Maine seeks "green hydrogen" developer
Maine Public | By Peter McGuire
Published November 17, 2025 at 5:03 PM EST
The Maine Public Utilities Commission plans to ask developers to submit proposals to build a "green hydrogen" plant in the state.
Commissioners last week filed a draft request for proposals and want all potential bidders to indicate their interest in developing a facility by early December.
Developers would pay for a project, but commissioners could direct one of the state's power companies to negotiate a special discounted electric rate for the facility.
Brad Bradshaw, president of the Portland-based Hydrogen Energy Center, said traditional "gray" hydrogen is made in a chemical reaction between methane and steam. It also produces significant amounts of climate-warming carbon dioxide.
"Green" hydrogen on the other hand is produced by splitting hydrogen out of water through electrolysis, a process that produces far less greenhouse gas pollution but needs a lot of electricity.
"The charges associated with moving that power over the gird can sometimes make the project economics difficult," Bradshaw said.
"This initiative by the state of Maine is to provide some benefit to reduce those transmission and distribution charges associated with clean hydrogen production," he added.
While hydrogen is regarded as a potential replacement for polluting fossil fuels, Jack Shapiro the clean energy director at Natural Resources Council of Maine said it is not well suited to every situation.
While it may work to displace polluting fuels in long-range trucking and some heavy industry, there are cheaper and easier ways to achieve emissions reductions at the household level, such as heat pumps and electric vehicles, Shapiro said.
"We don’t want to see hydrogen used to greenwash existing fossil fuel infrastructure by blending into home heating oil gas supply or things like that," Shapiro said.
Please continue reading at https://www.mainepublic.org/climate/2025-11-17/maine-seeks-green-hy...
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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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