Kibby wind power starts up; expansion plans announced
By Bobbie Hanstein • Oct 16th, 2009 • Category: Features, News|
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KIBBY TOWNSHIP - Under the whisper of a whirling 410-foot wind turbine, 250 people stood at the top of Kibby Mountain today to help celebrate the start-up of half of TransCanada’s $320 million Kibby Wind Power Project and, somewhat unexpectedly, hear plans for the expansion of Kibby’s 44-windmill project by adding 15 more on nearby Sisk Mountain.
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The proposed $100 million expansion project on Sisk Mountain would be located just west of the Kibby range and mountain project. According to plans, the 15 turbines would be installed near the Canadian border and run due south along Sisk Mountain’s summit. TransCanada Energy Ltd. officials told the crowd today the expansion would utilize Kibby’s road upgrades, newly constructed 27-mile transmission line and operation buildings.
In a warmed tent that shielded those attending from the 35-degree stiff wind blowing outside, a ceremony of speeches marked the start up of 22 turbines that is now generating power for Central Maine Power Co. and its New England grid.
The second phase of the current project will see the installation of another 22 windmills on nearby Kibby Ridge next summer. When all 44 wind turbines are operational, the Kibby project will provide power for 50,000 homes and become New England’s largest wind power project.
After receiving a permit from the state’s Land Use Regulation Commission in August, TransCanada installed a meteorological tower to measure wind and collect other data on Sisk Mountain, which is also located in Franklin County. TransCanada is expected to submit the required state and federal development applications by December.
Most of the area proposed for the addition of 15 windmills lies in an area designated by the state as expedited for wind power construction, TransCanada officials confirmed today.
An expedited designation requires one all-inclusive application be submitted to LURC, said Dana Valleau, an environmental specialist who has worked on Kibby project from the beginning.
One application means that a permit for the project, if approved by LURC, can come within a year and construction could begin as early as late 2010, just after the completion of the Kibby project. Construction would be extended for another year, into the summer of 2011. In all, 59 turbines producing 3 megawatts, would be enough to meet the electricity needs of 64,000 average-sized households.
“After the first tour I took up here four years ago, I was sold on this project,” said state Sen. Walter Gooley of Farmington. Gooley served on the governor’s Wind Power Task Force that made the designations of areas that would be expedited for windmill construction in Maine. “This is a wonderful site,” he added on the bus trip up to the ceremony.
So far, TransCanada has spent more that $78 million in Maine, with more than $5 million in Franklin County to construct the wind towers. Three hundred people, 90 percent of whom are Mainers, were employed during the summer to erect 22 turbines. If the expansion project is approved, two more summers of hundreds of workers atop mountains in northern Franklin County can be expected, officials said.
“It was a long and winding road to get here,” said Gov. John Baldacci. “This is a huge investment of $320 million and another $100 million with the expansion project.”
With this week’s announcements that a group of researchers led by the University of Maine has been awarded a federal grant of $8 million to develop the technology to deploy two offshore turbines in the Gulf of Maine, and that two foreign business groups are coming to Maine to explore new wind power possibilities, goes show that Maine has become a leader in wind power development, Baldacci said.
“Companies are coming here because we have the expertise,” he said. He noted the economic benefits locally have been significant. Eustis/Stratton has been promised by TransCanada a community benefits package totaling $1,000 per megawatt produced each year by the turbines, which could mean up to $132,000. Eustis Selectman Jane Wilkinson said today the board hasn’t decided yet on how the town will spend the additional income but that it probably will go towards community projects and not routine town expenses.
Franklin County is expecting $4 million over the 20-year life span of the turbines. As part of the agreement with the Canadian energy giant, that money will be dedicated to economic development projects as is the $9 million the unorganized territories can expect over the same period.
“The economic development benefit here is huge to Franklin County and the state,” said Alison Hagerstrom, executive director of the Greater Franklin Development Corporation. As photographs were taken of people and turbines, she added, “We’re on the cutting edge. This will be the biggest wind power project in New England.”
Baldacci said the state may see nearly a dozen major wind power projects completed in the next few years.
“It will be wave after wave of wind power projects coming to Maine because they will see what we can do and will come here because of it,” he said before heading down the mountain.
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Bobbie Hanstein is a staff writer with the Daily Bulldog.
