The Public Utilities Commission approved a revised plan for the Statoil Hywind Maine Project to be located off the Midcoast in a 2-1 vote on Jan. 24, according to sources.
Statoil North America originally submitted a plan in August 2012 to develop a 12- megawatt wind project located off the coast of Boothbay Harbor.
In October, the commissioners tabled deliberations on the original plan until more discussions on modifying the proposal took place, according to state documents.
Chairman Tom Welch and Commissioner Mark Vannoy both questioned the risks and benefits of the proposal in their written comments on the first proposal.
Commissioner David Littell, who was in favor of the original proposal, and Welch both voted in favor of the new plan.
The new plan, submitted Jan. 14, reduces the $290-$320 per megawatt hourly rate originally proposed for the project to $270, or $0.27 per kilowatt hour.
Additionally, the new plan states that Statoil will involve Maine suppliers and contractors in Hywind technology projects in the Maryland to Maine area prior to 2025.
“Statoil will use good faith, diligent efforts to award contracts representing not less than the lessor of 10 [percent] of capital expenditures in the future Northeast park or $100 million to qualified Maine-based contractors and suppliers,” according to the new plan.
Those suppliers and contractors must have submitted “technically acceptable bids on commercially reasonable terms and at a cost that is not materially in excess of alternative good or services.”
In both versions of the plan, Statoil commits to use “commercially reasonable efforts to spend at least 40 percent of its capital, operating, and maintenance expenditures in Maine, and to employ, directly or indirectly, 150 people full-time in Maine during the peak construction period.”
