DISQUS

Unpaid furloughs, papers bankrupt ... what's your view, generally, of the future of print journalism; and, who covers the news if/when the reporters are gone?

I continue to be surprised that not one of the many news reports on the RGGI " auction and the money "raised" for energy efficiency neglect to mention where the money comes from to purchase the RGGI allowances.
In a March report on the impact of forthcoming federal CO2 regulations, the rating agency Moody's said: “At this time, Moody’s is incorporating a view that costs associated with carbon will ultimately be passed on to consumers
through the regulated electric rate structure.” Yes, RGGI costs are borne by all of us in the form of increased energy costs, and that fact should be included in news reports touting the dollars raised.
Sincerely, M Murray, PSNH

I tried to replicate your math and came up with a somewhat different answer of .0003, i.e., 3/10000ths....
In any event, here's another way of looking at the issue - call it The Merrimack:
478 MW x 8760 x 0.85 (capacity factor) = 3,559,188 megawatt hours/year.
Your 1 mw wind plant with a capacity factor of 0.33 has an output that is is 0.00081 the size of Merrimack Station.
Perhaps easier to understand is that it would require approx 1,231 one mw wind turbines to replace Merrimack Station.

I hesitate to comment on RGGI ... it is certainly a complicated issue; but, I want to point out two items in your article/sidebar which muddy the waters a bit: 1.) in describing the auction you state that '...bid will be placed by power plants who need allowance...' Actually, while only power plants 'need' allowances, anyone can but them at auction - either to try to resell at a profit, or to retire them. (This is one of the concerns we've expressed - that the price to customers could be driven higher due to profit-takers.) (And, here's a link to a RGGI article which notes that at least one environmental group hopes to purchase and retire allowances: http://tinyurl.com/4cyomz ) 2.) Your sidebar states that '...our power producers arent' involved in Thursday's auction...' Recall that it is the State that is not participating Thursday. i.e. NH will not offer any of its allowance allotment until December auction, at earliest. Power producers, like PSNH, can buy now - or later... The rules say we'll have to produce three years of emission allowance, covering 2009-2011, in early 2012. Between now and then, PSNH will seek to obtain its necessary allowances in a manner which has the least impact on customer charges.

Not sure where Mr. Bosse is getting his information... but NH does not have the highest electric rates in the nation. U.S. DOE charts show http://tinyurl.com/rqwjn
that NH is below the New England average; only VT had lower rates. NY also has higher rates.

This give me an excuse to plug the psnh.com Osprey Cam at: http://tinyurl.com/5nfd4s - there are two chicks in the nest, getting bigger by the day. It's well worth a click!

The Osprey are doing much better, in part due to "Project Osprey." Learn about it ... and view nesting Osprey and two new chicks ... at: http://www.psnh.com/osprey/default.asp

Just to be clear - I wasn't watching the game at work...
I did check on the final score during lunch though! : -)

You are correct, PSNH will not be using the FutureGen system to overhaul Merrimack Station (Bow) anytime soon -- although we will be watching their progress, along with other such projects. The article illustrates just how uncertain the implementation of carbon-capture technology is at this point. We're excited to see the technology mature, and expect that increased public interest will accelerate R&D.

In the meantime, PSNH will move forward with its Clean Air Project at Merrimack Station. The $250 million project includes the installation of flue gas desulfurization

The press release is NH DES' - not PSNH's.