Rep. Reagan Paul Requests That Maine DOE Assess True Hidden Costs of Green Energy Agenda

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Comment by Penny Gray 42 minutes ago

What a concept, a cost/benefit analysis!  Wind is free!  Sun is free!  Your energy bills will go down, property taxes will go down...that's what they promised the townsfolk in Carthage.  All lies.

Comment by Willem Post 6 hours ago

BATTERY SYSTEM CAPITAL COSTS, OPERATING COSTS, ENERGY LOSSES, AND AGING
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/battery-system-capital-costs-losses-and-aging

by Willem Post

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Utility-scale, battery system pricing usually not made public, but for this system it was.

Neoen, in western Australia, turned on its 219 MW/ 877 MWh Tesla Megapack battery, the largest in western Australia.

Ultimately, a 560 MW/2,240 MWh battery system, $1,100,000,000/2,240,000 kWh = $491/kWh, delivered as AC, late 2024 pricing. Smaller capacity systems cost much more than $500/kWh

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Annual Cost of Megapack Battery Systems; 2023 pricing
Assume 45.3 MW/181.9 MWh; turnkey cost $104.5 million; 104,500,000/181,900 = $574/kWh,  per Example 2
Amortize bank loan, 50% of $104.5 million, at 6.5%/y for 15 years, $5.484 million/y
Pay Owner return, 50% of $104.5 million, at 10%/y for 15 years, $6.765 million/y (10% due to high inflation)
Lifetime (Bank + Owner) payments 15 x (5.484 + 6.765) = $183.7 million
Assume battery daily usage, 15 years at 10%; loss factor = 1 / (0.9 *0.9)
Battery lifetime output = 15 y x 365 d/y x 181.9 MWh x 0.1, usage x 1000 kWh/MWh = 99,590,250 kWh to HV grid; 122,950,926 kWh from HV grid; 233,606,676 kWh loss
(Bank + Owner) payments, $183.7 million / 99,590,250 kWh = 184.5 c/kWh
Less 50% subsidies (tax credits, 5-y depreciation, loan interest deduction, etc.) is 92.3c/kWh

Subsidies shift costs from project Owners to ratepayers, taxpayers, government debt. 
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Excluded costs/kWh: 1) O&M; 2) system aging, 1.5%/y, 3) loss factor 1 / (0.9*0.9), HV grid-to-HV grid, 4) grid extension/reinforcement to connect battery systems, 5) downtime of parts of the system, 6) decommissioning in year 15, i.e., disassembly, reprocessing, storing at hazardous waste sites. Excluded costs would add at least 15 c/kWh
 

COMMENTS ON CALCULATION

Almost all existing battery systems operate at less than 10%, see top URL, i.e., new systems would operate at about 92.4 + 15 = 107.4 c/kWh. They are used to stabilize the grid, i.e., frequency control and counteracting up/down W/S outputs. If 40% throughput, 23.1 + 15 = 38.1 c/kWh. 

That is on top of the cost/kWh of the electricity taken from the HV grid to charge the batteries

Up to 40% could occur by absorbing midday solar peaks and discharging during late-afternoon/early-evening, in sunny California and other such states. The more solar systems, the greater the midday peaks.

See top URL for Megapacks required for a one-day wind lull in New England

40% throughput is close to Tesla’s recommendation of 60% maximum throughput, i.e., not charge above 80% and not discharge below 20%, to perform 24/7/365 service for 15 y, with normal aging.

Owners of battery systems with fires, likely charged above 80% and discharged below 20% to maximize profits.

Tesla’s recommendation was not heeded by the Owners of the Hornsdale Power Reserve in Australia. They excessively charged/discharged the system. After a few years, they added Megapacks to offset rapid aging of the original system, plus they added more Megapacks to increase the rating of the expanded system.

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/the-hornsdale-power-reserve-largest-battery-system-in-australia

Regarding any project, Banks and Owners have to be paid, no matter what. I amortized the Bank loan and Owner’s investment

Divide total payments over 15 years by the 15-y throughput to get c/kWh, as shown.

Loss factor = 1 / (0.9 *0.9), from HV grid to 1) step-down transformer, 2) front-end power electronics, 3) into battery, 4) out of battery, 5) back-end power electronics, 6) step-up transformer, to HV grid, i.e., draw about 50 units from HV grid to deliver about 40 units to HV grid. That gets worse with aging.

A lot of people do not like these c/kWh numbers, because they have been misled by self-serving folks, that “battery Nirvana is just around the corner”.

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NOTE: EV battery packs cost about $135/kWh, before it is installed in the car. Such packs are good for 6 to 8 years, used about 2 h/d, at an average speed of 30 mph. Utility battery systems are used 24/7/365 for 15 years

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NOTE: Aerial photos of large-scale battery systems with many Megapacks, show many items of equipment, other than the Tesla supply, such as step-down/step-up transformers, switchgear, connections to the grid, land, access roads, fencing, security, site lighting, i.e., the cost of the Tesla supply is only one part of the battery system cost at a site.

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NOTE: Battery system turnkey capital costs and electricity storage costs likely will be much higher in 2023 and future years, than in 2021 and earlier years, due to: 1) increased inflation rates, 2) increased interest rates, 3) supply chain disruptions, which delay projects and increase costs, 4) increased energy prices, such as of oil, gas, coal, electricity, etc., 5) increased materials prices, such as of tungsten, cobalt, lithium, copper, manganese, etc., 6) increased labor rates.

Comment by Willem Post 6 hours ago

THE IMPOVERISHED, DYSFUNCTIONAL STATE OF MAINE

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/the-dysfunctional-stat...

By Willem Post
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The over-taxed, over-regulated, already-impoverished Maine people are super-screwed, trying to make ends meet in a near-zero, real-growth Maine economy
The Maine economy has lots of low-tech/low-pay/low-benefit, bull shit jobs
The Maine economy has lots of woke, leftist, self-serving bureaucrats.
Screwed-over Mainers also have to pay for poverty-stricken, illegal walk-ins/fly-ins of mostly Islamic cultures from all over, who enter the US from shithole, Third-World countries that keep no records so nothing can be vetted.
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Those unvetted, illegal, often voting aliens, from all-over, are:
- the dregs of Third World countries, sent to Maine by their US-hating, leftist, woke governments, in cahoots with Soros/Biden-financed NGOs
- getting free housing, free food, a never-empty credit card, free phones, free healthcare, free education/job training and whatever other goodies they want.

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They, like Islamic Somalis in Maine, mainly suck from various government tits:
- have no skills, no training, no education, no modern industrial experience.
- will take low-tech/low-pay/low-benefit jobs at 30% less than screwed-over Mainers.
- are often good at crime, murder, rape, drug and human trafficking, and driving vehicles into native merrymakers.

- the tens of millions of incompatible, subversive, walk-ins would rather undermine, instead of fight for traditional European and US values and culture.

- Islamic men force their (multiple?) women to be pregnant, because each child is a US citizen at birth, and comes with multiple government checks attached. A total scam to screw US taxpayers.
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Many millions of illegal aliens per year must be shipped back to where they came from, before they forever ruin the US culture, as they have ruined Europe, France, the UK, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, etc.

 

Visual Ugliness of wind and Solar: Down-trodden, screwed-over Mainers have to endure the visual ugliness and noise of hundreds of windmills, that are often idle, because of too little wind year-round, and many thousands of acres of solar panels, that are often covered with snow and ice in winter; there is no solar at night. Wind and solar are totally unreliable.

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/wind-power-is-not-the-...

