Portland company installs wind turbine

A Portland business was recognized today as the first manufacturer in Maine to use a privately owned wind turbine to generate electricity.Paradigm Window Solutions, on Riverside Industrial Parkway, unveiled a wind turbine this afternoon that’s expected to generate as much as 800 kilowatt hours each month.

The turbine, which is visible from the Maine Turnpike, will save the window manufacturer about $850 a year in electricity costs. It also will reduce the demand for electricity from traditional power plants, which release greenhouse gases.

- Mainetoday

Saco puts up wind turbine

A new wind turbine was erected Tuesday on Saco Island. The 30-foot high wind turbine will help power the city’s largest energy consumer, the wastewater treatment plant.In addition, a geothermal heating system is being installed to heat the building, as well as solar heat panels on a new grit-handling building.The city expects to save over 7,000 gallons of fuel a year, thanks to the new technology.

- WCSH6

UPDATE:  Here is some more info and photos – The Vigorous North 

More green building at UMaine

I was over at USM recently and they had an impressive poster pointing out the various ‘green’ efforts they have undertaken on campus. From geothermal heating to biofueled buses, they are clearly not just talking about being green. And now two UMaine Farmington buildings received LEED certification.

Two newly-constructed “green” buildings at University of Maine at Farmington have received official LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the United States Green Building Council.

The Education Center that houses the UMF College of Education, Health and Rehabilitation and Frances Allen Black Hall, a student residence building, offer financially viable alternatives to traditional building methods.

- MaineToday

Methane from landfill

Maybe not the solution to our energy problems, but it helps.

That’s exactly what a new electrical generating facility at Pine Tree Landfill does. It captures methane gas from the decomposing trash.

“Just like a compost pile in your backyard, that waste decomposes,” Meagher said. “The landfill it’s decomposing without oxygen so a product of that is methane.”

Currently, most of the methane from the landfill is being burned off. But the new generator will put the gases to work, creating renewable energy.

“The methane is very much like natural gas in terms of a fuel,” Meagher told NEWS CENTER. “It goes to the engine, the engine runs, it turns a generator, and that generator produces electricity. And then it goes out onto the grid and into homes and businesses.”

- WLBZ2

Kennebunk school goes solar

A $35,000 grant from the Maine Public Utilities Commission and $10,000 in local investments add up to a solar energy project at the Middle School of the Kennebunks.

The school installed 33 photovoltaic panels, which produce electricity. Students can monitor how much electricity is being generated, as well as other benefits from the project, on line. – more

- WLBZ2

Why aren’t we manufacturing wind turbines?

With the State’s history of ship building, wind turbines seem to be a good fit.

China will leap to be the top wind turbine producer in 2009, transforming an already fast-growing renewable energy sector, a leading wind power industry official said.Steve Sawyer, secretary general of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), said wind could supply 12 percent of world electricity needs by 2020 against just over one percent in 2007 in a shift that would help curb climate change.Sawyer said that installations of wind power consistently outstripped growth forecasts. “We’ve been projecting that the rate of growth will slow down to below 20 percent for some years now, but 2007 looks like being more than 25 percent,” he said.

Of the 2007 totals of 17-19 gigawatts new capacity, about four were installed in the United States, three in China and between eight and 10 in Europe. “It’s far and away the fastest growing part of the energy sector,” he said.

“We still haven’t cracked Latin America,” Sawyer said, adding that many countries have “tremendous wind resources”.

- Reuters

More windpower considered

The Land Use Regulation Commission is considering two more wind projects.

On Monday morning, the Land Use Regulation Commission will take up a preliminary development plan by Maine Mountain Power LLC to rezone 487 acres for a scaled-back, 18-turbine project on Black Nubble Mountain in Redington and Wyman townships.

In the afternoon, LURC weighs the preliminary plan by TransCanada Maine Wind Development Inc. and Plum Creek Maine Timberlands LLC to rezone 2,367 acres for a 44-turbine project in Kibby and Skinner townships. Both wind projects are in western Maine’s Franklin County.

- AP

UPDATE:

LURC approved one of the two projects.

By a four–two vote Monday morning, the commission rejected the Black Nubble Wind Farm, which proposed 18 turbines on that Franklin County mountain.

In the afternoon, the citizen board unanimously approved the 132 megawatt Kibby Wind Power Project, which calls for placing 44 turbines on Kibby Mountain and Kibby Range, both in Franklin County.

Wind power debate

Sam Merrill writes about the two sides of the wind power debate in Maine.

