Winter Speaker Series

Subject:          Grid Solar: A Smart-Energy Alternative?
Speaker:         Dr. Rich Silkman, Co-founder, Grid Solar
When:            Wednesday, October 14 at 7:00 p.m.
Where:           Bowdoinham Town Office, Selectmen’s Room

Join Friends of Merrymeeting Bay (FOMB) on Wednesday, October 14 at 7pm for the first presentation in their 13th season’s Winter Speaker Series; ‘Grid Solar: A Smart-Energy Alternative?’ The evening presentation features Dr. Rich Silkman, co-founder of Grid Solar.  

With the proposed Maine Power Reliability Project [MPRP], Maine and New England could be on the verge of a massive up-front investment in an outdated and disruptive massive infrastructure project for which we have no need. MPRP’s proposed improvements and additions to transmission corridors in Maine are based on future need predictions, perhaps of a speculative nature and sure to disrupt many hundreds of citizens with concerns of visual impacts, taking by eminent domain, electro-magnetic frequency emissions and loss of property values.
 
In contrast, Rich Silkman and Mark Isaacson of Grid Solar propose a more decentralized and lower cost set of improvements to our power generating infra-structure featuring in large part, arrays of photo-voltaic panels. Utilizing advanced grid monitoring to respond to demands, Grid Solar suggests they can respond more efficiently to peak load requirements from nearby generation facilities not limited to existing transmission corridors. The Grid Solar proposal is incremental in build out as demand changes.
 
Silkman is a Ph.D. economist and a nationally recognized expert in the regulation of public utilities, the development of competitive energy markets and the development, licensing and operation of power plants, including hydroelectric generating stations. As director of the State Planning Office under Gov. McKernan, he served as chief policy advisor to the Governor on matters related to economic policy, energy, hydropower and river management policy, telecommunications regulation, state tax policy, health care regulation, cost-containment and land-use and natural resources policy.

The FOMB Winter Speaker Series takes place monthly from October-May on the second Wednesday. The November presentation features the mid-coast film premier of ‘Tapped’, a robust behind the scenes documentary of the bottled water industry with a discussion led by Emily Posner, Organizer for Defending Water for Life in Maine. This event will take place 7pm. Wednesday November 11 at the Frontier Café, Ft. Andross, Brunswick. The series, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by Friends of Merrymeeting Bay with support and valuable door prizes from Patagonia Outlet in Freeport.  
 
To receive more information on FOMB’s programs call Misty Gorski, Executive Coordinator, Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, at 582-5608 or fomb@gwi.net. Full speaker schedule and biographies are available on the web at www.friendsofmerrymeetingbay.org <http://www.friendsofmerrymeetingbay.org/> .