ROCKLAND, Maine — The Fox Island Wind project is an example of creative solutions achieved by communities to local challenges, a top federal official said Tuesday.
Dallas Tonsager, under secretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, spoke at the Maine State Ferry Terminal in Rockland after a tour of the three wind turbines on Vinalhaven.
“Every community comes up with its own solutions,” Tonsager said.
Rural Development’s role is to provide financing for these projects, he said. Rural Development provided loans and grants of $10.5 million to the $14.5 million project that was completed in the fall of 2009.
George Baker, chief executive officer of Fox Island Wind LLC, said that the wind project has reduced the cost of electricity on Vinalhaven from 28 cents per kilowatt hour to 24 cents per kilowatt hour.
“This is still a high price for electricity but it’s a significant reduction,” Baker said.
The wind turbines produce enough electricity to serve the island community over the course of a year, he said. During the summer when the population increases and the winds are less, electricity must be bought, but at other times there is an excess of electricity and it is sold. Baker said overall, Fox Island Wind is a slight net seller of electricity.
The under secretary said the federal agency supports thousands of community projects across the country each year. He said they include energy, housing, school and hospital projects.
“These are exciting times,” Tonsager said.
The agency also has supported Vinalhaven by providing more than $4 million for its wastewater system and nearly $1 million to support two apartment complexes.
After his tour of Vinalhaven, the under secretary was scheduled to go to the Island Institute headquarters in Rockland and communicate with officials and residents of several islands through distance learning technology.
This is a feather in the cap of those who worked together for a workable solution on Vinalhaven. Another example of ‘CAN DO” mentality. Looking forward to more articles like this. We need them. Our country needs them. The world needs them.
‘The Fox Island Wind project is an example of creative solutions achieved by communities to local challenges,” a top federal official said Tuesday.”
“These are exciting times” all right.
Beware the Federal Government’s self serving assessment of what they’ve done for you. It’s self serving in any administration, And don’t forget, it’s not gubment money: It’s our money and I don’t like paying for anything, nationwide, that way if it doesn’t benefit the country. Pay our own way is what i’m trying to say. That’s the Maine I grew up in………
Hate mail surely to follow. Critiques and sensible replies welcome. :)
Look, I have been working in Texas. There are more of these in Texas that in all the rest of America combined. Why n Hell do you have to put these non productive eyesores up in paradise. Our local landfill produces enough diesel methane energy to support 55,000 households. That would take about 300, 000 of these wind tings. Your land fill can be your energy source for 50 years
Curious as to how the facts are mangled. Actually the energy price on Vinalhaven has gone up from around 6 cents to over 13 cents since the turbines went in. If we had no project we could still be getting power from the grid at around 6.5 cents. People thorw around numbers, but if anyone actually cared to look at the actual power bills over time, it would be clear that this project is costing islanders money on average of about $40 per month.
Actually Betty, your facts are incorrect. The rates have dropped. We’re looking at our bills right here from before the project went up and after, and the savings are crystal clear to everyone who receives a rate bill from our Coop, (well except for the 5 individuals suing our community). What’s even more remarkable is that we’ve been able to hire an additional employee because of these savings. That individual can now afford to live out here and sustain his family. Pretty direct benefits if you ask most people. We’d encourage you Betty to stop listening to the spin from a few seasonal residents who don’t know what it means to sustain a family on the island and who can afford to own multiple homes. Come talk to the over 1,900 ratepayers and working members of our islands who are very content with our wind project and who have seen rates stabilize and drop as a result of a clean, renewable, local source of energy.
LOL – the cost of electricity has dropped.
Why would anyone replace electricity from the mainland that cost 6.5 cents per kWh with wind power at 24 cents per kWh?
Because it didn’t work that way.
Please try to keep up.
