Hopkinton's EMC Will Test Wind-Energy Turbine

Hopkinton’s EMC has received a $40,000 grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to test a wind turbine which would be one of two used to power its wastewater treatment plant.

The grant will pay for consultant Beals and Thomas’s study for EMC of the environmental, electrical, and economic aspects of the project. Beals and Thomas will also determine how noisy the wind turbine is.

 To get the information, EMC will build a temporary 50-meter-tall (164 feet) meteorological test tower to gather wind data.

 EMC, which makes data-storage equipment and software, is proposing to install two utility-scale wind turbines for wastewater treatment.

The EMC grant is part of $700,000 in grants to support seven wind energy projects the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center announced Thursday.

 There are two dozen wind turbines in place across Massachusetts, Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Richard Sullivan said in a press release. Sullivan is chairman of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s board of directors.  The center is a quasi public agency.*

 Yesterday’s grants, part of the Commonwealth Wind Community Scale Wind initiative, would lead to 5.4 to 8.3 megawatts of available power if all the projects are completed. (MW) in capacity, and six feasibility studies for wind energy that would total between if built. 

 Massachusetts Clean Energy Center Executive Director Patrick Cloney said the Community Scale Wind Initiative is to encourage responsibly sited wind projects as part of a plan for clean renewable energy. 

 Besides EMC, the grants were awarded for a design and construction grant in Dartmouth and feasibility studies for businesses in or the municipalities of Becket, Blandford, Harwich, Heath and Holden.

 Commonwealth Wind’s Community Scale program supports wind projects of at least 100 kilowatts. Its Micro Wind program provides rebates for wind projects less than 100 kilowatts, typically for residential, small commercial or agricultural sites.

 Gov. Deval Patrick  aims to have 2,000 megawatts of wind power installed in the Commonwealth by 2020.  

 Beals and Thomas is a consultant in environmental studies and other disciplines. It has offices in Southborough and Plymouth.

 Interestingly, one of EMC’s South Street neighbors, A123Systems manufacturing facility, makes rechargeable batteries that will store solar and wind power at a 20-megawatt power plant on the New York-Pennsylvania border.

*About the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center was created by  the Green Jobs Act of 2008 to accelerate job growth and economic development in the state’s clean energy industry. It is a clearinghouse and support center for the clean energy sector. It makes investments in new and existing companies, helps companies access capital and other resources for growth and promotes training programs to build a strong clean energy workforce. 

The term quasi public is used because in November 2009, Gov. Patrick signed an Act Relative to Clean Energy, which transfered the state's Renewable Energy Trust Fund, created in 1998 by the Legislature, to MassCEC. The trust fund is paid through an addition ratepayers' utility bills and by charges to investor-owned utilities in Massachusetts and municipal lighting plants whicc participate in the Renewable Energy Trust.  The average residential ratepayer in 2009 paid $0.29 a month.