it would appear a progressive solution.

As is pointed out in pingswept, reducing energy consumption should be the beginning, but falls sadly short, and is totally ignored by the Middleboro BOS.

This map indicates that Massachusetts has wind resources consistent with utility-scale production. Excellent-to-outstanding resource is located on the northern part of Cape Cod and good-to-excellent areas are found in the southern part of Cape Cod and along the shore of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Particular ridge crest locations of the Berkshires in western Massachusetts also have excellent wind resource. DOE

TrueWind

The outcry against Cape Wind is a travesty. It comes down to an unpleasant choice of how we get the energy we need. We have to satisfy our rising energy needs somehow. If you’re opposed to using local energy sources to fulfill our energy needs, you have to be in favor of either reduction of our energy needs (which have been strictly increasing for all of recorded history) or getting the energy from somewhere else.
The first choice, reducing energy consumption, requires either widespread, voluntary efficiency gains among the populace, forced efficiency gains via government intervention, or the arrival of the hard times. I think it would be imprudent to plan on any of those events occurring. Our understanding of efficiency improvements falls vastly short of what we need. Even the NPR-listening Prius drivers among us are making decisions around the level of 20% improvements by 10% of the population, while the population continues to increase. We’re excited about skyscrapers with green roofs, which collect water for irrigation of the plants in the lobby, and building-integrated solar, which can supply maybe 1% of the heating and cooling requirements of the building. We’re not thinking about changes on the level of, “You don’t get to heat your house in the winter any more.” pingswept

MilfordDailyNews

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