September 10, 2025 E.S. Boulos Drives Success as EPC Contractor for Maine’s Largest Solar Project
MYR Group companies join forces to overcome historic rainfall and strict environmental regulations on 900-acre solar farm
Spanning nearly 900 acres of Maine wilderness, the Three Corners Solar Farm stands as the state’s largest solar project to date. Electrical contractor, E.S. Boulos Company (E.S. Boulos), successfully led the project to completion in October of 2024 as the engineer-procure-construct (EPC) contractor. Their scope included overseeing and installing 880,000 feet of DC feeder cable, 21 miles of 35kV medium voltage feeders, and hundreds of thousands of feet of string wire connecting panel to panel, across the massive site.
Unpredictable weather and strict environmental regulations added challenges to this large-scale effort. Through ingenuity, resilience, and attention to detail, the E.S. Boulos crews rose to the challenge, delivering outstanding results under demanding conditions to complete this unprecedented project.
MYR Group Companies Collaborate for Comprehensive Electrical Solutions
As an MYR Group Inc. (MYR Group) subsidiary, E.S. Boulos leveraged the firm’s network of subsidiary companies to deliver comprehensive, end-to-end project solutions.
“The advantage of using an MYR Group company is we have multiple sister companies that specialize in different scopes of work,” said Aric Dostie, an E.S. Boulos project manager, “We were able to provide not only the solar installation and the PV collection wiring, but the medium voltage loop and overhead collection line as well, all as one company.”
In the case of the Three Corners Solar project, E.S. Boulos teamed up with two MYR Group subsidiaries — MYR Energy Services Inc. (MYR Energy), MYR Group’s national large projects team, and Harlan Electric Company (Harlan Electric), which operates in New Hampshire.
MYR Energy Services was instrumental in initiating the project. They provided estimating support and were involved throughout the project to manage and execute the installation of the solar modules on site. E.S. Boulos engaged Harlan Electric to construct the roughly five miles of overhead collection on site. These collector lines carried power from the individual solar arrays back to a central on-site substation, where it was integrated into Maine’s electrical distribution grid. Equipped with their own drilling crew, the Harlan Electric team installed all wooden poles and steel structures, working with a local concrete company to set foundations, then stringing all overhead lines and making the final connections.
Taking on Stringent Environmental Regulations on Maine’s Largest Solar Farm
Maine’s environmental protocols are some of the strictest in the country, making solar farm construction particularly difficult, but E.S. Boulos was equipped to handle the challenge. Throughout the project, they exceeded expectations in prioritizing the state’s environmental regulations and standards, even receiving recognition from Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the project’s third-party inspector, and client Longroad Energy for their environmental compliance efforts.
“The scale of the project and the close coordination with agencies highlighted the criticality of the project being designed and constructed with the utmost care and attention to environmental compliance,” a representative from Longroad Energy said. “E.S. Boulos and Comprehensive Land Technologies (“CLT”) engaged in a proactive and committed manner from the planning stages through completion to meet the environmental standards required for solar projects in Maine. Longroad received complimentary remarks from inspectors, permitting agencies, and community members for the relentless attention and effective methods used to protect the local environment, mitigate impacts caused by an immense construction effort, and successfully complete a flagship solar project in New England.”
The expansive site was heavily wooded and contained several environmentally sensitive resources including vernal pools, streams, wildlife habitation areas, and woodland buffers. This required crews to adhere to best management practices (BMPs) enforced to protect the land while ensuring the other parties involved in the work were doing the same. The team went above and beyond what was required, implementing additional BMPs including land stabilization using approximately 90,000 bales of straw and hay mulch to avoid potential run off or sedimentation into the surrounding wetlands, installing thousands of feet of subterranean drainage networks, and constructing double berms around the perimeter of each array using erosion control materials as further protection from run off.
The project’s site superintendent, Gene Flaherty, said that successfully developing and executing these solutions required being proactive and resourceful, paired with diligent attention to detail.
“One of my roles was daily inspections of our environment best management practices,” Flaherty said, “I would walk the site and check everything- understanding how the water flows to see how things are going and making sure that all our protections were in place.”
With 900 acres to cover, this oversight was a large task, but E.S. Boulos went above and beyond in their attention to detail to prevent problems before they started.
“Being proactive was critical to the operation, especially because we had so many wetlands in the area,” Flaherty said. “Once we saw something start to deteriorate, we made sure we were in there making it better. Sometimes we had to do quite a few creative things that were above and beyond the normal BMPs required by the state.”
The team completed work on the project in nearly two years with no major violations. The few minor deviations encountered were corrected promptly, often before the inspector left the site.
When Mud Met Machinery, E.S. Boulos Kept the Project Moving and Crews Safe
The abnormally warm winter of 2022 presented a large hurdle for the MYR Group subsidiaries working to stay safe and meet deadlines. The high temperatures and precipitation that met New England that year were a recipe for a difficult mud season at the jobsite. As the EPC contractor for the project, E.S. Boulos found a way to deal with these muddy conditions efficiently while sticking to the schedule and upholding a commitment to safety.
“We had a number of pieces of equipment get stuck into the mud,” Dostie said, “We pulled out several forklifts that were buried right up to the frame and multiple skid steers. We had the big rear dump trucks with four-foot tires right up to the axle in mud.”
Despite this, E.S. Boulos proudly reported zero recordable safety incidents for both their crews and their subcontractors.
“Our safety team worked with all crews on site to establish methods and procedures that made sure we stuck to our core value of safety, and ultimately we had a successful project without a single recordable,” Scott Marquis, MYR Group regional vice president, said, “It was a result of the leadership we had on the team and our relationship with the subcontractors we had participating in the project.”
The weather also meant that extra measures had to be taken to prevent disturbance to the land. Water runoff from the hills had to be managed so as to not flood the surrounding wetlands. The extreme weather was not something the teams had originally anticipated, but with adaptability and ingenuity, they were able to combat it and help protect the property.
“In the DEP permit, we’re supposed to have two one-foot berms around the perimeter of the job site,” Flaherty said, “That’s what you have to do, but all the measures we took beyond that were adapted as we went. The drainage, the plunge pools, the giant berms- all of that was us adapting in real time.”
On a project this massive with challenges like these, the MYR Group companies’ ability to address them as one team was key to their success.
“It was a team mentality for us on the EPC end,” Flaherty noted. “If crews were out there battling some water or someone needed something, it didn’t matter who you were, you were out there helping.”
It doesn’t stop here. Our teams are delivering successful, large-scale EPC projects throughout New England.