Community Toolkit > Energy > Renewable Energy > Wind Power

Wind Power Installations

Hull, Massachusetts

Community Profile: Hull is a small town of approximately 10,500 year round residents located on a peninsula in Boston Harbor, about 8 miles from downtown Boston. The community is governed by a board of selectmen and assisted by a town manager.

Project Outline:

In 1998 a group of concerned Hull citizens led by Malcolm Brown and Andrew Stern formed Citizens for Alternative Renewable Energy (CARE) to look into the possibility of installing a wind turbine in Hull to replace a smaller one that had gone offline in 1997. CARE petitioned for Hull Municipal Light Plant (HMLP) to take on the project and in 2001 the town accepted a bid from the Danish corporation Vestas to install their V47 turbine rated at 660kW. This turbine, nicknamed Hull Wind I (HWI), began producing electricity on December 27, 2001.

Due to the success of the project, an additional wind turbine, nicknamed Hull Wind II (HWII), was recently installed on the town’s closed landfill. Another Vestas product, this turbine is a V80, 1.8MW design, capable of producing 5 million kWh per year and powering approximately 750 homes. Currently HWI and HWII provide 2% and 9%, respectively, of Hull’s total power needs.

Cost & Savings:

• The total cost the purchase and installation of HWI was $753,000, with yearly recurring cost of $30,000 for maintenance and insurance. This was paid for out of the project’s proceeds. As of December 1, 2005 it was estimated that HWI had saved the town over half a million dollars.
• The total cost of HWII was estimated at $3,000,000 with recurring annual costs of $31,000 and a payback period of less than 9 years. The financing was provided by the proceeds of the project.
• As of August 2, 2006 the total output of HWI was 7,148,253 kWhs with HWII having put out an additional 775,815 kWhs.
• CO2 Savings from HWI and HWII are approximately 1,200 tons and 3,000 tons, respectively, per year.
• Currently Vermont is offering rebates for small wind projects.

Benefits:

• Lessons learned from the Hull Wind projects include the benefit of having community support. Since the turbines are run by the town of Hull, all financial and environmental benefits are funneled directly back to the town residents. It was also important to find appropriate sites, a reputable and responsive turbine supplier, and to involve a municipal electric company as an active participant in the process.
• Other communities taking on wind power include a number of coastal towns in Massachusetts, including Ipswich, and the Cape Wind Project. There is also a new facility in Berlin, NH, a proposed project in Lempster, New Hampshire and numerous proposed projects by Endless Energy Corporation in Maine and Vermont.
• For more information on the Hull Wind Projects, visit their website online or contact Malcolm Brown or Andrew Stern.
• For information on alternative energy resources contact Native Energy.

Process:

• State specific wind activities and resources can be found at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Powering America site for Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
• To initiate a wind project in your community, first you will need to evaluate if there is substantial wind in the area to support a turbine. Good approximations of wind speeds can be found by viewing wind maps of New England.  This site in particular allows for you to enter the specific coordinates of your town and then generates detailed information regarding the speeds, frequencies, and prevailing directions of wind at your location. Wind Powering America also provides state specific wind resource maps.
• Next, you will need to complete a year long study wind resource assessment to determine seasonal and diurnal variations in wind speeds at the proposed site.  Due to its proximity, Hull was able to secure corollary data from both Logan International Airport and nearby Thompson Island. In areas where wind speed records are not readily available, communities have a number of options for collecting their own data.  If possible, communities can collaborate with a nearby university or other educational institution. Hull did this successfully with the University of Massachusetts Renewable Energy Laboratory. Towns can also hire private companies such as AWS TrueWind or independently set up instrumented meteorological towers to collect time-series data. Measurement sensors typically include anemometers at multiple heights (for wind speed), wind vanes (for direction), temperature gauges, and barometers (for pressure).
• Once the feasibility of the project is assessed, the town should determine if any zoning ordinances would need to be changed to allow for the wind turbine.  In Massachusetts, municipal light plants are exempt from zoning requirements, so this was not an issue. An example of a model zoning ordinance can be found at this website. Examples of zoning ordinances are available for Minnesota and Montana, but could be adapted for any state.
• If your state does not have net metering, refer to these model ordinances to get adopted: AWEA and Massachusetts.
• Support of the community is crucial in the implementation of a wind turbine project. A good resource for planners to hand out to the community to educate and gain support is the Wind Powering America Small Wind Electric System Consumer Guide. These state specific guides can be accessed by using the following links:

Maine,
New Hampshire,
Vermont.