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Print Edition StoriesWednesday, January 14, 2009
Gov. Patrick plans for more Mass. wind power
By Mass High Tech staff
MHT reporter Efrain Viscarolasaga on NECN: Green tech brings jobs back to Mass.
After focusing his efforts for the last couple of years on bringing solar power to the Commonwealth, Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday outlined his plan to add 2,000 megawatts of wind power capacity by 2020.
The governor’s announcement comes in response to a U.S. Department of Energy selection of Massachusetts as a site for a Wind Technology Testing Center. It also follows Patrick’s July signing of the Commonwealth’s renewable energy bill, which calls for utilities to tack on energy efficiency measures, obtain long-term renewable energy contracts and reward consumers who use renewable energy sources with rebates.
Massachusetts currently has nine wind turbines operating with a total generating capacity of 6.6 megawatts, according to a State House press release. More than 300 turbines, with 800 megawatts of total generating capacity, are in planning and permitting stages.
The planned wind power capacity, 2,000 megawatts, would reduce power plant emissions by 12 percent and cover 10 percent of state’s power load.
In December, the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust awarded $3.2 million in grants to nine clean energy projects for the Commonwealth. While the recipients ranged in alternative energy, some of the grants went to the design and construction of wind turbines for Berkshire East Ski Resort, Aquacultural Research Corp. of Dennis, the MBTA in Kingston and Upper Cape Regional High School in Bourne.
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