Innovator

Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) CEO Alicia Barton today announced MassCEC is now accepting applications for the summer session of the 2014 Massachusetts Clean Energy Center Internship Program.

“Internships at Massachusetts clean energy companies provide students and recent graduates with the opportunity to learn by doing, as they take the skills they learned in the classroom and use them in the expanding global clean energy sector,” said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rick Sullivan, who chairs the MassCEC Board of Directors.

The program provides paid internship opportunities for college students and recent graduates at Massachusetts-based clean energy companies. Offered by MassCEC and the New England Clean Energy Council (NECEC), the program focuses on enhancing the talent pipeline for Massachusetts companies engaged in the clean energy industry.

“There are 80,000 people working in the Massachusetts clean energy sector, and the internship program helps train the next generation of workers who will continue to grow this already booming industry,” said CEO Barton.

Clean energy businesses interested in hosting a student can find out more information and students and recent graduates can apply to the program by visiting the program’s website page at www.masscec.com/intern.  

During this session, MassCEC will provide Massachusetts-based clean energy companies with stipends of up to $12 per hour for up to 10 weeks for each full-time intern, with a cap of $4,800 per intern.

Over the past three summers, the program has placed well over 500 students and recent graduates in internships at more than 120 clean energy companies across the state. As a result of the internship program, more than 49 students gained full-time or part-time employment.

Due to a growing interest in this program, MassCEC now offers fall and spring sessions, as well.

“This program is helping build a workforce in one of the fastest growing industries in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by connecting hundreds of students to companies that provide internships, and in many cases, full-time employment," said Peter Rothstein, President of the New England Clean Energy Council. “This kind of exposure to the clean energy industry is key to attracting talented new workers to this rapidly growing field.”

An independent analysis released today has found no statistically-significant evidence that proximity to a wind turbine affects home values.

The report, written by researchers from the University of Connecticut and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, examined 122,000 Massachusetts real estate transactions between 1998 and 2012. It compared transactions within a half-mile of constructed wind turbines to similar transactions between one half-mile and five miles away.

“Properly-sited renewable energy projects like wind turbines can deliver clean energy for our citizens and boost our local economy,” said Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) CEO Alicia Barton.  “This report is designed to provide fact-based research to inform decision-makers on potential impacts wind turbines could have on nearby property.”

The study, commissioned by MassCEC, was co-authored by Carol Atkinson-Palombo, assistant professor of geography at the University of Connecticut, and Ben Hoen, staff research associate of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and was peer-reviewed by a number of leading economists and appraisers before release.

It compares the relationship between wind turbines and residential home values to those of factors previously shown to affect home prices, like high-voltage transmission lines, landfills, highways, protected open space and proximity to beaches.

Of the impacts studied, landfills and transmission lines have the greatest negative impact (or disamenity) on home prices while beachfront and proximity to beaches were found to have the greatest positive impact (or amenity) on home prices.  The study found that operating turbines have a +0.5 percent amenity which falls within the study’s margin of error.

Massachusetts has expanded the number of wind energy projects in the state from just 3 MW and three turbines installed in 2007 to more than 100 MW and dozens of turbines installed now throughout the Commonwealth. This study builds upon the Patrick Administration’s focus on providing municipalities and developers with the research they need to make informed decisions on these types of projects.

To download the report, please visit www.masscec.com/content/relationship-between-wind-turbines-and-residential-property-values-massachusetts.

A webinar with the study’s authors will be held at 12:30 p.m. on January 22. For more information, or to register, visit https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/162511015.