DEP to hold Public Meeting on Hancock Wind Project Amendment Application

September 23, 2014

Contact: Jessamine Logan, Communications Director, jessamine.logan@maine.gov or (207) 287-5842

- The meeting is about the amendment application for a previously approved 18 turbine wind farm in Hancock County which could reduce the number of turbines to 17-

AURORA? The Maine Department of Environmental Protection will host a public meeting on Hancock Wind, LLC?s amendment application to include a third turbine option at its wind farm proposed in Hancock County on Thursday, September 25. The primary purpose of the meeting is to gather public feedback of the Department?s draft staff analysis for the Hancock Wind Project.

The meeting will be held at Aurora Airline School, 26 Great Pond Road, Aurora, Maine on Thursday, September 25 starting at 6:00 pm. Several DEP representatives will attend, including Deputy Commissioner Heather Parent, project manager Maria Eggett and other department staff involved with the agency?s review of the project?s Site Law application.

This is the third public meeting on the project. In July 2013, the department approved a wind power facility in T 16 MD and T 22 MD for Hancock Wind, LLC. Hancock Wind has submitted an application to amend the project, proposing a third turbine option. The proposed third option is a Vestas V117 turbine and may be used in place of the two previously approved types of turbines. The Vestas V117 turbine is 574-feet tall compared to the previously approved 512-foot tall turbines. If the amendment is approved and the applicant selects the Vestas V117 turbines, only 17 turbines will be constructed instead of the 18 turbines previously approved.

The amendment application changes Hancock Wind?s proposal to a 56-megawatt wind power generation facility from 54-megawatts on Schoppe Ridge in T22 MD and an unnamed ridge in T16 MD with an operations and maintenance building in Aurora. The amendment includes up to five 116.5-meter meteorological towers compared to the 105-meter towers previously approved.

The power generated would flow to an expanded substation at the company?s nearby 19-turbine Bull Hill Wind Project.

DEP will take the comments voiced at the public meeting into consideration as its review moves forward before a final decision is issued this winter.

For more information about the amendment and DEP?s review of it, please contact DEP project manager Maria Eggett at (207) 446-7120. or via e-mail at Hancockwindproject.dep@maine.gov or go to http://maine.gov/dep/land/sitelaw/selected-developments/index.html to view the draft analysis and the amendment application.

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