March 20, 2008
Maine
Maine
The backers of what will be New England’s largest wind-energy facility, a 38-turbine wind farm in Washington County, are eyeing expanding operations into the Lincoln Lakes region, town officials said Wednesday.
Evergreen Wind Power III, LLC has built two meteorological towers worth $90,000 near Rocky Dundee Road and Grandma’s Mountain off Route 6 near the Lee line to test those areas’ suitability for wind-energy towers.
No one knows if, or when, towers will be built on the two properties. However, the town Planning Board on Tuesday night began reviewing other towns’ regulations regarding such towers to possibly create its own legislation, if warranted, board member Mike Cole said.
“It’s a sensible precaution,” Cole said Wednesday. “We want to better our knowledge of these things in case they start coming before us.”
Evergreen and Dundee Wind Power, LLC. were formed by parent company UPC Wind of Newton, Mass., to handle the Lincoln Lakes project. Matt Kearns, project manager with UPC, and company spokesman John Lamontagne did not immediately return calls Wednesday.
Landowner David Susen of Lincoln received a building permit for a $30,000 tower on a farm near the mountain on Nov. 1. Landowner Herbert Haynes Jr. of Lakeville Shores, Inc. of Winn, received a building permit for a $60,000 tower on Rocky Dundee Road the same day, town records indicate.
Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission voted 5-0 in early January to approve UPC’s application for the Stetson Mountain site, located between t Danforth and Springfield. The 38 turbines each will stand roughly 390 feet from base to blade tip and will be spaced out along the ridgeline, which runs roughly parallel to Route 169 for about seven miles.
The turbines will be located primarily along existing logging roads.
Town officials have been working with UPC on its Lincoln plans intermittently for about five years, Town Manager Glenn Aho said.
By Nick Sambides Jr.
19 March 2008
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/03/20/stetson-mountain-backers-eyeing-lincoln-wind-energy-plant/