A wind turbine transformer will be hauled from Hermon to Washington County starting Tuesday night.
The transformer will begin its journey about 7 p.m. Tuesday and require lane restrictions and detours, according to the Maine State Police, which will be escorting the equipment.
Its destination is the Downeast Wind project site north of Harrington. The wind power developer, Virginia-based Apex Clean Energy, plans to erect 30 turbines spread out among various locations in the town of Columbia and in townships 18 and 24 in the state’s Unorganized Territory.
When assembled, each of the turbines will have a maximum height of 656 feet, more than double the height of the Statue of Liberty and almost 200 feet taller than many wind turbines in the U.S. The entire project is projected to have a production capacity of 126 megawatts.
Twenty of the turbines will be north of the state’s 5,600-acre Great Heath ecological reserve in Township 18. Six turbines of the same height will be erected west of the heath, between the Pleasant River and the Deblois town line, and four more will be erected along blueberry barrens south of the heath in Columbia.
When completed, the $188 million wind project is expected to generate enough to power 37,000 typical houses for a year. The company hopes to connect the turbines to the grid in early 2025.
During its journey Down East, there will be lane restrictions on Route 1A at the Lucerne Inn in Dedham and at Gilpatrick Brook west of Wittum Road in Ellsworth. Traffic will be detoured off Route 1 at Mill Street in Harrington. Traffic will follow Route 1A to Milbridge, where it can rejoin Route 1, according to the state police.
Drivers using this route should be aware that the vehicle hauling the transformer will be moving slowly (5 mph) over bridges because of its weight and can be the only vehicle using a bridge at that time, the state police said Monday.
The Downeast Wind project was first publicly proposed in 2014 and, after the company formally submitted its permit application to Maine Department of Environmental Protection in May 2021, the state approved the project in December 2022.
BDN writer Bill Trotter contributed to this report.
