Read the full article at Portland Press Herald
Maine is taking a first step to establish small-scale wind power as another tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Distributed energy, or on-site, decentralized power generation, accounts for several thousand solar projects in Maine – such as panels on rooftops and in yards. Not so for distributed wind energy projects, which, at 80 to 150 feet in height, are roughly one-third the size of industrial-scale wind projects.
Rhiannon Hampson, the Maine state director of rural development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said small wind power sites don’t operate in Maine “at this scale that we know of.”
A meeting in Freeport on Aug. 21 drew nearly two dozen federal and state energy and agriculture officials, environmentalists, business owners and others to make introductions and swap ideas about how to launch small-scale wind power.
“The simplest model is selling to a farm or a business,” said Josh Groleau, chief executive officer of Pecos Wind Power, an early-stage wind turbine manufacturer developing an 85-kilowatt distributed wind turbine.
He received a $152,000 federal agricultural grant last year to help Maine farmers and rural small businesses that want to use distributed wind power apply for federal grants. He’ll assess the feasibility of potential projects, prepare technical reports and permitting, and plan construction and other details. Studies will help determine if farms can reduce the cost of electricity with onsite wind power.
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