Northern Maine wind and transmission line project gets PUC priority nod

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Comment by Willem Post 7 hours ago

THE IMPOVERISHED, DYSFUNCTIONAL STATE OF MAINE

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/the-dysfunctional-stat...

By Willem Post
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The over-taxed, over-regulated, already-impoverished Maine people are super-screwed, trying to make ends meet in a near-zero, real growth Maine economy
The Maine economy has lots of low-tech/low-pay/low-benefit, bs jobs
The Maine economy has lots of woke, leftist bureaucrats
Screwed-over Mainers also have to pay for poverty-stricken, aliens of different cultures from all over, who illegally enter the US, a federal felony
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Those unvetted, illegal, often voting aliens, from all-over, are:
- the dregs of Third World countries, sent to Maine by their US-hating, leftist, woke governments, in cahoots with Soros/Biden-financed NGOs
- getting free housing, free food, a never-empty credit card, free phones, free healthcare, free education/job training and whatever other goodies they want.

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They mainly suck from the government tit:
- have no skills, no training, no education, no modern industrial experience.
- will take low-tech/low-pay/low-benefit jobs at 30% less than screwed-over Mainers.
- are often good at crime, murder, rape, drug and human trafficking, and driving vehicles into native merrymakers.

- the tens of millions of incompatible, subversive, walk-ins would rather undermine, instead of fight for traditional European and US values and culture. 
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Many millions of illegal aliens have to be shipped back where they came from, before they forever ruin the US, as they ruined Europe, France ,the UK, Ireland, Spain, etc.
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Visual Ugliness of wind and Solar: Down-trodden Mainers often have to put up with the visual ugliness and noise of hundreds of windmills, that are often idle, because of too little wind year-round, and many thousands of acres of solar panels, that are often covered with snow and ice in winter; there is no solar at night.
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Girls Competing with Boys on Girls Teams: Down-trodden Maine families also have to endure the insults of government-imposed mandates of having their girls compete with “boys” on girls’ teams, and “sharing” girl bathrooms and locker rooms, and “losing” their matches to the “boys”, all as mandated by woke Governor Mills, surrounded by her cabal of idiots and her ingrown clique of bureaucrats sucking from the government tit.
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Experience of Denmark with Palestinians

The first generation (1992 arrivals):

Total accepted: 321 Palestinians

Still in Denmark by 2019: 270 people; about 84% remained.

Convicted of crimes: 204 people (63.6%).

Prison sentences: 71 people (22.1%).

Welfare dependency:

In 2003, 238 of 321 (74%) received some form of benefit.

In 2019, 176 full-time equivalents were on welfare.

Of these, 122 were on disability pensions; meaning roughly two-thirds of working-age people were on permanent pension payments.

The second generation (their children):

Total children: 999 born or raised in Denmark

Each couple has many children, because each child gets a monthly government check until 18.

Convicted of crimes: 337 (33.7%).

Prison sentences: 65 (6.5%).

This means the crime rate dropped between generations; from 63% down to 34%; but remained far higher than the Danish national average.

93-95% of Palestinians are Muslim, who do not marry Danish women.

In 2019, the Danish Justice Minister stated: “These asylum seekers should not have been let in”.

Norway, Sweden, etc., had similar experiences.

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Denmark: 72% of gang-crime convicts have non-Western background, i.e. 15% of the Danish population has 5 times the crime rate.

https://willempost.substack.com/p/denmark-72-of-gang-crime-convicts...

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EXPENSIVE FLOATING OFFSHORE WINDMILLS IN IMPOVERISHED STATE OF MAINE

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/floating-offshore-wind...

By Willem Post

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Despite the meager floating offshore MW in the world, pro-wind politicians, bureaucrats, etc., aided and abetted by the lapdog Main Media and "academia/think tanks", in the impoverished State of Maine, continue to fantasize about building 850-ft-tall floating offshore windmills, each mounted on a 50% submerged, steel platform at least 250 ft x 250 ft x 75 ft tall to maintain the windmill in upright position in all conditions.

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Maine government bureaucrats, etc., in a world of their own climate-fighting fantasies, want to have about 3,000 MW of floating wind turbines by 2040; a most expensive, totally unrealistic goal, that would further impoverish the already-poor State of Maine for many decades.

Those bureaucrats, etc., would help fatten the lucrative, 20-y, tax-shelters of mostly out-of-state, multi-millionaire, wind-subsidy chasers, who likely have minimal regard for: 1) Impacts on the environment and the fishing and tourist industries of Maine, and 2) Already-overstressed, over-taxed, over-regulated Maine ratepayers and taxpayers, who are trying to make ends meet in a near-zero, real-growth economy.

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Those fishery-destroying, 850-ft-tall floaters, with 24/7/365 strobe lights, visible 30 miles from any shore, would cost at least $7,500/ installed kW, or at least $22.5 billion, if built in 2023 (more after 2023)

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Almost the entire supply of the Maine projects would be designed and made in Europe, then transported across the Atlantic Ocean, in European specialized ships, then unloaded at a new, $500-million Maine storage/pre-assembly/staging/barge-loading area, then barged to European specialized erection ships for erection of the floating turbines. The financing will be mostly by European pension funds.

