Ragged Mountain Island Wind Project

The Town of Camden recently appointed an Energy Committee consisting of members of the board of selectmen and interested citizens to explore the potential for locating wind turbines on Ragged Mountain, a 1,200-foot peak that lies between Camden and Rockport.

In December 2008, the Camden Energy Committee invited George Baker and Philip Conkling to present the Institute’s approach to how a mainland community without its own transmission and distribution cooperative could develop a community wind project.

We reviewed six months of wind data collected from Ragged Mountain and developed a concept of how a local community – or group of local communities’ ratepayers – can  capture the economic benefits from a wind-power project while remaining part of the New England grid. Essentially, the most promising concept involves the development of an organization called a Competitve Energy Supplier (CES). A Ragged Mountain CES could negotiate a power purchase-and-sales agreement with a large power company that guarantees the price of electricity to members of the local CES. Townspeople in the local area would opt into the CES to guarantee long-term price stability and/or lower rates.