Community leaders celebrate completion of Downeast Wind project

COLUMBIA — Community leaders gathered Wednesday to celebrate the completion of Downeast Wind, a clean energy project nearly a decade in the making.

The $300 million project, developed by Apex Clean Energy, features 30 turbines producing 126 megawatts of power — enough to supply electricity for about 37,000 homes each year.

Ken Young, CEO of Apex Clean Energy, said the new operations and maintenance facility represents a long-term commitment to the area.

“This is just a signal to the community and to our partners that this is here for long-term operations, a project we developed for many, many years and then built over the course of about 18 months,” Young said.

Young said many of the people who helped construct the project and will help operate it are from Maine.

“We want to be great