It remains to be seen what effect that wind power will have on jobs in Maine. Environmentalists in several regions of Maine are clashing over various proposed wind projects in Freedom, Carrabassett Valley and other locations.

The staff of the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission has recommended approval of a proposed $150 million wind power project in northern Franklin County. The draft recommendation on Maine Mountain Power’s Redington wind farm was released Friday. It goes before the seven-member Commission for a vote Jan. 24.

Staffers from Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission are recommending 1,004 mountaintop acres in northern Franklin County be rezoned for a 30-turbine wind-energy project. Maine Mountain Power LLC has proposed building a $130 million wind farm on the ridges of Redington Pond Range and Black Nubble mountains in Redington Township, about 4 miles west of Sugarloaf/USA in Carrabassett Valley. The wind farm would consist of turbines on top of towers about 400 feet tall, ridge line roads, two meteorological towers, transmission lines, new access roads and upgraded existing roads among other features. The project is expected to provide about 100 jobs during its yearlong construction and about 10 permanent jobs to the region.

The months-long review process of a proposed $12 million wind power project on Beaver Ridge has ended with the application winning the necessary town permits, but an appeal is in the works. Competitive Energy Services LLC of Portland announced in March it wanted to build three towers with wind turbines to produce 4.5 megawatts of electricity to be sold commercially through Central Maine Power’s electric grid.

The town of Freedom has moved one step closer to becoming the next site in Maine to have a wind farm. The wind turbines in Freedom will look similar to these in Mars Hill.

A federal law designed to ease electricity transmission bottlenecks and improve power reliability could hit Maine ratepayers in the pocketbooks, twice. The measure could force the construction of transmission lines to move Maine’s surplus power south. Not only could the loss of the surplus increase the price of electricity in the state, but Maine consumers would also have to pay part of the cost of building the lines.

FREEDOM — The Planning Board on Thursday cleared the way for a plan to erect three electricity-generating windmills on Beaver Ridge. After deliberating more than six hours, the board, by a 5-1 margin, approved Competitive Energy Solutions’ application to build the turbines, each of which will reach nearly 400 feet into the air.

The proposed wind power project on Beaver Ridge received final approval Thursday from the Planning Board. The 5-1 vote set the stage for an expected appeal by neighbors who are opposed to the development. Although the vote was not unanimous, none of the Planning Board members were actually opposed to the project. While he believes the wind turbines are a good idea, Prentice Grassi said developer Competitive Energy Services of Portland failed to adequately address whether the project would comply with Freedom’s noise standards. “I’m not opposed to the project, but I’m unsure about some of the assumptions made in the noise study,” said Grassi.

The proposed wind power project on Beaver Ridge received final approval Thursday from the Planning Board. The 5-1 vote set the stage for an expected appeal by neighbors who are opposed to the development.

FREEDOM -- A proposal to erect three electricity generating wind turbines on Beaver Ridge came as close to being scrapped last night as it had during several hours of planning board deliberation. The board, which deliberated for about three hours last week and resumed its review Thursday night, talked seriously about limiting the company that hopes to install the turbines, Portland-based Competitive Energy Solutions, to a specific model. Such a limitation would have sent the company packing. "If that's where you are going, we might as well call it quits," said Richard Silkman, a partner at competitive energy.

A Canadian company hopes to build a wind power project in Franklin County that would be the biggest of its kind in the state. TransCanada, a large Canadian energy company that owns or controls roughly 7,700 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States and Canada, will file an application with the Land Use Regulation Commission within 30 days to build a $250 million to $300 million wind farm, according to a spokesman. If the application is approved, 44 turbines — each roughly 41 stories high — will be constructed on Kibby Mountain and the Kibby Range near the Somerset County line beginning as soon as next fall.

Now that the major potential stumbling block of just how much noise would be produced by three giant wind turbine installations topping out at nearly 400 feet over Beaver Ridge in Freedom lies behind them, members of the town planning board return to their deliberations this Thursday on the application by Competitive Energy Services (CES) to build the $12 million wind power project. That session, which could conclude the board’s role in the project, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the town offices.

TransCanada Corp. is set to take another step on a path that will make it one of Canada’s largest windpower operators, with plans to build an up-to-$300 million US wind farm in the mountains of Maine. The company said Wednesday it is about to seek formal approval to build a 44-turbine windfarm in the Kibby Mountain Range, just south of the Quebec-Maine Border. The $250 million US to $300 million US project will see the 124-metre-high turbines built along 22 kilometres of ridge line in the Kibby Mountain Range just south of the Quebec border.

A Canadian energy company plans to apply for a permit to construct a $250 million to $300 million wind farm on two mountains in northern Franklin County, a company official said Tuesday. TransCanada will file an application with Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission within the next 30 days, the company’s project manager, Nick Di Domenico said.

The planning board is scheduled to resume this week its review of an application for a wind turbine farm on Beaver Ridge. The board is to meet at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at the town office. “We still have a lot more to do,” said Nancy Bailey-Farrar, the board’s chairwoman, following last week’s marathon session. Portland-based Competitive Energy Services, LLC hopes to construct three electricity generating wind turbines on Beaver Ridge. The estimated $10 million project includes three 260 foot towers, each of which would hold a 12-by-12-foot nacelle, which contains the turbine generator, and three 130 foot blades

The conversation in Mikala Woollard’s hair salon these days usually revolves around the windmills. “I hear both sides of it, all day long,” she said. And whenever she steps outside, there they are, looming behind the house she and her husband built on the side of Mars Hill Mountain. “There’s no getting away from it, for me anyway.”

With a single dissenting vote cast in a series of motions over three hours, the wind power project on Beaver Ridge moved to within a hair’s breadth of approval Wednesday, Nov. 29.

FREEDOM — After considering a proposal to build a wind turbine farm on Beaver Ridge for three hours on Wednesday evening the planning board called it a night and will pick up where it left off at its next regularly scheduled meeting. “We still have a lot more to do,” said Nancy Bailey-Farrar, the board’s chairwoman.

FREEDOM — The planning board could decide as soon as this evening whether to give the green light to a proposal to install wind turbines on Beaver Ridge. The board, which closed public input earlier this month, will meet at 6:30 p.m. at the Congregational Church.

A $12 million project to erect three tower-mounted electrical power-generation turbines on wind-swept Beaver Ridge in Freedom weathered three and a half hours of maneuvering Monday night by people on both sides of the controversial issue before a cautious town planning board finally voted to close the public hearing and cease accepting further information.