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Wind Power Loses Punch in Southern Part of State

December 15, 2009 - SACO -- As the "Sesame Street" song goes, it's not easy being green.

That's what Saco and Kittery have found out in the last couple of years, as wind turbines that those two communities installed to produce electricity underperformed, failing to generate even a third of the promised amount of juice.

They also learned what a University of Maine engineering professor already knew: Southern Maine isn't a particularly promising place for wind power, one of the greenest technologies out there.

"There are some companies selling wind towers or wind turbines to be put anywhere, without consideration of the local conditions," said Habib Dagher, director of the university's Advanced Structures and Composites Center. "It's worth putting an anemometer (wind speed gauge) up there and seeing what you get before you put a turbine up."

The failures and successes of alternative energy projects are being studied by state officials, who are drawing up new rules to guide future energy-efficiency grants in Maine.

Dagher said wind power could be a great source of energy for Maine, but it works best on top of hills in rural areas, where there are few obstructions or, even better, out at sea, where there are no buildings or trees to block, slow or redirect the wind.

"The better winds we have are farther offshore," Dagher said. "We have some of the better winds in the country far offshore."

Kittery and Saco paid $200,000 each for turbines from Entegrity Wind Systems of Prince Edward Island, which said the windmills would produce 90,000 kilowatts a year. The company promised to reimburse the communities for the difference between the amount of electricity anticipated and the value of what was actually produced if they failed to hit 90,000 kilowatts.

Kittery's windmill produced about 35,000 kilowatts in little more than a year of service, and Saco got just 16,000 kilowatts in 18 months.

With Entegrity Wind being liquidated by a Canadian bankruptcy court, neither community is likely to see any of the promised payments.

Dagher said those kinds of experiences provide a needed reality check for those who see wind power as a panacea that will free Americans from the need to buy oil from the Middle East or produce electricity in plants that foul the skies and contribute to global climate change.

While windmills have great promise, he said, the technology is still evolving, and siting is particularly important.

Neither Saco nor Kittery put up a wind gauge before erecting their windmills, relying instead on Entegrity Wind's formulas and models for how the turbines would perform. The company's founder said new wind models developed after the Maine windmills were installed would have shown neither site was feasible.

Dagher said there's a variation in wind quality over land in the state, with eastern Maine's coast more conducive to the strong, steady winds that are best for generating power. Southern Maine, with more buildings, forested areas and small hills, is less likely to see the kind of wind that allows a turbine to work most efficiently.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission will be working on new rules for windmills in the state that are bought using money from its Efficiency Maine program, which awards grants for renewable energy projects around the state.

"I think there's a learning curve in Maine about the wind," said Evelyn deFrees, spokeswoman for the PUC. "These are fledgling technologies."

She said the rules that will be developed early next year will help with funding decisions, and "we're learning both from the ones that are working and the ones that are not."

DeFrees said state officials are well aware that not every kind of renewable energy is right for every location.

"There's a policy decision being made that Maine wants to boost renewable energy, and we're doing that with the knowledge that it's not fully proved," she said. "It's almost like there's a pilot project aspect to this."

In Saco, Howard Carter, a public works manager who has overseen the city's windmill project, said Entegrity Wind's guarantee may have led people to be a little less skeptical than they otherwise would have been about the company's product and the lack of on-site wind tests.

Saco had hoped the turbine would power the city's transportation center, which is heated and cooled by a geothermal system that Carter said has proven to be efficient. Because the turbine never matched the promised generating ability, the city has had to buy electricity off the grid to supplement the supply to the transportation center, which also has an Amtrak-Downeaster train station.

Carter noted that the city has a small, efficient wind turbine at its transfer station that produces about $60 worth of electricity a month, and that may have also made people think that the second turbine would produce the promised amount of power.

But the results suggest otherwise, Carter said, and "just because you think it's windy doesn't mean it's windy" enough for the efficient operation of a turbine.

Eric Cote, a Saco city councilor and member of the city's Energy Committee, said he's hopeful the city's wind turbine will still pan out.

"People have jumped to a conclusion too quickly here," he said, noting that Entegrity's founder hopes to start a new company that might follow through on Entegrity's plans to upgrade the blades on its wind turbines – an effort that was never completed because of financial problems.

Cote also said the turbine, even without the upgrade, could still turn out to be a good investment if the price of electricity spikes in coming years.

And, he said, there are other considerations beyond the cost and payback period.

"It has other value besides producing electricity," he said. "It's a symbol of what we should be doing."

By EDWARD D. MURPHY, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, December 13, 2009


Lakes:
Regions: Sebago, Sanford


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