Hull, Massachusetts, Wins DOE Wind Power Pioneer Award
November 07, 2006
The Town of Hull, Massachusetts, has won the Department of Energy's Wind Power Pioneer Award. The distinction recognizes the Town of Hull for its outstanding leadership in advancing the use of wind power in a coastal community. Hull has been a model for engaging the entire community to understand and move forward together on its wind power project, from school teachers, utility engineers and local leaders to state government, academia and industry.
Located on a peninsula in Boston Harbor, the Town of Hull first developed wind power in the 1820s. Modern wind technology came to Hull in the 1980s, when the school district installed a small-scale wind power project. The Hull Municipal Light Plant supported that effort and subsequently worked with Citizen Advocates for Renewable Energy, to plan a utility-scale project. A 660-kW turbine, Hull Wind 1, was installed on the harbor in 2001. This past spring, the Hull Municipal Light Plant dedicated a second turbine. Hull Wind 2 is a 1.8 MW Vestas V80, installed on a closed landfill. The two wind turbines supply more than 10 percent of the community's energy needs.
Award finalists, which will also be recognized, include American Municipal Power - Ohio, the City of Palo Alto (CA), CPS Energy (San Antonio, TX), and Sacramento Municipal Utility District (CA).
The American Public Power Association is the national service organization representing the Nation's more than 2,000 community- and state-owned electric utilities and it cosponsors the Wind Pioneer Awards program. Previous winners have included municipal utilities in Waverly, Iowa; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Austin, Texas.
Wind Powering America is a program of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). The program is committed to dramatically increasing the use of wind energy in the United States.
EERE, through its Wind Powering America effort and other programs, is helping the nation achieve targeted regional economic development, enhanced power generation options, improved environmental conditions, increased domestic energy supply, and national security. For more information visit the Wind Powering America Web site.
