Request for Maine offshore wind power contract raises ratepayer concerns

The proposed contract's likely impact on Maine electricity customers is being shielded from public view, for now.

By Tux Turkel Staff Writer

EXCERPTS:

The developers of a planned offshore wind energy research array have asked state regulators to approve a 20-year electricity supply contract with terms they say are essential to their investing $1.2 billion in a project that could help launch a new renewable energy industry in Maine.

But Public Advocate William Harwood said this week that while he supports the state’s renewable energy ambitions, he’s concerned that the power contract could add to the bills of struggling Maine electricity customers if the proposed price is significantly above wholesale market rates.

“We’ve got an affordability issue,” Harwood said. “There are a lot of people excited about offshore wind, but my job is to make sure people aren’t paying too much for electricity.”

As a practical matter, any impact on electric rates would be far off. The research array wouldn’t be built until late in the decade, at the earliest. But a 2021 law requires a contract to be negotiated within nine months of filing at the Maine Public Utilities Commission. That timeline will make the upcoming process a near-term test of the state’s ability to balance its climate and renewable electrification goals with the imperative to protect ratepayers.

At this point, details of the contract – including the potential cost to ratepayers – are confidential. The proposed terms are redacted in the public version of the filing. The developers asked the PUC to shield that information from public view, in recognition of global competition to develop cost-effective floating offshore wind technology......................

........................ Pine Tree is an affiliate of New England Aqua Ventus, which has been working for more than a decade to build a one-turbine floating demonstration project 14 miles off Monhegan, using the UMaine technology. It will be a full-size version of the one-eighth-scale prototype tested off Castine in 2013 and 2014.

New England Aqua Ventus is in the process of preparing applications for various permits. The estimated operation date has been pushed back several times, but construction is now projected to begin in 2023.

When finally operational, the 11-megawatt turbine would have the capacity to meet the yearly electricity needs of more than 5,000 Maine homes. The cost of the demonstration project for a typical CMP household would be roughly 70 cents per month in the project’s first year of operation, based on a power purchase agreement approved by the PUC in 2019.

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Many lobstermen have opposed the Monhegan project, as well. Last year, they engaged in a dispute with survey vessels setting out the route of an underwater cable to the mainland.

Please see the full article, including the public filing at:

https://www.pressherald.com/2022/06/08/request-for-offshore-wind-po...

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Comment by Willem Post on June 15, 2022 at 6:51am

The deranged EU bureaucrats in Brussels had been drinking the UN KOOL-AID, and were eagerly dancing to the UN climate tunes, and telling member countries not to sign long-term gas supply contracts with Russia, because it looked bad regarding fighting global warming.
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/the-plot-is-thickening...

I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP; JUST GOOGLE.

As a result, EU members had to buy gas on the SPOT market, which went through the roof, because Russia supplies gas only to customers with long term contracts, AS DO ALL OTHER GAS SELLERS.

Normally, the SPOT market is just a very small fraction of the total gas market, but now, IN EUROPE, it had become the 800-lb gorilla in the room.

The EU bureaucrats were PISSED at Russia, because they had thought Russia would supply gas to the SPOT market, which it did not.

The EU bureaucrat scheme fell apart, much scrambling to shift the blame, egg-on-faces every where.

IDEOLOGY-DRIVEN EU bureaucrats had shot themselves in the foot, AGAIN

All that happened in 2021, well before Ukraine, with EU gas storage levels at record lows, and WIND AND SOLAR HAVING UNDERPERFORMED FOR MONTHS.
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/battery-system-capital...

THE LEVEL OF EU STUPIDITY AND LACK OF REAL-WORLD INSIGHT, AND WIND/SOLAR HUBRIS, ETC., WAS ASTOUNDING TO RATIONAL OBSERVERs

The UN nutcases, and EU bureaucrats, and other Climate Posses are holding hands and dancing in a circle of deranged, positive-feedback madness.

Comment by Willem Post on June 12, 2022 at 6:00am

Germany is continuing to implement programs that reduce CO2, and is committing economic suicide while doing it.

Has anyone figured out what effect reducing “carbon emissions” would have on global temperature?

Yes, actually they have.

There is MAGICC: Model for the Assessment of Greenhouse‐​gas Induced Climate Change (MAGICC was developed by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research under funding by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). 

Using MAGICC, you can evaluate the effects of various emission strategies on temperature change over time. The results are quite interesting.

See https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/12/12/going-to-zero/ 

For an analysis of the entire US going to net zero carbon emissions.
 
It works out to 0.1 degree C by 2050.

One-tenth of a degree, if the entire USA goes to net zero!

WTF?

Is there a way to sue Brussels for malfeasance?

Comment by Willem Post on June 9, 2022 at 11:57am

China operates its economy more efficiently than the US, because Chinese workers do not just burn the mid-night old, they burn the 3:30 AM oil, whereas US workers find reasons not to show up at work at all, according to Elon Musk, who employs at least 25,000 Chinese workers; they are less "woke".

As a result, to "level the playing field", Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese solar panels, so US manufacturers could be competitive.

Biden's teleprompter controllers just eliminated those tariffs, which means Chinese solar panel manufacturers will regain their earlier advantage, and US manufacturers will be put out of business.

All this is part of Biden's teleprompter controllers habitually putting China (and Europe) first, and the US last.

Another example is the disgraceful, unAmerican, free-for-all, with anyone-walking-in-from-anywhere through the open border.

Gaps were made in the existing wall to make it easier for Mexican Mafia human traffickers to rake in the big bucks

All this adds a BURDEN onto US workers of at least $20 billion per million illegal walk-ins.

Why would Biden's teleprompter controllers do this?

1) He, and his son Hunter, are hugely compromised, because of their earlier, shady, self-dealing with China, while he was VP, and after he was VP. Says Hunter in an email: "10% for the BIG GUY"

2) The Dem/Progs are shipping these illegals from everywhere to swing states, so they will vote Democrat, by hook and crook, using MULES and ballot drop boxes, financed by Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook.

Other Biden teleprompter-controller idiocies have caused the US turnkey capital costs of solar systems to INCREASE by about 25% in one year, due to:

1) Increased inflation rates, because of $5.9 trillion of COVID and various gratuitous, pump-priming, deficit spending, "paid for" by a compliant Federal Reserve printing money; a classic inflation case of too many dollars chasing too few goods.

2) Increased interest rates to belatedly contain the 40-y-high, "temporary", rates of inflation, which have increased the turnkey capital costs of wind and solar systems and all other goods and services.

3) Worldwide supply chain disruptions, COVID or otherwise induced, such as by ill-considered, grossly excessive sanctions that are boomeranging onto the US and EU and other economies, while the Russian Ruble and Russian trade surplus are at 10-y highs. 

4) Increased energy prices, such as of oil, gas, coal, etc., because 1) EU bureaucrats in Brussels stupidly fantasized Europe could make do with wind and solar, and 2) refusing to sign long-term, gas-supply contracts with Russia, because it would send the wrong signal regarding "fighting climate change".

Biden's teleprompter-controllers are aiding and abetting the EU bureaucrat stupidities by exporting OUR oil and natural gas to Europe, which causes US natural gas, gasoline, diesel fuel, and heating oil prices to skyrocket; Biden's teleprompter-controllers are working overtime screwing US workers.

NOTE: A recent explosion at an LNG export plant caused a 10% decrease in US natural gas wholesale prices, because exports of OUR natural gas to Europe would be reduced.

5) Increased materials prices, such as of Tungsten, Cobalt, Lithium, Copper, rare earth metals, etc., many of which are supplied by Russia and China, and used in EVs and other electrical systems

6) US/EU foolishly imposing PRE-PLANNED sanctions on Belarus and Russia, which led to worldwide shortages of potash and phosphates (both of which are mined) from Belarus, and nitrogen fertilizers (which are made from natural gas) from Russia. Their prices have become stratospheric, which curtailed worldwide food production.

 

All this will lead to 1) global food shortages in large areas of the Global South (South Asia, Africa, South America), 2) food price inflation, 3) additional impoverishment of the middle classes, 4) increased poverty and starvation, and 5) increased migration. 

Comment by Thinklike A. Mountain on June 8, 2022 at 5:01pm

How about a bill with a name something like this?

"An Act To Make State Legislators And Their Immediate Families' Offshore Bank Accounts Transparent"

Comment by Dan McKay on June 8, 2022 at 4:50pm

It will be, by far, the most expensive contract passed to the PUC by the legislature. LePage rejected this project's price offer while in office and will do it again in January 2023. But the most ratepayer funded projects are the "Net Metered" projects dominated by solar junk energy that adds billions to the rate base. 

Maine people are sick of energy policies coming out of Augusta that are destroying household budgets.

REPEAL, REPEAL, REPEAL ALL RENEWABLE ENERGY LAWS, NOW!!

Comment by Willem Post on June 8, 2022 at 3:48pm

A turnkey capital cost of $1.2 billion for one 11 MW offshore, floating wind turbine, more than $100 million/MW, whereas standard NON-FLOATING wind turbine systems are about $4.0 to 4.5 million/MW.

It is totally unreasonable for Maine to even consider such an expensive folly.

 

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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Sign up today and lend your voice and presence to the steadily rising tide that will soon sweep the scourge of useless and wretched turbines from our beloved Maine countryside. For many of us, our little pieces of paradise have been hard won. Did the carpetbaggers think they could simply steal them from us?

We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.

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 -- Mahatma Gandhi

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Vince Lombardi 

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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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