The US east coast state of Maine has proposed a floating offshore wind research array in federal waters in the Gulf of Maine.
The project is proposed for an area 20-40 miles offshore in a location that would allow the array to connect to the energy grid in southern Maine. The most likely locations for that connection have been determined to be either Wyman Station in Yarmouth or Maine Yankee in Wiscasset.
No decision has yet been made on a site, which as a research array is only expected to cover some 16 square miles of ocean or fewer and contain no more than a dozen turbines, according to the Governor Janet Mills’ office.
“This limited scope is approximately one-tenth the size of comparable commercial-scale offshore wind farms elsewhere in New England and was purposefully done by Governor Mills as a reasonable and measured step forward to pursuing this new technology,” added the office.
Permitting and construction of the floating array is expected to take up to five years, in advance of a research period of roughly 20 years. After this period, the array would be decommissioned.
In a letter to the state’s licensed commercial fishermen announcing the project in federal waters, Maine Governor Janet Mills said she will seek the legislature’s approval a 10-year moratorium on new offshore wind projects in state waters, which are within three miles of the coast.
In the letter Mills stated that she believed that “starting small and taking a step-wise approach” through the proposed floating research array is a “valuable opportunity” to understand potential impacts and ensure the state can inform federal decision-making in future.
In the letter she said: “New, commercial offshore wind projects do not belong in state waters that support the majority of the State’s lobster fishing activity, that provide important habitat for coastal marine and wildlife species and that support a tourist industry based on Maine’s iconic coastal views.”
Maine intends to file an application with the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for the project, in the Gulf of Maine, to be led by New England Aqua Ventus, which is already developing a pilot floating wind project that will use a concrete semi-submersible hull designed by the University of Maine.