How about our Rivers here in Maine? They worked for 150 years.
Now we are being deluged with articles touting the positive green power of Canadian Rivers. For over a century we powered our mills and homes with Hydro Power, the cleanest and most economical power there is. There is little or no initial investment, at least not like the kind for solar or wind, and it is extremely reliable, unlike wind and solar. There is also no fuel investment. Modern dams can be built to allow the migration of fish to spawning grounds, yet we are tearing them out of Maine to satisfy the same environmentalists that tout wind. How does this make any sense?
http://www.centralmaine.com/2015/08/02/canadian-rivers-solution-to-...
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Comment by Eric A. Tuttle on August 4, 2015 at 4:30pm
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Just spent the last few months working on the Metallic Mining issue that was brought back to the legislature this year. Over 80 hours of video in Augusta between 4 videographers. Copper for transmission lines is a thing of the past, with the higher costs. Most are steel alloys these days. This is one of the causes of line losses as steel is not as conductive. Copper is still highly used in the electrical devices, though home wiring holds some aluminum with copper coating or plain aluminum. Both of which I found to be dangerous, as one nick in the wire causes break points or places of resistance to cause heating. Generally in outlets and switch boxes.
All metallic mining holds a high risk to the environment, especially when performed at the massive rates of today. So fast that treatment of the waste tailings and overburden rock is near impossible without a potential of major environmental damages.
https://lindsaynewlandbowker.wordpress.com/ Risk analyst and collective comments on Maine's recent Metallic Mining in conjunction with world renound scientists on the topic.
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Comment by Frank J. Heller, MPA on August 4, 2015 at 3:59pm
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Not only is there little decay, but the bottom of Wyman and a few other logging lakes are mined for high quality, old growth logs. Another benefit of the dams.
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CMP was partially justified in building that long chain of dams on the Androscoggin to both even out flows during droughts; but to moderate the flooding which jeopardized all shore line development. The Andro had wicked floods prior to the dams....
Never forget the copper mining and smelting environmental damage caused with new transmission lines to wind farms. Time to post some photos of Butte Montana and WAWA, Canada with miles of desolation. Never hear about recycling copper to connect windfarms to the rest of Maine, do you?
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Flooding does not cause much in the way of decay in the short term, though it does a cleansing of the riverbanks etc. In the Early years? Like Wyman Dam in Bingham, much of the vegetation that was not harvested as forest products was flooded and eventually decayed. Part of the natural process, but a rapid move. Water that is used for consumption must be constantly monitored and treated for bacteria and other harmful organic life. Storage for Electricity is commonly used in other nations. Wind Turbines are being used to pump water to these reservoirs to aid in meeting peak demand times. Here it is more about getting access and or control of the land, and the money. When the time comes they will be back wanting more for their reservoirs, once all the usable land is acquired. They will also justify it with rate increases using supply and demand tactics.
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Comment by Kathy Sherman on August 3, 2015 at 7:21pm
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Oh, and I meant to ask - how can we reverse the idea of giving PTC, RPS based RECs only to NEW generation, given what Penny described for old hydro. Reward low carbon independent of age, especially if you buy Conservation Law Foundation's argument that in the early years flooded reservoirs for hydro emit lots of GHG as vegetation decays. I am still wanting someone to explain why reservoirs for water supply of big cities and Big Ag are OK but for storage for electricity, they are a no-no.
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Eric,
Can you please explain the process of cement degradation for say the nuclear power plants storing waste in salt water cooled storage or, I suspect eroding my nearshore cement based home? It has to do with alkalinazation, I think, but in Massachusetts politics the fear-mongering about nuclear power is SO intense that I never know which 1% might be true. It is important because even if the current nuclear plants in New England are aged out, we are never going to be able to replace the 22% or so of base load that it supplies by wind and solar. I am still watching ISO-NE express and earlier today there was very significant congestion in node from New Brunswick and I think from Maine also. That stuff is hard to understand. I only see fairly consistent, dispatchable 'renewable generation in the mix as around 1000 plus of burning wood and trash. Wind still at best around 136 MW; PV around 17 MW best but I hope that is because the high price in incentives is paying for on-site use that the grid does not see. Can we get out from under the wind lobby long enough to get CLF etc off Maine homeowners with wood stoves, given the wood and trash burning for electric generation? Is there a way to 'harmonize' the two? Next, I would like to know the CO2, mercury, etc. costs for one state's consumers imported goods or one financial center's call center in Asia. I am not talking about jobs right now. I am talking about consumerism that should be under our control.
Thanks.
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Thus for every 91.2 NPR 2.0 turbines, the CO² is 12x greater. For the life of the concrete (100 yrs) they are 60x greater. Recycling Steel is also more CO² intensive than concrete.
[Though the next generation may be made of Oil Composites, so they can be burnt on site by remote ignition systems if they do not self ignite prematurely. ]
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Though Hydro Dams do have a CO² price tag the amount if far less, by any measure.
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I just returned from Quebec/Labrador trip and passed Manic Cinq en route, it's the largest arched dam in the world. Very impressive. I took a short video while climbing the 18% gradient along the face of the dam. http://youtu.be/rW0IARtpEhE In Labrador, construction has begun on a second dam on the Grand (Churchill) River at Muskrat Falls. Canada is counting on selling that energy to the US.
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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