Apr302009
Sprinkling solar power plants throughout Maine
Filed under Alternative energy by david brooks at 7:09 pm
A new, very small Maine company called GridSolar (mostly a guy named Richard Silkman, it seems) is pushing an idea to build scores or hundreds of 2-megawatt solar power plants alongside existing power lines throughout central and western Maine. In a filing with the utilities commission (here, PDF) the firm claims this would make it unnecessary to build a proposed $1.4 billion upgrade to the state’s power grid, which is designed to accommodate alternative energy and increase reliability.
The proposal says each site would require about 25 acres, to be located in or adjacent to power-line property already owned by Central Maine Power Co. (thereby skipping the long, complicated process of getting land for solar sites). The output of each site would be small enough that they could feed energy into the existing grid with straightforward connections.
When there isn’t enough sun, GridPower says it would automatically fire “distributed propane and/or natural gas engine-generators and battery back-up systems to meet those peak loads.”
The filing (which is long and detailed; more than I can digest so far) seems to claim a per-kilowatt cost of about $4,500. That’s more than double the rule-of-thumb cost of building a traditional coal-fired power plant, but avoiding the need for more transmission lines would be a huge savings. And, of course, solar has environmental benefits.
GridSolar has filed a request with Maine’s public utilities commission to become recognized as a transmission and distribution utility, which would give them various legal rights under the complicated utility-regulation system.
Silkman is giving a talk about this at Kittery Trading Post on Tuesday, May 5, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Interesting.
May 1st, 2009 at 8:10 am
Distributed power generation. Like distributed processing that led to the rise of PCs. Seems to make sense. Why not one or two wind turbines in likely spots as well? How much is too much power to flow into the existing grid from one spot?
May 1st, 2009 at 8:58 am
What's interesting about this proposal is that it sits between the traditional distributed model that has scads of very small solar sites (e.g., California's “Million Solar Roofs” program) and traditional utility models that have a few very large, utlility-scale sites.
The fact that, so far as I can tell, all these solar sites would be owned and operated by one entity - most distributed energy plans involve many many owners - is also interesting.
May 1st, 2009 at 9:58 am
Isn't Germany doing something similar? I seem to remember NOVA show about roadways in Germany lined with photovoltaic cells.
I like the idea of distributed generation. It is more reliable then large central plants, reduces stress on power grid (but does have unique problems) and hopefully makes people more aware of relationship between energy generation and consumption.
Hopefully once “2009 Climate Change Bill” passes Congress there will be tax benefits and more investment activity in Green energy.
May 2nd, 2009 at 6:18 am
The… micro… power generation of solar panels on houses in California makes perfect sense for southern California. The… mini… power generation idea makes perfect sense for a place like… Maine with many micro climates. The real point is we (here in the US) are becoming more open to a multi-pronged approach to generating power. Traditionally we seem to gravitate to a one-solution approach to a problem.
Last month I hit a goal of having my variable electrical costs go below my fixed costs. While that was good, it pointed out how cheap actual electricity is, and how expensive the infrastructure is. (Never end a sentence with “is” but, there it is.)
May 2nd, 2009 at 6:42 am
Can you explain that a bit, your varable vs. fixed costs?
May 2nd, 2009 at 8:39 am
I just pulled out a bill… and damm…. I am not so happy.
What I consider the fixed charges are the delivery services which consists of the fixed customer charge, and then random distribution charges like transmission, stranded costs, and system benefits and taxes. Those all show up in the Delivery Service Detail of the bill. $8.93 fixed charge, and about $0.05 KWH charges.
Then in the Suplier services is the pure energy charge…. at $0.09 / kwh
One slower inspection the Delivery Services were essentially $34 and the Energy is $43. Suffice it to say those numbers look the same to me at a quick glance. (Yes, I manage the money in the family.)
Perhaps if it rains later, or the black flies get too thick I will try to plot where the Services and energy do cross. It expect it willl be just downwards of 400 KWH / month. Shedding kids and their computers should make it simple.
May 2nd, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Never mind. Need to get to about 200 kwh/month the energy costs are about equal to the delivery costs. We go now from a high of about 600+ / month in the winter, to a current low of about 425. Gotta lose the kids and see what that does.
October 8th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
I wish that this project will be successful because many people need electricity and most of them are hoping that this project could help them so much. I will support and looking forward for this.
November 26th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
[...] April I posted about an intriguing idea from a company called Grid Solar, which wanted to put large-ish (2 MW) [...]