A California-based energy company will develop and build a utility-scale wind farm across thousands of acres of commercial timberland in Southern Aroostook’s unorganized territory.
Coming on the heels of the failed King Pine wind project, County Line wind farm, owned by Clearway Energy Group LLC, intends to generate 800 megawatts for the planned Northern Maine Renewable Energy Development Program.
Despite the potential for wind energy generation in northern Maine, some past attempts have stalled, including the Number Nine Wind Farm that died in late 2016 and the Aroostook Renewable Gateway and King Pine Project, which were halted in December 2023.
Wind power is again gaining momentum, spurred by the Maine Public Utilities Commission’s recent selection of Clearway for an onshore wind project that will generate power from Glenwood Plantation to T2R4 and T3R4 for transmission to the New England grid.
As part of the renewable energy program, regulators also selected Central Maine Power/Avangrid to develop a transmission line that will connect County Line wind to the regional grid through substations in Haynesville and Pittsfield.
Clearway, an independent power producer, owns and operates projects across the country. The utility has owned the County Line project for 10 years, but until regulators awarded the contract there was not a lot to talk about, Clearway Development Director Nick Benjamin said Monday.
“This is the beginning of things,” Benjamin said.
The company will hold listening sessions and meet-and-greets in the communities that will eventually lead to informational sessions and public meetings over the course of the next year.
“Clearway is a long-term owner and operator of our projects,” said Hannah Muller, Clearway’s head of markets and policy. “We’re here for decades. We understand the importance of being a good neighbor and working with the community and forming those partnerships.”
The County Line wind farm meets Clearway project development criteria with a steady wind resource that peaks in the winter, is on 100% commercial timberland and is close to a transmission corridor, Benjamin said.
But Haynesville residents and lawmakers raised alarms about the planned 108-mile transmission route’s Haynesville substation and the County Line wind farm. The news spurred Haynesville residents to form the Haynesville Maine Residents MPUC-Avangrid Substation Awareness Group, following the PUCs August bid award.
Locals signed a petition to temporarily halt new power generation and transmission projects. The initiative is still being developed to give them time to craft a town ordinance related to the wind farm, according to town officials.
Maine Rep. Tracy Quint, R-Hodgdon, and Aroostook County Commissioner William Dobbins further stirred discontent, alleging misleading promises by regulators and developers about jobs and financial rewards during a recent Haynesville meeting.
“They can all talk about how they are all into the climate, climate efficient, and they can destroy all of northern Maine in order to reach those goals,” Quint said.
Dobbins told residents the county will get nothing from the wind project and will be forced to pay 11% of the cost.
Benjamin said that is not accurate.
The 11% refers to the transmission line, not the wind project, and it is not the county portion but the portion the entire state pays, with the other six participating New England states paying the remaining 89% of the cost.
Muller and Benjamin pointed to economic benefits to the towns as the most exciting part of the wind project.
Tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue over the project’s life will remain in the county, they said.
“Clearway has committed to a minimum of $500,000 per year in a community benefit agreement that will stay in the county and the funds have a great deal of flexibility in terms of how the capital is used determined by the town and its leaders,” Benjamin said.
That has been true for Oakfield residents with the Oakfield Wind project. Those qualifying for a homestead exemption receive about $2,000 a year for 20 years toward property tax bills, Town Manager Dale Morris said.
Muller said Clearway will spend the next few years gathering community feedback on how to make the most of the community benefit investment.
“We want the people who live there to shape that investment,” she said. “We often have communities who have needs for educational services, first responder services. Some folks in The County have mentioned childcare needs or housing. We are in listening mode and we want to hear from folks about how this can be put to best use.”
Benjamin led the development of a West Virginia project where the community had no emergency medical services and it took a couple of hours for an ambulance to arrive on scene. Clearway partnered with the county, purchased land and deeded it to the county. Along with other funding, they developed a new EMS station that now serves the rural community around the clock.
The actual cost of wind as a fuel is zero dollars and it’s generally advantageous from a cost perspective for Maine ratepayers, said Jack Shapiro, climate and clean energy director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine.
“This is low cost power that’s displacing high cost power,” Shapiro said. “There are a lot of potential local economic benefits and significant cost benefits for electric ratepayers.”
Planners should be thoughtful, careful and considerate about the construction of the project and community engagement, Shapiro said.
“We’re in a place right now where we are paying extremely high cost for energy and we’re facing significant changes in the climate,” he said. “If we want to have loons in the lakes and moose in the woods we have some urgency here.”
Regarding promises of 2,500 construction jobs, Quint and Dobbins said that number is overinflated because County workers do not have the training for such work.
Clearway officials do not agree.
The project will take several years to build and will involved a wide range of non-technical and technical jobs, The County and state have a strong construction and engineering workforce, Benjamin said.
“We really do look forward to hiring with a strong emphasis on local,” he said. “We are really super excited about the economic opportunities that it can bring in the short and long term to Aroostook County. We also really look forward to spending time meeting with and listening to the folks interested in learning more about the project.”
