It has been reported that Massachusetts’ utilities National Grid, Northeast Utilities and Unitil have negotiated power purchase agreements (PPAs) for 565 megawatts of electricity capacity from existing and proposed wind farms in New Hampshire and Maine that would provide electricity at wholesale rates of approximately 8 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Impact on Economy Energy Policy Connecticut Maine Massachusetts

So Gloucester residents are paying about one third more for the energy generated by the windmills. Plus, they have to look at the hideous structures defacing their historic harbor. Gloucester's frugal 17th century founders would have been shocked both by the eyesore and the waste of resources. ...Gloucester's windmills are part of the new green theology, which holds that renewables always trump fossil fuels. Too bad for Gloucester residents that the facts don't fit the fairy tale.

Impact on People Energy Policy Massachusetts

The rising cost of green energy mandates in Massachusetts is starting to raise concerns, with one utility estimating the state's renewable energy initiatives currently account for 5.4 percent of a typical customer's monthly bill and are expected to take a much larger share in the next few years. ...The National Grid estimate is the first attempt to assess the cost of the state's green energy initiatives, most of which are more than five years old.

Energy Policy Impact on Economy Massachusetts

Patrick's wind energy goal - 2,000 megawatts by 2020 - is still a long way off and has been greeted with suspicion from opponents of both land-based and offshore wind energy projects. Currently the state has 103 megawatts of wind energy installed, all on land. Projects have been roundly criticized by neighbors and other foes of wind energy who say the technology is unreliable and damaging to public health.

Energy Policy Massachusetts

Now that Falmouth voters have overwhelmingly said they will not pay for Gov. Patrick's turbine siting mistake, the Patrick administration is doing what government does best: rearrange the furniture and put a new spin on its troubled plan for 2,000 megawatts of wind power by 2020.

Impact on People Energy Policy Massachusetts

"The legislature has refused for five years now to go along with [Governor Patrick's] plan to strip communities of the right to control the location and operation of wind turbines, so now he's doing an end run by directing his handpicked agencies to come up with a new strategy."

Impact on People Energy Policy Massachusetts

Hydropower could play a larger role in New England's energy mix as five of the region's states, including Massachusetts, move to import more of it - most likely from Canada - and at least one has passed a law that could allow electricity from large-scale hydrolectric dams to be classified as green as wind or solar energy.

Energy Policy Massachusetts

The complaints eventually reached the state level, prompting DEP sound tests. Eventually, both wind turbines were shut down at nighttime. ..."There is no energy technology out there of any real consequence that doesn't have environmental and social impacts that need to be carefully studied and addressed. Just by using a renewable fuel, does not eliminate that responsibility, that challenge."

Impact on People Energy Policy Massachusetts

"Residents and abutters have little to no opportunity to have their voices heard in objections or their questions answered," Ms. Chase said. "Despite the numerous procedural errors that have occurred, the town continues to blindly allow this ill-sited project to deleteriously impact the public health, safety and welfare of the people who have made their home on Bearsden Road for years."

Energy Policy Zoning/Planning Massachusetts

It took an energy insider this past week to expose the dirty little truth about the future of wind energy - it's too costly, too unreliable and only getting more so because of government subsidies. Take that, you green zealots.

Taxes & Subsidies Energy Policy USA Massachusetts

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's wind energy agenda has led Commonwealth communities into expensive capital expenditures. Now, agencies, under his watch, fortify his agenda and turn theirs back on the community. Falmouth is left windburned and forced to fix itself.

Impact on People Energy Policy Massachusetts

The Falmouth Board of Selectmen and the Falmouth Finance Committee held a joint April 4 meeting and unanimously stood by the selectmen's prior vote to remove the town's wind turbines, despite receiving none of their requested financial assistance from the state to do so. The latest estimate is that it will cost the town about $14 million to remove both Wind 1 and Wind 2.

Impact on People Energy Policy Massachusetts

The underlying issue in New England is that gas pipeline capacity is inadequate to keep prices steady in times of high home heating demand, said Vamsi Chadalavada, executive vice president and chief operating officer of ISO New England. ISO is leading a study focused mainly on reliability, but reliability is intertwined with price, he said.

Energy Policy Connecticut Massachusetts Maine New Hampshire Vermont

"Wind energy has so much potential, and the completion of this project will be a big step forward in reducing our reliance on volatile, foreign fossil fuels," boasted Gov. Patrick this past December upon the completion of the Hoosac turbines. If wind energy does indeed have such potential, it should not be reliant upon the government for its business. Until wind energy, or any new source of energy, can exist without government intervention, it is obviously not suitable for popular consumption.

Energy Policy Massachusetts

The three articles collectively ask town meeting members to: appropriate money to cover debt obligations the town holds for construction and maintenance costs; fund the dismantling and disposal or relocation of the turbines; and supplement the fiscal 2013 and 2014 operating budget as necessary due to the turbines being curtailed or shut down.

Energy Policy Massachusetts

Groups of pro-wind residents living near wind turbines within weeks become anti- wind as soon as the 400 foot turbines start to spin. The operators of the turbines quickley find themselves in front of local boards and court. ...performance of wind turbines in New England showing that the economic life expenses of onshore wind turbines is very short in some cases between 3 and 5 years, not the 20 years projected by the wind industry and government projections.

Energy Policy Massachusetts

Connecticut and Massachusetts negotiated agreements with the two companies that set the stage for regulatory approval. In Massachusetts, Northeast Utilities and NStar agreed to buy more than a quarter of the power that would be produced by the proposed Cape Wind offshore wind farm as a condition of the deal.

Energy Policy Connecticut Massachusetts

Those customers aren't the only ones who are being fleeced. Even at high premiums the entire wind industry would be blown away by conventional power sources if not for huge taxpayer subsidies. According to a 2008 Energy Information Agency (EIA) report, the average 2007 subsidy per megawatt hour for wind and solar was about $24, compared with an average $1.65 for all others.

Energy Policy USA Massachusetts

Unlike in the Massachusetts pact, where NSTAR, based in Boston, agreed to buy more than one-quarter of the power generated by Cape Wind, Connecticut negotiators did not reach a deal for the companies to purchase locally generated alternative power. Connecticut officials said in response: Cape Wind's energy is renewable energy, but it's pricey, and they didn't see a value in locking ratepayers into higher generation rates.

Energy Policy Connecticut Massachusetts

The headlines focused on NStar's commitment to purchase 27 percent of the expensive power to be generated by Cape Wind - something the utility had been loath to do. Less noticed was another concession NStar made: that it would not use any hydropower to meet state-mandated renewable energy targets for the next five years.

Energy Policy Massachusetts