constellation energy – Jay's Real Estate Blog

Constellation Energy Begins Construction on Maryland's Largest Solar Photovoltaic Power System

BALTIMORE, Sep 29, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Constellation Energy today announced that its retail energy business affiliate has started construction on a 16.1 megawatt DC grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) solar installation in Emmitsburg, Md. Part of the state of Maryland’s Generating Clean Horizons initiative, the approximately $60 million solar facility will be financed, owned and operated by Constellation Energy. Renewable electricity produced by the system will be purchased by the state of Maryland’s Department of General Services and the University System of Maryland under 20-year solar power purchase agreements.

“Our state’s growing ‘green’ sector is vital to our ability to create jobs and compete in the new economy,” said Gov. Martin O’Malley. “I’d like to thank Constellation Energy for their commitment to helping us move toward our renewable energy goals. Together, we will continue to make Maryland a leader in the nation’s efforts for clean energy, bring more green jobs to our communities and create a more sustainable future.”

Constellation Energy employs approximately 75 people to construct the solar installation, and expects that workforce to reach a peak of 150 people during the height of construction. The system is scheduled for operation in early 2012 and is expected to produce more than 22 million kilowatt hours of emissions-free electricity per year. Generating the same amount of electricity using nonrenewable sources would result in the release of 15,170 metric tons of carbon dioxide or the equivalent emissions from 2,975 passenger vehicles annually, according to U.S. EPA data.

“Projects like this are part of Constellation Energy’s commitment to provide clean energy products and services for our customers, both in Maryland and nationally,” said Mark Huston, head of Constellation Energy’s retail energy business. “Constellation Energy’s new 70-megawatt Criterion Wind Project, located in Garrett County, Md., meets the clean energy needs of approximately 23,000 households. We look forward to developing additional renewable projects that will help Maryland meet its environmental goals.”

More here.

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Amazing New Solar Incentives Hit the East Coast

It’s no wonder solar leasing is the fastest-growing sector of the industry. By removing the upfront cost barrier to solar power installations, solar leasing enables people across the country to go solar. Solar providers and solar contractors alike have been quick to add leasing to their services.

Now, a new player is entering the solar leasing market.
Constellation Energy, the nation’s largest wholesale power seller, announced that they are offering residential customers in Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio and Pennsylvania the option to lease solar panel power systems.

Constellation Energy has already been leasing home solar systems for commercial customers.

More here.

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Constellation Energy: A Different Kind of Farm

Maryland’s First Wind Farm Celebrates Opening
By Brianna Panzica
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

On Tuesday, Constellation Energy (NYSE CEG) celebrated a big project in Maryland.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony for Constellation’s Criterion Wind Project, the very first wind farm in Maryland, was held on location in Garrett County.

The wind farm extends eight miles across Maryland’s Backbone Mountain, near Oakland.

It consists of 28 wind turbines with a production capacity of 70 megawatts of renewable power, enough to power around 23,000 homes.

More here.
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>Four local programs to receive ecogrants

>For the Cumberland Times-News
Cumberland Times-News The Cumberland Times-News Sat Apr 23, 2011, 11:03 PM EDT

— CUMBERLAND — Four local programs will receive EcoStar grants from Constellation Energy for their efforts in environmental stewardship projects in states where Constellation Energy does business.

The grants of up to $5,000 each will fund community-based projects that support Constellation Energy’s long-standing commitment to protecting the environment.

Evergreen Heritage Center Foundation in Mount Savage was recognized for its Evergreen Environmental Education: Community Outreach. The foundation recently partnered with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Trust to promote awareness of the relationship between Western Maryland watersheds and the bay through education experiences for students and educators. The program includes lessons on the impact of water runoff as well as a rain garden restoration project for participants in YMCA, Head Start and Juvenile Services programs.

Frostburg State University’s Learning Green Living Green Campus Energy Audit was recognized for energy efficiency. A campus-wide committee and Liberal Arts and Sciences, a student-led initiative, will be launched to complete energy audits including academic and residence hall buildings. A team of students will be selected through FSU’s sustainability minor and trained to complete energy audits. Upon completion, they will provide follow-up recommendations to the vice president for administration and finance, the President’s Executive Cabinet and facilities management.

The Maryland Association of Soil Conservation Districts’ 2011 Maryland State Envirothon is a competitive natural resource education program for high school students. The event offers hands-on, field-based instruction led by natural-resource professionals in five areas: forestry, aquatics, soils, wildlife and a current issue, which changes annually. Students compete for scholarships and prizes at the school, county, state and North American level.

Friends of Deep Creek Lake will assess storm drains and road culverts and provide recommendations for the reduction of pollution runoff into Deep Creek Lake. The educational outreach model is that stakeholders will choose to act in more positive ways to preserve and protect the lake and watershed if they understand the challenges to the health of the lake. This project will engage multiple community groups working in the field as citizen scientists. The groups will analyze and integrate the data into recommendations for a watershed action plan, brief the public and local officials, and address runoff challenges to improve water quality in Garrett County.

