Oakfield First Wind project still in development

HOULTON, Maine — Progress continues to be made on the latest wind farm in Aroostook County. That word from Matt Kearns, First Wind vice president of business development, who was the keynote speaker at the Southern Aroostook Development Corporation’s annual meeting held Dec. 12 in Houlton. Oakfield Wind is a proposed 50-turbine, 150-megawatt wind farm development by First Wind.
    First Wind already operates a 42-megawatt wind farm in Mars Hill, which went online in 2007.
“Our Oakfield project is a more than $400-million project and will deliver significant benefits to the host community,” Kearns said.
Some of those economic benefits include:
• Nearly 300 direct, on-site full-time jobs for the duration of the construction phase.
• Approximately $660,000 per year in levelized tax revenues for Oakfield.
• An additional $600,000 a year in community benefit funds above and beyond the tax base.
“One of the key reasons we think it is worth doing wind in Maine is the economic benefit left behind in the host communities but also regionally in the supply chain,” he added.
Situated approximately 2.5 miles from the center of Oakfield the project will consist of 50 turbines that have the capacity to produce enough renewable energy to power more than 50,000 homes. In its four years of development, First Wind has worked closely with the town to solicit significant community input in designing the project. A timetable for completion of the project has not been released.
First Wind currently has five Maine wind farms in operation and four under development, including Oakfield and a project in Hancock County.
Kearns told the gathering that First Wind is also generating electricity in Hawaii, Utah, Washington, New York and Vermont. Kearns joked that a good tag line for the company would be “From Maui to Mars Hill.”
He added the future of wind power is looking promising despite some uncertainty from a political perspective.
“Wind companies are asking Congress for predictability in how wind power is taxed, which means a tax credit extension now and a plan to gradually phase out the credit over multiple years,” said Kearns. “The industry has told Congressional leaders that they’re willing to discuss phasing it out as they take up tax reform in 2013. First Wind has been an advocate for talking about a phase out.”
A federal subsidy known as the production tax credit, which is worth 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour to wind-energy producers, is set to expire at the start of 2013.
First Wind, which is an investor in the Aroostook Partnership for Progress, is an independent wind energy company focused on development, financing, construction, ownership and operation of utility-scale wind energy projects in the United States.