Construction is underway on a ten million dollar wind farm in Freedom... Though the project was already approved by the town, some residents think there should be ground rules in place before the turbines start turning. Jeff Keating is one of the residents pushing the town to adopt an ordinance that would impose restrictions on the wind farm project. The biggest concerns being noise and the effect on property values.

One of the largest wind farms in the country will soon be climbing above the horizon in central Benton County. The Fowler Ridge Wind Farm project is a partnership between BP Alternative Energy and Dominion, one of the nation's largest energy companies. The first phase will feature 222 windmills, generating 400 megawatts of power. They will join the 87 windmills already operating in the western portion of Benton County, which was a joint venture between Orion Energy and Vision Energy, LLC.

Ten people who own land near the proposed $12 million wind power project on Beaver Ridge have asked Waldo County Superior Court to rule that portions of three roads leading to the site are privately owned. The roads in question include Sibley Road Extension (also known as Clark Road), Beaver Ridge Road (also known as Beaver Hill Road), and Deer Hill Road (also known as Deer Hill Lane). It is believed that developer Beaver Ridge Wind LLC needs to use one of the three roads to bring equipment onto the proposed windmill site, and to erect a power line that will feed electricity generated there into the regional power grid. ..."Portions of all three of the roads were discontinued or abandoned," said Steve Bennett, who has led the fight against the windmills.

Two lawsuits that could affect the wind turbine project have been brought against the town, weeks before residents will be asked to vote for a third time on the commercial development review ordinance that was repealed last year. In addition to the lawsuits, Jeff Keating started a petition to put the re-enactment of the commercial development review ordinance on the ballot for upcoming elections. According to Town Clerk Cindy Abbott, Keating turned in a petition containing 38 signatures.

The town's energy committee wants a little more time and information before it makes any recommendations to the Town Council about how to proceed with plans for municipal wind power. The committee has been studying two proposals for wind turbines in town and had been scheduled to make a recommendation to the council last week. "The committee didn't want to make any decisions until they went to see the two facilities in Saco," Town Manager Roger Raymond said Tuesday. The two wind turbines in Saco are similar to the two the committee has been researching for the town, Raymond said.

Chairman Kurt Adams of the Maine Public Utilities Commission is stepping down to work for a national wind development company. Adams will leave the state's utility regulatory panel on May 16. He's to become senior vice president for transmission development at First Wind, formerly UPC Wind.

Construction could begin on the $270 million Kibby Wind Power project in August, assuming the economics fall into place, the developer said. Half of the 44-turbine plan could be completed by the fall of 2009. The other half of the Franklin County project should be done in the summer of 2010, said Nick Di Domenico, of TransCanada, director of the Kibby project. But while the development appears likely to move ahead, both TransCanada and state officials say wind power faces plenty of short-term challenges even as the longer term future remains bright. ...The high cost of construction and the volatility of energy costs is what makes the long-term viability of a project a difficult thing to predict.

As governor, Angus King liked to pitch a big idea, like giving laptop computers to all seventh-graders. Now, as a wind energy entrepreneur, he's floating a whopper. King said Tuesday that the state should launch a massive research and development effort to create a $15 billion network of offshore wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine over the next 10 years. Only something as ambitious as 1,000 turbines spinning 26 miles off the Maine coast will be able to break the state's reliance on oil and prevent an economic catastrophe, he said.

The Maine Power Connection, as it is called, could allow Aroostook County to become a renewable energy center for Maine and the rest of New England, Maine Public Service CEO Brent Boyles said in a telephone interview Friday. The Maine Public Service system now is separated by a 25-mile gap between its lines in Houlton and the Maine Electric Power Co. line that travels from Haynesville to southern and central Maine. Maine Public Service has transmission requests for more than 800 megawatts of potential wind generation projects. Connecting Maine Public Service to the New England grid with a 345-kilovolt transmission line would support those projects, Boyles said. ...But the Maine Power Connection was not developed initially to accommodate wind power. Instead, it was proposed as a possible solution to the lack of electricity generation competition in northern Maine, Boyles said. ...Maine Public Service also is analyzing the feasibility of a third 345-kilovolt transmission line to eastern Canada. ...The Maine Power Connection project relies heavily on the support of ISO-New England and its member utilities. If ISO-New England believes a project will enhance electric power reliability, then it allows the cost of the project to be divided among ratepayers. But if Maine pulls out of ISO-New England, Boyles said the project will be difficult to fund.

