A 119-turbine wind farm in Aroostook County that would have been the largest in Maine and one of the largest ever planned for New England has withdrawn its application, citing interconnection problems.
EDP Renewables has told the Maine Department of Environmental Protection that it’s not going forward for now with the Number Nine Wind Farm, Kallanish Energy learns.
The project was proposed three years ago, but needed new transmission lines to connect it with the New England grid. That has taken longer than expected, and last summer, the project lost a power-purchase agreement with Connecticut utilities.
Since then, a proposal to build new transmission lines from northern Maine was rejected during a bidding process in which the three southern New England states were choosing clean-energy projects, the Portland Press-Herald newspaper reported.
Number Nine Wind Farm would have had an installed capacity of 250 megawatts (MW), which the company said could power 51,400 homes for a year.
Katie Chapman, project manager for Number Nine, said the company voluntarily withdrew its DEP application to “refresh the project design” in areas including wildlife and wetland data. She said the project would pursue a new power purchase agreement.
The withdrawal was welcomed by groups that are fighting development of wind turbines in rural Maine. They celebrated in posts on the Citizens’ Task Force on Wind Power website.
