SEARSPORT, Maine — Workers unloading wind turbine components Tuesday morning at the Mack Point industrial port looked like busy ants as they toiled near the giant cylinders that will become the towers for the Bull Hill Wind Project in Hancock County.
The $76 million project, developed by First Wind and expected to be completed in November, will include 19 turbines built on about 100 acres in Township 16 MD near Eastbrook. It should generate 34 megawatts of power, or enough electricity for 18,000 homes.
And it’s a good example of the way that wind projects add to the local and statewide economies, according to proud officials from First Wind, general contractor Reed & Reed and Sprague Energy, which runs the terminal.
“We can’t stress enough the economic benefits of these projects,” Pat DeFilipp of Reed & Reed said at a wind-buffeted press conference on the bulk dock. “We’ll spend 150,000 work hours on this project. That’s several million dollars worth of payroll.”
Behind him, the tower components that came from Denmark were gently raised off the cargo ship and then lowered onto flatbed trucks. They’ll be stored at Mack Point until the 165-foot-long turbine blades from Colorado are shipped to Maine by rail. Then, when the parts are all together, they will make the trek across Waldo and Hancock counties to the Bull Hill site for assembly.
Members of the Land Use Regulation Commission unanimously voted in October — with one abstention — to give the green light for Maine’s largest wind energy company to build the rural Hancock County wind farm. It will be First Wind’s fifth project in Maine.
The others are the Mars Hill wind project in Aroostook County, the Rollins Wind project in Penobscot County and the Stetson Wind and Stetson Wind II projects, both in Washington County.
DeFilipp, Dave Fowler of First Wind and Tim Winters, the Sprague Energy terminal manager, said they wanted to give the public a chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at the often-controversial wind industry in Maine.
“I just think it’s important the community understands this,” Fowler said.
Like all proposals for commercial wind farms in Maine, the Bull Hill project faced opposition from some residents and other Mainers who argue that grid-scale wind energy projects spoil the landscape and harm wildlife while generating little electricity.
Lynne Williams, a Bar Harbor attorney representing members of the group Concerned Citizens of Rural Hancock County, said after the LURC decision that her clients would be disappointed with the ultimate outcome, but pleased that more stringent standards were applied to the Bull Hill project.
Over the last five years, more than 200 turbines have come to or through Maine through Mack Point. It’s a part of the economy that has grown, even as the terminal’s usual imports slowed down during the Great Recession.
“For Sprague, wind has been a godsend,” said Tim Winters, the terminal manager. “This activity has allowed us to avoid layoffs.”
In that time frame, companies have invested nearly a billion dollars in the state’s wind industry, Fowler said.
While wind energy has been the recipient of government incentives, it’s no more than in any other energy industry, he said.
And the energy produced in wind farms here has been used in Maine as well as outside the borders.
“That makes it an export,” Fowler said. “I think it’s just as important an export as blueberries and lobster.”
Right now, he said, 100 people are working at the Bull Hill site to build roads and the turbine foundations. First Wind already has a buyer for the energy generated there — the Boston-based NSTAR.
When the site is operational, it will help add a significant amount of money to Hancock County. First Wind will pay more than $100,000 annually in taxes to the county, $20,000 per year to Eastbrook, $20,000 per year to the Downeast Salmon Federation and a $200,000 community benefit to Hancock County. First Wind also will construct a 150-foot-tall communication tower to be used by the area 911 system.
And leaves the skyline forever changed. Install the wind turbines offshore, in the Gulf of Maine. I’m sure the lobsters won’t mind.
Oh, but the lobsters will mind. Imagine the impact of the low frequency sound waves that emanate from wind turbines on lobster larvae which float freely around the Gulf of Maine. If these sound waves have been proven to explode the lungs of bats, the delicate lobster larvae don’t stand a chance. Wind power is bogus. It doesn’t work and is the most costly way of generating electricity whether on land or sea.
Agreed. Curious as to the engineering behind it, but I do think I read a paper on energy of the sea that explored tidal turbines as well as off-off shore wind, and it touched on it a bit, guess I’ll have to dig through my old text books to find it.
Install a turbine in Washington, there’s enough hot wind down there to power the whole coast!
