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New England plays catch-up in the green-energy race
This past Earth Day, President Barack Obama, speaking at an Iowa wind-turbine factory, delivered a gusty peroration. "The nation that leads the world in creating new energy sources will be the nation that leads the 21st-century global economy," he said. "America can be that nation. America must be that nation."

VIDEO: A tour of Stetson Wind

Why wind power blows: Why we shouldn't overload our energy basket with wind eggs. By Deirdre Fulton. Holding a finger to the wind: An energy expert forecasts a blustery day ahead for the region. By Mike Miliard. Photos: Stetson Wind in Maine. By Mike Miliard.

This past Earth Day, President Barack Obama, speaking at an Iowa wind-turbine factory, delivered a gusty peroration. "The nation that leads the world in creating new energy sources will be the nation that leads the 21st-century global economy," he said. "America can be that nation. America must be that nation."

Earlier this month, speaking at Harvard, Energy Secretary Steven Chu lamented that we're not that nation. Not yet. Even as the cost of creating wind power "has come down by more than a factor of 10" in recent years, he said, we've so far nonetheless "fundamentally surrendered" the development of green-energy technology to Europe and Asia. "We have an opportunity to be an innovation leader," he added, calling for a "new industrial revolution."

New England may be used to being the birthplace of revolutions, but in the case of wind power, that ship has sailed. States out West are far outproducing us, and will likely continue to. That said, we still could be a player in the nascent wind industry; we've just got some catching up to do.

The president has called for wind energy to contribute 20 percent of America's electricity needs and create as many as 250,000 jobs within the next two decades. So far, Texas is far and away the national leader, with more than 8000 megawatts worth of turbines churning the air. (One megawatt, or one million watts, is enough to power 400 to 500 homes.) But here in New England, more and more towers are going up among trees and atop mountains as we start to take advantage of the most viable green-energy source the area has to offer.

Development of renewable resources "has the potential to skyrocket," says Vamsi Chadalavada, senior vice-president and chief operating officer for ISO New England, which runs the six states' electrical grid. And wind, he says, "makes up about 85 percent of [the] proposed renewable projects in the region."

Maine, the most oil-dependent state in the country, has set out to establish itself as the wind-power leader in the region. At this point, Maine produces more than 100 megawatts, compared with just a quarter of that in New Hampshire, and six or so megawatts each for Massachusetts and Vermont. (Connecticut produces no wind energy, and Rhode Island has just two turbines— although more are planned.)

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Images of Stetson Wind
Photos of Stetson Wind in Washington County, Maine

READ:A mighty wind: New England plays catch-up in the green-energy race. By Mike Miliard | Why wind power blows: Why we shouldn't overload our energy basket with wind eggs. By Deirdre Fulton. 

READ: Holding a finger to the wind: An energy expert forecasts a blustery day ahead for the region. By Mike Miliard.

Photo by Mike Miliard.

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An energy expert forecasts a blustery day ahead for the region
Across New England, there's currently less than 150 megawatts worth of wind turbines installed and operational. That's small change compared with what's happening in places such as Texas and California. But it's a whole lot more than existed just a few years ago.

Across New England, there's currently less than 150 megawatts worth of wind turbines installed and operational. That's small change compared with what's happening in places such as Texas and California. But it's a whole lot more than existed just a few years ago — and, if trends continue, a whole lot less than what will exist a few years from now.

The Phoenix e-mailed Vamsi Chadalavada, senior vice-president and chief operating officer of ISO New England, the nonprofit company responsible for overseeing the region's electrical grid, to ask him how he sees wind power fitting into in the northeast's renewable energy future.

How would you describe New England's wind resources?
Today, wind and other renewable resources make up just a fraction of our region's resources, but the development of these resources has the potential to skyrocket. Developers have expressed initial interest in building approximately 3100 megawatts of new, renewable resources in New England. Wind makes up about 85 percent of those proposed renewable projects in the region.

I'm guessing we can never be a player in the wind industry on the scale of, say, Texas?
That all depends. Texas appears to have on the order of about 7000 megawatts of wind resources (Source: Wikipedia). Though New England's system today has approximately 100 megawatts of wind resources, our region has tremendous potential for onshore and offshore renewable resource development. To realize this potential, policy, and price are key.

Renewable requirements across the six New England states are projected to increase from nearly 10 percent of total energy in 2009 to 19 percent in 2020. Over the past 10 years, investment in new supply has been concentrated almost exclusively on large, natural-gas-fired power plants. Although we expect natural gas to play a prominent role in our resource mix going forward, policies such as this are creating a growing interest in developing wind and other renewable resources.

The cost of fossil fuel is another factor that will determine to how much wind is built here. Wholesale electricity costs track closely to the cost of the fuels used to produce it. As the cost of oil and natural gas fluctuates, developers will have to assess whether the investment climate makes wind economically attractive to build.

A mighty wind: New England plays catch-up in the green-energy race. By Mike Miliard. Why wind power blows: Why we shouldn't overload our energy basket with wind eggs. By Deirdre Fulton. Photos: the Maine wind farm. By Mike Miliard.

What can we reasonably expect from wind power as a way to meet our energy needs?
New England's six governors have asked just that very question, requesting ISO New England's assistance in creating a regional blueprint for the development of renewables.

ISO New England is providing technical support to the states in the governors' initiative to create the New England Governors' Renewable Energy Blueprint. Through this process, regional policymakers hope to identify the available sources of renewable energy both here and in neighboring regions, and determine the most effective means to connect those resources to our power grid.

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Why we shouldn't overload our energy basket with wind eggs
The world is looking for a no-brainer solution to the 21st century's impending energy crisis, and wind power seems to provide many of the right answers.

A mighty wind: New England plays catch-up in the green-energy race. By Mike Miliard. Holding a finger to the wind: An energy expert forecasts a blustery day ahead for the region. By Mike Miliard. Photos: the Maine wind farm. By Mike Miliard.

The world is looking for a no-brainer solution to the 21st century's impending energy crisis, and wind power seems to provide many of the right answers. But those who want to run straight for the first ridgetop and put up a turbine might want to slow down a second. In addition to its distinct advantages, wind power has real drawbacks that must be addressed before it is hailed as our global-warming savior.

Around New England, and especially in Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, activists have many reasons to oppose specific projects, or wind-power development at-large. Ask one of them about the pitfalls of wind energy, and then get comfortable — the list can include doomsday wildlife predictions, decapitation by enormous blades, negative effects on tourism, soaring energy costs, even a suspicious-sounding sickness or a crazy-making continuous drone.

"There's a lot more efficient means to reducing carbon-dioxide emissions," says Audra Parker, executive director of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, which is against the offshore Cape Wind project (currently stalled in litigation), and favors energy-efficiency measures as a means to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

"You always have to have a conventional power plant [in addition to a wind farm] running at capacity to meet the demand — the conventional power plants have never been shut down," says Anthony Spiratos, president of the Rhode Island Alliance for Clean Energy, which opposes the offshore wind-energy installment proposed by Governor Don Carcieri.

"The wind industry is in denial about human suffering caused by turbine noise, just as the tobacco and asbestos industries were in denial about the health effects of their products," says Steve Thurston, of Maine's People's Task Force on Wind Power. "There is no excuse for this industry to torment citizens who desire nothing more than a good night's sleep and to enjoy the peace and quiet of their rural environment." To that end, a group of Maine citizens just sued First Wind (see "A Mighty Wind," page 10) and several other parties; they say the noise generated by turbines negatively affects property values and quality of life.

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