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This article was originally published by the Maine Morning Star.
The International Energy Agency has estimated that offshore wind could generate $1 trillion in worldwide investments in the next 15 years.
Gov. Janet Mills said, “the time has come to bring some of that investment to Maine.”
Mills announced at a press conference Tuesday afternoon that Sears Island in Searsport is the preferred site for a designated port to support the state’s budding offshore wind industry because of its economic and environmental opportunities. The turbines will be fabricated and assembled at the dedicated port.
Within Searsport, there were two potential locations: Sears Island and Mack Point. Both are in Penobscot Bay and have garnered conflicting reactions from the public. Since Sears Island is undeveloped, proponents see it as a blank canvas ready to be transformed into an offshore wind port. But opponents argued against clearing more natural land over the redevelopment of Mack Point.
Mills laid out half a dozen reasons why she believes the 941-acre Sears Island is the best choice financially and environmentally for the people of Maine, although she emphasized that she didn’t make the decision lightly.
Since the state already owns the land, it will minimize upfront costs and eliminate the potential for leasing, making Sears Island more cost-effective in the short- and long-run, Mills said. She didn’t provide an exact number, but Mills said the entire project could ultimately cost several hundreds of millions of dollars.
The island also has the required physical characteristics, namely a large, level surface with access to deep water.
Knowing that some people may be unhappy about the decision, Mills said she has hiked the island and circumnavigated it by boat so she understands the appreciation for the island. In 2009, the state put about 600 acres — two-thirds of the island — into a permanent easement. That portion will remain untouched by the port, which will be built on about 100 acres outside of the protected area.
Searsport and the surrounding region has faced economic challenges in the past decade after a paper mill closed and took more than 500 jobs with it.
“We have not recovered from that loss,” said James Gillway, town manager of Searsport. “Offshore wind will change that.”
Representatives from Maine State Chamber of Commerce, Maine Conservation Voters and Maine Audubon were also present at the press conference in support of the announcement. Sen. Chip Curry (D-Waldo) also spoke about the opportunities this will offer by creating a new industry to “strengthen families up and down the Midcoast” with good-paying jobs.
“Offshore wind will be essential to our transition away from expensive and dirty fossil fuels, and to realize this incredible opportunity, we need port infrastructure,” said Beth Ahearn, director of government affairs for Maine Conservation Voters, who was also part of the 19-member Offshore Wind Port Advisory Group.
Organized by the Maine Department of Transportation, the advisory group met six times between 2022 and 2023 to explore prospective sites and help inform the governor’s decision.
Maine relies on natural gas to support much of its energy needs, so diversifying power sources can help stabilize prices for ratepayers, said Dan Burgess, director of the Governor’s Energy Office.
“This is an investment in Maine-made, clean energy that we think will stabilize rates,” Burgess said of offshore wind. He added, “the more we can do homegrown, the better.”
In a statement, Sean Mahoney, vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation Maine, which was also part of the advisory group, said, “Offshore wind will grow our economy and help us meet our obligations to ditch polluting fossil fuels. It’s critical that this process is now moving forward and we’re one step closer to getting this clean energy on the grid.”
In November, a coalition of organized labor and environmental groups voiced support for building a new port for offshore wind, highlighting benefits such as job-creation and the use of innovation developed by Maine people. They also stressed the urgency of moving forward with the project for environmental reasons.
The state is still waiting for the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to publish a final map showing where offshore wind can be developed in the Gulf of Maine.
In the meantime, Maine DOT will begin applying for state and federal permits. That process is expected to take about a year. Construction, however, will take multiple years. Mills estimated it could wrap up in 2029.
Even before the governor’s decision, Searsport stood out among the other options.
While the water is plenty deep, there isn’t enough space in Portland, so it wasn’t a viable option, explained Kathleen Meil, senior director of policy and partnerships for Maine Conservation Voters.
Eastport, another potential location, would require going through Tribal land and has a lot of rock, granite and other materials that would need to be blasted.
