Maine Public Utilities Commission approves 17 new renewable energy projects

As required by the Maine Legislature, the Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) selected 17 renewable energy projects this week for long-term contracts that will assist the state’s renewable portfolio standard goals.

Estimates from project bidders put the potential gains at approximately 500,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions reduced per year, more than 450 temporary construction jobs, and more than 30 full-time equivalent jobs each year during operations. All bidders will enter into 20-year contracts with either Central Maine Power Company and Versant Power. They were selected through competitive bidding and evaluated based on expected value for consumers and the state economy.

“The first-year prices for energy from the new projects receiving an award are very competitive, ranging between 2.9-4.2 cents per kWh,” Commission Chairman Philip Bartlett said.

Selected projects include solar, wind, hydro-electric, and biomass efforts, which will be located in Maine. Initially, they should bring in more than $145 million. Throughout their 20-year run, they should also spend more than $3 million per year on the purchase of goods and services and bring around $4.7 million in annual tax revenue to state and local communities. Final contracts are still subject to approval, though.

MPUC had been required to conduct this solicitation by a 2019 state law that called for two competitive processes to procure an amount of energy from Class 1A resources equivalent to 14 percent of retail electricity sales in Maine during 2018, approximately 1.715 million MW hours.