Previous MWWG Meetings

 
Please note that information on meetings prior to September 1, 2014 has been moved to our meeting archive page.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015 - 2:00pm to 4:00pm

A meeting of the Massachusetts Wind Working Group was held on September 30th, 2015, at Cadmus in Waltham.   22 people attended. The topic for the meeting was New and Developing Technologies in the Wind Industry.  Speakers included:

Kavita Ravi, Mass Clean Energy Center: Introduction to the topic, and the state’s role in encouraging innovation

Andrew Myers, Northeastern University: Innovations in the on-site manufacturing of tall wind turbine towers

Rachel Koh, UMass Amherst Offshore Wind IGERT Fellow: Bio-Based Materials for Large Wind Turbine Blades

Brian Kuhn, Aeronautica Wind: Renewable Energy 2.0:Transitioning from Raw Power to System Stability, A Look at the Past and Future of Renewable Energy

Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - 2:00pm

On July 8th 2015 the Massachusetts Wind Working Group meeting took place at Cadmus in Waltham, MA.  32 people attended the meeting.  The topic was “Financing and Maintenance Challenges in the Wind Industry”.  Speakers included:

Gordon Deane, President, Palmer Capital Corporation: Evolving Times:Developing 2 NE Wind Projects ; policies to improve the financing environment for wind

Tim Stearns, Service Manager, Aeronautica Wind: Economic and technician skill-set challenges for O&M services in the distributed generation market space, as opposed to those of commercial wind farms.

Seth Handy, Handy Law, LLC, and Wind Energy Development: The failed gearbox turbine and net metering challenge in Portsmouth, R.I; the current 10 turbine development in Coventry, RI.; the promise of wind as a means to change energy procurement in the public sector, with many corollary benefits.

Thursday, April 30, 2015 - 2:00pm to 4:00pm

On April 30, 2015, a Massachusetts Wind Working Group meeting was held at Aeronautica Wind in Plymouth, MA.  42 people attended.  The agenda included:

  • A brief roundup by Deborah Donovan of Sustainable Energy Advantage on Wind Siting Regulations and Guidelines in New England
  • A consideration of the potential for increased cooperation on offshore wind among the Northeast States by Warren Leon of Clean Energy States Alliance and the Northeast Wind Resource Center
  • A report by Matt Morrissey on the work of the recently formed Offshore Wind: Massachusetts, LLC (OSWMA) a new trade association created to advocate for and promote the development of offshore wind off of the coast of Massachusetts through policy initiatives and industry collaboration.
  • A presentation by Vineyard Power and Offshore MW on the Community Benefit Agreement and   winning a commercial wind energy lease in the MA offshore wind energy area; next steps in the offshore wind development process and legislation.  Speakers were Erich Peckar and Richard Andre from Vineyard Power Cooperative and Erich Stephens from Offshore MW.

Networking continued after the meeting at the Mayflower Brewery Tasting Room located across the street from Aeronautica Wind.

 Background resources for this meeting included:

Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - 2:00pm to 4:00pm

A quarterly meeting of the Massachusetts Wind Working Group was held on September 10, 2014, at the IBEW Union Hall in Dorchester, MA. . 30 people attended. The meeting featured a presentation on the recently funded Northeast Wind Resource Center (NWRC) http://www.cleanegroup.org/ceg-projects/northeast-wind-resource-center-nwrc/  by Deborah Donovan of Sustainable Energy Advantage , followed by a discussion to get input from attendees on what people would like the Center to focus on over the next 3 years and how interested parties would like to participate.

This was followed by a discussion on the future of the Massachusetts Wind Working Group.   Discussion questions included: How do you see the MWWG evolving over the next few years?  What sorts of activities should it include?  What should be its relationship to the Northeast Wind Resource Center?  .  A notice will be sent to the MWWG mailing list asking those who were not at the meeting to respond to the survey, and results will be posted on the website.