Hull Massachusetts’ Malcolm Brown Wins Windustry Award

By Paul Gipe

Malcolm Brown, long-time local activist from Hull, Massachusetts won the Windustry award for community service in a brief ceremony at the Marriott Hotel in Washington, DC Tuesday night.

The award was presented by Windustry’s Lisa Daniels at the closing part of the 2017 Distributed Wind Energy Conference.

Brown, a scholar of classical Greek, was the visionary behind the two wind turbines that now are a signature part of the small coastal town eight miles south of Boston. To make his vision of using a wind turbine to power the village, Brown was forced to run for the board of the municipal utility. He ran, says Brown, on only one plank in his platform: wind. Brown won a seat on the board and began the long process of encouraging the town to install its first wind turbine to power the community’s street lights. He succeeded when the town installed its first turbine in December 2001.

The first turbine was so successful, the town followed with a second, larger turbine installed atop of former landfill in 2006.

Brown and the community of Hull became a beacon for community wind activists across North America.