WIND POWER IN MAINE: BALANCING CONSERVATION AND ENERGY PRODUCTION

Hannah Lafleur and Jordan Schoonover

ES212 Introduction to GIS and Remote Sensing

Colby College: Environmental Studies Program

Abstract

An expedited permitting area has been created to facilitate the development of wind power projects in Maine. The purpose of this project was to investigate the impact of removing areas of conservation interest from the expedited permitting area. We found that the removal of these areas impacts the total wind potential of the state, in an amount proportional to the size of the area removed. The impact on the total wind potential ranged from 0.46-29.0 % decrease, depending on the calculation scenario used. These findings may have implications for future policy decisions concerning wind power development.

Introduction

Recently, there has been increased interest in renewable sources of energy such as wind power. In 2007 Maine governor John Baldacci established the Governor’s Task Force on Wind Power Development, which concluded that: “Maine can become a leader in wind power development, while protecting Maine’s quality of place and natural resources, and delivering meaningful benefits to our economy, environment, and Maine people” (Governor’s Task Force 2008). The Task Force recommended that a portion of the state be designated as an expedited permitting area to streamline the permitting process for new wind projects. The expedited area includes all organized townships, unorganized towns on the fringe of the Land Use Regulation Commission’s jurisdiction, and areas within six miles of certain public highways. In all, the expedited area encompasses two-thirds of the state.

The purpose of this project was to investigate the impact of removing areas of conservation interest from the expedited permitting area. Although large tracts of conservation land, such as Baxter State Park, are excluded from the expedited area, many smaller but significant conservation lands, such as Acadia National Park, are included. We sought to measure the impacts on the total wind potential in the expedited area if conservation lands and the area immediately surrounding them were removed. Conservation lands include federal and state-owned lands and non-profit easements (ME Office of GIS 2009). Three scenarios were compared: 1km, 3km and 5km buffers around conservation lands. We also examined the impact of removing roadless areas. Roadless areas are defined as: “areas where no roads have been built and where, as a result, no logging or other development has occurred” (NRDC 2009).

Methods

We compiled GIS data layers for the state of Maine including data for Conservation Lands, Roadless Areas, the Appalachian Trail, and Wind Resources (Figure 4). We created a layer for Expedited Areas based on the Governor’s Task Force Report. We used ArcGIS software, and our data were projected in NAD83, UTM Zone 19N.

We calculated the areas of wind power classes within the Expedited Area. Next, we set up different scenarios to evaluate how the wind power potential of Maine changes with specific portions subtracted from the expedited permitting area. The Wind Resources layer defined seven wind potential classes. The wind power density for each class was given as a range, calculated using the Weibull distribution with a k value of 2 (NREL 2002, DWIA 2003). We used minimum, mean, and maximum values of the wind power densities to account for possible variation (Table 1). To calculate the wind power potential of the state, we multiplied the areas of the polygons by the wind power density (Table 2). We ran the minimum, mean, and maximum scenarios to establish a baseline for our analysis. Next, we created buffers of 1 km, 3 km, and 5 km around the conservation lands and subtracted them from the Wind Resources layer. We calculated the total watts of wind power at minimum, mean, and maximum densities for the current expedited area and the expedited area with the conservation lands buffered at 1km, 3km, and 5km. We performed the same calculations with the removal of Roadless Areas.

Table 1. Minimum, mean and maximum wind power density for each of the seven wind power classes.

Wind Power Class	Minimum wind power density (W/m2)	Mean wind power density (W/m2)	Maximum wind power density (W/m2)
1	0	100	200
2	200	250	300
3	300	350	400
4	400	450	500
5	500	550	600
6	600	700	800
7	800	900	1000

Table 2. Attribute table of the Wind Resources layer with the minimum, mean and maximum wind densities and the corresponding wattage calculated by multiplying the wind density (W/m2) by the area (m2).

WPC	Area	Min W/m^2	Min Watts	Mean W/m^2	Mean Watts	Max W/m^2	Max Watts
1	120000	0	0	100	12000010	200	24000020
3	2919999	300	875999970	350	1021999965	400	1167999960
2	2359999	200	471999960	250	589999950	300	707999940
3	360000	300	108000030	350	126000035	400	144000040
3	240000	300	72000030	350	84000035	400	96000040
2	24359999	200	4871999980	250	6089999975	300	7307999970
4	40000	400	16000000	450	18000000	500	20000000

Results

We found that removing the conservation land buffers decreased the total wind potential of the expedited area (Table 3). The greatest reduction in wind potential occurred with the removal of conservation lands and a 5 km buffer around them. Removing the roadless areas decreased the wind potential less than removing conservation lands with a 1km buffer. The minimum, mean and maximum scenarios show a similar trend for the decreasing wind potential (Figure 3).