I’ve been in Texas where they have wind mills, more than all the other states combined. UGLY. But they put the nasty things in an ugly place too… nothing much to look at there. Dead birds galore and one nuclear power plant could replace them all with leftover energy. Texas does it all but these windmills wouldn’t exist without your taxes.
Compared to Acadia National Park’s viewscape and the state-owned and previously “protected” lands on Schoodic Mt. and the Donnell Pond Public Reserved Land, yes, indeed, Texas is UGLY! Do people forget that these 459 foot tall (as tall as a 45 story Boston skyscraper) behemoth machines will be visible in the views of some of Maine’s most beautiful areas? It is a travesty!
Turbines made in Denmark. Was recently in Gidead, west of Bethel and saw turbine components made in Northern Spain by a company called Gamesa.
Why aren’t these being made in the US? Because we are backwards, dull, and fail to understand that millions of people are out of work because good manufacturing jobs are not happening here. The GOP sits on its thumbs holding up every job stimulating effort made by anyone, whining about jobs, and yet does nothing to promote alternative energy manufacturing… the need for alternative energy products is a hoax, and they aren’t even listening to the small business entrepenuers that would jump at the chance to dive into small scale alternative energy manufacturing if they had the policy, tax, and investment support a SENSIBLE energy policy would give them… We are our own worst enemies.
You may wish to read the following about how the Danish have rejected wind turbines, just one of many things the U.S. wind industry propagandists don’t want us to know:
An ill wind blows for Denmark’s green energy revolution. Denmark has long been a role model for green activists, but now it has become one of the first countries to turn against the turbines.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/denmark/7996606/An-ill-wind-blows-for-Denmarks-green-energy-revolution.html
Why can’t Maine be energy independent? Because all of our power is going to Boston…. Throw a few hundred thousand dollars around and everyone thinks it’s a good deal.. Think about it, we’re ruining our hillsides and views to send power out of state. I’m not an environmentalist either. Put up as many towers as you want, but Maine should require that a certain percentage of power being generated by renewable energy be used to offset utility bills in THIS state.. Let Irving (Canada) mine our gold, let Boston have our renewable energy. What’s left for Maine? Lobster?
This is just horrific and I am sick to think about the mess this is creating. King Angus won the fight, but the war has only just begun. And, this to send half the energy created to Beacon Hill. What are you people thinking? I wouldn’t be so upset if they had first installed a couple on Beacon Hill and Munjoy Hill. That’s fair. Or perhaps downtown Brunswick.
Why are we buying into a dead energy plan that was unsuccessful forty years ago and will never be viable? Windmills account for less than one percent of the energy generated, it is unreliable energy and will never be successful. We are being led like lambs to the slaughter and we go willingly ruining our beautiful state at no benefit to us. Only the owners are benefiting big time. Let’s get a grip and stop the destruction.
It is not a “Windmill” it is a turbine. Windmills are used for mechanical action. These turbines have controllers that significantly increase their ability to harness the kinetic energy available from the wind. They are more efficient and better built than any predecessor. These turbines will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in electrical energy. If we do not adopt more and start learning more about them then our competitors will fill the technological gap created. Even being an unreliable source it greatly reduces our dependency on coal and nuclear and the environmental implications of such dirty technologies. Every time there is a difference in temperature there is wind. If you are talking about offshore then there is a heightened occurrence due to the changing temperature from land to sea and vice versa. Get in or get out but don’t stand in the way.
Well, if we are going to get into semantics, it is not a wind “farm”, either. It is a sprawling industrial site. And you don’t “harvest” wind. If we start settling for 25% to 30% capacity factor as “efficient”, we are in big trouble. What wind turbines produce in their fickle trickle of unpredictable, unreliable production is a farce in the total demands of the ISO New England grid.
There is no proof that wind “greatly reduces our dependency on coal and nuclear and the environmental implications of such dirty technologies.” I would argue that if one were to total up the “carbon footprint” of a wind turbine in it’s manufacturing of its components, transport from halfway around the world, the horrendous carbon spewing of heavy equipment powered by diesel for site prep & access roads, that the typical turbine likely doesn’t offset the amount of carbon in its likely 15 year lifetime in Maine weather that it created. Wind power is simply bad economics, based on poor science, supported by misquided public policy. It is ruinous to Maine and doesn’t belong anywhere in our beautiful and wind-poor state.
