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 

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.

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.

Kittery may invest in wind power

The Town of Kittery City Council approved a plan for 50-kilowatt turbine, which may produce up to 90,000 kilowatt-hours of energy each year.

On Monday night, the Town Council approved the project and voted to set aside $50,000 from the town’s matching grant fund and as much as $100,000 from its solid-waste reserve fund for the project. In October, the Maine Public Utilities Commission selected Kittery’s project for a $50,000 grant from its Voluntary Renewable Resources Fund.

Kittery’s project would power the trash transfer station and is expected to provide electricity for a portion of the nearby Shapleigh Middle School. In addition, the town would be able to sell renewable energy credits to buyers that want to reduce their carbon footprint.