May 25, 2022 — Last year, President Joe Biden announced plans to start leasing areas of the Gulf of Maine to offshore wind energy developers by 2024.
On Thursday, May 18, the federal Bureau Of Ocean Energy Management convened a task force of officials from Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and tribal governments to consider the next phase in the push to stand up a new “green” industry off the shores of Northern New England.
Leases for wind projects have been stacking up the past few years off Atlantic states from Massachusetts south. Attention now turns to the Gulf of Maine, where deeper waters will likely require deployment of new “floating platform” technologies that Maine researchers and international developers are pioneering.
“So the Gulf of Maine, off the coast of Maine, floating is the only option. We don’t have any other options,” said Habib Dagher, the University of Maine engineering expert who has led development of a prototype floating-platform wind turbine in state waters off Mohegan Island.
Dagher is also part of the team that has proposed a larger array of as many as a dozen turbines in federal waters off the midcoast, aimed at researching the technology’s viability and its effects on ecosystems and fisheries.
Officials at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on May 18 outlined their plans for handling Gov. Janet Mills’ proposed 16-square-mile lease site for the research array.
Backers such as Dagher say it can set a course early for responsible development of commercial-scale projects off the East Coast.
Read the full story at Maine Public Radio