CARIBOU, Maine — The head of the governor’s energy office is encouraging Aroostook County residents to consider supporting recent wind proposals from SunEdison and EDP Renewables that collectively could harness an additional 1,250 megawatts of power.
A New Proposal
“These are not the old Mars Hill wind proposals,” Energy Director Patrick Woodcock told an audience last week at the Caribou Inn & Convention Center. “Maine has about 460 megawatts of installed capacity. We have roughly 150 turbines in the state of Maine. What has been proposed for Aroostook County is to have 1,200 additional megawatts, triple the installed capacity of the entire state.”
The SunEdison proposal would harness 600 megawatts of energy from the King Pine wind farm, located on an unorganized territory next to the Penobscot county border. EDP Renewables has proposed two wind farms which could harness a total of 650 megawatts: one 250-megawatt farm on Horse Mountain in southern Aroostook, and a proposal to expand the capacity of the Number Nine Wind Farm near Bridgewater from 250 to 400 megawatts.
Woodcock said the proposed projects could result in a combined investment of $2 billion or more.
“If I could go back in time,” Woodcock told members of the Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce during a breakfast meeting on March 16, “the one conversation I’d want the state to have had is, if 450 or 560 megawatts were proposed, we should try to extract as much for our local economy as possible.”
Three main goals Woodcock brought up for consideration were “lowering energy costs, providing construction employment, and developing a manufacturing supply chain.”
“As I look at it, we’ve had successes in that we’ve brought in construction jobs. On the other points, addressing electricity costs and developing a supply chain is very mixed. The only place in New England that has proposed wind energy is Maine. The only place that can build is Maine. So I think we should talk about this the same way Alaska talks about oil as a resource and Louisiana talks about natural gas as a resource. Let’s talk about wind as a resource that we’re willing to sell, but also that we want something from it. Addressing the fundamental challenges of this region, I look at high energy costs and transportation costs. We will get more businesses here by improving the fundamentals. Project developers could help improve the fundamentals in Aroostook County.”
The Transmission Line
Another important aspect of harnessing wind energy is the transmission line, which would transfer Aroostook County wind energy to other areas of New England.
“The second aspect of this wind proposal is a big transmission line,” said Woodcock. “There is little competition for electrical supply in this region. Furthermore, if you’re a generator in this area, you can’t access the markets in southern New England. Ashland and Fort Fairfield biomass facilities would be in a different economic situation if they did not have to pay a weekly charge out of New Brunswick.”
In taking on this large energy project, there would be pressure to join with ISO New England, a regional transmission organization that serves Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
“There are some things to consider about the cost of ISO New England,” said Woodcock. “My point, again, like the wind proposal is not to sign the dotted line on a connection with ISO New England. It’s really expensive to build transmission lines in Connecticut. If you’re part of the regional network, you have to start spending money for what they’re doing in Connecticut. It’s something to be extremely cautious about.
“The terms I want to have for this region is that we’re not paying anything for ten years. Zip. Nothing. You want our wind? You want to have interconnection? Great, but we’re not paying these charges. I think we have a lot of leverage in this situation as a region, and we should use that leverage to extract as much as possible,” he said.
Starting a Conversation
The topic of harnessing wind energy in Maine has been very controversial, according to Woodcock, who admits that it is difficult to have a constructive conversation on the topic.
“Regardless of which side you are on,” said Woodcock, “we are going to have wind happen in Maine.”
Maine’s energy director also explained that Maine’s levels of oil consumption are alarmingly high when compared to the rest of the country.
“Maine is the third highest per-capita oil consuming state in the country,” said Woodcock. “The other two are Alaska and Hawaii. Hawaii basically gets all of their electricity from oil and Alaska is very, very cold. Furthermore, Aroostook County is the highest oil consuming county in Maine. There are some core realities as to why that is. We’re rural, and also it is the quality of our housing stock and the heating degree days in this region.”
Energy costs have always been an issue for the economy in northern Maine, Woodcock added, “but I have never been more concerned about the economy in Aroostook County than I am today. At this point, we need to start having a conversation about how to build the economy back up here. It is a deeply challenging time.”
