July 11, 2011 - electricity on Maine's islands

For people summering or living on Maine's islands, getting electricity can be more complicated than on the mainland.  Some of Maine's largest and most populous islands like Mount Desert Island or Deer Isle are connected to mainland by both bridges and electricity cables, while more remote islands are powered by small on-island generators.  By their nature, islands can make energy questions more challenging, while also offering innovative opportunities for the right places.

The summits of Mount Desert Island loom large over the water on Great Cranberry Island, Maine.

Looking at the Maine island communities I identified last week, a number of them are part of mainland utility Central Maine Power Company's service territory.  The major Casco Bay islands -- Peaks, Great Diamond, Cliff, Long, and Great Chebeague -- all fall into this category, as does Islesboro off Lincolnville.  Residents on these islands draw their electricity from CMP's mainland grid via underwater cables; generally, they pay the same price for their electricity (both the supply of energy and the delivery service via the transmission and distribution utility) as do mainland consumers.  The Cranberry Isles off Mount Desert Island are similarly connected to Bangor Hydro-Electric's mainland distribution system at mainland prices.

Other island communities have their own utilities or districts, but remain tied to the mainland by cables.  For example, Vinalhaven and North Haven residents get their power from the Fox Islands Electric Cooperative.  These communities are connected to the mainland grid via underwater cable; until recently, they purchased power from the mainland market at 9-10 cents per kilowatt-hour, on top of which they paid transmission and distribution costs.  In 2007, those wires charges were 16.8 cents per kWh.  The subsequent development of Vinalhaven's 4.5 megawatt community-owned wind project means that Fox Islands residents now pay 27% less for their energy.

Still other island communities are so remote that they are truly islands in the electric sense: completely off the mainland grid.  Electricity on these islands tends to be expensive.  For example, the Maine Public Utilities Commission reports that on Monhegan, the average cost of energy plus delivery has been as high as 62 ¢/kWh.  These high prices are mirrored on other remote islands like Matinicus (47 ¢/kWh) and Isle au Haut (32 ¢/kWh).  With electricity prices like these on Maine islands, it is no wonder that residents consider energy efficiency and other options for using energy more wisely.

August 24, 2010 - tree-trimming, Camden wind power

In Quincy, Massachusetts, complaints about National Grid's tree-trimming practices have led to the utility's decision not to trim further this year. While utilities argue tree-trimming along distribution (and transmission) lines is necessary to maintain reliability, people who live near the affected trees have complained that National Grid is being too proactive.  Tree-trimming along utility infrastructure corridors is one example of a secondary siting concern: not likely as major an issue as the existence and route of the line in the first place, but of importance to those who value the trees for aesthetic, social, or even productive value (e.g. shading a house to save on cooling costs, or the timber value itself).

Last week, the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting published an interesting series of three articles on the Wind Energy Act of 2008.  As part of the journalists' research, the Center filed a request under Maine's Freedom of Access Act for access to certain Public Utilities Commission records. Under that law, the public has the right to request (and obtain) access to a variety of public documents.  The law does permit agencies to charge “a reasonable fee to cover the cost of copying”. 1 M.R.S.A. § 408 (3)(A).  Now, the Capital Weekly reports that the PUC first told the Center it would charge $10,000 for compilation of and access to the requested materials -- and then, when the Center asked for a waiver, the Commission not only denied the waiver request but then increased its fee estimate to $36,239.52.

The town of Camden, Maine, is considering a joint effort with the towns of Hope and Rockport to explore the wind potential of Ragged Mountain (home to the Camden Snow Bowl, my favorite municipal ski hill).  George Baker, Director of the Island Institute's Maine Coast Community Wind Program, has proposed a three-phase project:

1. a feasibility study to address technical, logistical, economic and environmental aspects of installing installing wind turbines on Ragged Mountain (estimated to cost $50,000 to $70,000);
2. permitting and financing the project (estimated at $300,000 to $500,000); and
3. development of the project (costs depending on the specific project).

