Low bid to move wind project forward

By L.E. Crowley
Town Correspondent

Members of the Norwell Energy Committee will review six bids for consulting services to advance plans to construct a wind turbine and will check references of the lowest bidder.

Emergent Energy Consulting LLC and SITEC civil engineering submitted a joint proposal for $30,000, a submission between $15,000 and $20,000 less than the others. The joint company has done similar work for Cohasset and Falmouth.

“We will evaluate the lowest bidder to make sure they’re responsible and responsive and after that we will talk about terms of a contract,” said committee Chairman Charles Markham.

A subcommittee of the energy board met yesterday at about 5 p.m. to open the six bids.
The company that is awarded the bid will help the town apply for grant money from the public-private agency Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to install a wind-monitoring station on a potential site for a wind turbine at the end of South Street on Water Department property.

The cost to install the monitoring station is estimated at $50,000. Once a wind-turbine is up and running, the electricity it generates would probably be used by town-owned buildings.

In addition to the Emergent-SITEC entry, bids of $50,000 were submitted by Beaumont Solar of New Bedford; EBI Consulting of Burlington; and Sustainable Energy Developments Inc. of Sterling, Mass.

Two other companies proposed their consulting services for $45,000. Those companies are Waterline Alternative Energies of Seabrook, N.H., and Boreal Renewable Energy Development of Arlington.

State law requires the committee award the bid to the lowest responsible bidder, and unless board members find a problem with Emergent Energy and SITEC, they will get the job, Markham said.

However, he said, board members will check the company’s references and arrange a meeting with the companies to work out a contract.

Markham said because the bid is so much lower than the five others, members want to make sure the work includes very specific services the higher bidders have offered in their proposals.

“We want to make sure these guys guarantee they will do everything the other guys said they would,” Markham said.

Markham said if the low bid stands, it would be $15,000 less than the estimated cost for the monitoring station, which would help the application for grant money with the quasi-state agency.

“Essentially, we’re saving the state its own money, but it would make us more attractive for funding,” he said.