I would like to know where you get your misguided information from. A “wind farm” is exactly what a wind production site is called. The betz limit dictates that the highest percentage is 59.3% and most current designs are above 50%. They obviously reduce dependency on coal and nuclear any time the power is not coming from those two kinds of power production. It is what some would call “common sense.” You can argue that the carbon footprint offsets any production but that is just another load of BS coming out of your “wanna be” technical conclusions. A wind turbine has an effective life of 25 years. In that time if there is proper preventative maintenance then that is greatly increased. Some are in service 35 plus years. The only thing based on poor science is your response. It is a technology that needs to be improved upon. If we don’t do it China will, the same as solar. In that time it will produce taxable revenue at a predictable level. That amount lends itself to make it easy enough to replace or repair any problems. I know alot of people that like the look of turbines on a hill. I think that is beautiful. It is exactly what our state needs.
I just read your reply again. Did you say that Maine is a “wind poor state”? OMG Please look at this; http://mocoalliance.org/wp-content/upload/us-wind-map.jpg This is a real map of wind resources saying that Maine is “outstanding.”
“While wind energy has been the recipient of government incentives, it’s no more than in any other energy industry, he said.”
BULL.
Wind gets 90 times per MW what oil and natural gas get in subsidies. And about three times more than oil and gas COMBINED on an absolute basis.
Sources? I’m curious how they got the numbers. Even if they government subsidized 80% of the industry, 80% of that industry in dollars pales in comparison to the billions received as a .01% of oil. It’s all about scale.
Food for thought: Top three tax sources for fossil fuels 2008-2009 totalled appx. 36.5 billion. Top three for renewables was 20 billion. Personally, I don’t think government should be in the subsidy business anyway. (source: http://www.elistore.org/Data/products/d19_07.pdf)
This site says that fossil fuel subsidies total $72 billion, though I haven’t had time to vet the sources : http://www.good.is/post/what-if-solar-were-subsidized-like-oil
Figures lie, and liars figure — calculating subsidies on a per kwh basis is gratuitous at best.
While I don’t approve, at all, of the way these subsidies serve as nothing more than corporate welfare, I do believe that we would do well, as a State, to utilize wind resources.
Wind and solar are diffuse resources. Though corporate shareholders want to control the electricity generated via large, centralized “farms”, it is simply inefficient.
Smaller windmills scattered on various properties; solar panels on every roof — oh, but there is no return for shareholders if users own the electricity generated? Too &%$& bad!
Of course the advocates say its good. Just like in 10 years the junk dealers will make a killing selling scrapped windmills back to the Chinese for steel
I think wind farms are beautiful! Driving across the Great Plains during sunset, or flying over the farms in upstate NY, they are so awe inspiring…you can see why Don Quixote got confused! A marvel of engineering, they are. Also, it’s pretty common knowledge that house cats kill 500 million cute innocent birdies a year…so reign in that puss!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/science/21birds.html
“The American Bird Conservancy generally supports the development of wind
energy, but it argues that wind farms should be “bird smart” — for
example, positioned so that they do not interfere with major migration
paths or disturb breeding grounds, with their power lines buried to
prevent collisions.”
Per article linked above. Wind energy – like all energy- must be developed responsibly, but it MUST be developed, along with other sources of green energy. 440,000 -1,000,000 may die a year from turbines, but a lot more will die if the global temperature increases meet the predictions, or if we all nuke each other oil.
The ABC may want windsprawl to be bird smart, but the developers sited turbines in the Mississippi flyway anyway. They will do whatever they want and have a powerful well funded(tax dollars) lobbying group the AWEA to espouse wind mythology repetitiously as if repeating enough times will make it true. Lies and wind fiction are not good business, nor are Enron-esque energy schemes. Wind MUST NOT be developed at the expense of the Maine outdoors.
So, I guess you didn’t really read any of my post.
“Wind energy – like all energy- must be developed responsibly”
Oh well, can’t win them all.
There is no way to develop wind energy “responsibly”—whatever that may mean—in Maine. Just take the Rollins project in Lincoln Lakes as an example. The thieves from Worst Wind got $53 million of taxpayer money (ARRA Sec. 1603 funds) to pay 30% of the construction cost of a wind project that doesn’t produce even 25% of it’s nameplate capacity of 60 MW (FERC data). Do the numbers: If $53 million is 30%, it means the project cost roughly $176 million. 25% of 60 MW is 15MW of unpredictable, unreliable, intermittent electricity. Not a good investment, folks!
