MAINE MONITOR • September 8, 2024
Farmington and Sanford lead the state in solar development. Farmington has the most solar installed in the state with 94.2 megawatts, followed by Sanford, with 62.6. Farmington’s dominance is largely due to a 76.5 megawatt array on a farm along the Sandy River. The project was a joint venture supported by Bowdoin College in Brunswick and partners in Massachusetts. The panels were erected on roughly 300 acres after a dairy farmer lost a contract with Horizon Organic in 2018 and was forced to downsize his herd. In Sanford, the prevalence of solar is partly the result of more than a decade of advocacy by the City Manager as well as the city’s sweet-spot location. Sanford is near multiple 145-kilovolt transmission lines. But it’s distant from congested urban areas so large blocks of land are still available for development.