Roughly a decade after a tidal power project was proposed but never built in the Washington County town of Pembroke, another developer wants to construct an electric dam in Cobscook Bay.
The dam proposed by Pembroke Tidal Power Project LLC would span the mouth of the tidal Pennamaquan River between Hersey and Leighton necks, two southward jutting peninsulas in Cobscook Bay. The company is affiliated with Nestar Energy, according to information posted on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission website.
Cobscook Bay, on the far eastern end of Maine’s coastline, has been eyed for years as a potential site for generating electricity with underwater turbines powered by its powerful tides, but so far no proposals have panned out.
Another firm, Ocean Renewable Power Co., installed a turbine in the bay near Eastport in 2012, marking the first U.S. tidal power project ever connected to the grid, but that turbine was removed the following year, according to Maine Public. Since then the Portland-based company has tested another turbine prototype in the Penobscot River in Millinocket.
Pembroke Tidal Power filed a preliminary permit application with FERC on March 1 for the Pennamaquan River dam. If approved by federal regulators, the project would extend more than a third of a mile across the inlet, according to FERC documents. The river is an outlet for Pennamaquan Lake in the town of Charlotte
The town of Pembroke filed a motion over the weekend requesting intervenor status for the project, arguing it could have “a direct impact on the spawning route for native fish species” and should be “subject to dismissal without prejudice.”
Anthony Bennett, a selectman who filed the motion with FERC, did not respond Monday to a request for comment.
