Vermont Yankee went back on-line after refueling. The outage lasted 26 days and included replacing a pump motor and transformer, as well as other maintenance.
Power produced: Vermont Yankee is 620 MW and operates over 90% of the time. At a 90% capacity factor (actually it is higher) this would be about 560 MWyears of energy. (620 MW multiplied by 0.9 capacity factor)
Wind:Opponents of big wind are pretty much stymied by the permitting process in Vermont. The Public Service Board and the Siting Commission do not have to pay any attention to local planning.
However, two enterprising Vermont senators from the town of Windham are trying to get around the fact that the towns can be ignored in wind siting decisions. The town plan for Windham bans industrial wind, and these senators have sponsored a bill in the legislature which says that wind turbines cannot be built in the town of Windham.
In my opinion, there is no chance that this bill will pass. Still, the senators will be able to tell their constituents: "I sure tried to stop big wind around here."
Power produced: The controversial Kingdom Community Wind (Lowell Mountain) project is 21 turbines, totaling 63 MW and can be expected to operate (capacity factor) less than 30% of the time. Lowell is the largest wind installation in Vermont and can be expected to produce less than 21 MWyears of energy. (63 MW multiplied by 0.3 capacity factor)
There's a biomass plant being planned for Springfield, Vermont. It is running into a fair amount of opposition. The VPR article by Susan Keese is headlined: Sustainability of Springfield Biomass Plant in Question. Meanwhile, Susan Smallheer reported in the Rutland Herald that the state is critical of wood-fired project's forestry plan.
A leading state forester, Steven Sinclair, recommended that the harvest plan should include that about third of the slash be left on the land for the health of the forest. His office also removed the word "renewable" from their website when describing wood-fired projects. For wood-fired projects, Sinclair said that “The science on both renewableness and carbon-neutrality is in question.”
Power produced: The Springfield biomass plant would be 35 MW. Biomass plants capacity factors are variable, but on the average they have lower capacity factors than coal. A recent National Renewable Energy Laboratory chart shows biomass with an average capacity factor of 70%. Therefore, the Springfield plant could be expected to produce about 25 MWyears of energy. (35 MW multiplied by 0.7 capacity factor)
Solar:Rutland Vermont is going to be a solar city. Green Mountain power plans to "give Rutland the highest solar capacity per capita of any city in New England." This quote is from the April 9, Green Mountain Power announcement of a Request for Proposals for a solar installation in Rutland.
Montpelier is also planning to install solar energy: Gayle Hanson of the Rutland Herald wrote about this in Capital City eyes going solar. In that article, the chairman of Montpelier's energy committee was quoted as follows: “The city gets a predictable future energy cost, and the bill for the city will be well below the cost from the utilities, so the more we have the more we save.”
Electricity from solar tends to be expensive electricity, but with net-metering (the power company buys electricity from solar arrays at a high price, but sells back-up electricity to the array owner at a lower price), a solar installation can save money for its owner. This news release from All Earth Renewables describes these zero-cost solar programs.
Power Produced: Rutland will start with a 150 KW solar farm. Montpelier is looking at 150 to 500 KW solar arrays. Capacity factor for sun in this area is about 18%, that is, average of 4.3 equivalent sun hours per day. Energy produced for the 150 KW installations would around 0.027 MWyears. (0.15MW multiplied by 0.18 capacity factor)
