Small Wind, Big Gains
May 09 - Bangor Daily News
The benefits of wind power in Maine have been talked about for decades. This has generated a lot of hot air, but no energy. A bill, sponsored by Sen. Ethan Strimling, offers a good way to end the talking and start the power generation.
Much time and energy has been devoted to building large wind farms, one of
which is supposed to begin construction in Aroostook County
this summer. However, few such pro-jects have been developed nationally, and
attention is shifting to smaller-scale endeavors.
Small-scale wind can be a single turbine on a farm or remote homestead. It
also can be a cluster of turbines owned by local residents or a commercial
cooperative. In Germany, a third of the country's wind power comes from turbines
owned by local landowners and residents. More than 200,000 people own a share of
a nearby wind turbine.
A major benefit of such small projects is that they are locally conceived and
owned, so opposition is minimized.
LD 1379 would follow this model by setting up a small revolving loan fund
that could be accessed by groups seeking to build small wind projects, probably
three to six turbines. Municipalities would be given top priority, but any
groups could apply for a loan.
The bill, which the Utilities Committee is scheduled to consider early this
week, sets a goal of 300 megawatts of wind generated power by 2011, more
ambitious than anything proposed so far.
The bill also encourages those seeking to build wind turbines to join forces
with the cellular phone industry. Gov. John Baldacci has made improving mobile
phone reception a top priority. One way to do this is to couple cellular phone
repeaters with wind towers. This will cut down on the regulatory hurdles, making
both quicker to build. A major objection to both wind projects and cell phone
towers is that they are unattractive and can harm birds and bats. Combining
communications equipment with power-generating wind towers cuts down on both
complaints.
Such combinations are commonplace in Europe, but experts are not aware of
their installation in the United States. Maine could pioneer this technology
which could breed research and development and manufacturing facilities here.
Call it a wind-win situation.