For this, the beautiful Lincoln Lakes region of rolling hardwood ridges and 13 lakes, with Mt. Katahdin looming nearby and the gateway to the magnificent Downeast Grand Lakes, gets 40 GE turbines, 389 feet tall marring the landscape. Seven miles of ridges were blasted, leveled, and scalped to put up the monstrous machines, with 1,000 acres (turbine site, access road & powerline to Mattawamkeag combined) of carbon-sequestering forest permanently clear cut. Hundreds of waterfont property owners have had their properties de-valued and many are experiencing noise problems. The real estate market for waterfront homes and seasonal cottages with views of turbines and the thumping and roaring of turbines in place of the calls of the loons is not very big.
What a sad legacy!
To all readers – the next time you read some bald faced pro-wind lies in an online post, consider that the blogger may be employed by an organization that has made this commenting part of his or her job. The employer could be a wind company but also a wind industry law firm, engineering firm, a paid off so called environmental group, an ornithologist who rigs bird studies, etc.
It is now established fact that many of the pro-wind comments we see in online reader comments are the result of paid bloggers or bloggers otherwise employed by the wind industry or their mercenaries in the paid off environmental organizations.
The following directives are taken from the Board of Directors of the American Wind Energy Association 11/2/11 meeting materials.
“Respond quickly to unfavorable articles by posting comments online, using the AWEA blog and twitter, and putting out press releases”.
” • Work with Grassroots team to recruit and activate a “Wind Army,” identifying state, member and third-party surrogates to spread AWEA messages. Results: • Quadrupled size of online community from February to October,building online advocacy list from 25,000 to 113,000; plus LinkedIn at 8,000, Twitter at 12,500, Facebook at 37,000, for a total online community of more than 172,000 and still rapidly growing”.
Also, I cannot find a record of those minutes. Link please? I’m genuinely curious.
Speaking of spam, while searching for these minutes, I found your exact post, verbatim, on several other sites under several other handles. And the only evidence I found of a grassroots effort to save the internet from wind was this article (taken with a grain of salt as it is a RE journal) accusing anti-wind folks of doing just that:
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/05/memo-group-wants-to-create-fake-grassroots-wind-subversion-campaign-that-should-appear-as-a-groundswell
”
The leader of the group was John Droz, Jr, a long-time wind opponent
and a senior fellow at the ultra-conservative American Tradition
Institute. ATI calls itself an “environmental” think tank. The
organization, known best for suing climate scientist Michael Mann, is devoted to spreading doubt about climate change, opposing state-level renewable energy targets, and stripping away environmental regulations.
The ATI is so extreme that it was denounced by
the American Association for the Advancement of Science for
contributing to an “environment that inhibits the free exchange of
scientific findings and ideas.”
Nice work.
So two wrongs make a right? Your logic is flawed and sophomoric. The Great Plains do not have Maine’s beautiful lakes or mtns. . There are major flyways which also happen to be where the steadiest wind is, a fact not lost on the developers. They have the same attitude of “conquering nature” the dam builders had while ignoring the env. damage their hastily engineered junk is responsible for. What wind company do you work for, and why do you hate the Maine outdoors?
Since you have already made up your mind, I’m sure this won’t matter, but I don’t work for a wind power company. Far from it, I work in an industry dependent on tourism in the mountains that can frequently be at odds with the wind industry. I also began my career in the outdoors guiding in the woods of Maine, but again you said I hate it, so I must just want to burn it all down.
What are your suggestions for an energy independent Maine or America? Preferably clean – natural gas is cheap, but it won’t last forever and it’s not solving and of our real root problems. I agree, wind is not the answer – at least not the only answer. Our success as an economy and a beautiful state depends on a well developed matrix of alternative energy needs. Personally, I’m a huge fan of solar. I have it on my house and have been energy positive for years, the system paid for itself two years early.
Alas, I’m not sure where this ‘wind power industry is the devil’ comes from, I have yet to see any reliable sources explaining their greed beyond what a normal American company seeks for success (but I would seriously like to see them). Folks will really let the Haliburton’s and Wal Mart’s of the world have their way with us, but complain about wind power companies?
Put the cats on treadmills…birds live….electricity generated. Problem fixed.
Now, on to that pesky European debt issue…..I’ll get back to you.
It’ll be like that commercial where the guy gets the hamsters to row to power his computer. I like it. Doubt PETA will go for it though!
First Wind and other wind industry types must be thrilled to get this free advertising space in the BDN. This isn’t news, it’s a wind advocacy piece.
What the wind promoters in this article fail to mention is that without the government’s continued help and state mandates forcing consumers to buy wind energy, their industry would not exist.
Without the government’s continued financial support, the beef industry would cease to exist. How come we’re not screaming about that?
BANGOR DAILY NEWS, why don’t you ask how much revenue will be generated annually by these turbines? Then we can compare numbers and see if it is as good of a deal as you are promoting, and you’ll have a real story on your hands.
Do you really believe that putting wind turbines on mountains in Maine is going have any real impact on global climate? Can we see your data?
what a crock of you know what. the only people making money with this are the idiots building the farms, getting tax breaks and getting rich!
OMG. SO negative. SO NIMBY. Do you own the land these are being built on?
NO!
Then by what right do you deny another land owner their right to do what they want on their land?
Because it spoils your view of…what…their land?
How about I complain about that pile of crap you have next to your house? It spoils my view. And your dog howls all night and it disturbs my sleep. And that manure you spread in your garden smells real bad and offends me.
Do I now have the right to tell you what you can and cannot have on your property?
Think about this people. You are claiming rights to other persons property that you would never want anyone to have over yours.
I guess you have a problem with the concept of zoning laws, huh?
YES YOU DO!!! If I am bothering you or doing something to reduce your property value, you have every right to tell me what to do. Stop the property rights baloney. These (Haynes) people have been the beneficiaries for years of tax breaks, while we make up the difference for what they do not pay. Part of the Tree Growth program stipulates they will get a break If they allow use of their roads , for instance. There are many more examples. Why do so many people not care what these greedy developers are doing to OUR state? (for Massachusetts)
In te case of Rose v. Chaikin, the noise of a wind turbine was ruled a “noise nuisance”. Chaiken erected a wind turbine at his residence. When the noise exceeded levels permissible under the zoning ordinance, Rose and neighbors initiated a law suit to enjoin the operation of the wind turbine. Due to th unreasonable character, volume, frequency, duration, time and locality of the noise, the court issued an injunction against any further operation of the wind turbine. These same type of lawsuits are ongoing in Maine, this time against industrial wind turbines.
The reality of wind power in Maine is it creates short term construction jobs as well as short term related jobs such as that of the Portland lawyer who is paid to say that fishermen on Maine’s pristine lakes care not for the scenery, but only the fish. Or jobs for so called biologists who will make pronouncements at the Vinalhaven wind site that “there are no bats on Vinalhaven”.
We cannot dispute these jobs. They are real, but temporary.
NRCM and other wind cheerleaders have stepped way out of their bailiwicks and weighed in on job creation. You’ll hear them talk about the 300 Maine companies that have benefited from wind projects. What they don’t tell you is some of those they’ve counted have done little more than sell a few boxes of nails. No matter how trivial they count them. Another thing they will not tell you is that 300 companies, with all due respect, represent but a tiny fraction of Maine’s 34,942 firms according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
http://www.census.gov/econ/susb/
Moreover, there is no mention about the strain that wind power’s inevitable higher electricity rates place on all 34,942 firms. Without question, our high electricity rates are a MAJOR obstacle to our existing businesses and attracting new businesses. So while some of the largest companies can afford to dispatch their workers complete with construction vests to hearings to testify for wind projects (and they exit in mass at 4PM), these are but a vocal minority. The vast majority of Maine businesses will be affected very adversely if we keep protecting these wind companies at the expense of lower priced electricity providers.
Also, tourism and “Quality of Place” will be hurt.
So you would rather import oil from the middle east at $100 barrel?
Why do you think wind turbines will have any impact on oil use? They won’t. Coal will not be affected either. The carbon debt from building these monstrosities will never be repaid. Our energy prices will rise. Denmark, where this crap comes from, has seen elec. prices rise 300%. No wonder they want to sell to us, they cannot afford their own industry!!!
