Williamson sees potential for wind ahead
PHOTo / Tim greenway
Paul Williamson, director and industry coordinator of Maine Ocean & Wind Industry Initiative, in his office in Portland
Paul Williamson, director of Maine Ocean & Wind Industry Initiative, remains bullish about wind power's potential in Maine. He acknowledges there are head winds, including the potential waning of political support in Augusta. He encourages taking a broad, long-range view, citing wind power's continuing national growth as clean, renewable energy.
Paul Williamson, director and industry coordinator of the Maine Ocean & Wind Industry Initiative, earlier this month staffed the Maine pavilion at the American Wind Energy Association's Windpower 2013 trade show in Chicago. That same week here in Maine, Patrick Woodcock, director of the Governor's Energy Office, urged a legislative panel to rewrite the state's 2008 Wind Energy Act, shifting focus from increasing wind energy capacity to lowering electricity costs and making sure Maine sees an economic return on its wind energy investments.
In an interview with Mainebiz at his office in Portland, Williamson responded to Woodcock's recommendations. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation.
Mainebiz: You've just returned from the wind industry's trade show in Chicago. What are the takeaway messages?
Paul Williamson: One of the first messages is that wind power has been extraordinarily successful here in the United States in creating clean, renewable energy generation. In fact, it represented over 40% of new energy generation capacity in 2012. And it has become a very stable and reliable source that's also becoming competitive in the marketplace, which includes providing long-term price stability.
Here's just one example: Iowa now has over 5,000 megawatts of installed capacity; in Maine we have 435 megawatts of capacity operating now. Those 5,000 megawatts in Iowa represent over 20% of its electricity generation. And they're not stopping there: Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, in the last week announced a $4.9 billion investment for further wind power in Iowa.
Here in Maine, we see that we've had some good success in wind power being a driver of economic development and price stability. However, there's a lot of growth potential. Official state targets represent a huge opportunity for economic growth as well as providing price stability for our energy market.
M: Speaking of state targets, lawmakers were recently told the goals set by the Maine Wind Energy Act in 2008 should be reevaluated. What's your take?
PW: Well, I don't necessarily disagree with Patrick Woodcock's suggestion that we review the original goals. But I wouldn't suggest that we scrap them.
However, and this is a really key point, a huge amount of the economic development benefit that the leading states are realizing in wind power is because they have set goals and are committed to achieving those goals. And by doing so, it drives business to your region and it drives development.
One of the limiting factors of the Maine goals is that there has been a lack of commitment to achieving them.
M: What benefits do we see so far?
PW: We've already seen over $1 billion invested in wind power. Over $400 million of that has been directly invested in local businesses that were already in business. There's over $6 million annually paid in real estate taxes by the wind industry. There's already been a boon to our state's fragile economy. However, we're only on the front edge of that economic development story, and through further commitment — both from the onshore wind power market and from the future potential for new technology in the offshore market – [we have] a huge opportunity. I think it would be short-sighted to bypass that opportunity, based on ideology.
M: Given Gov. Paul LePage's negative comments about wind power, are you concerned that even a review could arrive at a preordained conclusion that wind is not the way to go?
PW: The ideal way to review those goals is to set up a bipartisan group that also includes stakeholder input, including local industry as well as the wind energy advocates, to take a serious look at energy use here in Maine. There is no foregone conclusion if you set the review up in a neutral bipartisan fashion.
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