Very good question, munebaght. If you look at Philip Conkling’s recent article in the Working Waterfront, Energy Independence versus the Big Frack, it says, ” The next time you open your utility bill, you may notice the so-called standard offer of electricity portion of your bill has fallen between from 7 – 9 cents/kwh to between 5 – 7 cents/kwh. Hmm…. on Vinalhaven, last month islanders paid 12.5 cents/kwh for the energy portion of their bill (or electricity portion of the bill). Do the math. Vinalhaven and North Haven are paying over double what the mainland is paying due to the HIGH cost of wind energy! If islanders did not have the turbines, their energy costs would be cut in half!
Again, you mislead the facts and you fail to recognize that because of our community investing in FIW, which we all own, we have secured long term lower rates for the next 20 years. Come down to Main Street and ask people what they think of our turbines and how much savings they’ve seen since the project went online? You might if you can be honest, recognize the positive impact the project is having on our islands. Try to respect our working islands before you continue you promoting fuzzy math. Real lives depend on our smart investment in clean, cheaper, locally controlled power!
“we have secured long term lower rates for the next 20 years.” Point of fact, FIW has secured a long term HIGHER rate (according to DOE projections) for the next 20 years and no way to get out of the agreement. Time to face the facts and start problem solving.
Sally, you know you are lying here. Please stop. Why have our rate bills dropped? Why are we able to invest in hiring another employee and people are relieved when they receive their rate bill. Working families depend on our smart decision to invest in clean, locally controlled, cheaper power. Why are you continuing to sue our community rather than work with us as true neighbors with an eye towards doing best unto the community?
To Friends of FIW – Others have posted information from their electricity bills. Yet you state your rates have dropped. Would you kindly cite figures from your electricity bill as verification? Thanks.
Good question Lisa.
I would not be too hopeful, however of getting a real answer. This guy does not seem to have a good handle on facts, especially those that contradict the basis for the rhetoric that he seems to have absorbed from Fox Islands Wind. He clearly has been repeating the same stuff for a long time and includes not a shred of original thought. While he pretends on line to live on Vinalhaven he actually lives in Portland and returns occasionally to visit parents (really nice people), so I doubt that he even gets a bill from the electric cooperative. He talks about visiting neighbors, but according to my island sources has never had a conversation with any of those who are afflicted. Indeed, I think he must be an embarrassment to many who support the project as evidenced by the lack of comment from any others. Perhaps it would be best to let this guy rant as much as he wants in a vacuum. My guess is that he gets a charge more out of ranting rather than actually believing what he says.
Betty or (Sally), depending on if you are on or off-island, I’m not sure who you think you are referring to. You seem to have a penchant for completely disregarding the facts. I live on the North Haven Rd, within view of the turbines. I was raised on the island as were my ancestors. I’m a mother raising a family, and work in our family business – which if you care to know, has seen savings as a result of the wind project. Before we were paying 20-30% more for electricity, we experienced outages and disruptions, all which made it hard to stay in business. Do you care about working families or are you just following the recommendations of your attorney?
Thanks for your question. We’ve seen on average about a 20-30% drop in electricity over the course of time since the turbines went up. Some months less, some months more, depends on how much the wind blows. Our family business greatly depends on these savings.
The Fox Islands Wind Project cost over 14.5 million dollars. The 24 cents a KWH Mr. Baker quotes is an optimistic number since Vinalhaven’s ratepayers energy portion of their electric bills has been fluctuated between 11 and over 13 cents a kwh for the better part of two years. The transmission charge has stayed about the same and added with the energy portion of the bill, the rates have often been up to and above 25 cents KWH. Before the turbines went up, islanders were promised in writing and at public meetings that the energy portion of their bills would be 6 cents/kwh. Clearly, Mr. Baker’s calculations were wrong. One would think that Mr. Tonsager would have taken this opportunity to discuss the HIGH cost of wind energy. If islanders were to buy their electricity off of the mainland grid, they would be spending between 5 and 7 cents KWH for the energy portion of their bills! You can not paint lipstick on a pig.
