STATUS: In progress, with opposition

TYPE: Wind

OPPOSITION: Friends of Lincoln Lakes

PROSPECTS: Indeterminate

BACKGROUND: First Wind submitted an application with the DEP to build the 40-turbine Rollins Wind Project, valued at $130 million.  The project would produce enough renewable energy to power 22,600 homes and would create hundreds of temporary construction jobs during development and several full-time operations jobs. 

A spokesman of The Friends of Lincoln Lakes, a local citizens group who opposes the project, said the process has been a “ramrod” and called First Wind “a parasite on this whole area.”  The group contends that the turbines would threaten human and animal health, reduce land values with light flicker and low-decibel sound, are eyesores disruptive to the area’s natural beauty and typically generate a fraction of their capacity.   

As of September 2010, construction had officially begun on the project.

SOURCES: Bangor Daily News http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/111778.html;
Rollins Wind News http://www.lincolnmainewind.com/2009/03/wind-farm-expansion-supported.html;
Rollins Wind Main Page http://www.rollinswind.com/rollins/;
Portland Press Herald: http://www.pressherald.com/business/first-wind-stays-course-after-ipo-fails_2010-10-29.html

Last updated November 16, 2010