Is there a solar 'farm' being sold in your area?
I've been researching out the dynamics of the solar farm craze in Maine and applying it to similar projects involving restored hydropower running micro grids.
I thought it was the glut of solar panels on the market which is producing the marketing frenzy, and making solar more affordable; but it's also the financing schemes which depend heavily on tax credits and subsidies.
The individual shareholder apparently signs over their carbon credits, etc. to the leasing/operator of the 'farm' making them fairly lucrative ventures; thus the feeding frenzy to get them organized before the subsidies dry up and policy makers realize that the dropping cost of a solar installation is offset by the slowly increasing cost of grid power, greatly reducing the need for solar - specific subsidies.
In other words, before, you'd pay say $30k for an installation and your payback would be the reduced cost of power on your electric bill. Now, the same installation only costs $!5k yet the value of your electricity is costing more, so the payback is faster.
The PUC is advocating a paradigm shift of significance to solar farms. It is urging an important shift in 'net metering from a policy which offsets power consumed with the monetary worth of power produced....the medium exchanged now is the KILOWATT. Each one produced replaces one consumed and recorded on your bill.
The new recommended policy values the kilowatt in monetary terms and measures the relative worth of each, and then recommends subsidizing the solar power produced more than the value of power consumed. ....and all of this in a market with falling prices. While they vaguely talk of 'caps', so your 'neighbor' doesn't become a micro power producer that profits from 'over production' at a rate subsidized by other non-solar consumers; the reality of the solar farm is a major generating plant jointly owned and heavily subsidized by non-solar rate payers....all to the benefit of leasing companies!
Sounds like WINDSCAM doesn't it? ....p.s. this is work in progress that is going in front of the legislature and you can sure a wide variety of lobbyists will be out in force.
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Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
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Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
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(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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