On November 17th the Fox Islands wind project was officially placed in service at a ceremony attended by Maine Governor John Baldacci and many local residents. The project is now officially the largest community-owned wind facility on the east coast. The Fox Islands of Maine are located approximately 12 miles from the coastal town of Rockland. The islands are comprised of two towns, North Haven and Vinalhaven.
The project, developed by resident owned Fox Island’s electric cooperative, consists of three GE 1.5 MW turbines mounted at an 80 meter hub height. Based on wind resource data the project is expected to generate 11,605 mwh of electricity annually (about 29% of total potential output). The project’s website states supply of electricity from the turbines is fairly even with the electrical demand of the island. However, due to fluctuations in wind speed at various points throughout the year, combined with island electrical demands, residents may have a shortage, or an excess, of electricity. When either scenario occurs, power can either be sold or purchased from the mainland via an underwater cable which was installed in May 2005. Excess electricity will be sold merchant (no long term power purchase agreement in place) to the New England power grid.
The island has sub-par wind resources and this was certainly not a cheap project by any stretch of the imagination ($3,222/kw compared to a national average cost of $2,000/kw) so you may be wondering why this project was even built. The primary reason this project makes sense financially, is due to the exorbitant power prices local residents are currently paying for electricity. On average residents are paying approximately $250/mwh compared to the US average residential rate of $114/mwh in 2008. By entering into a pre-arranged price for electricity with the co-op, local residents will be largely shielded from sharp price increases. Should they need to procure additional electricity from the main land, residents would still be susceptible to market prices. Likewise, should the project generate more electricity than the island requires the co-op becomes susceptible to market risk when selling electricity back to the grid. All in all though I believe the residents have made the right decision here. If nothing else, it will give them some comfort knowing their electrical bill won’t go through the stratosphere should natural gas rates return to the highs of 2008.
Conflicting data was presented on the Fox Islands wind website regarding the islands’ electrical demand. One report stated electrical demand on the island was 2.6 MW, the other stated demand was 1.2 MW. If the former is correct I question why the co-op chose not to install one or two more turbines. Based on the electrical needs of the island, combined with the wind resources of the island, it appears another 2 turbines would have sufficiently covered the electrical demand of the islands’ residents. In order for the three turbines to generate 2.6 MW of electricity they would need to produce about 58% of their total capacity, a very unrealistic scenario.
The project was financed through private funds for pre-construction work, equity from Diversified Communications of Maine, and senior debt from the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service.
Congratulations to the Fox Islands Electrical Co-op for pulling together this project.
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