FARMINGTON – Construction on a $110 million solar power project is expected to begin next year, after the Planning Board approved associated applications Monday evening.
By a vote of four to two, NextEra received approval for five permits relating to the project, including applications relating to erosion and stormwater control, the project’s site review plan and a solar-specific application. Current plans call for the project to begin construction off Route 2 in 2019.
As proposed, the project would be the biggest in the state, covering 490 acres, and would produce 77 megawatts of energy and connect to the Central Maine Power substation on Route 2. The project would be owned and operated by Farmington Solar LLC, a subsidiary of NextEra. Ranger Solar, a solar development company, originally proposed the project which was then taken over by NextEra.
The project would be mostly north of Route 2, although a section south of Route 2 would include some panels as well as a temporary site to stage construction equipment. To the north of the road would be a collection of panels and associated equipment in pasture lands; another section in the wooded area further off Route 2; and a final section off the Horn Hill Road on the other side of Beales Brook. A line would span Beales Brook to tie in that fourth section, while the collection line from the bulk of the panels would go under Route 2.
The life expectancy of the project is roughly 40 years. A decommission bond would be taken out by the company to meet the town’s ordinance requirements, with that bond to provide for the removal of the 300,000 panels and returning of the land to the pre-construction level.
While the precise impact of the project on the Farmington tax base is still being determined, a $100 million investment into the town would represent roughly $2 million in annual tax payments. NextEra has predicted that the project would create 185 jobs over the 12 to 24 month construction period, followed by 8 to 10 long term jobs, ranging from mowing and plowing, to security and monitoring.
Code Enforcement Officer Steve Kaiser said Tuesday that while NextEra had all of the local permitting they needed to begin construction, he anticipated that the company would be appearing before the board in the future to update them on the project’s progress.
“They are going to come back and provide updates to the board regarding the project,” Kaiser said.
I’m optimistic this venture is a great thing but is anyone willing and capable of accurately disclosing how this project is subsidized? I don’t know about the rest of you but I haven’t forgotten Obama’s boondoggle with Solyndra.
Although I hate to see the farmland converted to what is essentially an industrial use that won’t look very good from the Mt. Blue campus, this is the economic reality faced by farmers for at least the next couple of years. President Trump’s trade policies have been very damaging to American agricultural exports. The price of milk is barely $4 a hundred weight at present. American farmers need to export products that can’t be sold in the U.S. The developing trade war has not been helpful. Organic Valley has dropped several milk producers in this area so farmers are dumping the milk they can’t sell. Such a shame.
This project will sell it’s output and energy attributes to utilities in Southern New England as well as several colleges in New England…………..
Partnering in NextEra solar project
Bowdoin also announced a renewable energy project partnership expected to result in the largest solar array in Maine. Bowdoin has joined four other liberal arts colleges — Amherst, Hampshire, Smith and Williams — to help fund NextEra Energy’s construction of a 75-megawatt solar project in Farmington.
Competitive Energy Services, based in Portland, acted as advisor to each of the colleges.
The nearly $100 million project will support roughly 180 short-term jobs through the construction phase, as well as at least six full-time, permanent jobs once it is operating. The solar panels will cover roughly 350 acres, most of which are located at Sandy River Farms, and is expected to go online by the end of 2019.
The Sun Journal reported that Bowdoin joins other schools in Maine — including College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor and Colby College in Waterville — that have also reached carbon neutral status.
Hey Trump haters,
Trump is not the one who had tariffs, some higher than 300%, that Canada imposes on several categories of U.S. dairy exports, including ultra-filtered, high-protein milk and milk powder, ect.
Canada had those under NAFTA, not so “free” is it?
The new deal raises the threshold before the high tariffs kick in to 3.59 percent of total Canadian dairy sales. Still very small, but better then before!
Could you please elaborate on “colleges helped to fund” this project. Those college funds would come from ??
NextEra profit margin on this project will be ??
“Amherst, MA; Brunswick ME; Northampton MA; Williamstown MA—Five of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges have formed a pioneering collaborative that will allow them to offset 46,000 megawatt hours per year of their collective electrical needs with electricity created at a new solar power facility to be built in Farmington, Maine. The partnership represents the first collaborative purchase of New England-generated solar electricity by higher-education institutions.”
“Amherst, Bowdoin, Hampshire, Smith and Williams colleges are partnering with a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, the world’s largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and the sun. The company will construct a universal-scale solar power facility that annually will create enough electricity to power about 5,000 New England homes. Each of the colleges will purchase zero-carbon electricity from the Maine site to reduce carbon emissions from campus electricity use. The facility is expected to open in 2019.”
I would imagine tuition would fund this purchase just as it pays for the school’s other energy needs.
NextEra’s profit margin is secret, but 30% of the cost of the project will be paid by federal taxpayers, and the sale of electrical output and the renewable attributes are probably over 8 cents a kilowatt-hour. The normal wholesale market rate is around 5 cents a kilo-watt-hour.