Funding was provided by the Constellation Energy Foundation, which launched the EcoStar Grant program in January 2010. A total of 85 EcoStar grants worth $355,000 are going to nonprofit organizations whose projects fit into one or more of five stewardship categories: pollution prevention; education and outreach; energy efficiency; conservation; and community activism. The awards went to recipients in 17 states and will support a variety of initiatives, ranging from community gardens and habitat restoration projects to innovative programs promoting energy efficiency, storm water management and improved air quality, among many others.

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>Kitzmiller Elementary students tour state’s first operational wind project

>The Cumberland Times-News Sun Apr 17, 2011, 09:47 PM EDT

— OAKLAND — Students from Garrett County’s Kitzmiller Elementary School recently got a firsthand look at how renewable energy is working in Maryland.

Approximately 40 kindergarten through third-grade students and their teachers were the first local school students to tour Constellation Energy’s Criterion Wind Project in Oakland. The first wind energy project to operate in the state, Criterion Wind produces 70 megawatts of emission-free electricity. The wind project is helping Maryland meet its clean energy goals of producing 20 percent of its electricity with renewable resources by 2022.

Teacher Bridgete Corbin requested the tour as part of a unit she’s teaching on green energy. “We’re exposing students to the idea of renewable energy, and we have this great example of how it works right here in our county,” she said. “The students were really excited to see the wind turbines and to talk about how they make clean energy.”

The Kitzmiller students toured two of the 28 Criterion wind turbines, which stand 415 feet tall with the blades turned up. The two towers the students toured were located on the property of Oakland resident Janet Tichnell.

“People are really interested in seeing the windmills,” Tichnell said. “I was more than happy to help coordinate the tour with the schools. It was a good learning experience for the children.”

The Criterion Wind Project is built over an 8-mile stretch along Backbone Mountain east of Oakland. The project began producing commercial power in late December.

Constellation Energy, headquartered in Baltimore, is a leading competitive supplier of power, natural gas and energy products and services for homes and businesses across the U.S.

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Constellation agrees to buy $39M energy firm

It’s been a busy year on the power market for Constellation Energy and on Friday the company made another announcement that shows it is continuing to “investigate opportunities,” as a company spokesman said.

The Baltimore supplier of energy products and services said it has signed an agreement to acquire CPower, a New York provider of energy management and demand response services that reported revenues of $38.9 million in 2009….

….CPower, established in 2000, ranked No. 962 on the 2010 Inc. magazine list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies, with its 2009 revenues up 309 percent from $9.5 million in 2006, according to Inc. information. The company’s clients are in the industrial, commercial real estate, retail, institutional and residential sectors, according to its website.

Earlier this year, the company completed its $365 million purchase of two natural gas combined-cycle generation facilities in Texas from Navasota Holdings of Houston. Also this year the company agreed with Clipper Windpower to acquire the Criterion 28-turbine wind project in Garrett County. Koos said the Garrett County project is “about two-thirds constructed … this is our first wholly owned wind farm.”…

Read the full article here.

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Maryland wind farm draws protests

Environmental groups have threatened to sue Constellation Energy Group Inc. for risking protected bats at a planned Western Maryland wind farm, but the company says it will honor endangered species laws.

Save Western Maryland and the Maryland Conservation Council gave Constellation notice June 23 that they plan to attempt to block its Criterion wind project on Backbone Mountain in Garrett County. They argue the project puts at risk Indiana bats and Virginia big-eared bats, both federally protected as endangered species. Federal endangered species law requires 60 days’ notice before filing such a lawsuit.

But Constellation officials said they are in the process of applying for what is called an “incidental take permit,” which allows private entities to undertake projects that could harm or kill endangered species if they work with federal fish and wildlife officials on a conservation plan. Constellation is going through that process, spokesman Aaron Koos said.

The Criterion wind project is a major one for Constellation and Maryland. The company spent $140 million in April to buy it from Clipper Windpower Inc., including wind turbines and plans that had already been crafted. That came on top of $90 million Constellation committed to spending on solar projects in 2010. The Garrett County project will put 28 wind turbines on ridges around 3,360-foot-high Backbone, the state’s highest mountain.

Read the rest here.

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Opponents of Garrett County wind farm threaten lawsuit

Megan Miller
Cumberland Times-News

Deer Park — DEER PARK — Opponents of a Garrett County wind power project have warned developer Constellation Energy and the county government that they plan to sue unless Constellation seeks a special permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Constellation project consists of an electrical substation and 28 415-foot wind turbines atop Backbone Mountain, spread along an 8-mile stretch near Eagle Rock.

In a June 23 letter, the Garrett-based opposition group Save Western Maryland and the Maryland Conservation Council stated that the wind project will adversely affect Indiana bats and Virginia big-eared bats, both classified as federal endangered species. The project would therefore violate the federal Endangered Species Act.

