RUMFORD – The company that built Maine’s first wind turbine farm in Mars Hill wants to build a smaller project on the back side of Black Mountain.

John Lamontagne, spokesman for the Newton, Mass.-based First Wind, said Thursday that meteorological towers have been installed along the side of the mountain – best known as a local ski area – to gauge the wind.

The possible Black Mountain wind farm is part of a bigger plan to develop wind farms around the state.

The Black Mountain project would have 16 turbines that could produce 40 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 17,000 homes in the Northeast, Lamontagne said. The power would be sold to the New England power grid.

By comparison, he said the Mars Hill project includes 28 smaller turbines that produce 42 megawatts of electricity.

“We’re early in the process,” Lamontagne said. “It will be several months, close to the end of the year, before the plan goes before the Planning Board.”

If the plan goes ahead, the wind turbines would be built on the side of Black Mountain that doesn’t have ski trails or snow tubing.

Lamontagne said

A series of environmental tests – including one that measures migratory bird routes – must be completed as mandated by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, Lamontagne said.

First Wind also has a recently completed 38-turbine wind farm in Danforth, and plans to expand it by 17 additional turbines. Altogether, more than 87 megawatts of electricity would be produced.

Two other First Wind projects are slated to be built near Lincoln in Penobscot County and Oakfield in Aroostook County.

Another wind farm proposed by former Gov. Angus King and former Maine Public Broadcasting Network director Rob Gardiner calls for 22 turbines that would produce 55 megawatts of power on ridges in Roxbury.

At a recent Mexico selectmen meeting – a town that hasn’t seen any wind farm proposals – Dr. Albert Aniel asked for a moratorium on action that would allow wind farms until further study on potential health hazards. He gave the board a letter signed by several doctors and nurses who agreed with his request.