Green Metro West Massachusetts's Groups
Green Metro West
Gifts Received
Green Metro West Massachusetts has not received any gifts yet
Profile Information
- Are you interested in becoming an organizer in your area?
- Yes
- Tell us about your experience with alternative energy:
- Working on a solar project in Massachusetts
- What excites you about this campaign?
- Love alternative Energy and wind is the way to go.
- What do you want to do to help?
- Publicity
Green MetroWest Massachusetts Discussion Group
Green MetroWest Massachusetts
Green Metro West Massachusetts's Blog
America’s New Year’s resolution: declare energy independence!
Legendary Texas Oil and Gas executive T. Boone Pickens has launched a crusade to gain America’s independence from the deadly grip of foreign oil. I’d like to suggest that each of us make a New Year’s resolution to contact President-Elect Obama and our Congressional representatives to ask them to support this vitally important campaign.
The United States… Continue
Posted on January 3, 2009 at 11:44am
US backing of wind farm could come this week
By Bina Venkataraman, Globe Correspondent | December 2, 2008
The Bush administration is expected to issue as early as Friday a favorable final environmental review of the nation's first offshore wind farm project, clearing the way for Cape Wind to obtain a federal lease to erect 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound.
Nicholas Pardi, a spokesman for the Minerals Management Service, said last week that the agency, part… Continue
Posted on December 1, 2008 at 11:44pm
In Marlborough, cardboard recycling will be mandatory
Posted Nov 12, 2008 @ 02:53 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MARLBOROUGH — .On Dec. 1, city residents will be required to properly bundle cardboard for curbside recycling pickup.
In a press release, Thomas P. Temple, Marlborough's assistant commission of operations, said this special emphasis on cardboard recycling means cardboard cannot be thrown out as trash as of Dec. 1. Allied Waste… Continue
Posted on November 15, 2008 at 9:12pm
Solar-panel company ready to shine
1366 Technologies seeks to streamline the process of creating solar cells that are more efficient than the current industry standard with innovative designs in cell architecture and automated production.
Each… Continue
Posted on November 10, 2008 at 5:31pm
Why green jobs are our future
Boston Globe
DERRICK Z. JACKSON
Why green jobs are our future
By Derrick Z. Jackson | October 21, 2008
HOW MUCH GREEN can you make off a green job?
Since the 1970s, California's energy-efficiency programs have created 1.5 million jobs, increased payrolls by $45 billion, and yielded $56 billion in energy savings that went toward other consumer spending, according to a University of California at Berkeley study.… Continue
Posted on October 21, 2008 at 4:55pm
© 2013 Created by PickensPlan.
Powered by
Badges | Community Guidelines | Report an Issue | Terms of Service
Comment Wall (11 comments)
You need to be a member of PickensPlan to add comments!
Join PickensPlan
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27FEB09
Honorable Speaker of the House Congresswoman Pelosi,
I am an Electronic Technician Chief in the US Navy with 27 years service stationed overseas. I’m outlying an idea to assist and work with current plans for achieving energy independence. I urge you, as speaker of the house and the driving force to form the select committee on energy independence and global warming, consider for discussion and introduction into the house US Treasury Savings Bonds for Energy Independance.
In WWII America sold war bonds supporting the war effort. When young, my mother told me her primary school raised enough money through bonds to build a tank to support troops. I am impressed with the patriotism and purpose of our greatest generation that accomplished so much.
