Wind developer offers to conserve land to lessen turbines’ threat to birds

A wind power development firm behind a proposal that state officials think will pose a threat to birds is offering to conserve 5,800 acres of woods and wetlands in Hancock and Washington counties as wildlife habitat.

Longroad Energy, which has applied to the state Department of Environmental Protection for approval to erect 22…

A Tesla Model 3 has a worse life-cycle carbon footprint than a similar-sized Mercedes diesel car, the renowned German think tank, IFO, has found. It warns that electric vehicles are "no panacea" against climate change.

https://www.dw.com/en/ifo-study-casts-doubt-on-electric-vehicles-climate-saving-credentials/a-48460328

When the IFO released its findings…

Unreliable nature of solar and wind makes electricity more expensive, new study finds

Michael Shellenberger, Contributor | Forbes | Apr 22, 2019 | www.forbes.com ~~

Solar panels and wind turbines are making electricity significantly more expensive, a major new study by a team of economists from the University of Chicago finds.

Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) “significantly increase average retail electricity prices, with prices…

Governor Mills Statement Honoring Earth Day

Governor Janet Mills issued the following statement in recognition of Earth Day:

“Maine’s natural resources are a cornerstone of our heritage and our economy. Preserving them is vital to our public health and, in a sense, to the survival of our communities. Protecting these precious resources is not some partisan rallying cry, but a responsibility that all of us share and a recognition that the…

This is a must read for those still wanting to use Germany as the poster child for wind and solar in Maine and beyond:

https://stopthesethings.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/1-6-_kompendium-der-energiewende_englisch_1.pdf

Please share. 

Barry Stephens

The Maine version of the Green New Deal, formally unveiled by its proponents recently and facing a public hearing this week, was at least introduced as actual legislation. That makes it a little less vague than its federal counterpart, albeit only slightly so. Its two most concrete components require electricity providers to switch to 80 percent renewable electricity by 2040 and require the Public Utility Commission and Efficiency Maine Trust to write legislation that lets public schools use…

How many more communities in Maine would end up like Massachusetts wind turbine communities tortured by the noise from megawatt wind turbines if Sen Elizabeth Warren was elected President of the United States of America?

It's clear that governments can ignore public opinion just ask anyone of twenty-one…

https://www.ellsworthamerican.com/featured/otis-weighs-wind-farm-ban/

The headline calls it a "ban" but it is not.  It, like over 100 other ordinances around Maine, is zoning written to regulate and protect a community from a gawdawful land use.  The maximum height of 150 feet to top of blade pretty much kills any industrial wind project, which is a community's right. They are copying/pasting the…

Manhattan Institute

Mark P. Mills

26 March 2019

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A movement has been growing for decades to replace hydrocarbons, which collectively supply 84% of the world’s energy. It began with the fear that we were running out of oil. That fear has…

It's just over there!

Most people, including myself, really have no clear idea regarding the various subsidies required to attract capital for the build-outs of solar systems. Relatively few insiders, such as some legislators, the Vermont Department of Public Service and the Vermont Public Utilities Commission, likely are intimately familiar with all the detailed ins and outs.

The Vermont Public Utilities Commission administers the Vermont Standard Offer Program that promotes and subsidizes the…

Members of the public got the chance to weigh in on a proposed wind project that would be located in Hancock County Thursday night.

The Department of Environmental Protection hosted the meeting in Aurora at the Airline Community School.

The Weaver Wind Project would build 22 turbines at a cost of 145 million dollars.

The…

1,300 Mainers owning electric cars translates to 0.097% of the state's 1,338,404 population, as in "less than 1/10th of one percent or less than one in a thousand."

Just over 1,300 Mainers owned electric cars in 2018, which is more than twice as many as in 2014, according to a recent survey conducted by the Natural Resources Council of…

“We’ve been discussing a whole range of options, from a new wind turbine to solar.”

With the insurance investigation recently completed regarding the fire that occurred last year in the wind turbine, officials with the University of Maine at Presque Isle are exploring a new alternative energy project that will generate the same level of electricity.

The insurance investigation confirmed that the April 2018 fire in the nacelle of the wind turbine was…

Looks like a scene from the Twilight Zone as these two unsuspecting victims, innocently pose in front of what will become..........a living hell.…

PV Solar Output Variability During variable Cloudy Weather

Clouds are the main reason PV solar generation experiences intermittency (excluding the normal night-time disappearance).

PV solar generation can rapidly decrease by 60% within seconds, due to a cloud passing over the solar panels causing a reduction in solar insolation.

The time taken for the cloud to pass is dependent upon cloud height, sun elevation and wind speed. These factors need…