“So, that leaves us with Searsport,” Meil said in an interview with Maine Morning Star last week.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A new poll suggests over half of New Jersey residents don’t think they’ll buy an electric vehicle, even though most agreed it would improve health and air quality, fearing personal and statewide economic consequences. (New Jersey Monitor, Asbury Park Press)
FUNDING:
SOLAR:
CLEAN ENERGY: Although construction is years away for a massive wind power and transmission line project proposed for northern Maine, clean energy workforce development programs are already stepping up. (Mainebiz)
FLOODS: Parts of Boston, including Long Wharf, saw notable flooding yesterday as a nor’easter blew through southern New England, reviving conversation around potential nature-based and human-built mitigation strategies. (Boston Globe, NBC Boston)
TRANSIT: In the face of vehicle traffic issues, Rhode Island officials give $160,000 to East Providence to help the city create a bike and pedestrian master plan that builds on two existing, popular paths. (ecoRI)
EMISSIONS: New York City councilmembers discuss a proposed bill to force cruise ships to plug into onshore power rather than use onboard diesel engines while docked in the city. (Gothamist)
CLIMATE:
BUILDINGS: Efficiency Maine and the town of Brunswick strike a deal to offer better terms on energy efficiency loans to local businesses. (Times Record)
STORAGE: Georgia Power prepares to begin operation of a 65 MW battery storage system in Georgia, the first in a series of battery installations planned to eventually total 915 MW. (Macon Telegraph)
NUCLEAR: A Southeast trade association says the nuclear industry’s $9.8 billion footprint in Tennessee means the state will lead a pending “nuclear renaissance” in the region as utilities consider building a wave of new plants. (Knoxville News-Sentinel)
TRANSITION:
SOLAR:
WIND: Wind energy company Enel considers whether to appeal, negotiate with tribes or remove its 48-turbine wind farm in Oklahoma after a judge found the company failed to secure mineral rights from the Osage Nation. (Engineering News-Record)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Kentucky breaks ground on the first of 40 electric vehicle charging stations planned for the state’s interstates and highways. (Spectrum News, WHAS)
EMISSIONS: An analysis finds oil and gas producers would have owed as much as $1.1 billion, largely from leaky well and pipeline infrastructure, had a new federal methane fee been in place for a one-year period ending in March 2023. (Grist)
UTILITIES: Duke Energy revises its long-term plan in North Carolina to reflect an “unprecedented” increase in power demand by adding more solar and offshore wind, but also new natural gas-fired power plants and experiments in nuclear power. (Wilmington StarNews)
OIL & GAS: West Virginia lawmakers complain about miscalculations that cost eight counties a total of $22.9 million as they advance legislation to make permanent a relatively new method for assessing tax valuations for oil and gas properties. (WV Metro News)
RENEWABLES: A Spanish company secures $200 million in financing to build out 1.9 GW of solar, storage and wind facilities on Texas’ standalone power grid. (PV Tech)
COAL: A creditor of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s coal companies joins a legal dispute between those companies and a Virginia bank over $226.2 million plus interest in debt payments. (Cardinal News)
COMMENTARY: An analyst at a conservative think tank complains that net-metering subsidizes homeowners with rooftop solar at the expense of other utility customers. (Carolina Journal)
EMISSIONS: The top 25 U.S. oil and gas producers would’ve been liable for $1.1 billion in charges had the federal climate law’s methane emissions fee been applied over a year ending in March 2023, an analysis finds. (Grist)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
WIND:
POLITICS: Democrats fear the dismantling of Inflation Reduction Act clean energy incentives if they lose the presidency this fall. (New York Times)
NUCLEAR:
OIL & GAS:
CARBON CAPTURE: Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposes legislation that would allow the state to lease subsurface rights for storing carbon dioxide in an effort to maintain or increase fossil fuel production while reducing emissions. (Alaska Beacon)
CLIMATE: Washington state lawmakers propose spending carbon allowance auction revenues on electricity bill credits for low-income residents and to purchase hybrid-electric fire engines and charging infrastructure. (Washington State Standard)
CARBON CAPTURE: Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposes legislation that would allow the state to lease subsurface rights for storing carbon dioxide in an effort to maintain or increase fossil fuel production while reducing emissions. (Alaska Beacon)
OIL & GAS:
SOLAR:
WIND: A confederation of tribal nations accuses federal agencies of failing to engage with them before finalizing offshore wind energy plans along the Oregon coast. (KOIN)
UTILITIES:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
CLIMATE: Washington state lawmakers propose spending carbon allowance auction revenues on electricity bill credits for low-income residents and to purchase hybrid-electric fire engines and charging infrastructure. (Washington State Standard)
DIVESTMENT: Oregon lawmakers advance a bill that would phase out the state public pension fund’s investments in the coal industry. (Portland Tribune)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Biden administration reportedly plans to give automakers more time to meet its ambitious tailpipe emissions rules meant to speed electric vehicle adoption. (New York Times)
