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Maine awarded $20m federal grant for offshore wind program

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu visiting the University of Maine's Advanced Structures and Composites Center earlier this month

The US Department of Energy is funding further efforts to develop offshore wind energy capacity off the coast of Maine.

It has awarded $20 million to the state, where work is already underway at the University of Maine to develop components and ultimately to test offshore wind turbines.

The university could benefit from the federal funds, officials suggested.

Maine’s Governor John E. Baldacci, who has signed his state up to an East Coast consortium of 10 states pursuing offshore wind opportunities, said “vital work” was being carried out by the university.

Governor Baldacci said: “Maine is well-positioned to compete for these federal resources because of the leadership we have built over the course of the past two years on deepwater offshore wind energy development.”

Maine has already identified three demonstration sites for offshore wind technology located in Maine coastal waters.

The University of Maine will be using a site off Monhegan Island for its testing.

Ambitions

The state of Maine has ambitions to make use of floating wind turbine technology to set up 5,000 megawatts of offshore wind farms far out to sea by 2050.

The steps along the way could see a third-scale turbine in the water by 2012, with a full-scale 3-5MW turbine deployed by 2014. Hopes are then to establish a 25MW demonstration offshore wind farm by 2016.

By 2020, there could be a 500-1,000MW offshore wind farm some 10-50 miles off the Atlantic coast.

Composites Center

Earlier this month, US Energy Secretary Steven Chu visited the University of Maine to see for himself the Advanced Structures and Composites Center, which is working on new offshore wind components.

The Center, which has already benefited from federal funding, is helping to achieve Maine’s target to reduce the consumption of liquid fossil fuels by 30% by 2030.

Gov Baldacci said the federal government would be an “important partner” in realizing its offshore wind ambitions, along with public and private sector organizations.

He said: “We have worked hard to grow a partnership between the State, Maine’s Congressional Delegation, private industry and the University of Maine to further development of offshore wind energy.”

The Center was also awarded $11 million in state bonds earlier this month, to support its development of a deepwater wind energy demonstration site.