Working Together to Find Local Energy Solutions

Last week, Exxon Mobil announced they made more money last quarter than any company in the history of the United States -- $11.7 billion in profit in twelve weeks. $90,000 every 60 seconds. As American families struggle to figure out how to pay for $4 a gallon gas and home heating oil and rising electricity rates, the profits of Big Oil "swell," as the New York Times put it.

As T. Boone Pickens has pointed out, our dependency on foreign oil sends $700 billion out of this country every year -- he calls it "the largest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind."

On the island of North Haven, Maine -- my home for the last thirty-five years, I'm proud to say we're doing something about it. My neighbors on North Haven and Vinalhaven voted last week 382 to 5 to pursue a plan to build two or three wind turbines to provide power for the islands. The two islands are part of a power co-op, owned by the consumers -- a rate-payer owned utility. We pay a lot for electricity and can see that rates are only going to go up further.

Rising electric rates are going to be an increasingly serious problem for Maine families and businesses -- just this week, for example, the PUC approved electric rate hikes of up to 32% for medium and large businesses in Maine. And this is not a problem unique to Maine, as we all know.

I think we've found a better solution on North Haven and Vinalhaven: Instead of paying increasing expensive electric bills every month, with the money going out of our community, out of state, and even out of the country, the wind turbines bring the promise of decades of steady rates with the money staying right here. In the winter, the turbines are expected to produce more power than we need, allowing us to sell the excess back to the grid.

Renewable energy has economic advantages that extend beyond steady, predictable electric rates -- and Maine is in a good position to capitalize on those opportunities. Maine construction companies are already creating jobs and making money installing wind turbines, and research at the University of Maine composite lab into more efficient blade design looks promising too.

Making the switch from foreign oil dependency to home grown sources of renewable energy is not without challenges, however -- and federal programs like the Production Tax Credit and a Renewable Portfolio Standard will be necessary to provide the stability and predictability the fledgling renewable power industry needs to become self-sustaining. Sadly, the president and some Republicans in Congress have repeatedly refused to enact these measures, choosing instead to funnel billions of dollars in subsidies to the big oil companies.

We face some big challenges in this country right now, but with those challenges come big opportunities -- if we make the right choices. And in a week in which the newspaper carried both the news of Exxon-Mobil's record profit and the decision of my neighbors to move forward with a wind power project, that choice couldn't be clearer.

Crossposted at Turn Maine Blue.

Comments

[JScott]

So is there some sort of heater that works off the turbines to keep the wind turbines just warm enough
to prevent ice and snow accumulation on the blades and other important components in severe weather?

[alvdh1]

My plan would create regional Independent Service Operators (ISO's). The purpose of the regional ISO's is to purchase power from all producers including residential and business producers of clean, renewable energy. They not only purchase power from the utilities, but from us as well at full matket rates. This is the only true way to spur alternative energy growth.

30 plus states have net metering laws that were basically written by the utilities to create an unfair advantage. Most only give a credit on your bill for excess capacity put into the grid and at the end of the year most credits revert back to the utility. The ISO system levels the playing field. I would gladly add excess capacity to my roof with solar panels or a small vertical axis wind trubine if I knew i was going to get paid full market rates for my excess power. I would do this without needing a government subsidy.

Part two of the plan would be the creation of a national grid interconnect rule that is uniform across the country. This strategy is used by the utilities to make sure you don't place pv panels on your roof. Please let your politicians know you want to connect to the grid and get paid for it. I encourage everyone to look read the 2007 report called: Freeing the Grid to see how the state utilities and legislatures have been working together to make sure you keep buying dirty energy from your utility.

[alvdh1]

My above plan is only functional if people first convert their homes and business's to energy efficient structures. This portion of my plan would require government subsidies which would be revenue neutral from a windfall profit and carbon taxes on fossil fuels. The oil, gas and utility industries are heavily subsidized by tax payers. In addition, these industries are allowed to externalize the social and environmental costs of burning fossil fuels.

The true cost of environmental degradation and health care costs associated with burning dirty fossil fuels are not attached to the price at the pump or on your monthly utility bill. Instead they show up reduced crop production, shortened life expectancies, dead fish in lakes from acid rain, declining forests and higher medical bills.

Eliminating subsidies to these industries and switching them to energy efficiency will help reduce the externalized costs paid by us and future generations while simultaneously reducing the outlay for alternative energy. I haven't included the cost of climate change because it is obvious that this event alone is a world economy killer in the waiting.

Energy efficiency is where the biggest cost reduction will occur for alternative energy. If you cut the number of pv panels on your roof in half through efficiency upgrades, what is the true cost per panel?

[research]

Local wind and solar are the best!

[leduck]

sweet
windmills in main

this is of course the only solution to Peak Oil...,
different solutions based on geography, geology, and other factors
some locals can rely of solar concentrators
others on windmills
areas like the pacific northwest, already rely on hydrelectric

this north haven thing is great

[RememberTheAlamo]

Hi Chellie,

Compliments on the progress and willingness to "take a risk"!

[sheila]

this is great! i have been working very hard to encourage local, point of use renewable energy generation, conservation tech, and GENEROUS FEED IN TARIFFS, INCENTIVES, TAX CREDITS AND SUBSIDIES for people who want to participate in the Renewable Energy Paradigm as more than helpless consumers.

I am delighted your co-op, as a "utility," even a ratepayer owned one, is doubtless enjoying many of these advantages already, but i sincerely hope that you will continue to pursue these policies for INDIVIDUALS as well, as they are 95% excluded from the policies that will save our open spaces, save ratepayers and taxpayers and save our planet...

tens of millions of us want solar and or microwind on our properties but are completely ripped off by our own government's insistence on re-entrenching Big Energy monopolies in the Renewable Era, even in CA, which has delusions of being the most progressive. lots of PR, very little actual help for those of us trying to do the right thing. they cap our system sizes, force us to give excess to utilities for FREE, pay us roughly HALF what florida pays in rebates, make permitting extremely difficult, and (this is federal), basically deny us the 30% federal tax credit.

Are we committed to renewables or not? if so, let the people install them on their properties and get paid. If not, then don't even think about killing off our deserts.

Best of luck to you!

[ddubbie]

More power (literally) to local communities taking charge of their own energy needs!
The Fox Islands show us the way.
David W