Coal is the most common fossil fuel burned to produce energy, if we can get energy elsewhere, we would burn less coal. If you seriously think that it is better to burn coal at a power plant for decades than the relatively one-off impact of building a turbine, then I supposed there is no helping your ‘flawed and sophomoric logic’. That’s like saying you’d rather get a dollar every day for a week than get $20 by waiting to get paid on day 8.
Despoiling Maine’s mountaintops is a “relatively one-off impact?” That has got to be one of the most ridiculous statements I’ve read in support of wind farms. If investments were made in public transport and home energy efficiency improvements, we would burn less coal and would not destroy Maine’s landscape. Neither of those pursuits would produce anywhere near the destruction of these wind farms. There are better, more cost effective alternatives than these destructive wind farms.
Let me let out the “Big Sigh” first, as I post for the umpteenth time: there is No connection between wind power in Maine and importing oil. Less than 2% of the electricity generated in the USA comes from oil-fired generation and it would be considerably less except for Hawaii. Don’t believe me? Just look at your “standard offer” for electricity in your next CMP or BH bill and see the percentages of electricity generation by source.
There is absolutely No justification for the destruction of Maine’s mountains for the folly of wind. None! Except to satisfy mis-guided ideologies that are not founded in either science or economics and to line the pockets of thieves like First Wind with taxpayer money. First Wind—the always nearly bankrupt company that took in $53 million of taxpayer money at the end of 2011–no strings attached as a ARRA Sec. 1603 payment–for constructing the Rollins Wind project in Lincoln Lakes, which has 25% capacity factor. What a scam!
industrial wind has nothing to do with mid east oil…..study the facts please.
Why don’t you share your “facts” with us?
49 % of our “oil” comes from the USA. 13% from the Mid East (our friend, Saudi Arabia) the rest from elsewhere. (not Mid East)
Just look at “TruthinMaine”s comment posted above. To take it one step further, of the top 5 oil exporting countries to the USA, only one, Saudi Arabia is from the middle east. The top 2 are Canada and Mexico, respectively, and the last time I looked, they were friendly nations with whom we share a border and a great deal of other trade. The other 2 of the top 5 are Venezuela and Nigeria.
Or in 1o years, $500 a barrel…???
so you would rather import million dollar turbines from overseas rather than pursue “off the grid” and “green” hydro?
Thank you! A real articulate argument against wing power that doesn’t devolve into ‘kills da birds!’ and ‘wind power companies are crooks!’
I think you are absolutely spot on. In many areas, especially the NE, large scale farms don’t make sense. Small scale gets interesting…in 2011 a ski resort in VT installed a single wind turbine. It immediately reduced their energy consumption (that’s the wrong word, but I think you know what I mean) by 1/8, or the equivalent of 40-45 households. That’s huge! If my company could cut our power bill by 1/8, you bet we’d do it! Unfortunately wind power isn’t an option for us, but there are many single turbines in our area that the owners rave about.
The following link is a link to the recent Maine Republican U.S. senate candidate debate on MPBN. At the 14 minute mark there is a question on wind power. EVERY candidate was against it. When Subsidy looter Angus King enters the fray, he will get torn apart on his fraudulent scheme of wind subsidies. What a farce of an energy source. What a bunch of crooks.
http://video.mpbn.net/video/2242839005/
If you are pro eagle chopping turbines you don’ belong in Maine.
Amen!
Sick!
The Big Wind Scam is running out of steam as more and more see it as the steaming pile it is…Which is why King Angus is looking for a new job to line his pockets with more taxpayer money…What I find even more amusing is the number of people still willing to vote for the fool…
U.S. Dept of Labor testimony on what jobs it counts as being “Green
Fri Jun 8, 2012 4:38 am (PDT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpQ47t7Yx6Q
Start watching from the 3:15 mark of this video to its end. It is U.S. Dept of Labor testimony on what jobs it counts as being “Green Jobs”.