The goal is not only to link Maine Public Service with the regional power grid but also to provide capacity for proposed wind power projects totaling 800 megawatts, five times Maine Public Service's existing load. Aroostook's existing 42-megawatt wind power project on Mars Hill sends its electricity to Canada. The northern Maine power grid's isolation has been a barrier to competition. In December 2006, the Maine Public Utilities Commission's standard offer solicitation attracted only one bidder. ...The line, between 150 and 200 miles long, would cost between $400 million and $500 million, but it would be economically feasible with the participation of ISO-New England and its member utilities, officials said.

A Texas company is courting Aroostook County landowners as it moves forward with plans for several large wind farms that could transform the landscape in some areas of northern Maine. Horizon Wind Energy's long-term plan envisions up to 400 turbines spinning in the farm fields and forests of Aroostook County. Company officials say they are focusing on a forested area west of Bridgewater. But Horizon officials are keeping mum on additional locations, adding only that most are agricultural or forested sites in eastern Aroostook County. ...Horizon, which is also operating locally under the subsidiary name Aroostook Wind Energy, has been quietly working on the project since 2005. ...Dawe said Horizon has received positive feedback from many landowners but that the company strives to be upfront and open about the project. "A wind power project is a large undertaking," he said. "Turbines are neither silent nor invisible."

In their "Selectors Letter" in the town report, selectmen argued: "The budget committee has increased the legal services request in our administrative budget to $25,000 due to renewed legal challenges to the town over the windmill project on Beaver Ridge. Three lawsuits are now pending against the town by anti-windmill group (sic). One is over the status of the Sibley Road, one over the status of the building permit, and one over the Selectors' refusal to accept a petition to re-enact the Commercial Ordinance. The town has voted on the windmill issue three times now and enough is enough." The letter states that legal battles over this issue in the past have cost the town more than $8,600 in legal fees. That letter drew fire at town meeting from members of the Beaver Hill Landowners' Association, which distributed a letter of its own to residents before the meeting. The letter accuses the selectmen of making false statements, chiefly that there are three lawsuits pending against the town by the anti-windmill group. "In reality, there are no lawsuits pending with regard to either the status of the building permit or the Selectors' refusal to accept a petition to re-enact the Commercial Ordinance," the letter states. "We have only one request before the Court, to clarify the status of the last 1,000 feet of the Sibley Road, which, like many other roads, was discontinued by a town vote... We are not asking for money or damages from anyone in this request."

Despite the Mars Hill wind project's success, there are some people in the community who have been opposed to it since the beginning. They say when the turbines are moving, it's just too noisy. "There's 18 families, and I happen to be one of them, that live within a mile of the complex, that listen to noise almost on a daily basis and it's a constant noise," said resident Rod Mahan. Pat McGowan says he understands their concerns, but the need for locally produced power in this time of high energy costs is important. "The folks are taking a risk in Maine and they're betting on these ridge lines and they're betting on renewal energy for a very very long time and that's important," said McGowan.

