With offshore wind finally starting to exist in real amounts – New England produced a record 1,700 MW of wind power at one point last week, which is great but nowhere near the amount we need – Maine is trying again to boost its onshore wind in the thinly-populated north, reports Canary Media in this story.
Utility regulators in five New England states are considering developers’ proposals to build up to 1.2 gigawatts of onshore wind capacity in Maine’s far north, following a deadline for bids earlier this month.
No prizes for guessing which of the six New England states isn’t part of this.
Part of the work is enlarging grid connections in southern Maine, which act as a bottleneck for north-south movement of electricity. That’s seen by the difference in wholesale prices for electricity in most of Maine compared to the rest of the state. Maine gets the benefit of the cheap Quebec hydropower from the new HVDC connection but can’t send enough south to lower our prices.
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