Come on, where is there any journalistic integrity in this “puff piece”? The scourge of industrial wind development is a controversy that is tearing apart the state’s rural communities and this reporter can only re-cycle an old comment from Lynne Williams to counter all the overblown hype in the rest of the article? Did Abigail Curtis get a big stipend from First Wind to write this for them? Is there an editor at the BDN who has the integrity to ask where is the balance in the story? There are well known leaders who have diligently opposed these developments and a large citizens’ truth squad who would be very willing to counter every bit of this article. A Journalism professor would give this a failing grade.
Wind energy has received enormous taxpayer subsidies for years now, but remains relatively insignificant in terms of its contribution to aggregrate energy production. It seems that wind energy has failed to take off despite taxpayer support (except in Maine) because it faces substantial market problems. First, its an intermittent power source and a wind farm with a generation capacity of 1,000 megawatts and having a generation capacity of 35% would require 144,000 – 192,000 acres. However, a 1,ooo megawatt gas-fired plant requires about 10-15 acres, but Maine would rather have wind blown energy that’s not ready for prime time.
Yay more windmills that make people FEEL good but do absolutely nothing to lower power bills. Let us also not forgot all those who have to look at the monstrous things.
You cannot have a strong economy when there are RPS being put in place by dumb, pandering politicians in the states that belong to RGGI. That, as much as the PTC, drives wind power. It will mandate that we get arbitrary percentages of electricity from wind power, the most feckless and most costly form of electricity generation. It might be only a blip now, but what happens when 30% or 40% or more of our electricity is mandated from this expensive source. It is not just the turbines, either, as the transmission expansion and technology to integrate wind into a stable producing real-time grid will layer tens of billions of dollars in extra expenses onto ratepayers. Already, ISO-New England is saying that the grid is inadequate for the wind power generation envisioned in Maine even with the MPRP.
You cannot have a beautiful state when everywhere people go in rural Maine there are miles and miles of ridgelines with wind turbines as tall as 45 story Boston skyscrapers. These behemoth machines do not belong anywhere that I have been in Maine. You cannot have a beautiful state when hundreds of miles of Maine’s uplands are blasted apart, leveled, and scalped to install sprawling industrial wind turbines. You cannot have a beautiful state when our natural resources are destroyed and the “Quality of Place” is ruined. To quote the 2007 Brookings Institute report:
“In the long run, the slow degradation of Maine’s vivid and distinctive quality of place (and the reputation it supports) may be the greatest cost to Maine of all.”
The USA doesn’t build them (we don’t make anything anymore, it seems), they have to be purchased elsewhere (trade deficit) then schlepped thousands of miles using thousands of gallons of oil with it’s pollution, then the eye pollution in the self described “Vacationland!
Ya, that’s really the ‘green’ way to go. Might be just a bit more acceptable if the power stayed in-State.
There is no perpetual motion machine, and nothing is free…..
So First Wind is buying the tower components from Denmark? If they’re so proud of how much they’re “helping” create jobs in America, why do they import the towers?
“… enough electricity for 18,000 homes”? Hardly. Using the Dept of Energy figures it’s more like a town of 3000.
Fowler said: “While wind energy has been the recipient of government incentives, it’s no more than in any other energy industry.” That’s a lie. First, let’s call them what they are: subsidies. Wind receives far more dollars per megawatthour generated than any other energy source.
Fowler said: “I think it’s just as important an export as blueberries and lobster.” Baloney. Blueberries and lobsters belong here. 45-story tall turbines are not natural parts of our mountains. People come to Maine for mountains, lakes, blueberries and lobsters, not industrial wind turbines. In fact, many will STOP coming to Maine because of First Wind’s turbines.
Fowler said: “100 people are working at the Bull Hill site to build roads and the turbine foundations.” That’s very interesting because in yesterday’s interview with WABI-TV he said that construction isn’t scheduled to begin until July 1st. I guess when you lie, it’s hard to keep your lies straight!
34 MW @PenobScot:disqus
25% = 8.5 MW – “parasitic” draw. so less than 8,000 homes…..all these lies published in Maine media. jeeeeese…..please
The GOP, OWNED by BIG OIL, has planted lies about WIND which is FREE and does not pollute, and so many people believe the LIARS…. When gas and heating oil are $20.00 a gallon in just 10 years, maybe attitudes will change…. Efficient Electric cars will be developed by that time…., etc…
Instead of blasting new roads over the tops of our mountains and ridgelines, put these contractors to work fixing the roads and bridges we already have. This will provide jobs that benefit all Mainers, not just a small special interest group. Industrial wind will never replace any of our existing power sources. The only thing it has the power to do is destroy Maine’s tourism economy, which is its biggest and most reliable economic engine.
