The Vineyard depends almost entirely on imported energy. Two consequences of this are a large and steadily increasing annual energy bill and concerns about the ability of the underwater transmission cables to continue to meet our growing demand for electricity.
To look for solutions to these challenges, a group met in 2006-7 to outline strategies for island energy and waste. An introduction to the Island Energy (and Waste) Plan is below. Each section of the website then has the specifics for that part of the Plan.
The Plan Overview
Having plenty of energy for our island is something we all take for granted. Today, there are realistic concerns that our energy supply will not always be affordable, reliable or secure. We need to move beyond our current practices, embrace new technologies and employ new approaches in order to successfully address these concerns. Many communities in the U.S. and elsewhere are well ahead of us. These models can serve as both ideas for the Martha’s Vineyard community and can guide us in the community deliberations necessary to move rapidly forward.
We need to better manage the waste that we generate. We need to drastically reduce the waste we generate, reduce imports of mulch, compost and landscaping materials, and look to other examples of waste as a resource. Currently we ship 40,000 tons of solid waste off island each year, accounting for 15% of the SSA’s freight traffic annually (one in seven trips). We import compost at great expense, while shipping off the raw materials for fertilizer and compost (septage waste and organic materials).
We have listened and analyzed these problems over the last year. Our plan is designed to achieve important gains quickly, while moving ahead with longer term projects simultaneously. We propose to reduce our energy consumption as much as possible using currently available energy efficiency techniques, with the anticipation that even greater opportunities will exist. Our targets for 2050 include 50% improvement from efficiency gains. We recommend using our available wind and solar resources to produce the remaining energy needed.
In this plan, we have chosen to focus on the energy use we can presently measure: energy that is consumed on the island. We recognize that our energy impact extends much further, including air travel, energy used to transport food and other goods, etc. As implementation of this plan develops, measurements should become more sophisticated and areas of emphasis can evolve.
We recognize that in order to meet our goals, a number of large-scale changes will need to be made in the way that Vineyarders think about energy. Energy efficiency efforts are the least sexy and least expensive of our recommendations. An energy efficiency overlay to the State Building Code, while a seemingly large step, is perhaps one of the easiest and most effective ways to begin to address our energy challenge.
We need to have large-scale energy generation in order to make this plan successful. The impact of renewable energy technologies – large-scale wind turbines on or off-shore, utility-scale solar electric arrays or the combination of the two -- would change the look of our island. Regional decisions will need to be made as to where energy generation is to be sited, as well as how our energy infrastructure and distribution system are to be upgraded and managed.
There is general scientific agreement that burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide that is changing the earth’s atmosphere and contributing to rapid climate change. Annual carbon dioxide emissions attributable to the Vineyard were 329,000 tons in 2003. Our CO2 will rise to 457,000 tons by 2050 if we take no new action. How we get our energy, how much we use and how we dispose of waste are timely topics. This plan is designed to address these important and immediate concerns.
Climate Change will reshape our island. Sea level rise (~3 ft before end of the century) will submerge a lot of downtown Edgartown as well as most of Menemsha, Oak Bluffs harbor and the Vineyard Haven waterfront. Nearly half of Chappaquiddick and a third of the plains between Katama and West Tisbury will be gone.
Peak Oil is the point at which generation exceeds the rate of discovery. Cheap (easy to extract) oil, supported by technology and productivity gains, has pushed demand ever higher with only recent price response to counteract those forces. The US has been pumping “cheap oil” since 1858. But not all oil is created equal. Oil extracted from tar sands and shale is three times more costly than pumping oil from shallow pools. As we pass worldwide peak during the next decade, oil will be progressively harder and costlier to obtain, causing disruptions in supply and rising prices. The Island is at the very end of the oil supply chain, which will affect both our individual lives and our tourist-based economy. Increasingly insecure and unstable foreign fuel sources add to the potential issues with future oil supply.
But it is not all doom and gloom. This plan outlines an ambitious strategy for controlling our energy future. Efficiencies and renewable energy technologies, now proven and commercially available, can make the difference. We can maintain the quality-of-life that we have come to expect and at the same time decrease our reliance on imported fuels, improve air quality, and stimulate our local economy. To achieve these goals, change must occur, but it does not have to mean austere living and unreasonable sacrifice if the community is willing to embrace the changes that the Plan puts forth.
