Searsport -
A ship that hails from the Isle of Man, carrying cargo from Denmark, made its way to Searsport Monday night, where a team at Sprague Energy was waiting to unload the hundreds of thousands of pounds in materials that give insight to the scale of First Wind's Bull Hill project.
"We'll have twenty guys working for two days just on this ship alone," said Tim Winters, the company's terminal manager.
On board are a portion of the towers the plan's 19 turbines call for. Once constructed, each will stand more than 300 feet tall, slightly larger than any other project in the state.
"To date, all of the wind projects in Maine are 80 meters. Because Bull Hill is a lower elevation site than all the other sites so far in Maine, it is closer to the coast so it does have some wind, but to capture that wind we did have to get up a little higher," said David Fowler, First Wind's Director of Development of New England.
Fowler said they plan to begin constructing the towers at the site July 1. They've entered into a longterm power purchase agreement with the electric company, NSTAR, which is based out of Massachusetts.
"Bull Hill is expected to power enough energy for 18,000 homes annually," said Fowler.
Two more shipments, carrying the blades, are expected to arrive by train in the next few weeks. By this November, First Wind hopes to show what kind of power a project of this scale carries.
Bull Hill Wind Turbine Project is Step Closer to Completion
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Lie #1: "all of the wind projects in Maine are 80 meters". This is patently and provably not true. The turbines used in Mars Hill, Stetson and Rollins are all 118 meters. Evemn Fisrt Wind's own website says this.
Lie #2: Fowler says "Because Bull Hill is a lower elevation site than all the other sites so far in Maine, it is closer to the coast so it does have some wind, but to capture that wind we did have to get up a little higher". This is exactly contrary to First Wind's application and testimony in front of LURC. They presented Bull Hill as an ideal site.
Lie #3: "Fowler said they plan to begin construction at the site July 1". Really, Mr. Fowler? According to John Lamontagne in First Wind's PR department construction has already begun. Also, anyone near the site can see that the forest has been clear-cut, huge roads built and massive foundations poured.
Lie #4: "Bull Hill is expected to power enough energy for 18,000 homes annually". Mr. Fowler, did you flunk math? Let's say the 34-megawatt Bull Hill project generates electricity at an efficiency rate of 25%. That brings us to 8.5-megawatts. Multiply that by 8,760 hours in a year and we get 74,460-megawatt hours. According to the Dept of Energy, the average US household uses 11.04 megawatt hours annually. Simple division tells us that the project may be expected to provide enough power to serve 7,645 households, a mere 42% of what the 18,000 you claim.
But even if we are suckerde into believing Fowler's mathematical slight of hand, it is equally misleading to refer to a project serving "X number of households", a figure the American Wind Energy Association has encouraged all wind developers to present when defending their projects. Unfortunately, when Fowler says "X households" people naturally envision a town of X number of households. But according to the Dept of Energy less than half a town's consumption is represented by households. Municipal buildings, street lighting, etc consume the lion's share of energy in any town. In the case of the Bull Hill project it would therefore be accurate to envision a town, not of 18,000 households, but approx 3,050 households. Back to school for you, Mr. Fowler!
Lie #5: First Wind consistently quotes the entire value of their projects as the amount they're spending in Maine. As we see here, the towers are coming from Denmark. Last time I looked that was not Maine. Not even America! And the blades will arrive by train. From where? Certainly not Maine!
Wake up people of Maine. First Wind is only interested in making fast money at the taxpayer subsidy trough. They are perfectly comfortable lying to you so long as you don't call them on it.
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