More fuzzy math. You seem to not understand what we all see when we open our bills from our coop. And furthermore, you show total disregard for the fact that because of Fox Island Wind, we have secured long-term price security and benefits for our working community. Please stop with your misleading statements. It only adds to the adversity and challenges our community have to face to sustain our way of life. Please respect the overwhelming plurality of islanders who see direct benefits from the wind project and who are strongly in favor of the project.
Some specifics for the electrical rates on Vinalhaven. In Nov. 2009 when the turbines were first installed, the energy rate was 5.6 cents/kwh. It is added to the T&D rate of 13.1 cents/kwh to total 18.7 cents/kwh/kwh.
In May 2012 the energy rate was 12.5 cents/kwh. It is added to the T&D rate of 12.9 cents/kwh to total 25.4 cents/kwh today.
So Mr. Baker should have said the rate only increased [about 6.7 cents/kwh] from 18.7 cents/kwh in Nov. 2009 to to 25.4 cents/kwh today.
That’s up [only] 35% since the turbines were installed.
To restate that…
The energy rate has just about doubled (up about 100%), from 5.6 cents/kwh in Nov. 2009 to 12.5 cents/kwh today.
Martha or Sally,
I’m not sure what rate bills you are referring to or where you are getting your calculations from. I think you should go talk to working year-round islanders who have seen a direct benefit from our wind project. Ask them what they think before you start spouting fuzzy math and misleading the public about the facts of what two island communities in fact did to offset out of control and volatile utility costs that were threatening our way of life. You fail to reflect the very facts of what every rate payer experiences when they open their rate bills, a much needed benefit to all residents and businesses who every dollar saved goes a LONG way during tough economic times. Who do you stand with? The roughly 6 seasonal residents who are trying to dismantle the success of our project and set us back to a point where people struggled with how they were going to pay their electric bill or the over 1,900 people who are committed to working with their fellow neighbors at improving the quality of life on the island and sustaining our dynamic community?
I see that it all depends on how you define success. Based on your definition, I wish you all the success in the world. Hope all is well in Portland.
Not sure who you are referring to. We live on the North Haven Rd and run a family business on the island. Are you still in your second home on the mainland? Still denying retaining Rufus Brown as your attorney? Success is defined on how you work with people and whether you can maintain the truth. There is still time to step out of denial and stop being so self-interested at the detriment of working families.
It is very sad this project is not permitted to run at full capacity in order to increase the savings in electrical costs for Vinalhaven residents. This article states there is some savings but it appears the facility is capable of creating a higher savings than it currently is. It’s a huge investment and should be utilized for its intended purpose of decreasing island electrical bills to the fullest extent.
So, I take it you advocate increasing the misery and health impact of the people who had these huge machines imposed on them in order to possibly squeeze a miniscule number of electrons out of them? How very neighborly of you! Siting is one of the key problems with wind power and Vinalhaven is one of the worst examples of this. But an official of the government that is pushing this folly would never address that while on a grandstanding tour.
A real “community” protects the well being of all of its residents and does not sacrifice it’s quality of place.
What health impacts? Do you go and talk to the people who live closest? As someone who lives on the North Haven Road, I talk to my neighbors on a regular basis. The overwhelming response is that people love the project, they’ve seen benefits to their utility bills and also in the form of cheaper electricity for businesses in town who are struggling in these hard economic times. Regarding siting, how many meetings did we have where the community had the decision making authority to make the call on what made most sense for our islands community. You forget that the project qualified for all the permitting requirements. Why do you fail to comment on the fact that after the turbines went online, the 5 or 6 seasonal members (who have hired lawyers to effectively sue our towns) refused to work with the community on studies that were designed to help put in place a more restrictive operating protocol?
