Matinicus Island energy options

Residents of remote islands often face energy costs that are higher than those on the mainland.  This can be for many reasons, most of which stem from islands' relatively small populations and remote locations.

Islands far enough offshore are often not connected to the mainland electric grid via submarine cables.  If the island is to have its own electric grid, it must develop both generation and distribution wires.  Some island communities are considering renewable energy resources like wind and solar, but for the most part diesel has fueled the bulk of electric generation on remote islands.  Diesel can be expensive on the mainland, and is even more expensive when it needs to be shipped out to the island for consumption.

The Maine island of Matinicus fits this model.  Located over 20 miles offshore, the 740-acre island is home to about 20 year-round residents and about 200 summer residents.  Since 1965, the Matinicus Plantation Electric Company has provided electric utility service to islanders.  The Matinicus utility is consumer-owned, meaning it is owned wholly by its consumers (as opposed to outside investors).  Electric generation is provided by a set of diesel units: two rated at 45 kW and a third rated at 65 kW.  The utility also maintains a 150 kW backup generator for emergencies.  The company does not serve the nearby island of Criehaven, which lacks a centralized electric utility system.

How do the circumstances of Matinicus Island affect energy costs?  In 2010, the Matinicus utility sold 225,000 kWh of electricity at an average rate of 65.2 cents per kWh, or about 4 times the average price residential customers pay on the mainland.  Producing this power required burning a fair amount of diesel - about 40,000 gallons per year.  Many islanders pay about $200 per month for electricity.

The desire to cut costs and enhance the local environment have led to several proposals to switch Matinicus to renewable resources in recent decades.  Some commenters have suggested Matinicus could pursue an island-based wind project as Vinalhaven did, while others view the site as inappropriate.  Others have suggested floating offshore wind could be a match for Matinicus; next summer's test installation of a floating offshore wind turbine off Monhegan could help us understand the impacts of such a project near Matinicus.  Other renewable ocean resources, like tidal energy, could one day play a role in the island's energy portfolio.  For any such project to succeed, it will have to be both cost-effective and palatable to island residents.  Until then, residents and visitors alike can look to the island's diesel generators as the primary source of electricity.

Tide Mill Institute event a success

I was very pleased to attend this past weekend's Tide Mill Institute conference. The Tide Mill Institute describes its mission as "to advance the appreciation of tide mill history and technology by encouraging research, by promoting appropriate re-uses of former tide mill sites and by fostering communication among tide mill enthusiasts." Here's a link to the conference website: http://www.tidemillinstitute.org/23.html My presentation compared tidal power projects past and present, looking at project economics, law and regulation. Interesting, many of the judicial opinions about tide mills from centuries past address concerns still expressed about tidal power projects. How will a given project affect water quality? Neighboring property? Fisheries and navigation on? Long before regulatory agencies or specific environmental statutes, tide mills effectively faced regulation in the form of court orders over lawsuits. Today, a host of agencies has regulatory authority over the development and operation of tide mills and tidal electric generation. It was great to meet so man people interested in the past, present and future of tidal energy.

September 8, 2010 - Maine ocean energy RFP

Backup diesel generators on Mount Desert Island, Maine.  "Keeping the lights on" on island communities poses special challenges; diesel generators like these can be used to cover peak loads, or even provide backup power in the event of an outage.  Photo courtesy of Drew Landry.

Of all the feedback I hear from developers of renewable energy projects, one of the most consistent observations is that it is difficult to finance and build a project without a long-term contract for the project's output.  Because energy prices are so volatile, and because projects are typically capital-intensive and can have relatively long payback periods, a long-term contract is often viewed as necessary to attract the financing required to build a project.  However, many buyers observe that they aren't interested in long-term contracts at the required prices for similar reasons of uncertainty.

To remedy this problem, in its most recent session the Maine Legislature enacted "An Act To Implement the Recommendations of the Governor’s Ocean Energy Task Force", P.L. 2009, ch. 615.  The Act directs the Maine PUC to issued an RFP for long-term contracts for deep-water offshore wind energy pilot projects and tidal energy demonstration projects.  The RFP was published on September 1, 2010.

Here's a link to the MPUC's website for the RFP.

Here's the RFP itself (Word).

What is the Commission looking for?  Up to 30 megawatts of installed capacity (and associated renewable energy and RECs) from deep-water offshore wind energy pilot projects or tidal energy demonstration projects; up to 5 of the megawatts can come from tidal energy demonstration projects.

Initial Proposals for deep-water offshore wind energy pilot projects and tidal energy demonstration projects will be due on or before May 1, 2011.

