A green renewable $2 billion Riverbank Wiscasset Energy Center proposal received tacit and vocal community support during a federal hearing in Wiscasset last Thursday.
The project location on former Maine Yankee land adjacent to the decommissioned power plant promises to deliver 1000 megawatts of electricity using a pollution-free technology, and boost the local economy at a time when Maine’s economy seems to be foundering.
A 4-5 year construction period would employ some 4000 people, and the company has already hired the Brunswick Stantec consulting firm to smooth the waters for development of the underground water-pumped generation facility, according to president John Douglas.
The operation would also considerably expand the town’s tax base besides being the largest project of its kind in Maine, he said.
“Riverbank Power is committed to get the right answers,” he said. He referred to the scientific team that will conduct investigations to determine the project’s impacts, and decide how they can be minimized.
Some people who opposed the former coal gasification plant proposal initially spoke favorably about the project after taking a bus trip to the site and hearing a presentation. One person described his current view of it as “cautiously optimistic.”
In keeping with its intent to employ area personnel, the Toronto-based Riverbank Power Co., has enlisted a team of Maine scientists to scrutinize every aspect of the project and each scientist addressed concerns raised by area environmentalists, regulatory agencies, and area officials and resident.
Addressing some 200 people in the Wiscasset Primary School gym, Gino Giumarro, a wildlife biologist, introduced the team and spoke about aspects of the project in his area of expertise, including deer wintering yards located at the proposed site during the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner public hearing.
Whether the site passes muster will be up to the team and various interveners who push for a thorough examination of such concerns as those raised by Westport Island residents about potential danger to aquifers during the blasting activities.
Most of the construction will lie 2000 feet underground leaving only a relatively small footprint on the surface of currently Point East land, Douglas told a busload of local officials and state and federal agency representatives.
One smaller component of the complex at ground level and a concrete abutment along the banks of the Back River (part of the Sheepscot River) would be the only things visible of the plant. The abutment supports the bank after several hundred feet of the shoreline has been excavated to provide space for water intake and outlet pipes.
Water diverted from the river will flow down 2000-foot shafts by force of gravity to an underground powerhouse where it travels through four 250-megawatt turbines. The power generated from the turbines then goes to the power grid located at the former Maine Yankee plant site at Bailey Point.
Douglas said future wind power development in Maine could supply lower cost power during off-peak hours needed to direct the used water stored in huge underground reservoirs back to the river at a speed and temperature minimally impacting the river’s ecosystem. He referred to the proposed center as a giant battery for Maine’s wind generation network.
The existing grid system, the waterway allowing barge removal of rocks blasted during construction of the tunnel, as well as railroad access and the “right” geology for such a project makes Wiscasset a highly desirable location for the enterprise, according to Douglas and other presenters.
Riverbank Power plans other projects using the same technology, which has been around for quite a few years. Douglas pointed to similar electric power plants in Canada as a model for the Wiscasset plant.
