Aroostook wind power backers see opportunity if western Maine transmission line fails
Maine Power Express proposes bringing electricity to Massachusetts from new wind farms in Aroostook County via underground transmission lines from the southern Aroostook area to Searsport and then through underwater transmission cables from Searsport to Boston. The transmission lines would total approximately 300 miles and would cost $1 billion or more.....................
Maine Power Express is a joint venture of three companies — Loring Holdings, LLC, National Resources Energy, LLC, and Transmission Developers, LLC. The funding partner and expected owner and operator of the transmission project is Con Edison Transmission.
Gahagan said that this transmission line would provide a source for proposed wind farms in Aroostook County that have had potential buyers in southern New England, but no good way to access New England’s regional grid. These proposed projects include the Number Nine Wind Farm in central Aroostook County’s unorganized territories and King Pine Wind Farm straddling southern Aroostook and northern Penobscot counties. Each proposal for those wind farms called for more than 100 turbines and a capacity of 600 megawatts.
“There’s an estimated 2,300 megawatts of wind that’s been stranded up here for at least the last 10 years,” Gahagan said. “There hasn’t been any way to get this renewable resource out of Maine.”.............................
Dylan Voorhees, climate and clean energy project director with the Natural Resources Council of Maine, said that the group has not taken a position on the Maine Power Express proposal. The NRCM is one of several groups opposed to the western Maine transmission line.
Vorhees said the NRCM would want to learn more about the Maine Power Express plan, especially the details of the underwater transmission lines, but that such wind projects with underground transmission lines could provide potential economic and environmental benefits.
“We’ve generally been enthusiastic about developing large scale renewables in The County, namely wind but also solar.”.........................................
https://bangordailynews.com/2018/12/06/news/aroostook/aroostook-win...
Fair Use Notice: This website may reproduce or have links to copyrighted material the use of which has not been expressly authorized by the copyright owner. We make such material available, without profit, as part of our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, economic, scientific, and related issues. It is our understanding that this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided by law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes that go beyond "fair use," you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Views: 183
Comment
-
Comment by Penny Gray on December 6, 2018 at 4:48pm
-
Seems like the County is pretty much worthless empty space except for renewable energy projects? Put these projects around Portland, in and off shore. They'd enhance the city ever so much more than the woods, waters and fields of northern Maine.
-
Comment by Dan McKay on December 6, 2018 at 3:25pm
-
A lot more than $1 billion dollars. This project is DOA. Although the Number Nine Wind Farm has a current PPA with Connecticut for 250 megawatts and a slot in the ISO-NE interconnection queue. Still a costly generator lead line and downstream transmission upgrades would be required for this project.
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
Not yet a member?
Sign up today and lend your voice and presence to the steadily rising tide that will soon sweep the scourge of useless and wretched turbines from our beloved Maine countryside. For many of us, our little pieces of paradise have been hard won. Did the carpetbaggers think they could simply steal them from us?
We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
-- Mahatma Gandhi
"It's not whether you get knocked down: it's whether you get up."
Vince Lombardi
Task Force membership is free. Please sign up today!
Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
© 2024 Created by Webmaster.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine to add comments!
Join Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine