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The Town of Orleans will have a warrant article in their Spring 2009 Town Meeting to join the
Cape & Vineyard Electrical Cooperative .
In January 2009, the Town of Orleans contracted with the firm of Weston and
Sampson to provide a financial pro-forma of a municipally owned and operated single turbine installation in
the Towns Watershed. However, the town is not currently pursuing a municipal wind
turbine.
The Towns Renewable Energy Wind Committee continues to deliberate on the
benefit of the newly formed Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative and the benefits of membership. At May
Town meeting 2009 voters will be asked to authorize the Board of Selectman to enter into discussions with
the Coop.
The town's website is available here.
Orleans has a Renewable
Energy / Wind Committee.
Members
|
Name |
Title |
Term |
|
David C. Hubbard |
Member |
6/30/2010 |
|
Victor S. Noerdlinger, Jr. |
Chairman |
6/30/2010 |
|
Allen Kolchinsky |
Member |
6/30/2009 |
|
Richard Philbrick |
Member |
6/30/2010 |
|
Mary Jane Curran |
Member |
6/30/2009 |
|
Robert McCoy |
Member |
6/30/2009 |
|
Kenneth Rowell |
Member |
6/30/2009 |
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NStar provides power delivery services to all Orleans electricity consumers. The table and charts below depict
electricity consumption in (in kWh) in Orleans from 2003 to 2007 and show the types of usage. The information
is provided courtesy of NSTAR.
|
Year |
2003
|
2004
|
2005
|
2006
|
2007
|
|
Residential |
36,978,611
|
36,594,361 |
36,913,784 |
34,672,481 |
35,457,742 |
|
Commercial / Industrial |
34,537,929 |
33,772,905 |
34,107,765 |
32,592,218 |
32,857,961 |
|
Street Lighting |
235,755 |
229,026 |
229,432 |
217,777 |
239,037 |
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The Cape Light Compact (CLC) tracks information on all its energy efficiency programs on a town-by-town basis.
For Orleans, the Cape Light Compact efficiency
report shows an annual kWh savings of 495,447 kWh in 2008 as a result of the various CLC energy efficiency
programs.
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The production data below is based on information from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) collected
in support of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). RECs are tradable environmental commodities in the United States
and represent proof that a specified amount of electricity was generated from an eligible renewable energy resource.
Photovoltaic and wind energy producers that do not participate in the RECs program are not represented in the data.
The information is valid as of the end of 2007.
The charts below show a growing amount of photovoltaic energy being produced within Orleans from an increasing
number of sites.
Click here to review photovoltaic energy production for all towns on
the Cape & Islands..
As part of the Cape Light Compact's
"Solarize
Our Schools!" campaign, a 2kW solar photovoltaic (PV) systems was installed at the Orleans elementary school.
The solar panel at the school shows the daily, weekly, and monthly
solar panel performance.
In 2007, "Solarize Our Towns" pushed to put solar modules on town buildings. Public petitions were presented
at spring town meeting in Orleans for the installation of photovoltaic panels to generate electricity for municipal
buildings in an effort to reduce rising electrical costs. Orleans voted down the measure.
The Renewable Energy/ Wind Committee is exploring the installation of solar panels on the roof of the council
on aging.
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At the end of 2007, Orleans had no net metered wind energy production.
Municipal Wind Turbines
The following is based on a report in the
Cape Codder (Oct 4, 2008).
The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) began working with Orleans in 2003 to develop a wind turbine
proposal for the watershed. Since then the MTC has provided more than $800,000 in funding and technical assistance
to Orleans including
feasibility studies, environmental impact notification and bird studies, and legal, professional
and engineering services. It also spent $5.3 million to purchase the two 397-foot turbines that could each
generate 1.65 megawatts of electricity. An additional $3.75 million was committed by the MTC to purchase renewable
energy credits during the life of the project, according to MTC officials.
Voters at the 2004 town meeting approved the expenditure of $100,000 to support a wind energy project in the
watershed, and twice approved the location of the wind turbines in the watershed at the 2005 and 2006 town
meetings.
In 2007, the Town of Orleans determined not to install municipal wind turbines. Both the Board of Selectmen and the
Board of Water Commissioners voted the project down in 2007 based on concerns about the town’s ability to fund
and manage the long-term oversight of the wind energy production in the watershed as part of the 20-year lease
to a third party developer.
Renewable energy initiatives are emerging again as the town continues to pursue a more “green” future.
The Board of Selectmen and Town Administrator John Kelly are going to explore whether or not they can
authorize the renewable energy/wind committee to use about $10,000 allocated by town meeting for wind
energy to study putting a wind turbine in the town’s watershed. The committee said that the plan was to
examine placing one wind turbine in the watershed.
The Town of Orleans will have a warrant article in their Spring 2009 Town Meeting to join the
Cape & Vineyard Electrical Cooperative .
The cooperative can provide both technical management of wind projects and advantageous financial terms to
its member towns.
Click here to review wind energy production for all towns on the Cape
& Islands.
For an overview of wind energy on the Cape & Islands, click here.
For more information on wind projects in other communities, click
here.
For the status of community wind projects in other towns, click here.
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Martha's Vineyard
For information on the energy situation on Martha's Vineyard,
click here
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Feedback
Information about renewable energy developments is constantly changing. Please
send feedback if you have corrections, updates, or comments for this page please . Suggesstions for additional types of data, information, and
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This page was last updated Tuesday March 31, 2009
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