On one side are those who raise concerns about habitat fragmentation, roads, invasive species, aesthetic blight and the chance that birds and bats, in particular, could be killed. Many of their concerns are legitimate in that the resources at issue may well be adversely affected by the proposed turbines, especially in sensitive habitat areas.

On the other side are wind power advocates, many state and local officials and a combination of environmental groups that trumpet the need for additional renewable energy sources in Maine to combat global warming.

Unlike the first contingent of resource advocates, the second group has decided that the site-specific concerns about the effects on a particular species or habitat are less important than the larger-scale concerns about the Earth itself.

- PressHerald

Wind farm approved in Washington County

More wind power coming to the State.

Maine’s wilderness zoning board has given final approval to a 57-megawatt wind farm in northern Washington county that would be largest such project in New England.

The Land Use Regulation Commission voted 5-0 Wednesday, with two members absent, in favor of the plan by Evergreen Wind Power to install 38 turbines on Stetson Mountain, a ridge line that stretches between Danforth and Springfield.

- A.P.

Energy fund to provide fuel, efficiency assistance

 The Ellsworth American reports on the Eastern Maine Funders’ Energy Initiative, which will have $521,000 for fuel assistance and energy efficiency efforts in eastern Maine.

The group’s first Energy Initiative invested half of its funding in emergency fuel deliveries and the other half in weatherizing homes to decrease the need for assistance. The group found that there was a return of up to $5 saved for every $1 invested in home weatherization.

Eastern Maine Funders (EMF) is a project of the Maine Philanthropy Center. The group is coordinating with industry and government representatives, as well as with social service providers, to ensure that Energy Initiative investments result in the highest possible savings for homeowners.

Energy Costs Continue to Rise

More incentives to increase our own energy production.

The state energy office says the average cash price for home heating oil has grown 6 cents since the last survey two weeks ago, to $3.28 per gallon. That’s 97 cents higher than at the same time last year.

Likewise, kerosene prices were up by 5 cents, to $3.67 per gallon. But propane was actually down by a penny a gallon, to $2.95 per gallon.

The survey, released Monday, showed a range from a low price of $2.99 per gallon in southwestern Maine to as much as $3.41 per gallon in eastern Maine. – AP

Maine got more expensive to do business

The Milken Institute’s calculations find the costs to do business in Maine going up.

The biggest mover in this year’s index was Maine, moving up 11 spots to 17th from 28th, thanks in large part to higher electricity costs, which jumped from six percent above the national average in the 2006 rankings to 43 percent above the national average in this year’s rankings.

The Cost-of-Doing-Business Index measures wage costs, taxes, electricity costs and real estate costs for industrial and office space.

Residential Windmills

Bangor Daily reports on the growing number of individuals in Maine putting up their own windmills.

Stephen Hallee, president of Green Ridge Wind Farms in Belfast, said recently that his company has erected more than 40 residential windmills since 2004, mostly in coastal locations from Saco to Dennysville.

The initial cost to put up a windmill ranges from $12,000 to $15,000, according to Greig and Hallee, but laws mandate that electric companies must credit the homeowner or small business for any power produced as it is fed back into the regional power grid.

Bucksport to look into alternative energy

The Ellsworth American reports on Bucksport’s new committee to consider energy sources.

The Bucksport Town Council voted unanimously at its Dec. 13 meeting to approve a resolution creating an energy committee for the town.

The committee would investigate alternative energy and conservation projects.

“I think we have an obligation to our citizens to pursue this,” Town Manager Roger Raymond told the council.

The idea for the committee arose about a year ago when the council authorized Raymond to pursue the possibility of using wind power to provide electricity for several publicly owned facilities in Bucksport.

Since then, the city has received several proposals from companies that build wind turbines.

One possible wind power site was the town’s wastewater treatment facility. Another was proposed at the middle school.

The energy committee would review these proposals as well as investigate other alternative energy sources, such as natural gas and geothermal energy.

College of the Atlantic offsets emissions

The College of the Atlantic has become the first college to purchase carbon offsets for all of their emissions.  MaineToday:

The college said it has offset its entire emissions output of 2,488 tons over the past 15 months by investing in a greenhouse gas reduction project in Oregon.  ..

The college has undertaken a number of steps to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Last month, it began buying all its electricity through a hydroelectric generator, which will reduce its carbon emissions by 22 percent next year.

The college also has begun improving the energy efficiency of its buildings. Where possible, it has replaced fluorescent light bulbs and encouraged car pools, bicycling and flexible work schedules so that some employees can work at home.

To become carbon neutral, the college is buying carbon offsets for about $25,000 through The Climate Trust of Oregon. Carbon offsets aim to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by investing in carbon-reduction programs to offset emissions generated elsewhere.