Energy News Roundup: February 11-February 17

This week in regional energy news …

• Maine’s Good Will-Hinckley School has installed 110 solar panels, which are expected to save the school $112,000 over the 40- to 50-year life span of the panels.  Good Will-Hinckley is a high school focused on agriculture, forestry education, and workforce skills.
• Doaktown, a village in New Brunswick, voted Thursday to ban shale gas exploration near the village’s water sources.
• With the price of renewable energy credits going down due to oversupply, Massachusetts is one of many states reviewing its Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, emissions cap.
• Cape Wind has entered into an electricity supply agreement with NStar for energy from the offshore wind project, but seeks additional financing.
• Public Service of New Hampshire, or PSNH, is warning of higher electricity prices if it is forced to sell off its generation assets.

Energy News Roundup: January 21-January 27

This week in regional energy news …

• New Hampshire’s Senate passed a bill that would prohibit a utility’s use of eminent domain for an electrical transmission line across a person’s property if the line is not critical to the region’s power needs.
• The Passamaquoddy Tribe plans to launch a $120 million wind farm in Washington County with co-venturer Exergy Development Group, of Boise.  
• Estimating that its energy may not be available before 2015, ISO New England opted not to include Cape Wind in a capacity auction for 2015-2016.
• Two Department of Energy reports have highlighted Maine’s potential to generate more than 15 terawatt-hours per year of electricity from tidal sources.
• Augusta, Maine, is looking to create energy from waste at its Hatch Hill landfill.  The project would involve constructing a $20 million plant to convert the trash to diesel fuel.
• University of Maine professor Habib Dagher played up Maine’s offshore wind potential and discussed the $20 billion project to bring offshore wind to Maine.

Energy News Roundup: January 14-January 20

This week in regional energy news …

• NGL Energy Partners LP announced on Monday an agreement to purchase North American Propane’s assets in New England and the Mid-Atlantic.  NAP has over 50,000 customers.
• Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pushes for more Canadian control and say over the Keystone DL pipeline.
• On Wednesday, New Hampshire’s Senate delayed its vote on a bill that would create problems for the Northern Pass transmission project’s efforts to acquire land by eminent domain.
• First Wind’s petition to expand its Oakfield wind farm to 50 turbines from 34 won the unanimous approval of the Maine DEP.

Energy News Roundup: December 17-December 23

This week in regional energy news …

• A land sale in Eastport, Maine, will support Ocean Renewable Power Co.’s efforts to promote tidal turbines in the Downeast region of Maine.  Perry Marine & Construction will build a facility at the site, where workers will assemble and deploy ORPC’s turbines.
• Boralex recently closed the sale of its biomass power production facilities to Latham, NY-based ReEnergy Holdings. 
• The U.S. Department of Energy is considering using East Coast granite formations as nuclear waste depositories.  The proposal to bury nuclear waste in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain has been scrapped for now.
• Calgary-based TransCanada has agreed to purchase nine solar projects with a combined capacity of 86 MW.  The $470 million deal will add to the company’s portfolio of pipelines and wind projects.
• Natural gas production is increasing amid great uncertainty over the balance of supply and demand.
• Governor LePage gives the Maine State Housing Authority and Efficiency Maine Trust two business days to submit a plan for providing heating assistance to needy Mainers.
• Central Maine Power will clean up a toxic waste site in Augusta.  The site, where Augusta Gas Works formerly operated, is contaminated with coal tar.
• Self-Gen, based on Scarborough, Maine, has proposed building a natural gas pipeline to Rockland from an existing line in Windsor.  Meanwhile, the Maine Energy Marketers Association has criticized the state Legislature for bills favoring natural gas over other fuels.

Energy News Roundup: December 10-December 16

This week in regional energy news …

• Despite some setbacks, the clean tech industry in Massachusetts is gearing up for growth.  Employment in clean energy in the state increased by 7 percent from July 2010 to July 2011.
• Following the most recent standard offer bidding process in Maine, the Maine Public Utilities Commission announces that electricity customers will see lower bills beginning in March 2012.
• Four U.S. Senators from New England—Richard Blumenthal (CT), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), John Kerry, and Scott Brown (both of MA)—are calling for a review of the reliability of the nation’s electric grid.  A Halloween weekend snowstorm left millions without power in New England.
• Renewable Properties, Inc., a company acquiring land for the Northern Pass project, is paying a premium for at least one parcel: $2.35 million, or three times the assessed value, for a 118-acre property in Franklin, NH.
• Down East LNG, which is seeking approval to construct a liquefied natural gas terminal in Robbinston, Washington County, Maine, is facing local opposition.  Save Passomoquoddy Bay has asked FERC to reject Down East LNG’s application.

Spruce Mountain Enters Final Stages of Construction

The Spruce Mountain Wind project in Woodstock, Maine is in the final stages of construction.  Five of the project’s 10 Gamesa G-909 2.0-MW turbines have been erected and the remainder of the turbines will be installed within the next two weeks.  The project’s developer Patriot Renewables (represented by Verrill Dana) expects Spruce Mountain Wind to be generating electricity by mid-November.  Here are some photos of project construction:     

    

Energy News Roundup: August 20-August 26

This week in regional energy news …

• In the waters off of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts’s first in-ocean demonstration of a tidal energy generator was completed recently.  UMass Dartmouth’s New England Marine Renewable Energy Center and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center have laid out plans for a 300-square-mile test site.
• The Massachusetts DPU has approved NStar’s long-term contracts for the purchase of wind power from developments in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.
• Neptune Wind has announced plans to develop a 500-MW offshore wind farm 20 miles from the Mass-RI border, with construction estimated to be completed by 2018.
• Gov. Lincoln Chafee is working to ensure that low-cost hydro power from Canada finds its way to Rhode Island.