To prevent a lawsuit, the opposition groups stated, Baltimore-based Constellation must seek an incidental take permit from USFWS. The permit effectively protects developers from violating the act by creating a plan in advance to deal with the possibility that endangered wildlife could be harmed by a project.

In April, Constellation spokesman Larry McDonnell said the developer planned to voluntarily seek an incidental take permit.

“Even though the risk of a negative impact to an Indiana bat is very remote, Constellation Energy will voluntarily seek the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s approval for any incidental impacts,” McDonnell said. “We will commit to developing Indiana bat habitat improvement projects that will result in far greater benefits to the species than any remote risk posed by the project.”

When reached Tuesday, McDonnell said the company was preparing its permit application, though he was uncertain of when it will be filed.

The application requires developers to create a habitat conservation plan for mitigating the effects of an incidental killing of wildlife. USFWS can also require that applicants conduct biological surveys of the project area.

The length of time needed for USFWS to review a permit application can range from less than three months to one year, depending on the scope and complexity of the conservation plan, according to USFWS permit instructions. The time frame can also be affected by other factors, such as public controversy.

In a news release issued after its letter to Constellation, Save Western Maryland called on Constellation to halt construction on the project “until a conservation plan is completed and a permit is issued.”

“The big wind developers purport to be responsible, corporate citizens,” the group said. “As such, they must live up to their green image by complying with all laws, especially those designed to protect the environment such as the ESA.”

McDonnell said that Constellation’s bat protection measures “have been and will continue to be very comprehensive.”

As evidence of a potential threat to bats, the wind farm opponents cited studies done at the Mountaineer wind farm, a 44-turbine facility in nearby West Virginia, and at a 20-turbine facility near Meyersdale, Pa. The studies showed significant bat mortality at both locations, including one six-week monitoring period when researchers found 398 bat carcasses at the Mountaineer wind farm and 262 at the Meyersdale site.

For legal precedent, they cited a 2009 case in which a federal judge halted development at the Beech Ridge Energy wind farm in Greenbrier County, W.Va., until the developer secured an incidental take permit from the USFWS.

The opposition stated that not only Constellation, but also Garrett County government, could be held liable for any violations of the act, since county government entities granted a number of permits required for the construction to move forward. The county also owns land on which three of the project’s turbines will be placed.

The liability could also extend to the project’s previous owners and other interested parties, such as Old Dominion Electric Cooperative Inc., which has entered into a power purchase agreement with Constellation.

Lawsuit threatened over Western MD wind farm

A group of Western Maryland residents and a state conservation group have filed formal notice they’ll sue to stop construction of a wind farm in Garrett County, contending the massive turbines “almost certainly” will harm endangered bats in the forested, mountainous region.

Save Western Maryland, a group of local residents opposed to wind farm projects in the county, announced Saturday that it had joined with the Maryland Conservation Council and “several concerned citizens” in a June 23 letter warning of the lawsuit to Constellation Green Green Energy LLC, and other businesses that have or have had a hand in the wind farm being built on Backbone Mountain south of Oakland. Constellation Green Energy is an offshoot of Baltimore-based Constellation Energy.

The groups contend the Eagle Rock project will violate the federal Endangered Species Act because the 28 turbines, each more than 400 feet high, would “almost certainly” kill or injure rare Indiana bats or Virginia big-eared bats, both protected by law.

The notice said a lawsuit would be filed within 60 days, unless Constellation obtains an “incidental take” permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for any protected bats its turbines might harm. Getting such a permit requires the applicant to prepare a “habitat conservation plan,” which lays out steps taken to avoid or minimize harm to rare species, and possibly to mitigate their loss as well.

Read the rest here.

Constellation Energy Completes Acquisition Of Criterion Wind Project in Western Maryland

Apr. 8, 2010

Constellation Energy announced yesterday that it has closed its agreement with Clipper Windpower Inc. to acquire the Criterion wind project on Backbone Mountain in Garrett County and to purchase 28 Clipper Liberty 2.5-megawatt wind turbines for the project.

The 70-megwatt project will be developed, constructed, owned, and operated by the Baltimore-based Constellation Energy. Kathleen W. Hyle, senior vice president and chief operating officer for Constellation Energy, estimates that up to 125 new jobs will be created during peak construction. She said that commercial operation of the wind energy facility is anticipated by year-end.

“Maryland’s clean energy goals are among the most ambitious in the nation, and we’re committed to working with the state to achieve them by investing in an array of solar, wind, biomass, and other sustainable energy projects,” said Hyle. “The market for clean energy products and services is growing rapidly in Maryland and across competitive energy markets nationwide. Investments in sustainable energy sources improve the environment by reducing carbon emissions, spur much-needed job growth, and allow us to broaden our clean-energy product offerings for customers.”

Hyle said that Constellation Energy intends to complete the local project “in an environmentally responsible manner, with special attention to avoid, minimize, and mitigate any potential wildlife impacts from the project.”

She added that the company will continue to work with state and federal agencies as part of this effort and plans to apply for an “incidental take” permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Read the rest of the article here.