There is no bridge to the island of Martha’s Vineyard from mainland Massachusetts: If you want to get there, you have to take a ferry or plane. The island’s remote nature does not discourage tourists from visiting the small town of Edgartown—its population balloons from 5,000 to 25,000 during the warm summer months. But it does present problems for addressing power outages year-round.

When the tourists pack up their beach umbrellas and head back home, hurricanes and nor’easters are soon to follow. Without easy access to mainland resources, residents need independent, resilient energy sources to weather such storms.

«Our long-term plan is to make our municipal facilities sufficiently resilient so that we won’t have to worry about power during emergencies,» said Edgartown Energy Committee Associate Alan Strahler. Strahler has been working with the committee since 2017 to identify projects to enhance energy efficiency and resilience. «Our goal is to provide up to seven days of local independent operation of emergency facilities during power outages in both winter and summer.»

To reach this goal, Edgartown plans to develop microgrids at town buildings. In a microgrid, the buildings can be powered by solar photovoltaics (PV), battery energy storage, grid power, or a backup generator. The microgrid normally selects the cheapest energy source, but when grid power goes out, it operates independently using the remaining energy sources.

In pursuing this plan for its community, Edgartown sought expertise from researchers through the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Energy to Communities (E2C) program. E2C’s Expert Match offers a three- to four-month technical assistance program that pairs communities with researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and other national laboratories to help them address near-term energy goals.

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https://www.nrel.gov/news/detail/program/2025/island-community-explores-pathways-to-strengthen-energy-reliability