I have personally experienced health impacts from the exact same model of wind turbine. I also have met affected people from Vinalhaven. Low frequency sound waves are the dirty secret the wind industry battles to keep from consideration, but the illness and injury infrasound causes with some people is very real and very serious. It is serious enough that no wind turbines should be built within a mile or more of where people reside. It is immoral of you to keep up your zealous hucksterism of a project that has serious impacts on fellow humans. Shame on you!
Again, what health impacts on the Fox Islands? We live close to the turbines and can barely notice them when we are inside. We hear the ambient noises of birds, and the trees. People who live even closer to the Wylies and Lindgrens, share this sense that there are no health impacts stemming from the project. Do you have any proof or are you just scaring the public? What is the impact of the status quo of using fossil fuel based power? Do you care about clean air? Or the fact that none of that power comes from here in state?
You really are a low life, to place your idolatry of these dangerous machines ahead of people’s health and well being. You insult every victim in Mars Hill, Vinalhaven, Freedom, Lincoln, Lee, Roxbury, and Woodstock. Every place in Maine that utility scale wind turbines are placed in close proximity to where people live, there are victims.
It is one of the worst aspects of the wind industry, that the government pours billions of dollars into subsidizing something that is a health risk and does not back any health study. With the clear pattern we see, analogous to cancer clusters, an epidemiologist would be calling for a study to clearly determine the cause. We know from study of industrial noise the injurious effects of exposure to low frequency sound waves. OSHA regulates it. The wind industry gets a pass and that is just wrong!
We are talking about FIW. Where is your proof of any health impacts? Why are people living closest to the project experiencing no problems and in fact, are big supporters of our wind turbines? Do you consider what the alternative is? More fossil fuel backed power? More coal? More out of state power generation? The victims unfortunately in terms of FIW are us FIEC ratepayers who have had to spend over $500k in defending a frivolous law suit and who are sick and tired of the mistruths advanced by a few seasonal residents who don’t appreciate what it takes to sustain a family on the islands.
I agree with you. This project has been a tremendous waste of money and the wind energy is costing islanders a fortune in electric rates. However, as is, two families have had to abandon their homes due to the turbine noise and already the turbines have run consistently above compliance. One choice would be to move the turbines out a “quiet zone” and away from local residents. Clearly, FIW made a tremendous mistake by siting the turbines so close to homes. Time to do some creative thinking to solve the noise problem and at the same time decrease the electrical rates. As is, no one is happy with the project.
Is consistently above compliance, 10 hours over the course of an entire year? That’s 10 hours out of 8,765 hours. Is that worth over $500,000 and rising in legal costs that have raised our rates? I think its time you are accountable for refusing to work with the community and for continually misleading the public. Whose side are you on – the few seasonal members who have aligned themselves with misinformation and are intent on a litigation battle or the over 98% of the island community of mostly working residents who just want to sustain their quality of life. You seem to only consider your own myopic view, and those of 4 or 5 of your seasonal friends. Please consider us working members of our town before you continue to tell mistruths.
For all the time you spend here desperately twisting the story of FIW, it appears that this is your job! Have you noticed that you are the only one commenting here (except the sole comment by “mainemcq6”) in defense of FIW? The people of Maine are catching on to the wind scam. Your maligning of people who have experienced real health problems from the wind turbines is mean spirited.
Actually we are a group of over 40 families who are disgusted by the misinformation waged by 5 or 6 individuals who live most of the time off island. We are sick and tired of people attacking our working island community and cannot believe these people would have the nerve to sue us over accepting reality and committing to working with each other. Where is your proof of health issues from FIW? Please state it or stop your campaign of attacking working families.
Did the RUS ever closely examine the loan application submitted by the wind turbine operator for consistency to the requirements of the law? Unfortunately, no. As to the community benefit these three turbines provide, it is nothing less than a disaster for neighbors living nearby. George Baker simply won’t tell Vinalhaven the truth about the costs of the turbines. Electric rates would be lower, much lower if the turbines had never been built. They were built on fantasy, and federal loan requirements were ignored in the process. Congratulations, Dallas Tonsager, whoever you are; for missing the key parts of your responsibility to the public.
