King Pine Wind would be centered in and around Webbertown Township, west/northwest of Houlton, generally north of 1-95 in the area between Route 1 and Route 11 on actively managed, private commercial timberland.

King Pine Wind would encompass new and previously cleared acres for roads, turbine pads, and electrical lines.  Where possible, the project would utilize approximately 500 miles of existing logging roads within the project area and, except for new graveled roads, parking areas, substations, and project offices, most of the project acreage will be maintained as vegetation.

Except during construction, there will be minimal changes to existing uses of the property for recreation, including hunting, fishing, and snowmobiling. Land that is not utilized by the project will remain under the control of the underlying landowner.

King Pine Wind can deliver net positive benefits to Maine electricity consumers. Energy produced by King Pine, and the transmission line to deliver it, are likely to be purchased by Maine and other New England states. The participation of multiple states allows for cost sharing for the transmission.

Savings are expected as a result of both direct price benefits – meaning King Pine Wind is lower cost than alternative power in the market – and suppression of the wholesale price of power through the addition of a wind resource that has zero fuel cost.  In the latter case, wind power from northern Maine would reduce reliance on the most inefficient and expensive fossil fuel-fired resources in the region, driving down wholesale electricity market prices across New England.

Past analysis of similar proposals showed that wind power in northern Maine and the associated transmission can produce meaningful savings for ratepayers across the state, including northern Maine.  Although northern Maine’s electric system is separate from the rest of the state, its prices are influenced by the cost of power in the New England grid.  So projects like King Pine Wind that produce affordable power for the ISO-NE system would also help northern Maine consumers.

King Pine Wind would also protect against winter price spike events. Winds are strongest in northern Maine during the winter when natural gas supplies are often constrained and energy prices can spike in New England. Large-scale wind resources like King Pine Wind can ease these constraints, encouraging downward pressure on energy prices and improving system reliability.

In addition to ratepayer benefits, King Pine Wind’s substantial in-state spending on project planning, construction and operations, property taxes, and a broad range of community-specific benefits would provide Aroostook County citizens and businesses, and Maine in general, with significant economic benefits.  All in, development of large-scale wind in Aroostook County could be expected to lead to thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars being spent in Maine during the development and construction phases, and tens of millions in new property taxes, according to a study of a similar previous project.

State law requires wind projects to provide at least $4,000 per turbine, per year, in host community benefits.  However, King Pine Wind intends to work with local jurisdictions to design a higher-value community benefits package.

During development and construction, King Pine Wind will leverage Maine’s experienced engineering, consulting, and construction supply chain. In addition to opportunities for local hiring, the project will require lodging, food, fuel, and regional supply chain support for a variety of goods and services.

During operations, the project will create opportunities for skilled wind turbine technicians, operations staff, and a host of maintenance support functions.

The project establishes new transmission infrastructure from the New England grid into Aroostook County, an asset that may be essential for future reliability and/or economic opportunities.

The key environmental benefit from King Pine Wind is the generation of carbon-free electricity generation which will displace the burning of fossil fuel to make electricity. Climate change is having an impact on not only individual species, but entire ecosystems. One solution to reduce the growing impact of climate change is to rapidly deploy carbon-free energy generation, like King Pine Wind, to replace fossil fuel plants.

In 2019, Maine passed legislation requiring 80% of retail electricity to be provided by renewable resources by 2030, and 100% by 2050. In 2020, the Maine Climate Council established a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030 and 80% by 2050. King Pine Wind will move Maine closer to meeting these goals by reducing our dependency on fossil fuel generation, since approximately half of our electricity comes from natural gas generators.

As with other forms of manufacturing and sale of goods, Maine consumers will benefit from the economies of scale realized by a larger project, e.g. the cost of electricity for a large project is inherently less expensive than a small project. Along with Maine, other New England states have expressed interest in the project, which allows for Maine to benefit from the economies of scale without having to purchase the full output of the project or pay for all of the transmission costs. Additionally, as with other products that Maine produces and sells to customers outside of the state, Maine equally benefits from the export of energy in the form of jobs, property taxes, support services, and community benefits.