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Girls Competing with Boys on Girls Teams: Down-trodden Maine families also have to endure the insults of government-imposed mandates of having their girls compete with “boys” on girls’ teams, and “sharing” girl bathrooms and locker rooms, and “losing” their matches to the “boys”, all as mandated by woke Governor Mills, surrounded by her cabal of idiots and her ingrown clique of bureaucrats sucking from the government tit.
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Experience of Denmark with Palestinians; Denmark keeps good records

The first generation (1992 arrivals):

Total accepted: 321 Palestinians

Still in Denmark by 2019: 270 people; about 84% remained.

Convicted of crimes: 204 people (63.6%).

Prison sentences: 71 people (22.1%).

Welfare dependency:

In 2003, 238 of 321 (74%) received some form of benefit.

In 2019, 176 full-time equivalents were on welfare.

Of these, 122 were on disability pensions; meaning roughly two-thirds of working-age people were on permanent pension payments.

The second generation (their children):

Total children: 999 born or raised in Denmark

Each couple has many children, because each child gets a monthly government check until 18.

Convicted of crimes: 337 (33.7%).

Prison sentences: 65 (6.5%).

This means the crime rate dropped between generations; from 63% down to 34%; but remained far higher than the Danish national average.

93-95% of Palestinians are Muslim, who do not marry Danish women.

In 2019, the Danish Justice Minister stated: “These asylum seekers should not have been let in”.

Norway, Sweden, etc., had similar experiences.

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True Norwegian Experience: Norway keeps good records

A Pakistani male, 32 years old, dressed in fancy, traditional, Pakistani garb, as if he is an important person, walks several paces in front of his 24-year-old wife, who pushes a baby carriage with 2 children, with 2 on each side holding on, a total of 6 children. 

He has to attend Norwegian classes to receive a signature from the teacher to continue to receive free housing, free food, free healthcare, and a free allowance for incidentals, etc. 

Dressed as a Pakistani, he goes for interviews for jobs, but he has no education, no experience. He gets a signature from the employer as proof of the interview, to continue to continue sucking from various government tits.

He came as a “refuge” to Norway, at 22 years old, did not speak a word of Norwegian, married a Pakistani bride, 14 years old, brought in from Pakistan by the Norwegian government. She was pregnant a few weeks after the wedding and produce 6 kids in 10 years. Each child comes with multiple government checks attached.

Norway is rich, has a $2 trillion pension fund, invested in world equities, for 5 million people, of which about 500,000 are “refugees”. The Norwegian government rakes off a percentage of the fund each year. 

The Norwegian government brings in “refuges” to comply with Brussels mandates, which means Norway can trade in the EU as if a member, and well-off Norwegians can have vacation houses in Spain, Italy, Turkey, Greece, etc., but it also means Germans (hated WWII invaders) can have vacation houses in Norway.

Prior to Brussels mandates, no foreigner was allowed to own real estate in Norway.

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The “SNAP/EBT moms” problem is pervasive

Women who game the welfare system (and the taxpayer) by deliberately having multiple children with multiple men and refusing to keep a father in the picture. Those kids often grow up to be “just like their parents”. 

The “EBT moms” expect to live off a multitude of welfare programs. Many of these women have minimal education and work experience. They live practically for free on the taxpayer’s dime.

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Revelations of an “SNAP/EBT mom”, from X

If y’all was really smart you’d understand “kids is the biggest hustle out there”. 
I don’t clock into no job, 
I let Uncle Sam and baby daddies cut me a check every month. 5 kids = 5 bags. 

Food stamps, free rent, free healthcare, and child support on top of that. 
My bills paid before I even wake up. 
Everybody keep asking why I had 5 kids at age 26, because every single one come with checks attached. 
My life secured, while y’all stressing over 9 to 5s. 
Don’t be mad at me, be mad at you ain’t catch on to the hustle.

