Maine; From Pine Cone State to Solar State?

From GA Director Sarah Brown:

Maine; From Pine Cone State to Solar State?

By Sarah Mae Brown, special to the Herald

sarah@greenalliance.biz

Kittery. The biggest player in Maine’s renewable energy market is going up against the biggest game in town – Central Maine Power. With a project called the GridSolar Project, GridSolar, LLC, a Portland-based renewable energy company, has proposed an up to 800 megawatt, billion and a half dollar, solar infusion into the Maine electricity grid. The GridSolar Project has legs and if GridSolar can receive approval from Maine’s Public Utility Commission to become an official Public Utility, this project has a real chance of becoming reality. If that were to occur the State of Maine would become this nation’s “Solar Capital” – causing the entire US solar market including manufacturing to shift to the Pine Cone State. Current US solar output is only 350 megawatts a year nationwide and an 800 megawatt project would represent more than half of all of the solar power generated across the entire US, with the lion’s share concentrated in Maine.

The State of Maine and thus Central Maine Power, the largest transmitter of electricity in the state, is required to significantly upgrade their electricity transmission capacity in the next few years or face fines of a million dollars a day for being in violation of the New England Reliability Council (NERC) standards that were set by Congress in 2005 to ensure the strength, reliability and efficacy of the Northeastern electricity distribution system. Central Maine Power has done a full and recognized analysis of the current grid and determined that the entire state needs a massive increase in transmission lines to meet the projected peak power use in the next ten years. Electricity transmission and generation is defined and determined by power needs in peak times – these times are during the day in the summer months and between the hours of 4pm-7pm when businesses are still running and residents are returning home and turning on lights, TVs and other appliances. In Maine the increased demand during peak times is mostly due to increased AC use and expanded commercial development which remains air conditioned throughout the summer. CMP’s plan set at a billion and a half dollars is to implement a massive increase in transmission lines – something that is going to leave its mark visually across the state, as high, low and medium voltage lines are placed everywhere and anywhere. Much of the lines they intend to construct will meet resistance and so CMP is planning for one of the state’s eminent domain taking in history. Additionally, CMP’s plan, for the billion and a half price tag, does not include generation of electricity – a second phase of the project that will leave the consumer paying at least 8 cents per kilowatt hr for the new generation; power generation that will rely almost exclusively on fossil fuels.

GridSolar offers to meet the required peak electricity loads and transmission through a state-wide local infusion of small-scale solar fields that will feed the extra power directly into the local grids when and where it is needed most. Richard Silkman of GridSolar and Maine’s Competitive Energy Services, the company that currently provides Maine residents with green electricity, presented the details of the project to a full house in Kittery this week.

“You can see from the overlay of peak times/needs that the best times for solar power generation here in Maine, line-up almost exactly with the times we need the extra energy,” Silkman explained with the aide of a graph showing the very impressive match- up between peak times in Maine and the most effective solar energy generation times – summer days. “We are not proposing this project, this solar solution because we are a purveyor or manufacturer of solar, because we are not, we are proposing this local solar generation plan because we studied the options extensively and solar is by far the least expensive, most effective and most environmentally sound option available to solve the problem of transmission and generation for the projected increase in Maine’s peak electricity use.”

PUC laws require that CMP’s proposal must be the best and most cost-effective solution to the peak demand problem and GridSolar has reams of info and data that suggest otherwise. In a 2 hour presentation sponsored by the Kittery Energy Committee and the Green Alliance, Silkman explained why the GridSolar Project was by far the best and most cost-effective solution to Maine’s impending energy challenges. “We can do this effectively for far less than the CMP proposal. Our local generated and distributed renewable option will provide the extra needed power at 3 cents per kilowatt hr – the CMP plan offers, a centralized, visually and environmentally destructive plan that will cost Maine residents 8 cents per kilowatt hr.” The Grid Solar project will inject millions of dollars into town and individual coffers across the state; the local economic investment will be substantial. “What we are proposing is low impact development for every Maine community – our solar fields will generate revenue for towns and individuals and solid jobs in the growing renewable energy sector. We will actually bring down the price of electricity and raise the stature of Maine on the whole in the worldwide renewable energy market.”

One of the reasons that GridSolar can offer its solar solution so competitively priced is that some 70% of the cost of solar is in installation – usually on roofs or poles. The GridSolar Project will utilize ground panels, almost eliminating the current high costs of installation and placing solar power in serious price competition with fossil fuel generated electricity. The environmental benefits are substantial as well. The Grid Solar plan would displace more than 500,000 tons of CO2 a year, while the CMP upgrade will raise Maine’s CO2 emissions by at least that.

The audience at the Grid Solar presentation was clearly jazzed and inspired. “What can we do to help? What do you need from us?” attendees began to blurt out once the scope and potential of the project was disclosed. “Get behind us,” said Silkman. “Make sure we get a fair shake with the PUC. Make sure that this state has progressive and affordable energy solutions as it upgrades. Make sure that we are not responding to a 21^st century problem with a 20^th century solution.”

To learn more about the Grid Solar project visit www.gridsolarme.com or call GridSolar, LLC in Portland at 207.772.6190.