Hi Ocean Pointers,
I hope you're staying warm tonight, wherever you are...
A very important issue has been in the news around Midcoast Maine lately, and I wanted to share it with you in case word hadn't spread to your neck of the woods. It's about wind turbines being built near Monhegan Island. You have the opportunity to voice your concern or support to the Maine Public Utilities Commission during a public comment period which closes on December 20th. Here's the plan:
The University of Maine will be building and erecting two full-size, 6-megawatt floating wind turbines in deep water about 2.5 miles off the southern shore of Monhegan (10 miles from the mainland) by spring of 2015. They call the project "Maine Aqua Ventus I". There will be an underwater cable connecting the turbines to the Pemaquid Peninsula. The floating turbines require an enormous anchoring system which may close off a large area of ocean bottom to fishing and boat traffic. If these two test turbines are successful, there's a business plan already in place to expand the project to a full-scale offshore wind farm of up to 50 turbines, or whatever number they deem commercially viable. The whole plan is hinging right now on whether UMaine wins competitive grant funding from the Department of Energy this spring.
To put these proposed Monhegan turbines in perspective, the three installed on Vinalhaven Island in Penobscot Bay a few years ago are much smaller-- just 1.5 megawatts each-- and slightly further away from the mainland-- 12 miles away-- but are highly visible by day as well as by night, with red flashing lights. The Vinalhaven turbines have caused some controversy because of noise created by the blades and there have also been concerns around the turbines' effects on birds and bats.
Some love the UMaine proposal for many reasons, including the potential for Maine to become a wind energy world leader. Some hate it. Many are skeptical. Many aren't sure what to think, including myself. Is this our future? The Monhegan community itself is still weighing the benefits and risks.
Very selfishly, what concerns me most is that word has not spread well to the seasonal community. Regardless of your opinion on the issue, I wanted you to know that there's a public comment period closing this Friday, December 20, 2013. You're able to submit your comments to the Maine Public Utilities Commission through their online form here (case #2010-00235): https://mpuc-cms.maine.gov/CQM.Public.WebUI/Comments/PublicComments.aspx?CaseNumber=2010-00235
I hope this is helpful info for you. Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season!
Sincerely,
Dana Turpie Wilson
P.S. Here are a couple of recent articles about the project:
http://www.workingwaterfront.
and
No comments:
Post a Comment