The Houlton Rotary Club hosted Matt Kearns, vice president of business development for First Wind, as the guest speaker of the day on Monday, May 12. The Houlton Rotary meets each Monday at noon and hears from speakers representing topics of interest to the area.
Kearns summarized the history of First Wind as a national, private energy-producing firm that began operating its first wind farm in Mars Hill in 2007. Since then, First Wind has grown to include wind farms and solar energy sites in four Eastern states, three Western states and Hawaii.
Contributed photo/Mike Clark
GUEST SPEAKER — The Houlton Rotary Club hosted a guest speaker representing First Wind energy company. At the meeting are, from left, Lori Weston, Rotary president; Matt Kearns, vice president of business development for First Wind; and Ryan Bushey, former Rotary president.
First Wind’s newest project is Oakfield Wind Project, approximately 15 miles from Houlton. Oakfield Wind is designed for 48, 3MW turbines and it will bring 300 jobs to the area during construction. First Wind and its partners expect to employ up to 12 operational employees connected to Oakfield Wind. This site is expected to generate power equivalent to what would power 50,000 homes.
Kearns concluded his presentation by taking questions from the audience. Many of the questions centered around Maine’s power connections to the New England power grid, New Brunswick Power and the efforts to keep local power at competitive rates. Kearns invited more local input and may be reached at mkearns@firstwind .com.
