This, from the publication started by Naomi Schalit who wrote about wind early on.

Maine, working with 4 other New England states, is set to select winning projects soon in its latest effort to bring renewable energy development to Aroostook County.

By Delger Erdenesanaa
Published on: June 12, 2026

The Maine Public Utilities Commission has tried to encourage the development of large-scale renewable energy projects in Aroostook County for years. That saga may finally reach a resolution as the commission closes its latest round of bidding today and says it may begin making awards this month.

The commission, which regulates electric and other utility services, issued this latest request for proposals in December 2025 for both renewable energy generation — such as wind and solar farms — in northern Maine, as well as new transmission infrastructure needed to get at least 1200 megawatts of power to the New England grid, enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes.

This is the second time in five years that the Public Utilities Commission has issued a request for proposals, or RFP, for renewable energy in Aroostook County. The commission made selections following a 2021 request for proposals but ultimately ended the procurement process in 2023 without finalizing the deals. Even before 2021, energy companies have tried to develop projects in the region for years.

“This RFP builds on prior stakeholder input and regional transmission planning to move renewable energy projects in northern Maine from concept to reality,” the commission’s chairman, Philip Bartlett, said in a press release in December.

Northern Maine is “a fantastic wind resource,” according to Eliza Donoghue, executive director of the Maine Renewable Energy Association.

That wind power, if put on the grid, could help Maine and other New England states meet rising electricity demand as well as their renewable energy goals as climate change prompts policymakers and the energy system to find ways to shift away from fossil fuels.

But Aroostook County lacks transmission lines going south to export that energy, and the state and developers have been “trying to unlock that puzzle of how to make that happen for a long time,” Donoghue said. Northern Maine has its own electric grid, linked to New Brunswick, Canada, rather than to the rest of Maine and New England.

The previous bid to build a new transmission line was deemed too expensive, and the plans also faced opposition from landowners along the 140-mile proposed route, which would have cut through Albion, Palermo, Freedom, Thorndike and Unity as well as other communities. 

This time, Maine is working with Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont. The goal is for all five states to share the costs of building new transmission infrastructure that would connect Aroostook County to the regional grid in central Maine. The grid operator, ISO New England, is also soliciting separate but related bids for transmission upgrades farther south. 

Both the Public Utilities Commission and ISO New England are keeping their solicitation processes confidential, so it’s not publicly known what projects are under consideration. But dozens of energy companies big and small, specializing in both wind and solar, have signed up to receive updates on the commission’s online docket. The list includes local companies as well as major multinationals such as Italy’s Enel, France’s Engie and Norway’s Equinor.

Continue reading at https://themainemonitor.org/wind-farms-transmission-lines-coming-to-northern-maine/

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