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About 500 Maine people would have jobs during the erection phase

The other erection jobs would be by specialized European people, mostly on cranes and ships

About 200 Maine people would have long-term O&M jobs, using European spare parts, during the 20-y electricity production phase.

https://www.maine.gov/governor/mills/news/governor-mills-signs-bill...

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The Maine people have much greater burdens to look forward to for the next 20 years, courtesy of the Governor Mills incompetent, woke bureaucracy that has infested the state government 

The Maine people need to finally wake up, and put an end to the climate scare-mongering, which aims to subjugate and further impoverish them, by voting the entire Democrat woke cabal out and replace it with rational Republicans in 2024

The present course leads to financial disaster for the impoverished State of Maine and its people.

The purposely-kept-ignorant Maine people do not deserve such maltreatment

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Electricity Cost 

Assume a $750 million, 100 MW project consists of foundations, wind turbines, cabling to shore, and installation at $7,500/kW.

Production 100 MW x 8766 h/y x 0.40, CF = 350,640,000 kWh/y

Amortize bank loan for $375 million, 50% of project, at 6.0%/y for 20 years, 9.194 c/kWh.

Owner return on $375 million, 50% of project, at 10%/y for 20 years, 12.385 c/kWh

Banks and Owners get 21.579/36.579 = 59% of the project revenues

Offshore O&M, about 30 miles out to sea, 8 c/kWh.

Supply chain, special ships, and ocean transport, 3 c/kWh

All other items, 4 c/kWh 

Total cost 9.194 + 12.385 + 8 + 3 + 4 = 36.579 c/kWh

Less 50% subsidies (ITC, 5-y depreciation, interest deduction on borrowed funds) 18.290 c/kWh

Owner sells to utility at 18.290 c/kWh

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Excluded costs, at a future 30% W/S annual penetration on the grid, based on UK and German experience: 

- Onshore grid expansion/reinforcement to connect far-flung W/S systems, about 2 c/kWh

- A fleet of traditional power plants to quickly counteract W/S variable output, on a less than minute-by-minute basis, 24/7/365, which means more Btu/kWh, more CO2/kWh, more cost of about 2 c/kWh

- A fleet of traditional power plants to provide electricity during 1) low-wind periods, 2) high-wind periods, when rotors are locked in place, and 3) low solar periods during mornings, evenings, at night, snow/ice on panels, which means more Btu/kWh, more CO2/kWh, more cost of about 2 c/kWh

- Pay W/S system Owners for electricity they could have produced, if not curtailed, about 1 c/kWh

- Importing electricity at high prices, when W/S output is low, 1 c/kWh

- Exporting electricity at low prices, when W/S output is high, 1 c/kWh

- Disassembly on land and at sea, reprocessing and storing at hazardous waste sites, about 2 c/kWh

Total ADDER 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 11 c/kWh

Some of these values exponentially increase as more W/S systems are added to the grid

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Offshore wind full cost of electricity FCOE = 36.6 c/kWh + 11 c/kWh = 47.6 c/kWh, no subsidies

Offshore wind full cost of electricity FCOE = 18.3 c/kWh + 11 c/kWh = 29.3 c/kWh, 50% subsidies

The 11 c/kWh is for various measures required by wind and solar. Power plant to landfill cost basis.

This compares with 7 c/kWh + 3 c/kWh = 10 c/kWh from existing gas, coal, nuclear, large reservoir hydro plants.

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Cabling to Shore Plus $Billions for Grid Expansion on Shore 

A high voltage cable would be hanging from each unit, until it reaches bottom, say about 200 to 500 feet. 
The cables would need some type of flexible support system

There would be about 5 cables, each connected to sixty, 10 MW wind turbines, making landfall on the Maine shore, for connection to 5 substations (each having a 600 MW capacity, requiring several acres of equipment), then to connect to the New England HV grid, which will need $billions for expansion/reinforcement to transmit electricity to load centers, mostly in southern New England.

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The whole set-up is s super-expensive nightmare, the extent of which has been clear in Germany for the past 10 years and the UK for the past 5 years.

Both have “achieved” near-zero, real- growth GDP, the highest electricity prices in Europe, and stagnant real wages.

The W/S variable output, or too-little output, or too-much output, creates operational difficulties that become increasingly more challenging and expensive to counteract.

Comment by Stephen Littlefield 10 hours ago

Here we go again! These thieves won't stop, and they are convinced that the public is stupid! All the usual suspects Natural Resources Council and the Maine PUC which is Mills puppet club are singing sunshine all the while selling the pubic lies! Telling the public that wind electricity is cheaper then natural gas is a complete lie when in fact it's 4+ times more expensive, just look at your bill, every time a wind project or recently solar project comes on line your bill goes up through Net Energy Billing! That's spreading the higher cost of wind and solar to the public! This project only enriches the developers and politicians at the expense of the people and needs to be stopped! They want to get it started before the next governor because they fear a conservative would stop this boondoggle. WAKE UP! THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU OR YOU LOVED ONES!!!

Comment by Willem Post 11 hours ago

Another subsidy for wind and solar, paid for by taxpayers and ratepayers that never shows up in the cost/kWh touted by wind and solar tax shelter supporters

Comment by Dan McKay yesterday

Jack Shapiro is the biggest liar in the State of Maine. This project proposed to move a dribble of electricity out of Maine at outrageous costs. Every honest businessman in America should be appalled at this boondoggle as well as every common sense, Maine resident.