Waterpower is the Maine Thing

To begin, of all the hydropower generated in New England, 52.6% is in Maine. And there is more on the way! But what would seem like a perfect connection to all the hydropower needed to eliminate the use of fossil fuels in New England –isn’t yet open.

One problem, indigenous to New England is that petroleum use had grown over the years to the point where at least 60% of the energy use in New England was oil and another 13% or so was based on natural gas.

With reliance on the delivery of Mid-East oil to the area and a small amount of natural gas from Canada, it finally occurred to some independent “down-easterners” to get back to basics – Water power- the very energy form that got the area moving a few hundred years earlier.

The people who believed that while coal and oil can harm the ecology, felt it might be a good idea to bring in more natural gas to replace some of that energy. Never mind, said the independents, that close at hand was enough water power to solve all the local energy problems.
Well, let someone prove it, was the answer – and so they did.

A study made by several authorities indicated that there are thousands of Megawatts of potentially undeveloped hydropower projects in the state. Many of these are not suitable for electricity generation but hundreds of MW are.

Accordingly, there now exist 119 DEP hydropower projects in Maine as of January 1, 2009.These when completed will increase the Maine electricity production capacity by 201.6 MW to a total of 767.5 MW of electricity.

“All well and good,” said the naysayers, “but we are already getting oil and gas delivered to us. How do you get the hydropower here?”

And that’s a very good question, which raises another good question; “What about all that Canadian hydropower sitting just over the border?”

The answer, or course, is NOT blowing in the wind, but part of the Eastern North American Interconnect wherein a number of grid connections exist between Maine and (a) Quebec hydropower and (b) the Canadian Maritimes area hydropower.

For more details see Northeast Power Coordinating Council, Inc. reports (on the Internet as NPCC). While numbers and details will be included in a future update, suffice it to say for now that between the Maine and Canadian potentials, oil, gas and the small amount of coal consumed in Maine could be eliminated.

Little Water, Big Energy

Big Government in the Way

When one hears the word Hydropower it’s natural to visualize a huge structure like the Hoover Dam or waterfalls like ones at Niagara, New York and Canada. No question these are impressive and provide literally tons of power.

But let’s take a look at some items that are a lot smaller but with the potential of providing literally More Tons of Power. They’re also hydropower. And they’re right in your back yard.
Actually the major hydroelectric dams, larger than 30 MW (that’s 30,000 kilowatts) make up only about eight (8%) percent of the total hydro power plants in the U.S. That’s according to the Hydroelectric Power Resources Database.

So where are the other 83%? They are low or small hydro power, from under 1 MW to 30 MW. And it’s in the small unit area that progress is stymied due to (1) a general public misunderstanding of the dynamics of hydropower and (2) government over-handling of the process by which permission to build and operate plants is given.

INL (Idaho Lab’s Water Energy Program) released a study in 2006 that showed 130,000 stream reaches around the continent suitable for projects between 10 kilowatts (KW) and 30 MW. INL estimated that even considering technological and environmental limitations, these projects could increase U.S. hydropower generation by more than 50% - How much coal and oil would that replace? Perhaps 15-20%.

Community Hydro of Plainfield, VT is encouraging developers to use the techniques of submerging weirs (small dams) to raise river water levels to create energy or to excavate power channels that divert water through a power house and back into the moving body of water.
Lori Barg, CEO of Community Hydro says that “obtaining federal and state permits for these projects can add $2,000 PER KILOWATT for a small hydro system, a figure that she calls ‘a project killer.’”

In Connecticut, Congressman Christopher Murphy has found it necessary to introduce legislation to congress to allow a Connecticut town to operate several dams that would provide power to approximately 2,000 homes – because a company that had the original license did not proceed with the project in the time required.

Further, according to Barg “Obtaining the necessary permits is such a deterrent. It’s important to have regulations, but I find myself going through 12 different agencies just to get a project off the ground. It doesn’t make sense and it’s not allowing Vermont (and all other states) to develop it’s abundant hydro resources.

ARE YOU LISTENING, MR PRESIDENT!

Hydro Power vs. The Earth

Hydro is the power obtained from falling or flowing water.

The Earth contains materials that must be extracted from it to be useful as fuels.
Perhaps this is a good time to get some terms straight, like Petroleum, Renewable, etc
Renewable energy is that which is renewed by nature or agriculture.

Rain water fills the lakes behind dams through which electricity is generated.

We all know the wind blows and goes away and blows again.

Ethanol comes from corn -by the way- a politically hot project costing taxpayers too much.
Geothermal energy is a relatively new field with marvelous results where possible
Biodiesel and biomass are also renewable and new.

Some consider Solar Energy Renewable –

Actually it isn’t …….It’s there all the time!

If it wasn’t there at any time that would be it – game over

Petroleum energy is found in the ground as crude oil and natural gas. Crude oil is refined into motor gasoline, diesel oil, heating oil and products such as plastics. Natural gas comes out of the ground colorless and odorless and so utilities add an onion-like odor to it so as to detect leaks.

As we discussed earlier Hubbert’s peak shows that petroleum and its products are not renewable, and as a product gets scarcer its cost goes higher as it will until end of Hubbert’s curve is reached.

The One Source of Energy – Renewable and Cheap – is Hydro Power

The power generated by falling water (see Niagara Falls and others) is the cheapest and most reliable product in the energy marketplace. Once the generation facility is constructed the only input required is running water. Plant maintenance is considerably easier than that of petroleum plants where the prime mover is burning fuel – with waste heat and air-pollution concerns.

Which brings us to the subject of our next message – the place that is our largest oil importer and could provide an incredible amount of water power……….

“Oh, Canada - -----------”

To be continued