President Trump instituted a $12 billion bailout program to support U.S. farmers who have lost markets abroad as a result of his trade policies. American farmers’ actual losses are well over $100 billion.
This is from NBC. “Canada ranks as the second-biggest market for U.S. dairy exports after Mexico. Between 2013 and 2016, United States exports of “milk protein substances” to Canada grew from $78 million in Canadian dollars to $129 million. The United States accounted for two-thirds of all of Canada’s imports of this type.
Thanks to these exports, the United States has actually posted a large trade surplus with Canada in dairy products in recent years. In 2016, the United States exported $631.6 million in dairy products to Canada, compared to just $113 million in Canadian dairy exports to the United States (these figures are in U.S. dollars). Part of the reason for low levels of Canadian dairy exports is that the World Trade Organization ruled that Canada is effectively subsidizing its dairy producers, making exports harder.
This trade surplus for the United States has certainly helped balance whatever pain Canada’s overall dairy exemptions may have caused.
Despite the complaints, the United States has long accepted Canada’s high dairy tariffs as the price of wider access to the Canadian market. The U.S. has similarly protected certain goods that it produces for export such as peanuts and sugar.”
Clayton, Thank you for the informative response to my questions. Now if we could just accelerate the technology to store the excess energy both solar and wind farms generate, the big picture would be so much brighter.
Looks good on paper for the farmer who owns the land, but think about all the residential markets in Farmington. Who is going to want to build or buy properties near the solar panels or with sight of them? Real estate markets will tank.
This project is should be very good for Farmington’s tax base and it should also take the sting out of losing their milk contract.The whole plan has come together rather quickly for something of this magnitude,it makes one think that it was planned well before the end of August .Soaking up the sun will be easier than milking cows I’m sure.
Fear of real estate markets tanking is absurd. Please show me an example where real estate markets have tanked due to proximity to a solar farm.
There was visible construction ongoing in that area several years ago. The future collection of solar panels probably played a part in the organic milk company dumping them.
NextEra gave a million dollars to a superPAC that supported Jeb Bush and none that supported democrats It’s the 3rd largest energy producer in the US, in 12 years its stock price went from $27 in 2005 to $137 in 2017, Is ranked as one of the most admirable gas and electric companies and is named as one of the world’s most ethical companies. The biggest concern with this and other large scale projects seems to be more aesthetic than anything else. Everything from box stores to shellfish to green energy, “as long as we don’t have to look at it.” Maine people are responsible for why we can’t attract more employers to our state, Amazon wanted a shipping and warehouse facility, nope, not in our backyard, Walmart wanted wanted to come to Damriscotta, nope, they passed an ordinance limiting the size of a store, the list goes on.
@Not For Me – One can easily find themselves living next door to things (or people) much worse than a field of solar panels. Plant a few trees if you don’t want to see them. As best I know they are silent, don’t smell, and mind their own business. Looking back over a lifetime, I would have welcomed a quiet field of solar panels compared to the clueless zipperhead next door who thought that doing the big Vroom-Vroom with his Harley was cute and’charming’ at 6AM, the treasurable couple who regularly drank too much and shared their personal business at a volume that kept all the neighbors abreast of their issues and often resulted in the police stopping by, or the fellow with the scary dog that was the size of a pony and looked like he had an appetite for small children, etc. Just sayin………
Anybody that’s against this should probably support a nuclear, coal or natural gas power plant in the greater Farmington metroplex. Everybody wants power, nobody wants it made near them.
And for what its worth, real estate values in Farmington already suck compared to most anywhere else.
This state doesn’t need this power any more than we need the necec. I’ve been trying to put some facts on here about how long this has been being planned and the bd won’t put them on. Lets see if this one makes it.
So how many local contractors slash people are they going to hire for this project and where can we start signing up to get these jobs
I hardly imagine that even 10% of the work force will be local. Most all of the work will be subcontracted out to company’s that do this type of work, Maybe some manual labor working at the assembly site and installations of the panels, maybe some trucking, but I think that York Farms will get the trucking part of the deal. Some of the locals might get mowing or plowing gobs from this but the security and maintenance contracts are most likely already in the works. Good luck.
Me, It’s an electrical job done by an out of state firm, the major work will probably be carried out by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers or some other union, the land is cleared farmland, the welding if any will be done by union workers, the panels will come from Korea or China. but there will be non-union labor jobs though, that is Maine law, unions do the “specialized” high paying work, non-union workers do the grunt work.
Don’t worry they aren’t taking farmland. They are cutting the woods down to make room for the panels
Oblivious is correct that a whole lot of trees are going away to make room for the solar contraptions…
Giant step in “whatever” direction were going these days.
SunFarming?
All the trees that where cut down between the Davis rd. and Bailey Hill rd. some where about 100- 180 acres of land that was cut for the ” solar farm” the trees are cut and not 1 solar panel in going in in that entire area. If you drive by it, it looks like a bomb went off with trees and limbs all over the place . It is much easier to put up panels on flat ground with no stumps or debris in the area, drill a hole, put in a pipe and move on to the next one.