Selling energy bonds for RE (Renewable Energy) development would lower foreign oil imports and assist with the complex problem of funding. Bonds sold as “Energy S” could support new solar trough plants, “Energy W” to support wind farms, Energy “H” to support hydroelectric plants, Energy “T” to support RE transportation such as electric bullet train routes powered by RE, Energy "C" COOPS for small communities only needing a small quantity of turbines, and Energy “I” for needed infrastructure high voltage power lines to the RE site. Bonds will have the project name and include an artist’s perspective of the project and an American flag. President Obama had great success with the internet during his campaign. In a similar manner, using the internet, energy bonds could have a website listing current projects and an “electronic checkout” could purchase a bond $25 or higher. Simpler methods of payment such as “PAYPAL” and credit cards would be available and after an electronic purchase is complete a color print out of the bond is available with a follow up of the bond in the mail. The website would limit quantity of projects for each category until funding is complete. After a project becomes funded, a new project will be available. A tab on the site will show history and status of previous projects. Purchasers may take great pride in “collecting” and displaying bonds of various RE projects and participating at different levels of financial support. Solar trough plants in the multi-hundred MW size capacity with molten salt energy storage in California, Arizona, and West Texas can provide a major portion of electric needs. North Dakota has potential to support 1/3 of our nations electric needs in it’s class 4 wind zone areas. There are plenty of suitable proposed wind turbine farms now around the nation to significantly increase our RE if funded. Mid sized hydro-electric has not been used in America to it’s full potential. Following the example of our neighbor, Canada, it would provide a significant increase in percentage of electric production. Developing all three we could provide the majority of our electric and heating needs through renewable energy in a "New New Deal" fashion allowing natural gas for transportation as T. Boone Pickens is working for. Bullet train routes have proven a viable alternative to commercial domestic air service and when powered by electricity provided by RE suppliers America would be in the forefront of world technology. Example, I heard of discussion for a commuter train from Denver to Colorado Springs. Such a route built as a renewable energy project with charter requirement legally requiring to only purchase electricity from available renewable energy sources would be a model example. There are many train routes, city bus systems, and government vehicles that can be converted to run from alternative energy sources and fuels. Jobs created would bolster the economy, lower trade deficit, and strengthen national security. I would take great pride in print outs of bonds with graphics of each project I supported and many other Americans would also. The energy bonds could have tax breaks. BLM lands may be a viable place to start for some projects.
I contacted the US treasury department and was told that the marketing department for savings bonds closed several years ago. I was told there would be problems because savings bonds are at the federal level while the projects will be at the state and local level. I disagree and believe that these can easily be figured out in the way of grants to the state and local level using money from the bonds for those specific projects. I was told to check out auctions on the www.treasurydirect.gov website and found them to not apply to citizens wanting to buy savings bonds to support a cause such as energy independance. I was told by the treasury department to look into CREB (Clean Renewable Energy Bonds). I found CREB to be large scale funding that a citizen would not be able to participate in as a US Treasury Energy Independance Bond would provide. If given the tools to participate directly, the power of the citizens of the United States to help achieve energy independance could not be denied. Americans mean well and the Energy Independance Savings bond program will give citizens the power at their level to make it happen. If marketed through a web page, commercials, and to federal employees the word would get out and participation would spread like wildfire.
Mr. Paul Gipe, a resident of Bakersfield CA, an author of several books about wind energy, and recipient of multiple awards as a pioneer in the industry since the 1970's has put a letter I wrote to Senator Dorgan on this subject as well as an older letter I wrote on wind COOP in JAN07. These websites are:
http://www.wind-works.org/coopwind/RenewableEnergyBondsforEnergyIndependence.html
and
http://www.wind-works.org/articles/AmericanEnergyIndependencethroughCooperativeInvestmentinWindEnergy.html
Sincerely and very respectfully,
ETC(SW/AW) Mike Kendall USN
Mailing address: PSC 476, Box 879, FPO AP, 96322 USA
Telephone (803) 265-4756, Email: michael.kendall@ymail.com
Saw your post on RI group site. I live in Barrington. I am embarassed by some in my community. NIMBY is alive and well here. I have put my energies into fighting for millions of turbines, where they are wanted, instead of fighting for the one in my town. My friends on the twon council are trying hard to get it passed. We shall see.
In the meantime, I would like to challenge our neighbors to the North on a pledge challenge. We may be significantly smaller, but we can have more members of Pickens Plan before Inauguration Day, by getting folks to sign the pledge. Care to duel? We can have fun with it and build this effort. Maybe engage other states to offer cahllenges, as well. It is all about growing this grass roots effort and awareness in our fellow citizens. With increased awareness comes a complete paradigm shift of thought on energy
in this country.