 

This is the kind of “English” uttered by a SNAP/EBT “mom”, and there are tens of millions like her sucking tax dollars
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EBT food subsidies, often spent on junk foods, have had the unfortunate side effect of helping to destroy the nuclear family, creating generations of fatherless children and skyrocketing crime rates.
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Around 23% of all US households have single mothers, absent fathers.
Among black families, 47% are single-mother households, 25% in Hispanic households and 12% in white households.
About 7% of white families use SNAP/EBT, but 27% in black families and 23% in Hispanic families.
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There is a clear trend here: Single mothers and minority families are the largest contingent of welfare beneficiaries per capita and the system is designed to reward their dependency. They aspire for that “career dependency”, as revealed by above SNAP/EBT mom.

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Denmark: 72% of gang-crime convicts have non-Western background, i.e. 15% of the Danish population has 5 times the crime rate.

https://willempost.substack.com/p/denmark-72-of-gang-crime-convicts...

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Minnesota: Almost Every Somali Household with Children Receives Aid from Various Government Programs

https://willempost.substack.com/p/minnesota-nearly-every-somali-hou...

Comment by Willem Post 6 hours ago

EXPENSIVE FLOATING OFFSHORE WINDMILLS IN IMPOVERISHED STATE OF MAINE

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/floating-offshore-wind...

By Willem Post

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Despite the meager floating offshore MW in the world, pro-wind politicians, bureaucrats, etc., aided and abetted by the lapdog Main Media and "academia/think tanks", in the impoverished State of Maine, continue to fantasize about building 850-ft-tall floating offshore windmills, each mounted on a 50% submerged, steel platform at least 250 ft x 250 ft x 75 ft tall to maintain the windmill in upright position in all conditions.

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Maine government bureaucrats, etc., in a world of their own climate-fighting fantasies, want to have about 3,000 MW of floating wind turbines by 2040; a most expensive, totally unrealistic goal, that would further impoverish the already-poor State of Maine for many decades.

Those bureaucrats, etc., would help fatten the lucrative, 20-y, tax-shelters of mostly out-of-state, multi-millionaire, wind-subsidy chasers, who likely have minimal regard for: 1) Impacts on the environment and the fishing and tourist industries of Maine, and 2) Already-overstressed, over-taxed, over-regulated Maine ratepayers and taxpayers, who are trying to make ends meet in a near-zero, real-growth economy.

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Those fishery-destroying, 850-ft-tall floaters, with 24/7/365 strobe lights, visible 30 miles from any shore, would cost at least $7,500/ installed kW, or at least $22.5 billion, if built in 2023 (more after 2023)

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Almost the entire supply of the Maine projects would be designed and made in Europe, then transported across the Atlantic Ocean, in European specialized ships, then unloaded at a new, $500-million Maine storage/pre-assembly/staging/barge-loading area, then barged to European specialized erection ships for erection of the floating turbines. The financing will be mostly by European pension funds.

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About 500 Maine people would have jobs during the erection phase

The other erection jobs would be by specialized European people, mostly on cranes and ships

About 200 Maine people would have long-term O&M jobs, using European spare parts, during the 20-y electricity production phase.

https://www.maine.gov/governor/mills/news/governor-mills-signs-bill...

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The Maine people have much greater burdens to look forward to for the next 20 years, courtesy of the Governor Mills incompetent, woke bureaucracy that has infested the state government 

The Maine people need to finally wake up, and put an end to the climate scare-mongering, which aims to subjugate and further impoverish them, by voting the entire Democrat woke cabal out and replace it with rational Republicans in 2024

The present course leads to financial disaster for the impoverished State of Maine and its people.

The purposely-kept-ignorant Maine people do not deserve such maltreatment

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Electricity Cost 

Assume a $750 million, 100 MW project consists of foundations, wind turbines, cabling to shore, and installation at $7,500/kW.

Production 100 MW x 8766 h/y x 0.40, CF = 350,640,000 kWh/y

Amortize bank loan for $375 million, 50% of project, at 6.0%/y for 20 years, 9.194 c/kWh.

