December 15, 2007
Maine
Maine
The wind farm in Mars Hill has been there for about a year. And now, other communities are looking to follow in that town’s lead.
Bucksport will soon have an energy committee – designed to look into the possibilities of making alternative energy right in town. Director of Economic Development David Milan wants more well-paying jobs for the people of Bucksport. He says one way to attract companies is by helping them save money.
“The intent was to hopefully to be able to reduce the costs for those companies and make not only Bucksport but the state of Maine more attractive to those companies that bring good paying jobs with them.”
One cost the town can reduce is electricity. And Milan says they can do it with alternative energy.
“It’s not so much an alternate source but a cheaper source which will usually translate into an alternate source.”
Milan says it seems like Bucksport is the ideal location for alternative energy. Now the town just needs to hire consultants to find out what their options are.
“It seems like you can set your clock in the summertime here by the wind coming up at one o’clock every afternoon coming off the water. So we think we’ve got the right area but that’s why you hire consultants to give you that kind of advice.”
What they’re hoping is that the consultants will tell them they have the perfect place to harness wind power.
“Potentially what we could do is use the windmill, generate power, sell that power to the power grid, and get credits back for that and use those credits, whether it’s to offset power through the schools or through municipal buildings or to help industrial users offset that cost.”
Milan hopes that will attract more businesses to his community. Other types of alternative energy the committee might consider are tidal power and natural gas.
14 December 2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/12/15/bucksport-to-look-into-alternative-energy/