Vinalhaven - Electricity cooperative for Maine islands gets nearly $9 million for renewable energy expansion

Maine Public | By Peter McGuire
Published January 13, 2025 at 7:18 AM EST

A nonprofit electric utility serving Vinalhaven and North Haven islands will spend a multimillion dollar federal grant to upgrade and expand renewable energy. It’s one of the latest pots of money coming Maine’s way from President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

Fox Islands Electric Cooperative was awarded $8.7 million from the federal agriculture department’s Empowering Rural America program.

The money will be invested to repower and upgrade a 4.5 megawatt wind farm that generates the majority of the islands’ energy. It will also finance a new solar power array on a capped landfill.

The added renewable energy is expected to power more than 1,500 homes, according to the cooperative.

The utility was founded 50 years ago with help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to serve the two island communities located 11 miles off the Maine coast......................

Continue at https://www.mainepublic.org/business-and-economy/2025-01-13/maine-i...

 

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Comment by Steve Thurston on January 18, 2025 at 6:32pm

Dan, repowering in 15 years rather than the industry claims of 20 years means the cost/benefit projections were off by 25%.  Free money from our children and grandchildren by way of Biden does not obliviate this fact.  Was decreased wind the main factor in decreased production or was it maintenance issues?  

Comment by Dan McKay on January 13, 2025 at 4:09pm

EIA data shows these wind turbines produced 11,797 megawatt hours in 2010 and has trended down to 5,710 megawatt hours in 2023.

Comment by Dan McKay on January 13, 2025 at 3:57pm

15 years of operation 2009 to 2024

Comment by Dan McKay on January 13, 2025 at 3:42pm

Coincidentally, they are also receiving grant money from the Dept. Of Energy and the Governors Energy Office as well as a rate increase on their customers to replace a submarine distribution cable between Vinalhaven and North Haven Islands.

 

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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