Action 190 Support small scale solar (not “small scale” nukes!)
Background: Hancock County legislators lead once again! Senator Nicole Grohoski has a new bill in the legislature that will have one of this year’s first hearings, on January 6. LD 1730 (1) carried over from last year was one of those concept drafts that don’t give you any information. But Nicole submitted the details on Dec. 30 (2) and more information on the concept is available in a Google doc (3) from Representative Gary Friedmann. The bill now has a name: “An Act to Make Small, Portable, Plug-in Solar Generation Devices Accessible for All Maine Residents to Address the Energy Affordability Crisis”. The initial sections of the legislation deal with building code modifications to increase energy efficiency. Then we come to Section 3475. Plug-in photovoltaic and battery systems. These new-ish devices (already widely available up to 800 Watts: you can see them on Amazon for instance) will allow homeowners to harvest the sun’s energy directly, to reduce their electricity bills from the power companies. This bill creates a new category for small plug-in solar electricity generation devices less than or equal to 1,200 watts, and establishes safety requirements. They would not be able to export power to the grid, so net energy billing would not apply. The owners would have to notify, but not get permission from, the utility. The devices would be treated as personal property by homeowner insurance, and if installed by, say, a renter on someone else’s property, they would have to be removed at the end of their use and the structure restored. The hearing will be Tuesday, January 6, 1:00pm. Written (rather than oral) testimony is requested.
Action: Testimony can be sent to the Energy, Utility and Technology Committee. Here is the online portal: https://www.mainelegislature.org/testimony/ or just email the committee at EUT@legislature.maine.gov
Extra Credit:
(1) https://legislature.maine.gov/billtracker/#Paper/1730?legislature=132
(2) https://legislature.maine.gov/backend/App/Services/getDocument.aspx?documentId=121199
(3) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a8qtkRTXNdr_nRjN4fzyiAGJqwCLY3F9ZpE6W46FOmA/edit?tab=t.0
Now about the small scale nukes... There is a push among some nuclear power enthusiasts to start building “small” nuclear power plants in Maine. These would be of a size appropriate for AI data centers – up to around 300 MW or about 1/3 the capacity of Maine Yankee. This push came to the Maine Legislature last year in the form of three pro-nuke bills. Two of the bills failed in committee, and the third, LD 343, was substantially revised by its sponsor Republican Reagan Paul to an innocuous-sounding title: “An Act to Ensure Periodic Assessment for Clean Energy Technology.” This bill has been carried over - see its history here - https://legislature.maine.gov/billtracker/#Paper/HP0243?legislature=132 - but nothing is scheduled for it so far this year. Until the nuclear power promoters have solved the conundrum of what to do with nuclear waste (5), and until the federal government no longer indemnifies the power plant owners/operators for any accidents (6), nuclear power is “too hot to handle” and doesn’t belong in Maine.
(5) I was present at a conference in the early 1970s, where I remember Dr. Alvin Weinberg saying nuclear power was “a solution in search of a problem” and it found it, in the problem of waste disposal. Not much has changed. Here’s what Google AI overview has to say today: “No, the nuclear waste problem has not been fully solved, as there is no universally implemented permanent disposal solution, although significant progress has been made in safe temporary storage and waste management techniques. Currently, countries primarily rely on temporary storage, and while some, like Finland, have developed deep geological repositories, their full operation and long-term success are still being evaluated.” Note that some of the testimony on Maine’s nuke bills touted France’s ability to manage the nuclear fuel cycle. Actually, France is currently engaged in remediation of its prior practice of dumping nuke waste in the ocean, and is still searching for a satisfactory solution.
(6) The federal government still indemnifies nuclear power plants through the Price-Anderson Act of 1957 which limits liability and provides a government backstop for claims exceeding the industry's private insurance and self-funded capacity. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) indemnifies commercial nuclear power plants, while the Department of Energy (DOE) provides indemnification for its contractors. This system has been renewed multiple times, most recently in 2024, to ensure that damages from a nuclear incident would be covered. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF10821