Lifted By the Wind and Other Sources of Energy ; Alternative Power Projects Bring Work to the Construction Industry in Maine and Prospects for Many More Jobs.

Sep 22 - Portland Press Herald

Earlier this year, Reed & Reed Inc. of Woolwich took delivery of a $4 million crawler crane. The machine has a lifting capacity of 440 tons. The boom can reach the length of a football field.

More recently, the company ordered a second one.

"It's a major investment, but you have to have the big cranes," said Jackson Parker, the general contractor's president and chief executive officer.

Reed & Reed is an 80-year-old company that got its start building bridges. It still does that, among other things. But now the company, which expects $80 million in revenue this year, is making half its money by installing wind turbines.

Reed & Reed is an example of how Maine contractors are positioning themselves to grab a share of the billions of dollars expected to be spent on alternative energy and other power projects in the region.

Some of the work, such as a major upgrade of the state's electrical transmission system, is awaiting regulatory review. Others, such as offshore wind and tidal energy systems, hold promise for the longer term.

How much promise? Parker Hadlock, the business development project manager for Pittsfield-based Cianbro Corp., said sustainable energy development can represent a second industrial revolution for the United States, and an unprecedented opportunity for his company.

"Everything else we've done in the past pales in contrast to what's before us," said Hadlock.

The state's largest construction company, Cianbro has 2,500 employees and annual revenue of $450 million. It has a long and varied history of energy development, from hydroelectric dams to power plants, and currently is building industrial modules in Brewer for a Texas oil refinery.

Cianbro also is working as the program manager, and expects to be builder, of a planned upgrade of the state's electric transmission grid. The venture would add hundreds of miles of new lines in Central Maine Power's Co. service area. A related project would connect CMP's lines with those in Aroostook County, sending power from proposed wind farms there into southern New England.

The two projects are valued at nearly $2 billion and would create thousands of jobs. But Hadlock said he now spends half his time on an even larger undertaking.

Renewable energy advocates, including former Gov. Angus King, want Maine to pursue a massive network of offshore wind turbines that could help power the state a decade from now.

This concept faces many challenges. But Hadlock said it's necessary for the state's energy security, and to slow the flow of money out of the country to foreign oil producers.

"We expect that to be a significant portion of our work in the extended future," he said.

Alternative energy is emerging as bright light for Maine's heavy construction industry and its subcontractors, especially in an era of tight money for roads and publicly financed projects.

"We're looking at a level of investment that would be impossible to replicate in any other sector," said John O'Dea, a spokesman for the Associated General Contractors of Maine. "It really is an historic time."

Maine has budgeted roughly $440 million for state bridge and road work over the next four years, according to O'Dea. Contractors aren't ignoring this bread-and-butter work; Reed & Reed recently won a $21.5 million state contract to replace a bridge in Norridgewock.

But companies that build roads and bridges also are finding their skills and equipment are in demand for wind power development.

MARS HILL AND BEYOND

Reed & Reed was contacted in 2006 by First Wind Holdings, a Massachusetts-based wind power developer, about its planned Mars Hill project in Aroostook County. First Wind knew Reed & Reed had experience with heavy cranes, foundations and steel erection.

"It was a natural fit for us," said Parker, Reed & Reed's president. "We knew Maine had the wind resources and that developers would come to Maine."

Mars Hill was completed in 2007, becoming the largest wind project in New England. Reed & Reed then went to work on a bigger project for First Wind, the Stetson Mountain Wind Farm in Danforth.

Stetson is expected to be operating late this year. Reed & Reed also installed a small wind farm in Freedom, and another in New Hampshire, Lempster Wind Farm, which is owned by Iberdrola of Spain, the new parent company of CMP.

Now Reed & Reed is gearing up for what's likely to be the region's largest wind farm, Kibby Mountain in western Maine. The $270 million project will generate enough power for 50,000 homes when completed in 2010. The company also is involved with wind power in Massachusetts, Vermont and New York, and is preparing for future projects.

Parker declined to be specific about the company's business plans. But taken together with conventional road work, parking garages and other jobs, wind power is fueling growth, he said.

Reed & Reed has 200 employees. Up to 75 are involved with wind jobs, earning between $25 and $35 an hour, including overtime.

Erecting these large, technically demanding projects also is personally fulfilling for workers, Parker said, because they recognize they are among the first contractors in the region to do it.

"They also feel good about the fact that these turbines will produce clean, renewable power and that they are part of the energy solution," Parker said.

Wind power also has created opportunities for dozens of subcontractors, from engineers to drilling and blasting firms and electricians.

Sargent Corp. of Stillwater, a large earthwork company, built access roads to bring the giant cranes to Mars Hill. It then followed Reed & Reed to do the same thing at Stetson Mountain and Lempster. Sargent is now preparing to work at Kibby Mountain.

"Wind energy has gone from nothing to 15 to 20 percent of our work," said George Thomas, the company's vice president for finance. "That means putting Maine people to work on Maine projects."

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

While contractors are bullish on the economic development potential for alternative energy, they also know activity hinges in part on politics.

Earlier this month, University of Massachusetts researchers joined Maine environmentalists, labor representatives and business interests - including Reed & Reed - to call for $100 billion in federal tax incentives, loans and other programs to create millions of so-called green energy jobs nationwide.

Even now, the economics of many wind projects can hinge on production tax credits that must be periodically renewed by Congress.

With a national election weeks away, Parker and other contractors realize the next occupants of the White House and Congress will greatly influence the shape of the alternative energy industry.

Closer to home, though, Parker said Maine already has taken important steps in supporting renewable energy development, such as encouraging wind power.

An important test, he said, will be how utility regulators act on the pending transmission line upgrades.

Some wind projects can't be built now, because the state's aging power line system is inadequate to deliver electricity from generating sites to consumers.

"If you can produce power on a ridgeline but not get it into the grid, that's a problem," Parker said. "These wind power projects have put a spotlight on our transmission lines and the need to upgrade them."

Staff writer Tux Turkel can be contacted at 791-6462 or

tturkel@pressherald.com