Plans to build a major wind project in the western Maine mountains could again test the legal separation between power generators and distribution utilities, a bedrock rule in deregulation of the state’s electric industry 15 years ago. The project is being proposed by Iberdrola Renewables, a subsidiary of Central Maine Power’s parent company. ...Although the layout is still being refined, plans call for up to 33 turbines reaching 500 feet high. 

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The companies need regulatory approval for the transaction as a 2000 change in state law required power companies, such as CMP and Bangor Hydro Electric Co. (now Emera Maine), to divest of all power generation. That opened a competitive marketplace for power generators, and the regulatory process aims to make sure all generators are treated the same by power companies.

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Cassida did, however, later say that First Wind intends to file the necessary paperwork for Weaver Wind before the end of 2014. Under the company’s tentative timeline, the project would receive its needed permits and other approvals next year, with construction starting in 2016 and the wind farm beginning operation in 2017.

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Developer Paul Fuller says in a recent trip to Pisgah Mountain, he discovered someone released the cables holding wind gauge equipment in place.

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Officials from the company that wants to build a 62-turbine wind farm in northern Somerset County say the planned sale of the company should not affect the project. A spokesman for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection said Thursday that it’s too soon to tell.

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SunEdison’s plan to buy wind developer First Wind for $2.4 billion would place its Maine wind projects in the portfolio of the world’s largest renewable energy company.

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“This transaction is essentially an unwinding of our original transaction with First Wind as they pursue a new direction and we seek to redeploy our capital in higher value assets and opportunities in other clean energy infrastructure investments, including electricity transmission and natural gas electricity generation in the Northeast,” said Chris Huskilson, Emera’s president, in a news release Monday.

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Two weeks after residents narrowly rejected an amended Wind Energy Facility Ordinance at the polls Nov. 4, a petition has been filed requesting a recount, Town Manager Carlo Puiia said Friday. The ordinance was rejected by five votes, 557-562.

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Representatives of EDP Renewables held a public information session, which drew about 50 people, on the proposed 250-megawatt facility featuring about 120 turbines on Wednesday in Mars Hill. Company officials told Aroostook County commissioners on Sept. 3 that they expected to seek Maine Department of Environmental Protection permits for their Number Nine Wind Farm proposal in late November, officials said.

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Richardson said Bob Linkletter , a Roxbury landowner and logger, owns the land on which the wind power project would be operating. He said they are trying to create a 3-acre wind project with turbines that would produce between 7.5 to 15 megawatts of energy.

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In the notice of appeal sent to the PUC, Houlton Water said that it plans to challenge the PUC decision on six different points, including whether the decision violated the Legislature’s intent in deregulating power production, whether the PUC went beyond its bounds in making certain stipulations in the case and whether the evidence in the case satisfied an earlier ruling requiring further scrutiny from regulators.

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Property taxes, rebates on electric bills, charitable donations. Wind Developers are trying to sweeten the pot for Frankfort voters this upcoming election day, but some residents still have bitter feelings about the Proposed Waldo Mountain Wind Project.

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The residents packed the Bristol Consolidated School gym for the vote, the first formal, townwide vote regarding Maine Aqua Ventus I since the project’s genesis. About 15 to 20 holdouts voted to support allowing the project to deliver power to the mainland via an underground cable that would pass through Bristol.

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I witnessed first hand the underbelly of the wind energy machine and how they intimidate ordinance committee members and manipulate small towns strapped for money. Using innocuous terms like “windmills” and “wind farms” can’t disguise the reality that wind energy is a ruthless business ...I have faith that this returning blast of wind won’t hoodwink the Frankfort residents. I also hope that this small Maine town isn’t torn irreparably in half as a result.

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The Maine Department of Environmental Protection held the brief hearing so the public could have the chance to weigh in on a proposal by First Wind to amend its approved project to erect more than a dozen turbines in Townships 16 and 22. The company wants to amend its Maine DEP permit for the Hancock Wind project so it has the option to erect 574-foot-tall turbines instead of the 512-foot-tall turbines approved by the DEP.

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ELLSWORTH, Maine — Hancock County commissioners voted Friday to approve financial agreements with a First Wind subsidiary expected to generate millions of dollars in revenue for the county.

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“We absolutely want to prevent this senseless wind project. Destroying almost 20 miles of ridge-line at a cost of $400 million, only to gain a fraction of 1 percent unnecessary electricity, is a ridiculous trade-off and a brutal travesty.”

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The Maine Department of Environmental Protection was expected to grant the permit for the company’s proposed wind farm in Bingham after it issued a draft order approving the 62-turbine, 186-megawatt project on Aug. 27.

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In May, the DEP approved the nearly $50 million, eight-turbine wind project on Canton Mountain, issuing a permit to Canton Mountain Wind LLC, which is owned by Patriot Renewables LLC of Quincy, Mass. On July 17, Alice McKay Barnett, a wind power opponent, submitted seven documents of supplemental evidence that mostly concern turbine noise adversely affecting health.

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Blue Sky West, a Boston-based developer and subsidiary of the company First Wind Holdings Inc., has been seeking approval for the project since May 2013 amid challenges, including a Maine Supreme Judicial Court case about a key financial partnership, and delays because of perceived threats to bats.

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