POLITICS: Republican policy advisers detail how President Trump will reverse the Biden administration’s progress on clean energy deployment and regulating fossil fuels if the Republican wins this year’s election — as Democrats rush to protect Biden’s progress. (Reuters, Politico)
FINANCE: More financial firms back out of climate commitments, saying the promises could expose them to legal challenges. (New York Times)
OVERSIGHT: Federal energy regulators approve new cold weather reliability standards for grid operators and affirm they’ll continue reviewing liquefied natural gas export applications despite the Biden administration’s pause. (Utility Dive)
STORAGE: Federal regulators deny proposed pumped hydropower storage projects’ permits on the Navajo Nation and establish a new policy of not issuing preliminary permits for projects on tribal land if the tribe opposes it. (KUNC)
OIL & GAS:
GRID:
SOLAR: Texas’ massive solar buildout is accelerating the transition to renewables in other states like South Carolina, where companies are using power purchase agreements and renewable energy certificates to source solar power from Texas. (CleanTechnica)
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: A Philadelphia family’s poor health and anxiety after living next to a former refinery has led to what psychologists are calling environmental trauma, an increasing mental health concern. (Inside Climate News)
EMISSIONS: Michigan environmental groups criticize DTE Energy’s voluntary carbon offset program for natural gas customers as a marketing ploy and a way for the company to profit with business as usual. (Michigan Public)
COMMENTARY: Southern officials who cut their teeth on coal remain stubbornly committed to fossil fuels in the form of natural gas, resulting in a plan to build the South’s largest gas pipeline in more than a decade, writes a columnist. (New York Times)
Big boxes of steel, iron, and mineral oil.
That’s how John Gajda, a long-time utility engineer and professor at North Carolina State University, describes the power transformers Siemens Energy plans to build in Charlotte.
The hunks of metal are named for their vital function: transforming the electricity produced at power plants to a voltage suitable for transmission, then transforming the voltage again for use in our homes and businesses.
“Transformers are the key technology that allow us to carry power over a distance,” Gajda said.
Central to the intricate network of cables, wires, and scaffolding seen at power substations, transformers have long played a critical — if not flashy — role in our electric grid.
“It’s maybe not the sexiest part of power generation,” said Richard Voorberg, president of Siemens Energy’s North America hub. “Everybody likes to talk about the generation side — big wind turbines or solar panels or nuclear plants. But this is one of those quiet backbone things that are necessary.”
Transformers come in all shapes and sizes, from the 200-ton version at a power plant switchyard to the small green box outside a home.
Siemens Energy plans to build the former, highly specialized pieces of equipment whose lead times have ballooned from about 18 months to up to five years, thanks to a global shortage.
One factor leading to more demand: large power transformers in this country are about 40 years old on average, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, and brushing up against their expiration dates.
“Some units in the grid are even more than 70 years old and still operating,” the agency says in a recent report. “Aging [large power transformers] cause higher failure risk.”
The worldwide push to electrify transportation and heat, combined with the transition to renewables from fossil fuels, has also created a surge in need.
“We need to build a lot more wind and solar,” said Luke O’Dea, vice president of engineering at Durham-based Cypress Creek Renewables, “and we need one or more of these transformers at every site where we want to build a new project.”
The U.S. Department of Energy says the country bought about 750 large power transformers in 2019. Three years from now, the figure will grow to 900, the agency predicts.
Compounding the problem, only about a fifth of U.S. large power transformers are produced domestically. Much of the rest are produced in Eastern Europe and Asia.
“We’ve got to be making these more in our country,” Voorberg said, “not only because of political instability in certain regions — but also plain old logistics issues.”
Siemens Energy’s new investment in North Carolina will help. The company will expand and refit its existing factory in Charlotte to produce 57 large power transformers and bring in another two dozen for service each year, adding 475 jobs. It will mark the energy giant’s first such facility in the United States.
To be sure, the transformers will serve the entire country, not just the Carolinas. But the equipment will be vital for Duke Energy, which is required by law to zero out its carbon emissions by midcentury, and is planning now for transmission upgrades required to interconnect more solar, wind, and battery storage.
“We’re building a lot of new substations,” said spokesperson Jeff Brooks. “That’s part of growing capacity on our system to support not only new business and industry, but also the dynamic power flows required to add more distributed technologies across the grid.”
Siemens Energy will also confront another challenge posed by the clean energy transition: Transporting renewable electricity hundreds of miles from where it’s readily produced to where it’s needed, such as from large wind farms in the Midwest or in the Atlantic Ocean to the populous East Coast.
