PORTLAND, Maine — On Monday, the federal government awarded the state of Maine the country’s first lease for floating offshore wind research facilities. It covers around 60 square kilometers in federal waters.
The state applied to the U.S. federal agency’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for a lease for a floating offshore wind research facility with up to a dozen turbines that can generate up to 144 megawatts of renewable energy in waters about 30 miles southeast of Portland, Maine.
The research facility will use floating offshore wind platforms designed by the University of Maine and deployed by partner Diamond Offshore Wind, but construction is not expected to be completed for several years.
Research is key to growing Maine’s offshore wind energy industry.
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed legislation last year that would require Maine to get enough energy from offshore wind turbines to meet about half of its electricity needs by 2040. The state has selected a site to build, install and deploy the turbine equipment. Researchers at the University of Maine envision turbine platforms floating in the ocean beyond the horizon, stretching more than 700 feet into the sky and anchored with mooring lines over the next decade.
“Clean energy from offshore wind offers Maine a historic opportunity to create good-paying jobs, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and combat climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Mills said.
The state applied for the lease in 2021. The roughly 23 square miles (60 square kilometers) of the federal lease are larger than the roughly 15 square miles (39 square kilometers) requested by the state. This will allow the state, the fishing community, oceanography experts and the offshore wind industry to thoroughly examine the compatibility of floating offshore wind turbines.
Floating turbines are the only way for some countries to harness offshore wind energy on a large scale. In the US alone, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, there is 2.8 terawatts of wind energy potential blowing over oceans that are too deep for conventional turbines attached to the seabed. That’s enough to power 350 million homes – more than twice the number of existing homes in the US.
President Joe Biden has made offshore wind energy a central part of his plans to combat climate change.
Since his administration began, the Interior Department has approved the nation’s first nine commercial-scale offshore wind projects. Together, they have the capacity to generate more than 13 gigawatts of clean energy – enough to power nearly five million homes.