I was in Camden on Sunday to meet up with some friends from Hampden, one of whom is training for the upcoming Maine Sport Triathlon in the Camden area.  I am interested to see how the community responds to wind.

July 21, 2010 - balancing wind into the grid; underperforming community wind turbine; China's Three Gorges Dam flooding

License plate seen in Maine:

From Energy Policy Update

How much wind can we really integrate into today's power grid? An interesting article in the Oregonian highlights the challenges. Take, for example, what happened on May 19, when the wind shifted and Bonneville Power Authority grid operators had to make room on the wires for 1000 turbines' worth of wind (nearly 2000 MW). This is a lot of power: more power than the BPA control area needs, more than the amount of hydro production that could be ramped down, and more than BPA could export to neighboring control areas. So what did BPA do? It told wind generators to feather their blades and cut their production -- a less than ideal solution.

In a parallel scenario, Venezuela is undergoing rolling blackouts. Venezuela relies on hydroelectricity for 70% of its power, and a long-lasting drought has crippled power production. Critics also point to chronic mismanagement and underinvestment by the nationalized companies that operate the power grid.

The City of Saco, Maine, is in a bit of a pickle over its community wind project. Back in 2007, Saco bought the turbine and tower for $207,000 from Entegrity Wind Systems. (As mentioned in an earlier blog post, Kittery also bought a turbine from Entegrity. It did better than Saco's, but Kittery's turbine underperformed as well.) At the time, community-scale wind was all the rage. The Maine Legislature had directed the Maine Public Utilities Commission to organize a stakeholder process to evaluate the state's opportunities for community wind. Although this process ultimately resulted in a report concluding that community wind was not generally economic under current conditions, many people and communities decided to pursue small- and medium-scale renewable project for their civic, educational and environmental values.

When Saco bought the turbine, Entegrity told Saco that the unit would generate 90,000 kilowatt-hours annually (about $12,600 worth of electricity) for 10 years. The unit came online in February 2008. It never performed as well as Entegrity had represented. At some point, former Entegrity head James Heath offered to buy the turbine back for $130,000. Then the turbine broke. In the meantime, Entegrity Wind Systems went bankrupt. The City was left holding the underperforming turbine.

Now, the Saco City Council is considering its options. Repair the turbine? Sell the turbine? Negotiate with James Heath? Litigation?



In other news: China's Three Gorges Dam is facing record flooding, comparable to the 1988 floods that killed over 4000 people. The dam had been touted as offering protection against floods. So far the dam is holding, but the massive reservoir is within 20 meters of full. More water is on its way.

A new report by the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and the Maine Development Foundation suggests that Maine businesses' most critical challenges come from health insurance costs, energy, taxes, regulations and transportation, in that order. A Lewiston Sun Journal editorial calls for an end to "destructive regulatory practices" that drive money, businesses and people out of Maine.

WCSH 6 reports on the plans of Ocean Energy Institute founder Matt Simmons to transform Maine into the "Silicon Valley of ocean energy". The Ocean Energy Institute has previously expressed interest in exploring links between offshore wind and ammonia production for energy storage.

4/5/10

Wind power stocks are up, particularly those companies that are "purely" focused on wind -- meaning not the broader utilities like FPL.

Meanwhile, some people are disappointed in small-scale residential and commercial wind projects. Apparently some Skystream turbines aren't generating the kWh that purchasers were expecting. This is something that many observers have been pointing out for years; in fact, Maine's community wind task force noted that the true value of community- or residential-scale wind projects is in promoting awareness and engendering a "clean green" feeling, as opposed to providing substantial economic relief to the homeowner or project owner.

Due to the economic downturn, water utilities are seeing less commercial and industrial use, meaning water rates will rise.

Los Angeles continues to struggle with what to do about increasing rates to fund energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction.

The world's tallest tower, the Dubai's Burj Khalifa, will use solar energy to heat its hot water.

Based on rosy economic projections, oil has hit an 18-month high.

Colorado-based Ascent Solar is developing a new thin-film solar PV technology based on copper, indium and gallium selenide — known as CIGS — on a plastic base.