August 27, 2010 - restoring old dams? sunken treasure

Storm over the Kennebec River near Dresden

Earlier this month, I wrote about the situation at Scribner's Mill on the Crooked River in Maine.  The Scribner's Mill Preservation Project is doing a great job of restoring the old sawmill located on the banks of the river.  Formerly, the sawmill was paired with a nine-foot dam that was breached in 1972; prior to dam breach, the impounded water fell through water wheels to power the mill directly.  The mill preservationists are again proposing to build a dam on the site to allow the mill to regain its status as a working water mill.  Two years ago, they proposed putting up a 4' dam; the Maine Department of Environmental Protection rejected their efforts.  Now they're proposing a 3' dam.

Arguments against rebuilding the dam include ones based on the importance of the Crooked River to the entire Sebago Lake ecosystem.  The Crooked River is the principal spawning habitat for the famous wild landlocked salmon in the lake.  Landlocks are the same species as Atlantic salmon, but spend their entire lives in fresh water.  Maine has a special fishery for wild landlocked salmon, and Sebago Lake is one of its most accessible waterbodies.  In addition to fisheries concerns, the Crooked River is also the principal surface inflow of water into the lake, which is the drinking source for about 200,000 people in Maine.

Last night, Maine Public Broadcasting Network ran a good story on the debate.

In other renewable news: following on the recent ORPC tidal energy turbine installation at a Coast Guard facility in Eastport, today the Coast Guard is raising a wind turbine at a Southwest Harbor facility.


Who doesn't love a tale of a forgotten shipwreck holding a sunken treasure?  During a blizzard in February 1944, the British freighter Empire Knight foundered on a covered reef near Boon Island off York, Maine.  The ship broke up and sank.  In 1990, the Coast Guard learned that the ship contained over 17,000 pounds of mercury.  Divers recovered a small portion of the mercury and contaminated material, but found that 16,000 pounds had escaped and was loose in a cargo hold.  The Coast Guard closed the site.  Now, a treasure hunter wants to recover the mercury in an environmentally responsible manner -- and also what he believes may be copper-platinum wire worth $200 million (a bit more valuable than the copper wire commonly stolen!), plus a "secret cargo" that could be worth from $10 million on up.

August 26, 2010 - more tidal; subsidies in question

I'm continuing to follow the successes of tidal energy developer ORPC.  This article quotes ORPC President and CEO Chris Sauer as calling Eastport the “Kitty Hawk” of the tidal power industry.  (Add this to Maine's list of comparative titles, including the Saudi Arabia of wind, the Saudi Arabia of biomass and forestry and the Silicon Valley of ocean energy.)


Here's a letter to the editor of the Bangor Daily News pointing out the subsidies applied to fossil fuels versus renewables.  The author agrees with a previous editorial's claim that fossil fuel subsidies were 12 times higher than alternative energy subsidies, but adds additional figures from the Energy Information Agency.  The author claims that natural gas or petroleum-produced electricity gets a subsidy of $0.25 for every million megawatt hours produced -- yes, that's a reward of one shiny coin per million MWh produced -- while wind gets a subsidy of $23.37 per MWh.  (I suspect there is a typo here, because the author concludes that the wind subsidy is "100 times more than fossil fuels", whereas these numbers would appear to support a less credible claim of wind being subsidized "100 million times more" than gas/oil.  The author then claims that recent home weatherization and efficiency improvements have been made "without government subsidies but with free market forces."

I suspect quasi-governmental entities like the Efficiency Maine Trust and the Maine State Housing Authority might argue that subsidies, incentives, and other state government spending programs deserve significant credit for residential efficiency improvements.  Rather than argue those points here, it's worth noting that the author of the editorial raises interesting policy questions about which tools are appropriate to achieve state energy, environmental and social goals.  Due to the complex layering of both energy production businesses and federal and state governments, an exact calculation of the subsidies available for various resources can prove challenging.  This debate is a fine illustration of the challenges of an apples-to-apples comparison of various resources' costs to society.


It's great to hear that here in Augusta, three hiking trail systems are about to be interconnected:
the Augusta Greenway Trail running along the Kennebec River's east bank, the Kennebec River Rail Trail along the river's west bank, and ultimately the Viles Arboretum trails on the east side.

June 23, 2010 - the history of the Trafton tide mills; Russia-Belarus gas dispute

Monday's paddle brought me through the remains of the Trafton tide mill. What I hadn't realized is that the eastern branch was home to another tide mill owned by the Trafton family.

From the Georgetown Historical Society's A History of Georgetown Island:

The lumber mill on the western branch, which was built by David Oliver and Thomas Trafton, continued to be operated into the first decade of the 20th century, and the mill dam can still be seen. David Oliver, Jr. had a son David of the 3rd generation (grandson of David and Grace). He and his wife, Hannah Stacy, came to Georgetown from Lynn, Massachusetts. He and his father, David Jr., and Thomas Trafton, built their first lumber mill on the eastern branch of the Cove on what is now the Indian Point Road. Later they built a second lumber mill on the west branch of the Cove Thomas Trafton also had a gristmill on the west bank of the western branch, near the former old Post Office at the bottom of the hill in Georgetown Center.

