Sure, until Quebec's local need/desire for RE grows (e.g. due to EVs) and then they decide they can sell it all at home.
The Great Maine Windmill Scam... 2004-?
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Sure, until Quebec's local need/desire for RE grows (e.g. due to EVs) and then they decide they can sell it all at home.
Plenty of local dispatchable renewable energy in New England, its called biomass power. Unlike wind and solar, a pile of wood chips can be burned 24/7 (and are). The former governor of Mass directed his minions to pay a bunch of academics to cook the books and come to the conclusion that burning waste wood from forestry and forest management to generate power was not renewable to keep his neighbors in the Berkshires happy thus cutting off Mass from the only real dispatchable renewable power available. VT caved a few years back and plugged into imported Canadian power and Mass is getting damn close despite the risks of getting the majority of their power over a couple of un securable overhead power lines (a couple of morons took down one of the existing HVDC lines a few years back doing target practice on insulators, the line was down for a couple of days and cost millions to replace the power.
maple1
Minister of Fire
It might be renewable, but I don't think it will turn out to be sustainable. Our forests here are taking a beating.
It can be renewable, its just depends on the management approach of the woodlands owners in the region. With sustainable forestry, there is always a portion of harvest that is not saleable as a higher value product. A typical biomass plant is sized to look at a sustainable "wood basket" of about 50 miles radius. Typically that ends up as a 20 MW plant. In most markets, no land owner would intentionally cuts trees for biomass as the actual stumpage value is probably less than $10 a ton compared to hundreds for saw logs. The biggest cost is trucking and once the wood basket gets more than 50 miles, the cost for diesel exceeds what the biomass plant can pay for it (at some point the energy content in the diesel exceed the but content of the load of chips). When managing woodlands a lot of folks don't realize that depending on the species, the owner generally has to do at least one or two intermediate cuts prior to a commercial harvest. These "release cuts" remove much of the biomass in the woods to "release" the selected remaining trees to grow taller and faster. The difference in the growth rate of managed woodlands versus unmanaged is significant. Unfortunately the cost to do release cuts is generally done at a loss as the wood quality removed is mostly low grade small wood. The owner partially subsidizes these release cuts with the sale of biomass chips. Even at the final harvest, the money is in the first couple of logs with the remainder of the tree either left in the woods or hauled out as biomass fuel. Although some green advocates push for leaving slash in the woods to replace soil nutrients, most landowner don't want the risk of a future wild fire. Many biomass plants land spread their ash to get it back in the woods. In general managing timberlands is on a generational timeline, northern Hardwoods are 80 to 100 year rotations while softwoods are 30 to 50. Most foresters may see only one rotation of a particular piece of property in their careers.
One definite brand of unsustainable harvesting that is cropping up is export biomass pellets. In this case, the woods are managed closer to a short rotation crop (sort of like a corn field). In the southeast, some tree farms have a 10 year rotation. They plant hybrid trees with fast initial growth and harvest them when they are 10 years old in a clear cut. The wood is useless for anything else but wood pellets and the wood pellets are overwhelmingly commercial grade for export to England and Europe. I have read that with the low Canadian dollar that pellet export has ramped up in Canada and wonder if some of the activity in your area is result of this market. Alternatively the bud work is back in some portions of the Maritimes and that can really raise heck with the woods.
I recently was at a biomass plant site that was getting free wood delivered, the local sawmills had a choice of giving their waste away to the local biomass power plant or shutting down as they had no legal place to dump the stuff. Their only choice would be to pay to landfill it.
One definite brand of unsustainable harvesting that is cropping up is export biomass pellets. In this case, the woods are managed closer to a short rotation crop (sort of like a corn field). In the southeast, some tree farms have a 10 year rotation. They plant hybrid trees with fast initial growth and harvest them when they are 10 years old in a clear cut. The wood is useless for anything else but wood pellets and the wood pellets are overwhelmingly commercial grade for export to England and Europe. I have read that with the low Canadian dollar that pellet export has ramped up in Canada and wonder if some of the activity in your area is result of this market. Alternatively the bud work is back in some portions of the Maritimes and that can really raise heck with the woods.
I recently was at a biomass plant site that was getting free wood delivered, the local sawmills had a choice of giving their waste away to the local biomass power plant or shutting down as they had no legal place to dump the stuff. Their only choice would be to pay to landfill it.
re Ma wind... it's coming
http://www.scientificamerican.com/a...s-waters/?mc_cid=c261828012&mc_eid=43ddca35db
"But other developers are lining up to fill the gap, including the Danish firm DONG Energy, which last year secured a federal lease roughly 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., to build up to 1 GW of offshore wind capacity that would be sold into the Massachusetts market."
"Danielle Lane, business support director for DONG, said the Massachusetts site, known the Bay State Wind project, represents a unique opportunity for the utility to enter the U.S. market with a high level of certainty that the economics will pan out. “It’s fair to say the Northeast of the U.S. has some of the best wind conditions that we’ve found across the globe,” she said, “and that’s why we made the decision to make this our first market to build outside of Europe.”"
re Ma hydro from Canada... it's on hold again
http://www.masslive.com/news/index....tran.html?mc_cid=c261828012&mc_eid=43ddca35db
"New Hampshire's utility siting regulators have extended their deadline for action on the Northern Pass transmission project to Sept. 30, 2017, imposing a nine-month delay on plans for the $1.6 billion, 192-mile power line.
