QUODDY TIDES/MAINE MONITOR • March 9, 2024
A 2023 change in Maine law means that two of four Nexamp solar farm projects in Washington County will lose over half of their generating capacity when online. Nexamp Communications Manager Keith Hevenor explained the company is continuing to work within the new framework and will try to modify those projects affected by the change in the net energy billing (NEB) law that now limits megawatt (MW) production for the farms in question to 1 MW or less. Originally the projects in Lubec and Eastport were expected to produce 2.7 MW each, or enough power each to serve about 450-500 average single-family homes. Rebecca Schultz, Natural Resources Council of Maine senior advocate for climate and clean energy, wrote, “This bill puts in place a cost-effective successor program for distributed generation, directs the Governor’s Energy Office to pursue federal funding to focus the benefits of solar on low and moderate income Mainers, and directs the Public Utilities Commission to properly account for both costs and benefits of these small and medium-sized solar projects.”