“To transfer it that long distance, you need to convert it to DC,” said Voorberg, referring to direct current as opposed to alternating current. “Otherwise, you’re getting way too many losses going on.”
That’s why the company will add 84 jobs in Raleigh to design and test high-voltage DC transmission systems. “It’s more like a lab in Raleigh,” he said, “and a factory in Charlotte.”
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a second-term Democrat who has long championed the state’s clean energy economy, helped bring about the investment along with a host of government partners.
“Bringing production of these high voltage transformers onshore not only creates American jobs but makes our electric grid more resilient and ready for the transition to clean energy,” Cooper said in a statement.
Gajda, part of the Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management research center at N.C. State, certainly agrees. But when he saw the news, he said, he first viewed it through the lens of a professor.
“I can tell my students, ‘Hey, here’s another cool place where you can go to work,’” Gajda said. “I’m just excited about what it does for the energy ecosystem in North Carolina.”
SOLAR: An Arizona company announces plans for a $344 million solar panel recycling facility in rural Georgia, which will also manufacture enough glass to supply 5 GW worth of new panels per year. (Associated Press)
ALSO: Virginia lawmakers table separate bills that would have increased the state’s cap on distributed generation and allowed the state to override county rejections of solar farms. (Utility Dive, Suffolk News-Herald)
GRID: ERCOT officials are skeptical of a U.S. House bill to connect Texas’ grid to the rest of the country, suggesting the plan could disincentivize construction of new generation in the state. (E&E News, subscription)
LITHIUM: An inaugural Lithium Innovation Summit in Arkansas attracts more than 700 people, as boosters say the state could meet more than 15% of global demand for the element. (Arkansas Advocate)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
WIND: Louisiana businesses with expertise in oil and gas extraction are finding opportunities in offshore wind. (Governing)
UTILITIES:
NUCLEAR: Kentucky lawmakers introduce bills to support development of nuclear energy in the state. (WKMS)
OIL & GAS: Federal regulators approve two projects along the Gulf Coast that are expected to accelerate natural gas exports. (E&E News)
COAL: A federal lawsuit claims a coal company owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice improperly paid millions to settle a bank debt that should have gone to other creditors. (Cardinal News)
CLIMATE: JPMorgan Chase and State Street quit an international coalition aimed at curbing big companies’ investment-related greenhouse gas emissions, while BlackRock scales back its involvement. (Reuters)
ALSO: Combining state, local and private-sector efforts to reduce emissions are more effective than any efforts on their own, researchers find, noting that public-sector emissions rules can drive companies to follow suit. (The Hill)
CLEAN ENERGY: Solar and battery storage will make up more than 80% of new large-scale energy construction in the U.S. this year, while the country will add the smallest amount of new gas capacity in 25 years, the Energy Information Administration predicts. (E&E News, subscription)
GRID:
OIL & GAS:
POLITICS: Republicans pushing for climate action vow to keep working even if former President Trump is elected and turns the tide against them. (E&E News)
SOLAR:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe participates in a $13.4 million intertribal electric vehicle charging network and deploys six electric vehicles to serve residents. (South Dakota Searchlight)
OFFSHORE WIND:
OVERSIGHT: Amid new allegations that former Ohio utility regulator Sam Randazzo had a corrupt relationship with FirstEnergy dating back to 2010, Gov. Mike DeWine faces questions about whether he knew about that relationship when appointing Randazzo in 2019. (Ohio Capital Journal)
SOLAR: The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe expects to break ground later this year on a planned 756 MW solar installation on its land in southwestern Colorado. (KSUT)
ALSO: A California lawmaker introduces legislation that would require state regulators to consider all economic and environmental benefits of rooftop solar when setting net metering rates. (PV Magazine)
CLEAN ENERGY:
UTILITIES:
OIL & GAS: Occidental Petroleum predicts its plan to inject captured carbon into its Permian Basin oil and gas wells will increase crude production by as much as 12,000 barrels daily by 2026. (E&E News, subscription)
PIPELINES: Tribal nations and advocates push back against a proposed pipeline that would carry Permian Basin natural gas to an export terminal in Mexico, saying it threatens sacred sites and could fuel the LNG boom. (DeSmog)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
CLIMATE:
GRID: Los Angeles’ municipal utility votes to move forward with joining California’s grid operator’s extended day-ahead power market. (RTO Insider, subscription)
WIND: Oregon commercial fishermen and Indigenous communities criticize the Biden administration’s finalization of wind energy areas off the state’s southern coast, saying the federal agency failed to account for potential impacts. (Oregonian)
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