Dan McKay's Blog (1,007)
When the TV screen goes black, who are you going to call
Maine has plenty of hydro and biomass resources to comply with our own state renewable portfolio requirements for now and the foreseeable future. Maine has a problem with an onslaught of the variable resource wind plants replacing base load outputs. Removing the 100 megawatt limit on hydro resources would be meaningless to this wind onslaught as long as Southern New England continues to make large hydro ineligible for their renewable standards. Their current…
ContinueRun, don't walk away from SunEdison.
Run, don't walk away from SunEdison. If you need more convincing check out the following three reasons why you shouldn't touch SUNE right now.
Read more: http://bit.ly/22tEer0#ixzz43evAinAs
Added by Dan McKay on March 22, 2016 at 2:50pm — 3 Comments
An Energy Expert Sums Up The Scale up Of Wind
Added by Dan McKay on March 14, 2016 at 11:16am — 3 Comments
Energy Density
Biomass plants operating in Maine are in trouble, at least that is what was heard by the EUT committee in Augusta yesterday.
Added by Dan McKay on February 24, 2016 at 9:48am — 2 Comments
As the Wind Blows, the Jobs Go
What to do with 613 megawatts of wind energy when the load demand within Maine is between 1000 to 1400 megawatts at any given time ?
Added by Dan McKay on January 20, 2016 at 9:46am — 7 Comments
NO DEAL IS BETTER THAN A BAD DEAL
The recent decision of the Maine PUC to re-examine two long term offers from proposed wind plants was vehemently opposed by Commissioner Littell.
Future Transmission Upgrades For Wind Will Need PUC Approval
"Integrating Intermittent Renewable Resources. A number of wind projects have interconnected to electrically remote and weak portions of the regional power system, and additional wind projects are proposed for these areas. These facilities pose operational and planning challenges due to issues with voltage and stability…
Added by Dan McKay on March 26, 2015 at 9:21am — 8 Comments
Two Products, Two Contracts, Ratepayers Beware.
Could Maine Ratepayers end up paying wind plants in Maine the REC value obtained from contracts involving other State RPS programs ? That would be quite perverse, but strange things happen when lawmakers screw around in the private sector.
Added by Dan McKay on March 24, 2015 at 9:47am — 3 Comments
Wind Timeline Costs
Added by Dan McKay on March 22, 2015 at 10:39am — 3 Comments
Public Advocate : Ratepayer Funds to Benefit Ratepayers, Not Economic Development
Augusta, We Need A Make-Over
The State wants to make over the electric generating industry just 10 years from the last make-over and their reasoning is so the state will be in a jobs available market.
Added by Dan McKay on March 20, 2015 at 5:13pm — 3 Comments
WIND IS NOT MAINE'S RENEWABLE POSTER CHILD BY A LONG SHOT.
Added by Dan McKay on March 11, 2015 at 5:56pm — 8 Comments
The Maine Wind Plantation Marches Forward
http://www.maine.gov/dacf/lupc/reports/docs/rptReceivedAccepted.html
The six state Governors committee on energy has been given notice that 2500 megawatts of wind plant electricity is ready to take over the Maine landscape by 2016.
The three states of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island ( not a place for wind plants ) have issued a Request for Proposals for at least 1000 megawatts…
ContinueAdded by Dan McKay on March 9, 2015 at 10:41am — 4 Comments
It's Official, They Are Not Green In Maine
Check out photo and see where power and RECs are being sold for all these wind plants in Maine. Read this decision about Vermont wind plants from the FTC.
"The FTC ( Federal Trade Commission ) has instructed GMP ( Green Mountain Power ) officials to—“Carefully review (your) current and future communications to ensure that Vermont customers, and other market…
ContinueAdded by Dan McKay on March 8, 2015 at 8:43am — 13 Comments
RETIRE MAINE'S RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARD
Part of the testimony from the Maine PUC on LD 646, An Act To Remove the 100-megawatt Limit on Renewable Sources of Energy : LD 646 testimony [PDF]
"The Commission notes that expanding portfolio requirement eligibility requirements to large generating facilities is likely to have the effect of greatly increasing the…
Added by Dan McKay on February 19, 2015 at 2:46pm — No Comments
What would Ed Muskie think of wind plants ?
A interesting read about the proposed Dickey-Lincoln dam project as it was debated in the U.S. Congress. I just can't see Mr. Muskie having much use for wind.
http://abacus.bates.edu/muskie-archives/ajcr/1967/Dickey.shtml
Added by Dan McKay on February 16, 2015 at 4:02pm — No Comments
Electric generation trends from natural gas-fired plants in Maine
The top chart is net generation from Maine independent gas-fired power producers, such as the Westbrook ( Calpine ), Rumford ( Emera ) and Veazie ( Casco Bay Energy,…
Added by Dan McKay on February 10, 2015 at 9:27am — No Comments
IS IT POSSIBLE FOR MAINE TO POWER UP WITHOUT NATURAL GAS ?
Although we often hear how natural gas makes up 50% of electrical generation in Maine, EIA data reveals Maine's natural gas plants do not run anywhere near 100% of the time and, in fact, in-state hydro out-produced natural gas generation for 2013 and trends would indicate the same for…
Added by Dan McKay on February 5, 2015 at 3:06pm — 13 Comments
4 Wind Projects 1 Biomass Project 0 Hydro Projects
Since 2008, the Maine PUC has approved 4 wind projects, 1 biomass project and 0 hydro projects for long term renewable energy contracts. This is getting old and is starting to smell akin to Alfond's abuse of power to aid wind during the last legislative session.…
Added by Dan McKay on February 4, 2015 at 11:18am — No Comments
Request for feasability study to connect a 600.6 Megawatt wind project in Aroostook County
Above is the ISO-NE interconnection requests for proposed generation. Number 470/471 is a First Wind project under the name of King Pine Wind, Phase 1 & 2.
Calendar/Real Audio/ Maine PUC
January 20, 2015
Deliberations
10:00 AM
Added by Dan McKay on January 19, 2015 at 9:30am — 5 Comments
Latest Blog Posts
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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
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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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