UMPI's wind website has been partially updated

The University of Maine at Presque Isle is very proud of its windmill, and has been long on promises to share what has been learned from it. After monitering it for months, I see the website has a new look now, and the time line has been updated, etc.

   BUT I cannot find anything new about what the thing is actully producing.  It looks like what  UMPI has learned, mostly,  is that Honewell can't seem to figure out how to post the promised live output data.

 Come on, Honeywell!  Are you competent? Do you know what you are doing? Some of us citizens want to know what these things that are cluttering our viewsheds (at best) are accomplishing. How can you have a million- dollar machine that is supplying the grid and not know what it is doing?  If you can't figure out how to put up live data on the UMPI Wind site, how about some stale data, like last week's output? At least that would be something. It is more than we ever learn from First Wind - they seem to think it is none of us taxpayers' business. I had hoped for better from you.

I'll keep watching,and hoping.

  Thank you - Harrison Roper,   Houlton

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The $ 2 million turbine was commissioned almost 10 months months ago (see May 15, 2009 Bangor Daily News http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/106065.html),

Although there are no data posted yet, there is a letter from the university president Donald Zillman, who is also a coauthor of the book "Beyond the Carbon Economy". (See attached letter in pdf)

The turbine is expected to produce OVER $100,000 in annual electricity savings, avoid emissions of 572 tons of carbon dioxide and produce one million KWH of electricity every year.

So it will be a true educational experience to see the actual production and wind measurement data, particularly in that such data are often near impossible to come by.

If the turbine does not deliver as UMPI had been led to believe, it is essential that as an educational institution, UMPI lets everyone in the state know. We already know the initial cost was $2 million. So let's see once and for all the return on investment. I suspect the turbine was erected to show the viability of wind. But if it shows the opposite, the $2 million will be money well spent by showing the state, once and for all, the true futility of industrial wind. Should this be the case, the $2 million will pay for itself many times over in lessons learned.
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If the turbine cost $2 mil and only produces $100 k per year of electricity that means 20 years to break even not counting maintenance expenses. That can't be rught.

I'm baffled by situations like this where a school or a municipality buys one or two turbines that cost millions of dollars. When ever you buy equipment you're thinking about, if this thing breaks what will I have to do to get if fixed? If a blade or gearbox or some other big componant fails after the warranty expires those repairs can be very expensive and they could take a long time to do because if one of the giant cranes is necessary it could be months before one is available. I've heard that warrantees on turbines are typically 2 years. May be the schools and municple buyers have been given grants that are so favorable they've got the money back before the warranty runs out. When these "non profit" demo projects are proposed nobody ever asks to see the pro forma. Follow the money and find out how schools and small towns can afford to take such a risk.

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Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

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(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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