Table 3. Total power potential and percent change in power potential using minimum, mean and maximum wind power densities. It is important to note that the values for total power potential were calculated for comparison purposes only. They do not represent a realistic estimation of the total watts likely to be produced by wind power in Maine.

		Minimum		Mean		Maximum
Area Removed	% change in area	Total watts	% change in wind potential	Total watts	% change in wind potential	Total watts	% change in wind potential
None	____	1.99x10^12	____	6.89x10^12	____	1.18x10^13	____
Roadless area	-1.63	1.88x10^12	-5.54	6.71x10^12	-2.64	1.15x10^13	-2.15
1 km buffer of conservation lands	-15.1	1.57 x10^12	-21.0	5.76x10^12	-16.5	9.94x10^12	-15.7
3 km buffer of conservation lands	-39.3	1.02 x10^12	-48.9	4.03x10^12	-41.5	7.04x10^12	-40.3
5 km buffer of conservation lands	-61.2	6.47 x10^11	-67.6	2.57x10^12	-62.7	4.50x10^12	-61.9

Figure 3. Wind potential remaining after removal of conservation buffers.

Discussion

Depending on the wind density value used, removing buffers around conservation lands reduced the wind power potential in the expedited area by 1.0 – 29.0%. Removing roadless areas did not have a significant impact on the state’s wind power potential. The impact of removing conservation buffers increases as the size of the buffer increases. Our results show that the objectives set forth by the Governor’s Task Force on Wind Power Development, including making Maine a leader in wind power development and protecting the state’s quality of place and natural resources, will require careful planning and consideration of scenarios similar to those presented in this poster. Our data may be of importance to policy decisions regarding the balance between conservation and wind power development.

Our analysis used buffer distances of 1, 3 and 5 km, but future analyses may be able to distinguish a more specific trend with buffer distances in smaller increments and over a wider range. Although distance was the only variable considered in this analysis, conflict between conservation areas and wind development may result from a more complex interaction of factors. Visibility of wind farms from conservation areas is a variable of interest that should be considered in future analyses.

Conclusion

Excluding areas of conservation interest from future wind power development decreases the total wind potential of Maine:

• The removal of a 1 km buffer reduced the wind power potential by 1.0 - 4.2%.

• The removal of a 3 km buffer reduced the wind power potential by 3.9 - 16.6%.

• The removal of a 5 km buffer reduced the wind power potential by 6.8 - 29.0%.

• The removal of the roadless areas reduced the wind power potential by 0.46 - 2.20%.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Philip Nyhus and Manny Gimond for their assistance with the planning and execution of this study. We would also like to thank Emmie Theberge of the Natural Resources Council of Maine for providing us with ideas and data about wind power development in Maine.

Literature Cited

Appalachian Trail Conservancy. 2009. “Appalachian Trail GIS and GPS Data.” Accessed 7 April 2009. <http://www.appalachiantrail.org/site/c.mqLTIYOwGIF/b.4805623/k.438D/Appalachian_Trail_GIS_and_GPS_Data.htm>

Danish Wind Industry Association. 1 June 2003. “Weibull Distribution Plotter Programme.” Accessed 23 April 2009. <http://www.windpower.org/en/tour/wres/weibull/index.htm>

Governor’s Task Force on Wind Power Development. 14 February 2008. “Report of the Governor’s Task Force on Wind Power Development.” Accessed 1 April 2009. <http://www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/windpower/>

Maine Office of GIS. 2009. “GIS Data Catalogue.” Accessed 7 April 2009. <http://megis.maine.gov/>

Natural Resources Council of Maine. 2009. “Wind Power.” Accessed 1 April 2009. <http://www.nrcm.org/issue_windpower.asp>

Natural Resources Defense Council. 2009. “The National Forest ‘Roadless Area’ Rule.” Accessed 7 April 2009. <http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/qroadless.asp>

National Renewable Energy Laboratory. 2002. “Data and Analysis Tools.” Accessed 1 April 2009. <http://www.nrel.gov/wind/>

Roush, Wade. 10 January 2008. “Maine Wind Farm Gets Green Light, But Project Leader Says Cleantech Efforts Face Too Many Snarls.” Accessed 1 April 2007. <http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2008/01/10/main-wind-farm-gets-green-light-but-project-leader-says-cleantech-efforts-face-too-many-snarls/>

Figure 1. Expedited area of the Wind Resources layer with 1, 3, and 5 km conservation land buffers removed.

Figure 2. Expedited area, wind power class, and areas of conservation interest in Maine.

Figure 4. Expedited area map; conservation lands, roadless areas and Appalachian Trail map; and wind power class map.