Local breeze | Forget large-scale ridgeline wind farms. To find Maine's wind power hub, look no further than Saco.
The wind turbine at the Saco wastewater treatment facility has become somewhat of a local attraction. School groups, public works officials, and people interested in alternative energy regularly come by to visit and stare up at the turbine's rotating fans.
Particularly for those contemplating investing in wind power, the turbine has become a must-see. "Like most things that are new," Saco City Councilor Eric Cote says, "you're not going to buy it unless you can go and see it.
Over the past two years, Saco has invested in several energy projects, including two wind turbines: a 33-foot one at the wastewater facility on Front Street, near the Saco Yacht Club, and a 100-foot turbine that towers over the city's brick mills at the new train station on Saco Island.
The city's push to adopt renewable energy started about three years ago. Concerned about the depletion of fossil fuels, Saco officials formed an energy committee, made up of Cote and several city employees, to look at ways Saco could save money and reduce its carbon footprint by adopting sustainable energy practices. "Our aim is to use as little energy as we can and have the energy we do use come from renewable resources," Cote says.
Elegant symbols for clean power that rise above the skyline, Saco's turbines have been unbeatable as advertisements for wind energy. In addition to attracting public interest, the windmills have also helped spur local business growth: Two entrepreneurs here have recently launched renewable energy businesses.
Diane Doyle, a developer who owns Doyle Enterprises in Saco and builds clustered subdivisions aimed at preserving open space, incorporated her new wind turbine company, Wind Catchers Inc., last winter. And Steve Fennell, the longtime owner of Saco Printing Company, will open MaineStream Energy Alternatives Inc. on Route One this summer. Fennell's company will sell solar panels and wood stoves along with wind products.
The two entrepreneurs say Saco's forward thinking on alternative energy encouraged them to venture into a new market. "What a better place to do this than in Saco?" Fennell asks.
Saco reveals what may be a growing -- and potentially profitable -- market in Maine for alternative energy, such as wind. Beyond the large-scale, big-money farms on the ridges of western or Down East Maine, smaller wind turbines are starting to pop up in more places, whether wastewater facilities or residential backyards.
But there are challenges to wind: the technology is expensive, regulations can be tricky, and there are always those still days, or weeks, when the winds don't blow. Plus the debate is not yet settled on whether wind turbines pose a risk to certain types of birds.
Yet there are clearly opportunities, including wind's promise of cheaper power in the face of steeply rising energy prices. And entrepreneurs are betting that desperate consumers these days will be hard-pressed not to at least start looking at more sustainable means of powering their homes and businesses.
Saco, like a handful of Maine towns such as Damariscotta and Eliot, is playing a role in fostering entrepreneurial activity around energy resources by adopting less restrictive local policies. Experts in wind energy say the only way wind power can advance is if smaller towns loosen permitting processes, and state and federal government begin to offer more incentives for manufacturers, dealers and consumers of alternative energy.
In anticipation of more requests by homeowners and business owners for wind turbine permits, Saco city councilors on June 2 adopted new zoning standards for small wind turbines.
Cote says the city's embrace of renewable energy is to brace for uncertain times ahead. "The world is going to run out of fossil fuels and prices are going to get higher," he says. "This is going to be the biggest problem civilization has ever faced. It's going to make the Depression look like a picnic."
The way the wind blows
Saco's smaller wind turbine, a 33-foot, 1.8 kilowatt Skystream, cost less than $9,000 to install in late 2006, when it was put up at the city's wastewater treatment facility. (The turbine is designed to generate a maximum 1.8 kilowatts per hour if brisk winds are blowing.) It now produces 300 to 400 kilowatts a month for a monthly savings of $60 to $70, according to Howard Carter, the director of the wastewater plant and a member of the city's energy committee. The plant, which is the largest energy consumer in the city, has a monthly electricity bill of $9,000, so the turbine barely makes a dent in the plant's usage.
But though there hasn't yet been a financial payoff, the windmill began attracting visitors walking along a new river trail that passes close to the turbine site. "The public perception on wind was pretty good," Carter says. "A lot of people saw it and liked it. That led us to put up the new one."
Last February, Saco hired Entegrity Wind Systems, a Prince Edward Island-based company, to erect a 50-kilowatt turbine to power the city's new train station, which hosts the Amtrak Downeaster. To pay for the more than $200,000 cost of the turbine and installation, the city sold a portion of a station's parking lot to the group developing Saco's mills at Island Point. The city also used funding from part of the tax increment financing deal, or TIF, garnered from the Island Point development.
