Wind developer to start erecting turbines in western Washington County
December 1, 2023
by Bill Trotter
EXCERPTS
..........Downeast Wind, a project of Virginia-based Apex Clean Energy, has hired Woolwich-based Reed & Reed as the general contractor of the wind power project, which will include 30 turbine sites spread out among various locations in the town of Columbia and in townships 18 and 24 in the state’s Unorganized Territory.
Twenty of the turbines, each with a maximum height of 656 feet, will be north of the state’s 5,600-acre Great Heath ecological reserve in Township 18. Six turbines of the same height will be erected west of the heath, between the Pleasant River and the Deblois town line, and four more will be erected along blueberry barrens south of the heath in Columbia...............
The Downeast Wind project was first publicly proposed in 2014 and, after the company formally submitted its permit application to Maine Department of Environmental Protection in May 2021, the state approved the project in December 2022.
When completed, the $188 million wind project is expected to have a 126-megawatt capacity, which would be enough to power 37,000 typical houses for a year. The company hopes to connect the turbines to the grid in early 2025.
In approving the development, the state determined that only six turbines would be visible from the protected public Great Heath property. Because the heath does not get heavy use by the public, and because of dense vegetation along the Pleasant River that will largely screen the turbines from view, the state decided the project would not have an unreasonable impact on public use of the reserve.
The agency also determined that the project will not have an unreasonable impact on the scenic character or related uses within eight miles of the project area...................
Please read the entire article here: https://www.bangordailynews.com/2023/12/01/news/down-east/downeast-...
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Comment
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Comment by Willem Post on December 2, 2023 at 8:44am
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Thirty 4 MW wind turbines = 126 MW
126 MW for $188 million, or about $1500/ installed kW is extremely low.
Dan McKay writes it is a 90 MW project, or about $2000/installed kW, which appears much more realistic
Does that include cabling to a substation to connect to the NE HV grid?
The electricity will be sold at the real-time locational marginal price, which usually is higher than the contract guaranteed $45/MWh for the first year, escalating at 1.5%/y, to a cap of $110/MWh.
The heavily subsidized, VARIABLE electricity is treated as if it is as valuable as STEADY from fossil power plants, which is far from the case, because these fossil plants have to counteract the up/down output of wind and solar, which definitely is not for free.
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Comment by Dan McKay on December 1, 2023 at 1:51pm
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December 18, 2013 MAINE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSON
Docket No. 2012-00504
Through this Order, we direct one or more of Maine’s investor-owned
transmission and distribution utilities to enter into long-term contract(s) for capacity and
energy with Apex Clean Energy Holdings, LLC (Apex), for the output of the Downeast
Wind Project (Downeast Wind). The Project is a 90 MW wind facility to be constructed
in Washington County, Maine. The Commission will determine the utility contractual
counterparties during the process of approving the final contract(s).Commissioner Littell writes a separate concurrence. See attached Opinion of
Commissioner Littell. Commissioner Vannoy dissents. See attached Dissenting Opinion
of Commissioner VannoyThe Apex proposal is structured as a long-term contract for the entire
energy output and capacity value of Downeast Wind. The contract is for a twenty-year
term beginning with the commercial operation of the facility. The energy produced under
the contract is priced at 88% of the real time locational marginal price at the future ISONE designated node for the Project in the day-ahead market (DALMP). The contract will have a price floor of $45/MWh at the interconnection node in year 1, escalating at 1.5%, with a ceiling of $110 MWh. Apex will retain all renewable energy attributes from the
project.
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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