King Pine Wind will utilize the latest wind turbine technology to maximize efficient energy production. While the selection process is still ongoing, the project is evaluating turbines with a nameplate capacity of 4.5MW to 7+MW, with tower heights ranging from 118m-133m (387ft-436ft) and rotor diameters ranging from 150m-163m (492ft-535ft).

Visibility of wind turbines is entirely dependent on the vantage point of the viewer, particularly in heavily forested northern Maine. The state permitting process for wind power includes a thorough review of visual impacts, particularly from any locations of high scenic value in the surrounding area. The King Pine Wind project area is characterized by less pronounced and lower elevation terrain than previous projects in the region, which in combination with the forested land cover will lessen visual impacts.

Longroad plans to install radar-activated lighting (RAL) on the King Pine Wind turbines to minimize the impact of turbine beacons on the night sky. Radar sensors determine the proximity of aircraft to turn the warning beacons on and off again, so the lights will only be illuminated when an aircraft is in the area.

King Pine Wind will contribute to the reduction in rising global temperatures, a well-documented threat to wildlife and their habitats worldwide. The Audubon Society estimates that nearly two-thirds of North American bird species are at increasing risk of extinction from climate change, including many Maine resident and migrant species. Likewise, the North American Bat Conservation Alliance identifies climate change as a key threat to bats and notes that renewable energy is helpful toward combating it.

King Pine Wind’s contributions to combatting climate change provide a great benefit to birds and bats; however, constructing and operating a wind energy farm can result in some habitat loss and fatalities. Careful project siting and management of King Pine Wind is crucial to ensuring that impacts on birds and bats is minimized and that the project has a net benefit to their long-term survival. Longroad is conducting intensive studies and coordinating with state and federal wildlife agencies to site turbines and other project facilities away from important habitats and vulnerable wildlife populations. Furthermore, King Pine Wind plans to employ operational strategies and technology to avoid or minimize impacts on bats.

A primary strategy to avoid impact on bats is to reduce turbine operation during conditions when bats are most likely to be present. Bats hibernate during winter months and, in northern Maine, only fly from April to the end of September. During these warmer months turbine blades will not operate during the nighttime at low wind speeds which will reduce the potential impact during bats’ highest activity times.

Avoidance of high use areas with attractants for greater bird use is the key to minimizing the potential effects on birds. King Pine Wind is in a northern Maine forest away from large rivers and the coast which can be higher use areas for birds.

Maine law – specifically, Site Location of Development Act (SLODA) permitting through Maine DEP – requires that, as part of initial permitting, a decommissioning plan and independent cost estimate be approved for the removal of the wind turbines and restoration of the project site. Prior to starting construction, King Pine Wind will be required to post financial security for the full estimated cost of decommissioning, providing Maine DEP with the ability to access funds in the event that King Pine Wind fails to decommission the project once it is no longer operational. Cost estimates and corresponding security are updated periodically over the life of the project to account for changes in cost.

Once the turbines have surpassed their useful life and are decommissioned, the majority of materials can be recycled and the site will be restored. Metals such as steel, aluminum, copper have recycle value, and efforts are underway to ensure that the blades (typically fiberglass) can also be reused or repurposed.

Many contractual, permitting and planning activities and milestones must take place before King Pine Wind is ready to begin construction. The following outlines some of the critical activities:

1. Energy Contracts
   • Participate in competitive process to win contracts to sell project output, then negotiate and execute contracts with utilities in Maine and other New England states
   • Regulatory review of contracts by state(s)
2. Interconnection Studies & Approval from ISO-NE
   • Release of ISO-NE 3rd Maine Renewable Integration Study (MRIS) results
   • Complete Cluster System Impact Study (CSIS)
   • Complete Facilities Study
   • Execute Interconnection Agreement
3. Local Community Engagement
   • Engage with community leaders to provide basic project information and answer questions
   • Once power contracting, natural resource field studies, and engineering has progressed, and prior to filing permit applications, additional community outreach to provide more detailed information
   • Determine community benefit packages and local taxes
4. Permitting
   • Complete environmental studies
   • Prepare permit engineering: site layout, civil/stormwater, electrical
   • File and secure local, state, and federal project permits
5. Pre-Construction
   • Select wind turbine model
   • Execute equipment supply agreements
   • Execute construction contracts
   • Complete detailed engineering and design
   • Secure project financing