Yale Climate Connections: The Northeast is back

Crony capitalism hopes to get a boost here in Maine.

Perhaps someone needs to tell Jeremy Payne that on February 1, the U.S. Department of Energy issued a condemnation of the current approaches to floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) and a decision to proceed by researching radically different design concepts. The DOE advised that  "the current state of the art for FOWT is too massive and expensive for practical deployment", also saying "Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWTs) are currently designed to be large and heavy to replicate more familiar onshore wind turbine dynamics, maintain stability, and survive storms. However, this approach fundamentally limits how inexpensive FOWTs can ever become." See:http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/u-s-doe-seemingly-scrap...

The Northeast is poised to regain momentum on clean energy

With Democrats taking power in key states, years of stalled efforts could be coming to an end.

..................Having Maine back in the game could be transformative – and not just because it’s well-suited to provide offshore wind power to the region.

In her inaugural address, Mills highlighted the need to address climate change. “It is time to act!” she said. “Our administration will embrace clean energy, change our modes of transportation, weatherize homes and businesses, and reach a goal of 50 percent of our electricity coming from Maine renewable resources.”..............................

......................Many of the state’s neighbors have looked to Maine for the grid-scale wind it’s uniquely suited to provide. But Kathleen Meil, the Maine policy advocate for the regional environmental advocacy group Acadia Center, described the wind industry as having atrophied under LePage. The state, she said, needs to restart the innovation process, re-establish expertise, and rebuild the state’s clean-energy agenda.

“It’s now time to pick our heads up and think about how we think bigger, how we accomplish more, because we have a lot of catching up to do,” she said.

“There’s a tremendous opportunity – imperative and, I think, opportunity – for Governor Mills to re-engage with the other New England governors very actively,” said Dylan Voorhees, climate and clean energy director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine....................................“Ten years ago, we had 10 companies that were looking at Maine to test their floating offshore wind technology. Then a couple of years later, it was down to six,” said Jeremy Payne, executive director of the Maine Renewable Energy Association. “Now it’s down to one.”..........................

Read the full article here:

https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/02/clean-energy-the-nor...

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Comment by Thinklike A. Mountain on February 14, 2019 at 4:06pm

Stephen, as Maine's wind turbines fail en masse becoming a fleet of non-functioning rusting hulks, today's fervent supporters of wind power who think they look great will see them as the grotesque out-of-scale, out-of-place robbery larceny machines they are. It is only a matter of time.

Comment by Stephen Littlefield on February 14, 2019 at 11:53am

Excellent points Willem Post, these useless windmills are a burden on all of Maine not just the ones that have to live under them! As these continue to increase in number the tourists will start to decrease in numbers. Those out of staters that own camps will sell and move to more enjoyable states for vacation, and with that all small businesses that rely on tourism will see declines in business. It's just the beginning, because as these monstrosities begin to fail, the tax payers will bear the brunt of removing these ugly Albatrosses, but, the mountain tops will never grow back, and the ugly scars of the access roads and the transmission line corridors will last for generations as a reminder of the greed of the leftist politicians that enriched themselves at the expense of the citizens of Maine!! So pony up you get what you vote for, a poorer Maine is just around the corner!

Comment by Willem Post on February 14, 2019 at 10:56am

Maine, under Mills, is going off to the deep end.

Floating wind turbines is a wealthy Norway project.

Its energy cost/kWh would have been very high.

Of course, with enough subsidies, stolen from the pockets of Maine people, even pigs can be made to fly.

WIND AND SOLAR SUBSIDIES WOULD PROVIDE A BONANZA FOR WALL STREET

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/partial-capital-cost-of...

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/iso-ne-study-of-1600-mw...

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/wind-and-solar-conditio...

 

This URL shows wind and solar prices per kWh would be at least 45% to 55% higher without subsidies, and they would be even higher, if the costs of other items were properly allocated to the owners of wind and solar projects.

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/economics-of-tesla-powe...

 

The johnrsweet URL shows about 2/3 of the financial value of a wind project is due to direct and indirectsubsidies, and the other 1/3 is due to electricity sales.

 

An owner of a wind and solar project, looking to shelter taxable income, is allowed to depreciate in 6 years almost the entire cost of a wind and solar project under the IRS scheme called Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System, MARCS. Then, with help of Wall Street financial wizardry from BNEF, JPMorgan, etc., the owner sells the project to a new owner who is allowed to depreciate almost his entire cost all over again. BNEF is Bloomberg New Energy Finance, owned by former Mayor Bloomberg of New York.

 

The loss of tax revenues to federal and state governments due to MARCS is estimated by the IRS at $266 billion for the 5-y period of 2017 - 2021. This largesse is in addition to directfederal and state subsidies to such projects of about $25 billion per year.

 

http://johnrsweet.com/Personal/Wind/PDF/Schleede-BigMoney-20050414.pdf

https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy17osti/68227.pdf

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/tax-equity-investors-b...

 

Warren Buffett quote: "I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire's tax rate," Buffet told an audience in Omaha, Nebraska recently. "For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That's the only reason to build them. They don't make sense without the tax credit." 

 

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/

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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/

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