OAKLAND — The fully approved Criterion wind project on Backbone Mountain will be sold by Clipper Windpower Inc. to Constellation Energy Group Inc. for $140 million, the buyer reported this week.

Constellation will purchase 28 wind turbines manufactured by Clipper that are capable of producing 70 megawatts of power and powering 23,000 homes. Projects with production capacities of more than 70 megawatts have to navigate much tougher scrutiny from the Maryland Public Service Commission.

“These projects have the potential to produce high-paying construction jobs while increasing and diversifying energy supply in Maryland,” said Mayo A. Shattuck III, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Constellation. “The Criterion project is an ideal example of the kind of innovative and sustainable energy project that can help Maryland meet its ambitious renewable energy objectives.”

Maryland has required that 20 percent of the power sold in the state come from renewable sources by 2022.

Construction of the Criterion project had not yet begun under Clipper Windpower. That task and the subsequent operation of the turbines will fall to Constellation, a Baltimore-based company.

The deal is expected to close early next year with operation to begin in the fall, according to the buyer.

The project is under a 20-year agreement for the purchase of power by Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, a not-for-profit wholesale power provider serving public electric cooperatives in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia.

Constellation deals with diverse energy venues, including natural gas and solar sources.

Frank Maisano, a spokesman for wind energy firms, told the Maryland Daily Record that the involvement of home-based Constellation, a large company, sends a strong signal for the future of wind energy in Maryland.