Maine Wind Power

There are many environmental issues growing throughout the country and more people are trying to become eco friendly. One new idea of going greener is wind power which is a great idea to look into with Maine having the 19 highest wind resource in the United States.

A wind farm with wind turbines can provide many benefits and problems for Maine communities.

The biggest benefit to having wind power is the clean energy that is produced to replace the costly fossil fuels. Jeannie Conway of Fox Island noticed her 200 dollar electricity bill slowly decreasing since the wind farm put in November 2009. The 15 million dollar Fox Island wind farm project has three turbines that have generated 1.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity in January 2010 which exceeds many estimates. That amount of power is enough electricity to power Vinalhaven and North Haven.

One of the bigger issues with wind turbines is the appearance of them. Wind turbines are 200 to 300 ft. tall with three blades that are 65 to 130ft. long. Wind farms are most suitable in hilly areas or near the coast. This causes the wind turbine to be very visible for miles and will be seen by tourists and residents. A plus is that Maine will never have the massive wind farms like in Texas or Oklahoma due to Maine’s lack of hill and coastal area. If a huge wind farm was made Maine would be giving up its tourist income for wind income.

A not so common disadvantage to wind turbines is the noise. Residents that live near the turbines say the noise has ruined their quality of life living in Maine. In Fox Island experts told residents that the noise would be mast by other ambient sounds like wind on the ground. This isn’t the case for residents near the turbines who all live within one mile of the turbines or have a direct line of sight to them. Alan Barker lives quarter of a mile from the Fox Island wind project doesn’t mind the noise. "If you're expecting to go out and hear a pin drop that's not gonna happen," says Barker, "they do make noise and they do make more noise than you would think. But at the same time it's no different than if you live near a train or you live near a brook. This ocean out here on a stormy day makes noise."

Maine wind is a huge energy source that is slowly being tapped into. Feedback from wind farms already working in Maine will help create more energy saving wind turbines to help decrease Maine’s energy consumption.

"It is almost a perfect storm for a conflict between a desire to move toward clean energy and a desire to protect some of the few remaining wild places."

-- Pete Didisheim, Natural Resources Council of Maine, advocacy director