Nantucket is well situated to harvest renewable energy, especially from the wind. In fact, our strong and consistent wind patterns register among the best in the country. Early Nantucketers realized this too— not only did the first settlers arrive on Nantucket from the wind powering their sails, but once they arrived it wasn’t long before they erected large wind mills to pump water, grind grain, saw wood and even sharpen whaling weapons.
Just as early Nantucketers understood the importance of harnessing Nantucket’s unique and plentiful wind resource, so does the Town of Nantucket. We are committed to the development of viable renewable energy projects and believe that producing energy locally is an integral step in securing a sustainable energy future. Once again, we have turned our attention to our unique wind resource, and specifically the installation of one mid-size wind turbine at the rear compost pad site within the Madaket Landfill.
The material provided on this website is for informational purposes only. The studies and analysis are representative of work assimilated by the Energy Study Committee, the Nantucket Energy Office and expert consultants and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Town Administration or the Nantucket Board of Selectmen. For alternative opinions about the impacts of wind power on Nantucket, please refer to CommonSense Nantucket at www.commonsensenantucket.org.
The Nantucket Energy Office was established in 2011 to assist the Town in identifying and implementing energy efficiency, conservation and renewable energy programs that are economically viable, environmentally responsible and socially beneficial for Nantucket. The Nantucket Energy Committee (NEC) is an advisory committee appointed by the Nantucket Board of Selectmen. The NEC reports to the Board of Selectmen on energy related issues affecting Nantucket energy users; recommends policy or code amendments; evaluates and explores potential energy production for Nantucket; and serves as a resource for information on renewable and sustainable energy including wind, tidal, solar, wave power, electric vehicle charging stations, and energy conservation measures. For more information, please visit: www.ackenergy.org.
Town of Nantucket issues formal request to MassCEC for peer-review of acoustic studies. The review will be performed by Acentech to analyze the accuracy and validity of the work preformed by Town Consultants, Atlantic Design Engineers, and that of the Commonsense Nantucket funded "Ambrose Rand Report." MassCEC issues letter to Town of Nantucket about the objectivity of the peer review.)
On Friday, February-17-2012, a group of Nantucket residents traveled to Charlemont, MA for a site visit of the PowerWind 56 at Berkshire East Ski Resort.
The Madaket Wind Turbine would produce clean energy for Nantucket. Our undersea cables to the mainland are uni-directional, thus 100% of the electrons produced by the proposed Madaket turbine will stay on Nantucket for local energy use. Read more..
Civic League Presentation: Article 13 by Anne Kuszpa (ESC) and Jim Alyward (CSN) on 3/10/12
NOTE: The Madaket Wind Turbine Project (Article 13) was defeated in the 2012 Annual Town Meeting on March 31. 2012. This website is retained for archival and reference purposes.