Where Does Maine’s Power Come From?

While driving between the mountains of Vermont and Maine, we stopped to see the Moore reservoir/hydro station in New Hampshire.  It has been producing clean power (190 megawatts) since 1957. It got me thinking about where Maine’s electric power comes from.   Our local power company, Bangor Hydro, (not the only or biggest Maine power company) sends us an analysis of sources from time to time, though the data is out of date. While we compare favorably to the rest of New England with respect to renewable sources, it is disappointing to see hydro, wind and biomass total only 37%.  With time this will change.

“The Gulf of Maine is the Saudi Arabia of wind energy,” according to former governor Angus King, co-founder of  Independence Wind LLC, a firm that helps orchestrate the development of large scale on-shore and off-shore wind farm projects in New England. In the last few years our highways have been filled with turbine parts on their way to windy land sites, and these generators are quickly coming on line. Almost as quickly, the opposition has grown. Neighbors have complained of  noise which they claim results in stress, headaches and sleeplessness. Others worry about turbines disturbing bird migrations and causing scenery degradation. I guess there is no easy path toward zero emissions and energy independence. I hope the “nimbys” (not in my backyard) are as vocal when a new coal or nuclear plant is proposed 200 miles away.

Former Governor King is side stepping this nimby problem by focusing on the Gulf of Maine, far off shore. He goes on to say:

To put it in perspective the engineering calculations are there is something like 250,000 megawatts of potential wind electrical generation power in The Gulf of Maine.  To tell you what 250,000 megawatts is, all of New England today uses 30,000 megawatts. So its five times the electricity use of New England.”

According to King, electricity comprises only 10% of Maine’s energy usage; with the bulk  (50%) used for transportation and the rest (40%) heating our homes. By far the energy source for these uses is imported oil. Maine generated electric power could eventually replace oil as plug-in electric vehicles and heat pumps come on line.

Tidal power is another big possibility. With our tall tides and plentiful islands channeling robust currents, this source could provide very dependable power. The tide is not weather dependent! Tidewalker Associates is planning a 16 megawatt project in Cobbscook Bay, where the tides average 18 feet.

Ready for explosives. Courtesy Electric Power Research Institute

Maine Yankee, our only nuclear power plant, closed in 1997 and is no more-except the waste canisters. Vermont Yankee is teetering on the edge of closing. There are three reasons why I worry about nuclear. 1) Still no long term safe waste storage; 2) A very centralized source with an elite, and therefore culturally isolated/separated workforce; and 3) Doubts about the claim of zero emissions due to the ignoring of fossil fuel costs of  nuclear fuel processing, waste storage and plant decommissioning. As uranium ore becomes scarcer, less rich deposits are utilized, requiring more fossil fuel energy to purify. Never let anyone assert that nuclear energy is zero emission. It’s this sort of clever omission which makes reason #2 a concern.

To a certain extent, all choices are tough. As Angus King says:

If the state of Maine is to release itself from the grasp of foreign energy something will need to be done and hard choices need to be made.  Whether or not wind will be part of the solution depends entirely upon the people of Maine.

I just hope we don’t have to see gas at $5/gallon before we start to get serious.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts