The Berkshire Wind Power Project is a

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used Wind power, to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundre ...

Brodie Mountain Brodie Mountain, , is a prominent long ridgeline in the Taconic Mountains of western Massachusetts, known for the former Brodie Mountain ski area, which closed in 2002. The ridge has eight well defined summits, three of which have names: Sheep's ...

Hancock, Massachusetts Hancock is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 757 at the 2020 census. History Hancock was first settled in 1762 as the Plantat ...

. Owned and operated by the Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation, it is the second largest wind farm in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, with 12 GE 1.5 MW

wind turbines A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

and a total installed capacity of 19.6 MW. The Berkshire wind power project became fully operational in 2011, and provides enough electricity to power 7,800 homes annually.

Project details

The project consists of 10

GE Wind Energy GE Wind Energy is a branch of GE Renewable Energy, a subsidiary of General Electric. The company manufactures and sells wind turbines to the international market. In 2018, GE was the fourth largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world. History ...

1.5 MW

. Each turbine produces 1.5 MW, the site has the capacity to produce 15 MW; this is enough energy to supply approximately 7,800 average homes in the region annually. The towers are tall, with blades. From base to vertically positioned blade tip, they will be approximately . Wind speeds atop

average , one of the best inland wind sites in

, making it a Class 6 resource on the American Wind Energy Scale of 1 to 7. The turbines begin generating energy at wind speeds as low as , and produce the maximum power output when winds blow above . The maximum rotor speed is 20 rpm. The project was built with turbines manufactured at facilities all across the U.S. The power generated is delivered to the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

grid through the local utility.

Reed & Reed Reed & Reed Inc. is a private general contractor based in Woolwich, Maine. Its services include preliminary services, permitting assistance, design and resource identification, master scheduling, budget development, equipment handling and logist ...

was the EPC contractor for the project. Reed & Reed was responsible for the civil, foundation and electrical designs, Quality Control, Safety Management and all phases of construction.

Environmental impact

Berkshire Wind Power Project offsets approximately 612,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year relative to conventional electricity generation. That is equivalent to the estimated annual emissions produced by consuming more than 1.17 million barrels of oil.

Economic impact

Approximately US $109,000 per year in annual payments in lieu of taxes are made to the Town of Hancock, changing with inflation, amounting to approximately US$2.1 million over the life of the agreement. In addition the project created 50 full-time jobs, through the use of 20

companies, and purchase many products and services locally.

Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation

Berkshire Wind Power Cooperative Corporation is a non-profit entity created by 14 Massachusetts municipal utilities and the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC). In addition to MMWEC, members of the Cooperative include the consumer-owned, municipal utilities serving the communities of Ashburnham,

Boylston Boylston may refer to the following communities: ;Canada * Boylston, Nova Scotia ;United States * Boylston, Massachusetts * Boylston, New York * Boylston, Wisconsin * Boylston Junction, Wisconsin It may also refer to: * Helen Dore Boylston, author ...

, Groton,

Holden Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. It was an Australian automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter which sold cars under its own marque in Australia. In its last thre ...

, Hull,

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

, Marblehead, Paxton, Peabody,

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

, Sterling, Templeton,

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

, and West Boylston. Unlike other investor-owned utilities, in Massachusetts, municipal utilities are not required to comply with the

renewable portfolio standard. Though each of these public power utilities have embraced the state's call for renewable energy development voluntarily because their customers support renewable energy development, these public entities took the initiative to form the Cooperative and complete the Berkshire Wind Power Project.

References

External links