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 7-January 13

This week in regional energy news …

• Cape Wind may face delays that prevent it from reaching its 2015 target for initial generation of electricity.
• A two-year renewable energy biomass plant project in Connecticut will receive $225 million in financing from the Carlyle Group and SAIC.
• Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has withdrawn the state’s request for a review of NStar’s rates in advance of that state approving a merger between Boston-based NSTar and Connecticut-based Northeast Utilities.
• Dead River Co. will purchase the home heating division of Webber Energy Fuels, with approximately 100,000 accounts.  Both are Maine companies.
• Gestamp Solar, of Spain, has purchased a solar farm in Southern Vermont.  The $10 million purchase is for the development’s 2.2 MW of capacity.

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: July 23-July 29

This week in regional energy news …

• By the end of 2011, Maine will have 200 wind turbines generating clean energy.  With two more wind development projects under way and another proposed, Maine will soon be at one-fifth of its statutory goal of 2000 megawatts of wind power developed by 2015.
• A new solar credit adopted in Connecticut aims to spur further solar developments in the state.
• In a letter to the governors of New England and the Mid-Atlantic, hundreds of businesses have urged support of and improvements to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.  The New England Clean Energy Council coordinated the effort.
• With a pending lawsuit by the state of Vermont threatening its future, Vermont Yankee may or may not be purchasing fuel for the reactor this fall.

Energy News Roundup: March 26-April 1

This week in regional energy news …

• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently finalized the relicensing of Vermont Yankee.  The 600-MW reactor’s license will expire in twenty years.  At the same time, the federal agency is reviewing the country’s nuclear reactors in light of the crisis in Japan.
• Low prices for natural gas are slowing investments in new nuclear power plants.
• Following the success of its tidal turbine generator near Eastport, Maine, Ocean Renewable Power Co. is launching a tidal project in Alaska in conjunction with Homer Electric Association. 
• Unitil will begin replacing over 100 miles of pipeline in greater Portland at a cost of $60 million.  Modern plastic pipe will replace cast-iron pipe, allowing the pipes to transport increased volumes of gas and allowing Unitil to serve more customers.
• Certain parts of Connecticut may be ripe for wind turbine development, according to new wind speed tests indicating stronger economic viability than previously believed.
• Western Mass. Electric Co. is expanding its solar project installations.  Its first project is in Pittsfield, and WMECO plans to build a larger facility in Springfield

Energy News Roundup: January 15-January 21

This week in regional energy news …

• Central Maine Power Co. responds to some customers’ requests to opt out of installation of “smart meters” on their property.
• With an eye toward economic diversification, Brewer and Old town, Maine, are exploring ways to reduce electricity costs for tenants in new business parks.
• Western Massachusetts Electric Co. has announced it will build a 4.2-megawatt solar facility atop a landfill in Springfield, Mass.
• The wood pellet industry looks for growth opportunities in Atlantic Canada.
• CMP will hold a jobs fair on Tuesday as it looks for professionals to build its Maine Power Reliability Project transmission upgrade.

Energy News Roundup: August 28-September 3

This week in regional energy news …

• The Cape Wind project stepped over a major hurdle this week as the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court approved, by a 4-2 vote, the offshore development’s consolidated “super permit” approving a transmission cable that will traverse state tidelands.  Cape Wind still awaits the Massachusetts DPU’s go-ahead.
• On Tuesday, the Maine Public Utilities Commission granted conditional approval to CMP’s plans to connect the Record Hill wind project to the utility’s transmission lines.  To do so, CMP will construct a new 115-kV line.
• A two-day conference of New England and Atlantic Canada business leaders in Bangor, Maine, this week was focused greatly on energy issues, particularly a reduction in consumption of fossil fuels.
• Solar panels area heading from Maine to the roof of the White House.
• First Wind is looking into an 80-megawatt wind project in Eastbrook and Township 16, Maine. 
• Meanwhile, Rumford, Maine, selectmen consulted with representatives from First Wind and the Maine DEP regarding proposed town ordinances relating to wind.