Thank you Anguish for the environmental disaster and high energy rates in Maine. REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER! Go Mr Summers.
Funny thing is that my electric bill was higher, dollar-for-noninflation adjusted-dollar, during the McKernan years than it is now, with ZERO change of habits or use on our end. Go figyuh.
Win farms is another big mistake the previous Governor left us with. It takes .37cent per Kilowatt hr to produce and you think this is good for our State. Watch you electric bill and tell me it’s ok in a few years.
Maybe some of da boys will pass the allen’s around this fall and see if a 30.06 will penetrate those genarators. If it’s about keeping people employed, same difference.
To redpoint 86. re: your comment: “Alas, I’m not sure where this ‘wind power industry is the devil’ comes from, I have yet to see any reliable sources explaining their greed beyond what a normal American company seeks for success (but I would seriously like to see them). Folks will really let the Haliburton’s and Wal Mart’s of the world have their way with us, but complain about wind power companies?” At least I haven’t read about Haliburton or Wal Mart being involved with the Mafia. If you google – wind power, first wind, mafia – you’ll come up with some very interesting information from some very reliable sources about wind power’s links to organized crime.
Yeah, but the funny thing about your “wind-power-mafia” rant is that IT IS IN ITALY, NOT IN MAINE. There is NOTHING pointing to any mafia connection for First Wind in the US and just a lot of inane adjectives like “mafia-connected” from the anti wind folks. Why don’t you move to North Carolina so you can vote to not allow the ocean to rise.
Hmmm wonder if they need delivery drivers.
So people really think that dead birds is a better choice to using coal.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/16/energy-in-america-dead-birds-unintended-consequence-wind-power-development/
I wonder who got the green kickbacks for this project.
Maybe they can install some ugly a** billboards on our roads too. Not like any of us have ever tried to enjoy Maine’s scenic views at some point in our lives.
I agree with what someone said on here once in regard to First Wind. How come a Massachusetts company has to come to Maine to leave their trash? Destroy your own state please…
I suppose those like EB would rather see thousands of OIL WELL DERRICKS in place of the wind turbines. Or a nuclear plant outside your back door. Or are you a nimby-you just don’t want them in YOUR back yard, but you’ll take the energy, thank you very much.
What’s wrong with hydro power? What was wrong with nuclear power? What’s wrong with Maine Yankee Cranky Yankee? We should have funded that with millions of dollars than these wind mills that are now beginning to cover the entire state and in some of the most pristine areas might I add. I may not have a nuclear plant in my back yard (if I did I’d like a job there!) but I do have a dam on one property and I don’t mind it at all! Clean, abundant, and easy on the eye.
waste of money.
To Cranky_Yanky. Thanks for your response to my comment about the wind industry’s links to organize crime. You are right – the Mafia is involved in the wind industry in Italy. There are several news reports about that, but you obviously didn’t go back far enough to Sicily’s mafia involment. Let’s suppose that you, Crany Yanky, decide to get involved in the wind industry in a big way in Europe. So you partner up with an individual who just happens to be one of the biggest Mafia Don’s on the continent. Maybe you are just naive. Anyway, the mafia police arrest this guy, and you hightail it back to the US and start another wind company. You change the name of the European wind business once you arrive on the US shores. Whether the company now called First Wind knew or not that it had partnered with the Mafia, we may never know, but the least we can say is that they had very bad business judgement. You say that the funny thing about my “wind-power-Mafia” rant is that it is in Europe (Italy) and not Maine. How do you know this that you can make that kind of a statement? As was stated in the reports I read, the mafia goes where the money is. There is huge money in industrial wind development. I am not saying that First Wind is connected with the Mafia in the United States, but the facts show that at least one principal who works for First Wind was connected to the Mafia in Europe – whether he knew it or not. This is all documented if you want to take the time to find it.
Bangor Daily posts pro-wind pieces for two or more days…..anti-wind…usually only for 1 day or less…
Vestas CEO sees US market down 80 pct in 2013
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/06/10/vestas-us-market-idINL5E8HA2SO20120610