PORTLAND, Maine — Wind power developer SunEdison has closed a $360 million loan and started construction on what will be the state’s largest wind project, near the town of Bingham.
The company said it intends for the turbines to start generating power in late 2016, with a production capacity of 185 megawatts from about 56 turbines.
“The Bingham wind farm is our largest wind project in Maine and once completed should bring our total wind-generation capacity in the state to 552 megawatts,” Paul Gaynor, an executive vice president at SunEdison, said.
Gaynor was the CEO of Boston-based First Wind, which SunEdison purchased for $2.4 billion in January. First Wind began developing the Bingham project in 2013 and secured a deal later that year for Massachusetts to buy the power the project would generate.
The company said it secured the $360 million loan, with KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. arranging the investment and KeyBank National Association acting as the administrative agent. The project’s total cost is estimated at $420 million.
In March, the company estimated the total project cost to be about $398 million, $145 million of which it expected to spend in Maine. The project is being built by Woolwich-based construction company Reed & Reed, whose CEO Jackson Parker said in a news release the project would support about 400 construction jobs while it’s being built.
An industry study commissioned last year by wind power advocates estimated that by 2018 there would be about 89 people employed in the continuing and regular operation of wind turbines in the state.
SunEdison faced multiple challenges in permitting and court to get the project approved, with the anti-wind group Friends of Maine’s Mountains withdrawing its appeal of the project’s permit to the state’s Board of Environmental Protection in March.
That withdrawal followed a settlement with Maine Attorney General Janet Mills to reorganize the group’s board or disband over allegations of inappropriate conflicts of interest, which the group’s leaders contested.
The group has been a persistent opponent of large-scale wind projects statewide, appealing and contesting projects at the local and state levels before regulatory bodies and in court.
The 185-megawatt Bingham project will have turbines located on property in Bingham, Abbot, Parkman, Mayfield Township and Kingsbury Plantation.
It has reached 20-year agreements make annual payments of $106,900 to Bingham; $20,000 to Moscow, Abbot and Parkman; and $176,000 to Kingsbury Plantation.