BDN - Maine is leading in this energy field with wide support ahead of Donald Trump’s return
So when there's a stretch of windless overcast days, how effective for how long?
BDN - Maine is leading in this energy field with wide support ahead of Donald Trump’s return
By Billy Kobin
December 16, 2024
EXCERPTS
Maine is finalizing the next phase of its ambitious plans for energy storage, a renewable avenue that is becoming more important amid President-elect Donald Trump being poised to stall clean energy projects.
Long-term energy storage facilities often feature nondescript box-like structures that are actually large batteries that absorb excess energy from the grid and discharge it when needed. In Maine, they already exist in old mill towns such as Rumford and Millinocket. Bigger projects are coming in Gorham and in Lincoln, which will be home to the world’s largest multi-day battery system.
The field has been less politicized than solar and offshore wind projects in Maine and other states that face uncertain funding prospects ahead of Trump returning to the White House. Analysts and renewable advocates have cautioned Trump could hamper energy storage growth by scaling back clean energy tax credits and raising tariffs on China-made battery components...................................
..................Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, signed into law a 2021 measure from then-Sen. Eloise Vitelli, D-Arrowsic, that created energy storage goals for Maine and steps to achieve them. That legislation, which mostly passed along party lines as Republicans largely opposed it, set goals of having 300 megawatts of installed energy storage within Maine by the end of 2025 and 400 megawatts by the end of 2030, or enough energy to power about 400,000 homes.
Officials called Maine’s targets “some of the most ambitious in the country” given the state’s small size, with 400 megawatts equaling about 20 percent of peak demand in 2021..........................
Under an additional 2023 law, Mills’ energy office has been evaluating programs to achieve those goals by initially reaching 200 megawatts of storage while maintaining “cost-effective” conditions for ratepayers and maximizing federal incentives. Following a feedback process, advocates worried the state was slow-walking an procurement design study due by 2025.
But Dan Burgess, Mills’ top energy adviser, said in a statement the office will submit the study to the Maine Public Utilities Commission for final approval by the end of this month.
“[The governor’s office] looks forward to working with the commission to advance a storage procurement for Maine that enhances our electric grid, provides essential load flexibility and helps stabilize energy prices by reducing our reliance on costly, imported fossil fuels,” Burgess said.
Burgess also noted the office has worked to win competitive grants to support energy storage projects, including a $147 million federal grant that will help Massachusetts-based Form Energy build the massive iron-air battery storage facility at the site of the old Lincoln pulp mill.
That project’s completion date is unclear, but Form Energy said the 85 megawatts of iron-air batteries store energy at less than a tenth of the cost of lithium-ion batteries and can discharge energy for 100 straight hours. The startup cited the state’s energy storage goal of installing 400 megawatts by 2030 among its reasons for choosing Maine......................................
..................Rep. Steven Foster of Dexter, the lead Republican on the Legislature’s energy committee, said he thinks nuclear and hydropower sources are better options for Maine and that battery storage projects are enriching out-of-state firms.
“I think we are a poor state with a small population that’s going to find it very expensive to put in enough battery storage,” Foster said..........................
https://www.bangordailynews.com/2024/12/16/politics/state-politics/...
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Comment
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Comment by Willem Post on December 18, 2024 at 11:23am
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In the tropics and subtropics, CO2 a weak photon absorber, plays no measurable role, because, near the surface, it is outnumbered by at least seventy to one by water vapor, a strong photon absorber,
plus water vapor, 18, is lighter than CO2, 44, and air, 29, so it condenses into clouds at about 2000 meter elevation, which, with prevailing winds, are transported to northern latitudes, to areas underserved by the sun, especially during winter.
That means the water vapor and clouds we see up north comes from faraway places, because up north there is not enough energy to evaporate the water, which often lies on the ground as snow and ice.
But, even up north, near the surface, CO2 plays no measurable role, because water vapor outnumbers it at least 20 to one.
CO2 begins to play a measurable role when the presence of water vapor is lower, say 3 to 1, which is above the clouds.
However, above the clouds it is colder, and any photons emitted there would have longer wavelengths beyond the CO2 15 micrometer absorption window, but water vapor would absorb these photons, because it has a much wider window starting at about 15 micrometer.
No liberal arts journalists would ever write this, because it is way above their heads. That is the reason they stick to talking points provided by self-serving $stakeholders and their associates
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Comment by Dan McKay on December 17, 2024 at 5:13am
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Battery storage is another inefficient and costly ( much more costly than conventional resources) that will have many more ratepayers suffering energy poverty. EMT(Efficiency Maine Trust) has already conjured a " Electricity Maine" type scam to entice folks into payments for letting them take control of the energy paid for and stored in batteries ( You pay for the batteries, installation and maintenance). It's based on the capacity market run by ISO-NE where most of the money derived from the program goes into the coffers of EMT, much like sponsors of net energy billing solar projects acquire most of the project's subsidies. Maine people cannot afford anymore hair-brained ideas to favor renewable energy benefit accounts.
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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