Best
Kim.
Regional Recycling Center
NORTHBRIDGE, MA. – In an effort to become an environmentally friendly epicenter of several Blackstone Valley towns, yesterday marked the official opening of the Blackstone Valley Regional Recycling Center (BVRRC) for the towns of Northbridge, Uxbridge, Douglas, Sutton, Dudley, Blackstone, Millville, Holliston, Bellingham and Franklin, as well as the Blackstone-Millville, Sutton and Uxbridge school districts. Sen. Richard T. Moore, D-Uxbridge, was one of the speakers for the grand opening of the recycling facility, which aims to reduce the amount of garbage that heads to landfills.
“The people and town officials of this recycling center’s communities are putting their efforts behind the popular environmental slogan to think globally and to act locally, even regionally,” Moore stated in his remarks. “This facility is a great step for our environment, and will be a modest, but valuable source of revenue for the member towns. This is the kind of positive leadership, I hope, that will catch on in other regions as well.”
The facility, which was created with a $20,000 grant from the Department of Environmental Protection, will generate revenue to cover the operation of the BVRRC, with excess returns being distributed amongst the participating communities. The BVRRC will also save money on trash collection for the communities, as the facility will cut down on the amounts of total garbage that is typically collected. The application for the $20,000 grant was strongly supported by Sen. Moore and other legislators.
Plastics labeled 1 to 7, cardboard, paper, aluminum and tin cans, clothes and shoes, antifreeze, dry cell batteries, mercury thermometers and thermostats, cell phones, eyeglasses, rags, paint, motor oil and motor oil filters can all be disposed of for free.
Other items that can be disposed of for a small fee include refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, ride-on lawn mowers ($30); televisions, mattresses, box springs microwaves ($20); white goods such as washers, dryers, dishwashers ($15); computer monitors, printers, bathtubs, push lawnmowers, stereos and dismantled swing sets ($15); exercise equipment, propane tanks and water heaters ($10); and automotive batteries, bicycles, metal fences (per 100 square feet), tires, and weed whackers and trimmers ($5).
The recycling center will be open every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., starting Sept. 28. The entrance to the facility is on Water Street, next to the Northbridge Fire Station, and the exit leads onto Main Street.
For more information on Sen. Moore’s work in the legislature, please visit www.senatormoore.com.
By Jon Chesto
GateHouse News Service
Posted Aug 16, 2008 @ 06:26 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR SALE: Two wind turbines, made by highly regarded manufacturer, top blade height of nearly 400 feet, each capable of generating power for about 1,000 homes. Some assembly required. Asking price: $5 million-plus, or best offer.
That's not exactly how the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative worded a posting on its Web site, but you get the idea. The Westboro-based organization, which normally doles out grants to help others develop wind projects, now finds itself in an unusual position as an owner of two turbine towers for the first time.
While it seems like small-scale wind-to-energy projects are under discussion in almost every other municipality in the state, the MTC turbines' story serves as a cautionary tale of the difficulties inherent in actually seeing one of these projects through to completion. The MTC has even indicated it may consider out-of-state offers if it doesn't have an in-state buyer soon, despite the fact that the initial turbine purchase was indirectly funded by Massachusetts consumers.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. Spokesman Chris Kealey says the MTC, using money from the state's ratepayer-funded renewable energy trust fund, ordered the turbines in December 2005 for $5.2 million, with plans to transfer them to the town of Orleans after they arrived a year later. The goal was to speed up the installation of the two Vestas turbines, which sometimes require a wait of two years or more before they arrive due to the heavy worldwide demand.
But the tech collaborative didn't end up buying expediency: The Orleans project fell through last year, and the turbines eventually seemed destined for Fairhaven.