Fresh from last week's success of helping Byron town meeting voters defeat an ordinance change favoring wind-power facilities, the grassroots Save Our Towns Coalition has now offered to help Roxbury residents do the same. They've also changed their name to Byron Landowners Opposing Wind, or BLOW, according to co-founder Sarah Nedeau of Byron. "BLOW is a group of concerned residents and nonresidents whose only interest is making certain (that) everyone has factual information concerning the wind project," Nedeau stated by e-mail report early Wednesday morning. ...BLOW's purpose is to answer any questions people might have regarding wind power and the area. "We're not a bunch of lunatics making something bad up. Nobody's out to cheat and lie for their own gains," he said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened a 30-day public comment period Tuesday on TransCanada's federal permit application for wind farm development work. TransCanada Maine Wind Development wants to build a $270 million, 44-turbine commercial wind farm on the ridge lines of Kibby Mountain and Kibby Mountain Range in northern Franklin County. It would have a total generating capacity of 132 megawatts. ...A new transmission line will extend 27.6 miles from the common substation to an existing substation adjacent to Route 27 at Carrabassett Valley. About 1,300 square feet of wetland will be permanently filled during pole placement and approximately 7.59 acres of wetland will be temporarily filled using timber mats to access pole locations.

In its first five weeks of operation, the windmill has been sitting still far more often than it has been generating power. Though the supply of wind is highly variable and five weeks is too short a period to judge the effectiveness of a turbine, the first municipally-owned, mid-sized windmill in Maine has not yet reached the production levels expected of it. The company that sold the Canadian-made turbine to Saco, Entegrity Wind, guaranteed the city it would produce at least 90,0000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, worth about $13,500 at market rates. So far, during what is normally a blustery season in Maine, the turbine has generated 1,340 kilowatt hours, or $201 of electricity. Charles Newcomb with Entegrity said there is a simple explanation for the turbine's performance -- lack of wind. "It's been an extremely low-wind month ...

Prospective developers of a wind farm near the Canadian border in Western Maine said Tuesday they hope to begin construction this summer and have all 44 turbines up and running by 2010. ...TransCanada's project cleared a major regulatory hurdle on Monday when the Land Use Regulation Commission unanimously approved the Canadian company's application to rezone 2,367 acres for the project. Before construction begins, TransCanada must also submit a final development plan to LURC, which regulates projects in Maine's unorganized territories.

Maine land use regulators voted unanimously to approve TransCanada's wind-power project in western Maine, but rejected a second poject by another group that had been scaled back after being turned down a year ago. The Land Use Regulation Commission voted to allow a 44-turbine project near the Canadian border in Franklin County, saying TransCanada Maine Wind Development's application answered its concerns that roads would be built properly, and birds and bats would be protected. Commissioners also said the developer's project would not present the same kind of intrusion on the highlands scenery as the project proposed by Maine Mountain Power, whose 18-turbine project south of TransCanada's was turned down by a 4-2 vote earlier in the day.

A meeting on Monday could mark an important milestone for Maine's fledgling, but growing, windpower industry. The seven-member Land Use Regulation Commission board is scheduled to deliberate on two windpower projects in Franklin County: Maine Mountain Power's Black Nubble development, and TransCanada's Kibby windpower installation. The citizen board could hand down decisions on both. Together, those two proposals have a generating capacity of more than 180 megawatts. ...Dave Wilby, executive director of the Independent Energy Producers of Maine, said that while siting windpower capacity is a challenge, wind is also one of the few types of power facilities that has a realistic chance in Maine. Siting generating capacity "is not easy anywhere and it is not easy here," said Wilby.

The wind in New England blows mainly against big green-energy projects. At least that's the assessment of Matt Kearns, an audibly frazzled project manager for Newton, MA-based UPC Wind. Despite winning final approval last week for the creation of New England's largest wind-energy installation, now under construction on a ridge in northern Maine, Kearns says the regulatory and political barriers to placing major cleantech facilities in the region are high enough to scare off all but the most persistent and well-funded entrepreneurs. "The uncertainty and the costs associated with that uncertainty are pretty overwhelming, frankly, in many cases," says Kearns, who has spent the last several years shepherding UPC's Stetson Mountain wind farm project past the cautious scrutiny of state, county, and federal agencies, not to mention local residents and environmental groups.