ISO-NE observed Approx. 80M gallons of fuel-oil was burned last winter …

The zero-credibility media owe Mr. LaBrecque an apology and the people of Maine truthful coverage of an industry they've protected and promoted at the expense of everyone else.

An informal energy adviser to Republican Gov. Paul LePage has repeated a tall tale about the wind turbine at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

Refrigeration technician James…

E2TECH IS SPONSORING THIS:

New England Clean Energy Procurement Project Proposals

• "

  Clean Natural Gas

  Our Direct FuelCell® (DFC®) power plants efficiently convert hydrogen and oxygen into ultra-clean electricity and usable high quality heat suitable for making steam. The hydrogen is obtained from a fuel source such as clean natural gas or renewable biogas, and is reformed within the fuel cell itself. This unique internal reforming technology provides …

Are any of you plugged into the white papers produced under the Public Advocate's office  STRATEGEN (Strategies for Clean Energy) series?

The Latest is a direct benefit for the solar PV industry in Maine, and possibly an 'end-around' to Maine's net metering, power generating, and grid interconnection rules. It would enable 'organized community shareholders' to underwrite solar farms to generate power and distribute it through the grid with a minimal charge for grid distribution and…

  The UMPI turbine had pretty poor wind for the first ten days of June. It generated just 11,621 kWh. If there was a perfect wind, if would generate 14,400 kWh in just one day (600 kW X 24  hrs)!

  But the wind lately has been far from perfect; in fact, the UMPI turbine actually consumed grid power on June 7 (-10 kWh) and June 9  (-8 kWh).     …

Dear Fellow Wind Fighters:

I am asking for your help.

We, in the town of Forest, St. Croix County,WI have been fighting against an industrial wind project for two years. The Highland Wind Farm--41 towers 497 foot tall 2.5 MW turbines (likely Nordex N100)--is on the map for our small township. We stopped the project on a local level about one year ago when we recalled the town board  based on open records that showed evidence of open meeting violations and possible…

It is good that attention is being paid to Harvard's purchased interest in Stetson II. Here are some hard facts - let's see if Harvard cites these uncomfortable figures:

  According to FERC's quarterly summaries, Stetson II (when construction was completed) produced 10 GWH in the third quarter of 2010 and 20 GWH in the fourth quarter of 2010.

The installed capacity of Stetson II is 57 GWH per quarter. That's 30 GWH produced for the half year; installed capacity for the period…

Today the UMPI turbine website reports an update of its ouptut; it generated 355.286 KWH since mid November. That's about six months, or about 183 days. The turbine's "installed capacity" for that period is 600 KW times 24 hours times 183 days equals 2,635,200 KWH. Divide the installed capacity into the actual power produced yields a paltry Capacity Factor of .134 . The previous Capacity  Factor, on May 29 was .126. An optomist would say things are improving. I think a realist would say…

The UMPI website has posted the turbine's power output for the past week, Friday May 4 - Friday May 11:  12,324 KWh was generated by its 600 kw turbine in tha past week.  12,324 KWh divided by the 100,800 KWh per week installed capacity (600 KW X 7 days X 24 hours ) gives a Capacity Factor of 12.2 %,  slightly less than than the average 12.7 CF for the previous 164 days. Before mid-November, it was non-operative for 164 continuous days. 

I am hoping UMPI will continue posting a weekly…

  The UMPI turbine website is reporting power production the past 140 days:  290,516 kWh "since mid-November" until April 6.  I calculate: 140 days at 600 Kw capacity and 24 hours per day comes to "installed capacity" of 20,160,000 kWh for that period; 290,516 kWh actual power production divided by the installed capacity gives a MINISCULE .014 Capacity Factor.  This compares very poorly to most Maine wind farms' CF, which range from .24 to .41 CF for the same period.

The site…

The FERC website seems to have been changed. I see no "Download" place, and  I  can't get the big list of producers to come up. Help!?

 Harrisdson Roper  Houlton/Dnforth

harryroper@myfairpoint.net

The FERC Quarterly reports have just been posted for the  2nd quarter of 2011.

Stetson I sold 32,000 MWH of power.  With its capacity of 26MW, that is .251 of capacity.

Stetson II sold 13,000 MWH of power. With its capacity of 26 MW, that is .224 of capacity.

Mars Hill sold 30,000 MWH of power. With its capacity of 44 MW, that is .308 of capacity.

That's the facts -

Harry Roper  Houlton/Danforth

A reliable source reports that Kibby produced 32.91%  its installed capacity in the first quarter of 2011 and 20.46 % of installed capacity in the second quarter of 2011. Winter is usually the best quarter for wind power.

FERC quarterly summaries are not yet available for 2nd quarter of 2011.

UMPI continues to repeat the promise that its website will be working "next week". No information is available on the website except the local wind speed, which is calm now.

H…

Note: No small animals or politically sensitive individuals were purposefully injured in the production of this piece. Any resemblance to any company or individuals pictured herein is purely coincidental, and must be due to the literal interpretation of the reader.

The Greene Grocers Inc., and the tale of Good State folly.

Once upon a time, a new idea to provide “new, clean, and technologically advanced” source of produce for The Good State, is born. The…

 My self-imposed task of monitoring of the UMPI turbine website continues. The latest ten-day net power production for this 600 kW turbine averaged 935.7 kWh per day.  That's 6.6% of "rated capacity"! 

My casual log of rotor windspeeds shows the following  momentary data:  (Rotor-level wind speed in mph)  4.3; 2.5; calm; 7.8; 3.8; calm;14.5; 13.9; 7.4; 9.6; 5.1; calm, calm, calm, 3.1; 5.4; 3.4; 13.2; 10.5; 15.2; (one day I skipped; the next day, 2/08, the site reported all zeroes),…

I have some figures on efficiency for the Stetson and Mars Hill "wind farms" for the second quarter of 2010: Stetson produced 17 % of its rated capacity; for the same period, Mars Hill produced 28% of its rated capacity. Mars Hill, in Aroostook county, is higher and more exposed than the Stetson I & II site,which is about 50 miles to the south in Washington County.

Both of these industrial wind installations were promoted and built by First Wind. Some information on generators'…

From: http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFN2827788820101028

Wind farm owner and operator First Wind Holdings Inc canceled its IPO after cutting its expected price range by 24 percent and facing investor skepticism about its balance sheet and wind industry financing.…

I have learned that the websitge of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has quarterly information on quantity and prices of energy sold to the grid. All power producers are required to report quarterly peak and off-peak power sold and the price. When the data appears on the computer screen there is no URL in sight, but maybe you can find it via Google at FERC.

I just did, and I learned that First Wind's Stetson ( Evergreen…

Summertime, and the living is breezy --- NOT.



Just as the air conditioners are starting to crank up in earnest, the wind turbines stop turning. They hardly produce any electricity in the windier winter. And they produce almost zero electricity when Maine turns on its air conditioners. Brilliant, simply brilliant.

UMPI's $2 million (and counting) wind turbine experiment is clearly elucidating the gross failure of wind…