Again, you completely misrepresent the facts as experienced by the ratepayers of the Fox Islands.
They call this syndrome “cognitive dissonance” (you might want to look that up). Certainly if you were to accept that rates are higher, you entire house of cards would collapse. Interesting case study…
Friends of FIW lives in an echo chamber listening to himself. Ideological zealots never let facts change their beliefs.
More negativity and the persistence of law suits won’t win you many favors.
Why are our rate bills lower? Why have we seen direct benefits? Are you say that over 1,900 rate payers are lying? Why don’t you reexamine your failure to acknowledge that you have retained a lawyer and continue to sue our two towns?
Nobody with any sense of the beauty with which Maine has been blessed can look at this stunning aerial photo of part of Penobscot Bay and say that three 389 foot tall industrial wind turbines belong in this place. If you do, you don’t deserve Maine. Nowhere in Maine is wind power delivering any of the over-hyped “benefits”. Instead, we are on the road to increasing electricity costs while ruining Maine’s “Quality of Place”, which the Brookings Institute touts as the state’s greatest asset.
This wind project is just a scam set in a beautiful place in Maine. How much grant $$$ and tax credits went into subsidizing this? Baker and the supporters are shameless in their relentless mis-use of facts and cherry picking information whenever they hype this boondoggle. But the wind industry is notorious for that everywhere they go.
The costs were exceptionally high before hand; both generation and distribution—which is higher now than before.
The emerging tidal energy generators now being deployed throughout the world could easily be installed in the caissons at the Tidewater Motel at a fraction of the cost of the wind turbines and provide stable, reliable, ample power at a much lower cost.
The wind industry lobbyists won out because there was no lobby for tidal power.
The real losers are the people of Vinalhaven who now will face ever mounting costs of maintenance and eventual replacement of critical components, and listen to the swoosh and moosh of the turbine blades.
bad job spending our monsy FIW. What if the tax money was not there? Would you have built the project? no, no, no,.. I live off the GRId for 12 years and counting. no tax breaks for me. but no electrical bill for me either.
Friends of FIW….
Let’s try a little exercise in basic research. Facts are facts and not subject to opinion.
First open a copy of a bill from the Fox Islands Electric Coop that you received in October of 2009, the month before the turbines went up. Read the section labelled “energy charge” and write down what that says: 5.6 cents…do you see that? OK, now that you have done that, go the most recent bill. What do you see in the same section. Do see the number 12.5 cents? Now for the analysis… Which number do you think is bigger? 12.5 or 5.6? If the 12.5 is bigger, then ratepayers are not saving money.
OK that’s good. Now look at the rates on the web for what FIEC could be buying electrical power off the grid now.. You will find it to be around 6.5 cents. Once again which number is bigger? 12.5 or 6.5? If you find that 12.5 is bigger, then the ratepayers are not saving money from the turbines. As a matter of fact, the average ratepayer is paying almost $25 per month more than they would have with out the turbines and that number seems to be increasing. If you want to help those living on the island, I would suggest that you reverse your strategy.
No let’s think about the term “stability.” Would you call something that has doubled in two years stable? That kind of stability is not what anyone wants.
Now I have talked to folks on the island and they say there is not lawsuit against the community. I think that if you dug a little into this, you would find that there is an action against the DEP, but not the community.
Best of luck in going through this exercise.
Why have our rate bills gone down and why are people seeing direct benefits? Are you saying 1,900 people are deluded? Why can we now afford to invest in our business and the local economy because of a reduction in utility costs? Why do you fail to acknowledge you are suing our town and live most of the year off island? Why don’t you see the obvious that FIW has allowed us to secure cheap, clean power for the next 20 years plus? Just because you have financial resources to commit yourself to discrediting the truth of FIW, doesn’t mean you are right. You should think about the working families of both islands before you continue to mislead the public.