However, MTC is eager to stop paying the roughly $3,500-a-month storage costs for the windmill parts at facilities in Texas and Canada, and recently put the turbines up for sale on its Web site after a lawsuit raised questions about the timing of the Fairhaven project.
The MTC says it initially wants to sell the turbines for use at another public project within the state. But the posting on its Web site says that those restrictions will be lifted if a new buyer isn't found by the end of August.
Kealey says his organization is still intent on placing the turbines here in the state before considering out-of-state offers. He says Vestas, the manufacturer, has already ruled out two possible sites in Princeton and Gloucester. But MTC officials remain optimistic that a viable local project will surface by the end of the month.
Kealey says the MTC is willing to sell the turbines separately, and is not putting an asking price on them, even though bidders would know what the MTC originally paid.
The developers of the Fairhaven site haven't given up. Jim Sweeney, president of project developer CCI Energy of Plymouth, says talks with the MTC broke down after the tech collaborative was unwilling to wait to be fully paid for the turbines until after the Fairhaven lawsuit was resolved.
Sweeney says he has a deal with AAER Inc. - a Canadian manufacturer that's smaller and less well-known than Vestas - that will be able to build two taller turbines within a matter of months if he can't reach an agreement with the MTC in the next few weeks.
Larry Chretien, executive director of the Mass Energy Consumers Alliance, admits that he also would like to see the turbines end up in Fairhaven, partly because his nonprofit organization in Jamaica Plain has some financial ties to that project. But even if the Fairhaven deal doesn't happen, Chretien says it would be a shame if the turbines didn't end up somewhere else in the state.
Chretien says Massachusetts has been at the forefront of developing alternative energy sources such as biofuels and solar power, but lags in the development of local wind power. State leaders, he says, need to be more proactive in ensuring a greater number of wind turbines are spinning here.
A wide-reaching energy bill passed by the Legislature last month will certainly help - as would making sure that the two MTC turbines don't get shipped someplace else.
One byproduct of last month's energy bill is a change in the oversight of the renewable energy fund. But the MTC will still play an important role with the fund - and the MTC will still have these two turbines on its hands if it can't find a buyer.
Chretien says the tech collaborative is grappling with potentially competing interests: a desire to ensure that ratepayers don't lose more money on the purchase of these turbines and a core mission to promote renewable energy within the state's borders.
The MTC has waited this long to find a proper home for these windmills. Hopefully, the organization can still ensure that they come to Massachusetts where they belong.
By Michael Morton/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Jul 31, 2008 @ 12:01 AM
HOPKINTON — A state report released this week shows that two proposed wind turbine sites on school property appear to offer only mild breezes, potentially keeping the green energy initiative from getting off the ground.
The assessment is based on a computer model's projected yearly average and was made by the Renewable Energy Research Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst for the state's renewable energy agency, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative in Westborough.
The town will now have to decide whether it wants to pursue the project and apply for a state grant, with the next step likely to entail putting up a tower to measure the actual wind speed average.
The collaborative is expected to work with Hopkinton to examine the project's financial potential and "see if it makes sense for them," said Chris Clark, the senior project manager at the agency's Renewable Energy Trust.
While the agency typically declines to fund projects with wind projections similar to Hopkinton's, Clark said any educational benefit included in the proposal might help the town's pitch.
If that were the case, "we would certainly take a close look at the project," Clark said.
Town officials had asked the collaborative to study two potential turbine sites, one at the field hockey pitch next to the high school and one at the baseball field behind the middle school.
But the report finds estimated wind speed averages are only "poor to fair" at both sites, with 13 miles per hour projected at a height of 230 feet. The report also notes that the two fields are near wetlands, with any construction facing possible environmental restrictions.
School Committee member and project coordinator Rebecca Robak could not be reached for comment yesterday. She has previously said that wind energy could provide some of the power for the Hayden Rowe Street school campus.
News of the report follows a School Committee vote Monday paving the way for a firm to place solar panels on two schools and the police and fire stations.