"Eversource Energy had expected to obtain state and federal permits by the end of 2016 and begin construction in January. The new schedule pushes projected completion into 2020 instead of May 2019, as previously planned.
"Financial analysts called the delay a "significant setback" for Eversource, a holding company with three segments: electric transmission, electric distribution, and natural gas distribution in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
"Eversource has partnered with Hydro-Québec in the project, which would import 1,090 megawatts of hydropower to the New England power grid. The line would begin at the Canadian border and end in Deerfield, New Hampshire, while passing through the White Mountain National Forest, where Eversource has proposed to bury 60 miles of the infrastructure."
http://www.scientificamerican.com/a...s-waters/?mc_cid=c261828012&mc_eid=43ddca35db
"But other developers are lining up to fill the gap, including the Danish firm DONG Energy, which last year secured a federal lease roughly 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., to build up to 1 GW of offshore wind capacity that would be sold into the Massachusetts market."
"Danielle Lane, business support director for DONG, said the Massachusetts site, known the Bay State Wind project, represents a unique opportunity for the utility to enter the U.S. market with a high level of certainty that the economics will pan out. “It’s fair to say the Northeast of the U.S. has some of the best wind conditions that we’ve found across the globe,” she said, “and that’s why we made the decision to make this our first market to build outside of Europe.”"
re Ma hydro from Canada... it's on hold again
http://www.masslive.com/news/index....tran.html?mc_cid=c261828012&mc_eid=43ddca35db
"New Hampshire's utility siting regulators have extended their deadline for action on the Northern Pass transmission project to Sept. 30, 2017, imposing a nine-month delay on plans for the $1.6 billion, 192-mile power line.
"Eversource Energy had expected to obtain state and federal permits by the end of 2016 and begin construction in January. The new schedule pushes projected completion into 2020 instead of May 2019, as previously planned.
"Financial analysts called the delay a "significant setback" for Eversource, a holding company with three segments: electric transmission, electric distribution, and natural gas distribution in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
"Eversource has partnered with Hydro-Québec in the project, which would import 1,090 megawatts of hydropower to the New England power grid. The line would begin at the Canadian border and end in Deerfield, New Hampshire, while passing through the White Mountain National Forest, where Eversource has proposed to bury 60 miles of the infrastructure."
All Eversource needs to do is agree to bury it along existing right of ways and I expect they would get permits a lot quicker. Due to opposition they had to route the new right of way well to the east of ideal alignment to avoid certain properties bought up by those opposed. Given the potential for ice storms in the area and yahoos with rifles, burying the line alongside a road is real good idea but they sold the Canadians on putting it in quick and cheap. Meanwhile a competing project that buries the lines underground or under Lake Champlain has moved ahead of them.
Offshore wind is coming once someone is stupid enough to give developer a subsidy for the life of the project. Mass tired to force their two utilities to subsidize Cape Wind and the FERC stepped in and declared the contracts null and void. Hard to sell off shore wind projects for $350 per MW when typical rates are around $20 per MWH (and biomass is around $100).
Offshore wind is coming once someone is stupid enough to give developer a subsidy for the life of the project. Mass tired to force their two utilities to subsidize Cape Wind and the FERC stepped in and declared the contracts null and void. Hard to sell off shore wind projects for $350 per MW when typical rates are around $20 per MWH (and biomass is around $100).
SFAIK... I think Eversource has already agreed to bury about 60 miles of the line.. but that's not enough. Do you know if the lake Champlain project will feed into lower New England (MA CT RI) ?
As to DONG, the offshore wind developer, I don't think they are asking for a subsidy, though I agree, many before them have done so. There is already a small 3 MW offshore project in NE, just coming on line, that is feeding block island. But that's a special situation, previously, they had to import a lot of diesel to feed their generators
SFAIK... I think Eversource has already agreed to bury about 60 miles of the line.. but that's not enough. Do you know if the lake Champlain project will feed into lower New England (MA CT RI) ?
Both projects tie into the grid in southern NH where there is stiff grid that can accept it. The Northern Pass is merchant project that Hydro Quebec has exclusive rights to. The Champlain Express project has no specific firm that owns the capacity, they bid it out the capacity in the line to whomever wants to pay the highest price. There is a huge renewable RFQ for power for southern new England out on the market currently and I expect that both projects will factor in on various proposals. The trick with either one of them are they are non regulated projects, they can make a lot more profit but have no guarantees on minimum profit like regulated utility. If they can lock in long term power sale at high rate they make bundle and pay down what they spent on it quickly.
Both projects tie into the grid in southern NH where there is stiff grid that can accept it. The Northern Pass is merchant project that Hydro Quebec has exclusive rights to. The Champlain Express project has no specific firm that owns the capacity, they bid it out the capacity in the line to whomever wants to pay the highest price. There is a huge renewable RFQ for power for southern new England out on the market currently and I expect that both projects will factor in on various proposals. The trick with either one of them are they are non regulated projects, they can make a lot more profit but have no guarantees on minimum profit like regulated utility. If they can lock in long term power sale at high rate they make bundle and pay down what they spent on it quickly.
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