October 15, 2012
Energy Watch: New suppliers, new technologies enter Maine market
By Matt Dodge
Maine's energy sector continues to grow and evolve as new suppliers and technologies enter the market. Here's what's going on:
- Dead River Co. and C.N. Brown announced in early October that they will enter a growing market for wholesale electricity in a market that has grown significantly more crowded in recent months. In mid-September, the Mass.-based fuel supplier Gulf Oil also announced that the company's electricity-providing subsidiary — Gulf Electricity — would enter the wholesale electricity market in Maine, which also includes FairPoint Energy, a subsidiary of the telecommunications company.
- Eastport group Save Passamaquoddy Bay has filed new objections to a proposed $600 million liquefied natural gas terminal by Downeast LNG, citing a 1976 University of Maine study and a 2004 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study that suggest offshore construction in the bay would upset long-settled heavy metals that entered the water from a Baileyville paper mill upstream. The company's president, Dean Girdis, told the Bangor Daily News that the company does not plan to respond.
- Montana-based Gas Natural Inc., which owns Penobscot Natural Gas Co., announced in late September that it has closed on a $4.5-million lease for the 189-mile Loring pipeline, extending from Searsport to Limestone. The company plans to repurpose the liquid pipeline to accommodate natural gas, providing distribution to northern Maine and residential and commercial areas where natural gas is not currently available.
- Northern Maine's first torrefied wood facility cleared its last regulatory hurdle, paving the way for construction to begin on a $48-million facility in Millinocket. Thermogen Industries LLC has received final approval for construction of the facility, which will use around 240,000 to 250,000 tons of wood waste to produce torrefied wood that has a market as a fuel source in Europe and the United Kingdom. Thermogen's parent company, Cate Street Capital, purchased American rights to the technology to make torrefied wood — also known as "biocoal" — for $20 million.
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