If the town decides to pursue the project, it could apply for a feasibility study grant through the collaborative's Large Onsite Renewables Initiative, a move that would likely lead to the erection of a measurement tower. Grants are capped at $40,000 and municipalities are required to kick in at least 15 percent of the cost.
If results come back positive, Hopkinton could then seek a design and construction grant worth up to $400,000.
More great things will follow I am sure.
Alternative energy plant for factory in planning stage
By Paula J. Owen CORRESPONDENT
FITCHBURG— Simonds International hopes to go off the grid with one of the state’s largest biomass gasification systems, which will convert wood chips into energy.
The proposed biomass plant will be constructed on Simonds’ property and could be up and running by December 2009 if financing goes through.
James P. Sweeney, president of CCI Energy of Plymouth, said the company should know Friday if financing to construct the $46 million system is approved. The plant could produce 15 megawatts of power and CCI has entered into a 25-year lease with Simonds to construct and operate it on the property.
“Right now this is what the state is looking for to take our dependence on foreign oil away,” Mr. Sweeney said Friday. “This is one of the basics we can do, along with solar and wind power.”
The biomass plant’s boiler will burn wood chips, he explained, and the gasification system will take steam and feed it into turbines, that will produce electricity.
The electric generator will produce all the electricity needed at Simonds, said Kenneth R. Myer, vice president of procurement at the 176-year-old company.
“The proposed biomass project will eliminate the use of coal and fossil fuels to generate our electricity and significantly reduce Simonds’ cost of electricity, that is over $2 million a year,” Mr. Myer said.
Simonds will use about 5 percent to 10 percent of the biomass plant’s electrical output, he said. The rest will be sold to the grid.
“The balance of excess power will be sent out to distribute to the lines for anyone else that needs power,” Mr. Myer said.
He added that the project will be scaled back to 10 megawatts if Unitil does not have the capability of accepting the balance of power not used by Simonds.
Additionally, the natural byproduct of the gasification system — steam — will be used to heat Simonds’ building and other companies that move into the city-owned Airport Road Industrial Park that abuts the Simonds property.
That will allow Simonds to shut down its heating system, he said, resulting in at least another $125,000 in savings annually.
“This is the most exciting project I have worked on in 36 years here,” Mr. Myer said. “It is a win, win, win, win situation.”
Part of that winning situation, is that Simonds International will producing some of the equipment used in the wood chippers.
“Simonds will make the knives for the equipment,” Mr. Myer said. “The project will develop a whole new market for knives that we make in Michigan.”
The other wins, he said, are reducing costs for Simonds; allowing the tool and blade manufacturer to stay in Massachusetts; keeping 150 people actively employed; and replacing the use of fossil fuels with 100 percent clean, renewable energy.
Mr. Sweeney said a horticulturist he is working with said poplar trees, which will be the source of the wood chips, grow back quickly, regenerating themselves every three years. The tops will be cut and chipped for the system.
“It’s a lot like grass that continues to grow,” he said. “This is not like cutting trees down to their stumps. You cut the top and it (the tree) will start growing again.”
He said the company is looking to start a tree farm in upstate New York.
Other wins are for the city, Mr. Myer said. Along with the $46 million plant that adds to the city’s tax base, the city will benefit from keeping jobs in Fitchburg and attracting new businesses to the industrial park.
The city recently received a $1.3 million grant for the 60-acre Airport Industrial Park that will pay for road, water and sewer construction to the park and the proposed plant off Airport Road.
Thomas H. Szocik, executive director of the Fitchburg Redevelopment Authority, said once the infrastructure is in place, the city can begin preparing sites for prospective businesses.
He added that if businesses could hook directly into the plant for electricity before it is sold to the grid, it would be a “huge marketing” tool.
“Selling direct would be a huge plus for a business,” he said.
powered by cleaner, cheaper, domestic electricity to reduce our nation's dependence on petroleum
and improve the global environment.
Plug in America!
Our Favorite website for Alternative Energy Automobiles..
View All Comments