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I THINK THIS IS GREAT, BUT WHEN WILL WE BE NOTICING A REDUCTION IN OUR LIGHT BILL
FROM THIS ? CAN ANYONE OUT THERE ANSWER THIS.
Herbert, the simple answer is you will not!!!!
and anyone who says you will is lying!
Destroying our mountain tops is the only effects these wind mill will have on us.
Our light bills won’t be going down– this power is for export! What is going down, though, is Franklin County’s scenic beauty.
How have our mountain tops been destroyed? It wasn’t until this generation that we allowed our state’s forest to regrow because the death of farming. The idea that we are destroying pristine wilderness in nonsense. The production of wind power one of the smallest environmental impacts compared to other forms like coal or hydro. I’d rather see all our mountains covered in turbines than see the cooling towers of a nuclear power plant in Maine. The demand for energy will continue to increase in the foreseeable future and right now Maine has the opportunity to take a leadership role in creating a highly diversified and sustainable power grid. I’d like to see Maine at the forefront of something besides lobster and dirt roads.
When considering the impact of a 400 foot wind turbine, please consider the impact of a 400 foot stack for a coal burning plant. For the same amount of power these wind turbines will generate, we will see tens of thousands of tons of pollutants not put into the sky from a coal fired plant, or the nitrous oxides from a gas turbine plant. If they are not put up, they will not come down on.
I personally don’t care if the cost for the power I use goes down. By increasing the efficiency of how power is used in my home we have cut our bill by about 30% during the last two years. Use less, pay less!
Wind and solar power definitely can be major benefits to Maine. We need to have the wisdom to manage the development for the maximum benefit. The benefits can be boh economic and enviornmental.
This pr piece sounds like it was written by Trans Canada and Baldacci, who has sold Maine out to the wind developers.
These turbines and all the others erected by First Wind/UPC will soon be rusting oil leaking monuments to stupidity, corruption, and greed.
I have yet to see another alternative that is actually getting political support and being pushed into service that provides us with “cleaner” energy. I can agree the loss of our landscape is not an enjoyable cost, but I’d rather have this now than having another coal plant. This also paves the way for more alternative energy, we can’t forget that. Just because it’s what the norm is now, does not mean it will remain the norm, different solutions will come about.
To Luke:
The only real “alternative” that will make a responsible difference is energy conservation. Wind Turbines just add a pittance to the grid (usually not for consumption in Maine), and at a monstrous expense to Maine’s health and heritage.
Corruption of the truth and corrupt money going from taxpayers to sleezy developers. This is truly a sad time for the state of Maine as we see our mountain tops blasted for huge roads and pads.
Don’t kid yourself by understating the damage to our mountains. It will be permanent and profound, and absolutely nothing will be gained for the environment or for ratepayers. Mark my words.
Thank you to everyone capable of weighing costs and benefits.
I think that the ski resorts we are so fond of are far more destructive to animal habitats and the landscapes of mountainsides than turbines that are placed on modified logging roads.
Speaking of logging, how do all of you people opposed to wind power feel about logging practices in Maine. I am genuinely curious because it would only make sense that you are vehemently opposed to any and all logging within the borders of Maine at it is taking away natural beauty, diminishing the sustainability of the land, carving out mountainsides and hauling the goods away to other states.
I also wanted to explain the way that the power grid works. You don’t pick your power sources and say “I want to only use wind energy on my home” or nuclear or coal or whatever source you favor. All of the energy being produced goes into the grid and daily usage across the country and even other nations can affect where our energy is coming from. Sometimes the cheapest power will be close, sometimes it will be a great distance away.
What having a high arsenal of wind power (and other renewable sources) in Maine will do is create a kind of buffer zone, so that when energy crisis’s hit, we are more protected from the demands in the market. Our prices are more stabilized because when the demand for energy is high and producers of non-renewable sources are raising their prices based on demand, we are going to be able to avoid those high peaks in our electric rates because we, as a state, have the advantage of low and constant production costs from one energy source artificially depressing the costs non-renewable companies can demand from us.
Sustainability creates Stability.
Support it or we won’t have the natural resources to support ourselves.
With the renewable energy sources at our doorstep, and no verifiable savings to the people of Maine, why isn’t there a larger momentum towards solar cooperatives, like in Maryland? Seems to me, if there is an element of discontent blowing through the trees, harnessing one’s independence is as simple as collectively bargaining and buying in bulk to stabilize one’s own economy…at home!