Owner return on $375 million, 50% of project, at 10%/y for 20 years, 12.385 c/kWh

Banks and Owners get 21.579/36.579 = 59% of the project revenues

Offshore O&M, about 30 miles out to sea, 8 c/kWh.

Supply chain, special ships, and ocean transport, 3 c/kWh

All other items, 4 c/kWh 

Total cost 9.194 + 12.385 + 8 + 3 + 4 = 36.579 c/kWh

Less 50% subsidies (ITC, 5-y depreciation, interest deduction on borrowed funds) 18.290 c/kWh

Owner sells to utility at 18.290 c/kWh

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Hidden Costs: At a future 30% W/S annual penetration on the grid, based on UK and German experience: 

- Onshore grid expansion/reinforcement to connect far-flung W/S systems, about 2 c/kWh

- A fleet of traditional power plants to quickly counteract W/S variable output, on a less than minute-by-minute basis, 24/7/365, which means more Btu/kWh, more CO2/kWh, more cost of about 2 c/kWh

- A fleet of traditional power plants to provide electricity during 1) low-wind periods, 2) high-wind periods, when rotors are locked in place, and 3) low solar periods during mornings, evenings, at night, snow/ice on panels, which means more Btu/kWh, more CO2/kWh, more cost of about 2 c/kWh

- Pay W/S system Owners for electricity they could have produced, if no curtailment, about 1 c/kWh

- Importing electricity at high prices, when W/S output is low, 1 c/kWh

- Exporting electricity at low prices, when W/S output is high, 1 c/kWh

- Disassembly on land and at sea, reprocessing and storing at hazardous waste sites, about 2 c/kWh

Total ADDER 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 11 c/kWh

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Offshore wind full cost of electricity FCOE = 36.6 c/kWh + 11 c/kWh = 47.6 c/kWh, no subsidies

Offshore wind full cost of electricity FCOE = 18.3 c/kWh + 11 c/kWh = 29.3 c/kWh, 50% subsidies

The 11 c/kWh is for various measures required by wind, power plant-to-landfill basis.

This compares with 7 c/kWh + 3 c/kWh = 10 c/kWh from existing gas, coal, nuclear, large reservoir hydro plants.

Some values increase due to inflation and as more W/S systems are added to the grid.

 

Cabling to Shore Plus $Billions for Grid Expansion on Shore 

A high voltage cable would be hanging from each unit, until it reaches bottom, say about 200 to 500 feet. 
The cables would need some type of flexible support system

There would be about 5 cables, each connected to sixty, 10 MW wind turbines, making landfall on the Maine shore, for connection to 5 substations (each having a 600 MW capacity, requiring several acres of equipment), then to connect to the New England HV grid, which will need $billions for expansion/reinforcement to transmit electricity to load centers, mostly in southern New England.

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The whole set-up is s super-expensive nightmare, the extent of which has been clear in Germany for the past 10 years and the UK for the past 5 years.

Both have “achieved” near-zero, real- growth GDP, the highest electricity prices in Europe, and stagnant real wages.

The W/S variable output, or too-little output, or too-much output, creates operational difficulties that become increasingly more challenging and expensive to counteract.

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Maine Folks Need Lower Energy Bills, Not Higher Energy Bills

The over-taxed, over-regulated, impoverished Maine people would buckle under such a heavy burden, while trying to make ends meet in the near-zero, real-growth Maine economy. 

Comment by Dan McKay 12 hours ago

Over 2 billion dollars assessed to Maine electric bills since 2010 to eliminate carbon dioxide from the planet Earth. 2 billion dollars that went into the pockets of greedy people who recognized a good scam and didn't care how much people suffered with high energy bills. Time for reparations for this criminal actions.

Comment by arthur qwenk 21 hours ago

The increases in electrical costs to consumers are caused by one thing.

The Global Warming Narrative that begat the  Unreliable Renewable Power Narrative and concomitant waste,  uselessness and fraud in wind and solar low density  power and transmission schemes Maine's politicians have adhered to for  almost two decades now.