Entegrity has promised that if the turbine does not produce 90,000 kilowatts of energy per year over the next five years it will reimburse the city for the energy shortfall. At current market rates, 90,000 kilowatts is worth about $14,000, based on a price of 15.6 cents per kilowatt hour for small businesses and residences, according to Central Maine Power. Although wind maps indicate there are sufficient winds, the wind turbine has so far posted disappointing results. In the turbine's 860 hours of operating, it had produced only a little more than 5,000 kilowatts of energy by June 2, according to the city's website.
Entegrity's manager of operations, Charles Newcomb, who is based in Boulder, Colo., says his company's guarantee to cover the energy bill in case of a sluggish turbine makes smart business sense. "We're getting something in the ground in a new market," he explains. "It's worth it. Is it something we do for everybody? No. The first leaders, we take care of them, that's good business."
Although the turbine has not worked as well as hoped, the graceful white pole with wings has certainly elicited interest. Kittery plans to hire Entegrity to build a 150-foot turbine at its transfer station for $190,000, with the guarantee that the company will buy back the machine if it doesn't produce 74,000 kilowatts per year over the next five years.
Market forces
Diane Doyle and Steve Fennell, on the other hand, are planning to service the market for smaller wind turbines. Doyle says she gained confidence to launch Wind Catchers partly because of the informative conversations she had with both Carter and Cote in Saco.
"I talked to [Howard Carter] about the plusses and minuses [of wind turbines], what it is like working with them," Doyle says. "I would say that was a huge part of me feeling comfortable. And he told me there are so many people coming by to see the windmill and asking how to put it up. There seems to be a lot of interest but not a lot of awareness yet."
Doyle's first project was to install a 35-foot turbine on Ram Island, in Saco Bay, on private property that's off the grid. The turbine cost $8,000, she says, and will produce 5,000 kilowatts a year, which would translate to roughly $75 a month in savings on a regular monthly electricity bill.
Doyle also plans to install a taller wind turbine at her green subdivision in Saco called Horton Meadows. The turbine will power the four common wells for the 27-house development.
Fennell, too, will specialize in renewable energy for homes and small businesses. As far as competing with other dealers, Fennell, who sold his printing company two years ago, says he encourages competition in the field because it increases interest in renewable energy.
After he paid a fee of $45,000 to the USA Solar Store, an energy cooperative based in Vermont with independent outfitters like Fennell's, Fennell has adopted the name Saco Solar Store, which will focus on wind and wood, along with solar energy.
Fennell says his business, which he plans to open in late July or early August, will be an educational resource with a media room. "We intend to have an array of solar voltaic and thermal options, and various wind turbine options, and we're also looking at wood pellet stoves," he says. Fennell, too, is applying for a city permit to put up a small wind turbine at the store.
At least one local business owner has already decided wind works: The first applicant for a wind turbine permit in Saco was Lynn-Marie Plouffe, the owner of Dupuis Farm, a 322-acre horse breeding farm on Buxton Road. She purchased a 50-foot turbine from a dealer in Augusta, All Season Home Improvement Company, for $18,000 and installed it about a month ago at her farm.
So far, the turbine has only generated a little over 100 kilowatts; meanwhile, her four barns and home require 1,200 kilowatts of energy a month. Over the long haul, however, she anticipates she will have paid off the turbine in nine years.
Plouffe says she will wait to buy a second turbine, for which she also has a permit, until prices decrease and wind technology improves.
Ron Stimmel, a small wind specialist with the Washington, D.C.-based American Wind Energy Association, says the price of turbines will likely not drop until the government begins offering incentives. Then, "volumes could increase 40% to 50% a year," he says.
Stimmel adds, too, that for wind energy to become more popular, it needs the support of municipal leaders to craft permissible zoning laws. "Unfortunately a lot of local planners and zoning officials are unfamiliar with wind, so they don't know how to manage zoning rules, which is a tremendous problem for the industry," he says.
Saco, in this regard, is ahead of the curve. The new ordinance in Saco sets standards for noise and does not allow guy-wires, the better to maintain the clean lines of the turbines. Setbacks also will keep the wind poles away from neighbors' lots.
Clearly, the more wind turbines go up, the greater the interest. But the next test will be whether the investment in wind pays off for people and businesses of varying sizes and incomes.
Plouffe says she's pleased to have taken a step toward making her farm more environmentally friendly, even though her turbine isn't spinning out vast amounts of energy yet. "I am happy to have a turbine. It is working, it is windy, and we're happy," she says.
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