I found an interesting blog, Five Islands Orchard, which provides some more history and information. Apparently the students of the Georgetown elementary school are considering building a demonstration tidal mill at the western Trafton site. Blogger Ben Polito says he did a rough calculation of perhaps 1.4GJ of energy per tide, equivalent to about 390 kWh or 10 gallons of gas. While this might not seem like a lot of energy today -- particularly since harnessing it would likely require a $1 million-plus hydro facility -- the Trafton mill would have provided the energy equivalent of 300 laborers, all for a relatively low cost.

On the international energy news front: the conflict between Russia and Belarus over gas offers a classic example of how energy policy choices interface with national security. Russia's state-owned utility Gazprom first cut off 35% of Belarus's gas supply, then increased the cut to 70% of normal flows, over about $200 million in debt Belarus is said to owe. In response, Belarus has cited $260 million in unpaid tariffs as a reason cut off Russia's access to the international pipeline needed to get Russian gas to Europe. In today's interconnected world, states and nations rely on fuel supply and infrastructure in neighboring jurisdictions. Russia is dependent on Belarus's pipeline to deliver 20% of its total European exports, and Belarus is dependent on Russia for gas to power electric generation, industry, and (in winter) heating. Though this relationship provides each nation with resources it wouldn't otherwise have, friction in the relationship leads to periodic strife such as we see today. Some cite this downside risk as grounds for increased domestic self-reliance and energy security. Indeed, if the situation progresses to where Russia delivers no gas to Belarus, that nation will need to have an alternate fuel source and contingency planning to keep businesses and homes running.

Finally, hay is for horses: a Kennebec River hay farm, during first harvest.

From Energy Policy Update

June 10, 2010 update - a new Maine tidal project

Today's Bangor Daily News includes an article about Halcyon Marine Hydroelectric's plans to install a tidal power project in Cobscook Bay.

Ramez Atiya, founder of Halcyon, has developed invented a new way to build tidal hydropower systems at a much lower cost.  Atiya has a patent on his "parallel cycle" “tidal wing.  His prototype would be a concrete structure 400 meters long, 15' above mean water level, housing 4 generators.  In a new refinement of the Passamaquoddy Power Project's technology, Halcyon's approach would combine power generation on the flood and ebb tides with pumping.  Atiya claims that the tides within the cove will rise and fall just as if the tidal wing were not there.

Where does Halycon want to build?  First, a demonstration project at Half Moon Cove.

June 10, 2010 - tidal power in Maine in the 1930s

I've been reading the 1937 Federal Writers' Project book Maine - A Guide 'Down East' in the past days. I was first drawn to the description of my home territory, including the tide mill at Winnegance. This reading in turn pointed me at the grand Passamaquoddy Power Project.

It is interesting to see how writers in 1937 viewed the linkage between tidal energy development and economic development and growth . Take, for example, the Guide's description of Lubec:

LUBEC (alt. 80, Lubec Town, pop. 2983), 11 m., has had greatly increased activity since the beginning of the Passamaquoddy Power Project (see Tour 1N). It is a picturesque seaside village with beautiful views of surrounding bays and coves.

At the time, Maine was viewed as having vast mineral resources, needing only affordable energy to develop:

The clays that form enormous deposits around Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Bays and elsewhere are particularly rich and promising sources of bauxite, the only ore of aluminum now in commercial use. The existence of cheap power, which the completed tide-harnessing project at Quoddy would supply, should make the development of this important resource economically possible.

Maine - A Guide 'Down East' at 10.

The description of the Passamaquoddy Project echoes these values:

The electricity generated at Quoddy would be greater than the combined capacity of all existing power stations in the State, and would supply cheap power to farms throughout Maine and to industries which might be encouraged to enter the region. It was hoped by advocates of the project that the newly created opportunities for manufacturing would bring about the development of the State's mineral deposits.

You probably don't think of Maine as a hub of mining and refining powered by tidal power.  The Passamaquoddy Power Project was never completed.   Lubec and Quoddy were hives of activity for several brief years in the mid-1930s, as hundreds of men and women descended on the area to construct a number of dams for the project.  Dams were built between several key points and islands, including tidal dikes built between Treat Island and Dudley Island and from the Pleasant Point Passamaquoddy Reservation to Carlow Island, and then connecting to Moose Island, which makes up the bulk of Eastport.

After all this excitement and activity, the project was ultimately canceled.  Congressional support was pulled.  In the ensuing 70 years, the government has renewed its interest in the tidal power of Passamaquoddy Bay several times, although the lack of consistent support and direction may be responsible for the lack of any completed projects.  I'll look at why this may be in the coming days.