Client: Maine Governor’s Energy Office
Authors: Bryndis Woods, PhD and Liz Stanton, PhD
February 2021
In collaboration with Energy and Environment Economics (E3), Senior Researcher Bryndis Woods, PhD and Clinic Director and Senior Economist Liz Stanton, PhD prepared a report on behalf of the Maine Governor’s Energy Office, where E3’s role was to evaluate the options for meeting Maine’s renewable targets over the next decade and AEC’s role was to assess the equity impacts of those options. By 2030, Maine aims to have 80 percent of the State’s electricity come from renewable sources.
The report analyzes six future scenarios to meet Maine’s renewable energy targets and finds that Maine will likely need to add 800 to 900 megawatts of new renewable sources between 2026 and 2030. E3 and AEC find that achieving Maine’s renewable energy goals may result in at least three benefits for its vulnerable communities: 1) reductions in emissions resulting in corresponding improvements in air quality and human health, 2) renewable resources increasing the energy supply’s safety and resiliency, and 3) clean energy development creating employment and community investment. Ensuring energy equity is prioritized during Maine’s clean energy transition will require careful attention to resource diversity, customer-sited resources, geographic resource distribution, and the cost impacts experienced by vulnerable communities.
