Sears Island announced as preferred site to support floating offshore wind - WABI
Sears Island announced as preferred site to support floating offshore wind
AUGUSTA, Maine (WABI) - Gov. Janet Mills announced Tuesday the state has chosen Sears Island as the location of an offshore wind port critical to developing the nation’s first floating offshore wind power research array.
Lawmakers and community leaders who had a hand in the initiative gathered for the announcement in Augusta.
For the past three years, offshore wind has been a topic of interest to lawmakers due to the possibility of creating more jobs, diversifying the economy, and sustaining clean energy while fighting climate change.
However, many who work in the fishing industry have concerns over how the offshore wind turbines could impact their jobs.
Mills said all options were weighed in choosing from the potential sites in Searsport, Eastport, and Portland.
“I believe the state-owned parcel on Sears Island is the best, the least expensive and least environmentally harmful option that will at the same time unlock significant economic and clean energy opportunities for Maine and fundamentally, we all share the same goal, to protect this beautiful place we call home from the ravages of climate change,” said Mills.
Opponents are questioning why this project will not work on Mack Point.
“There will be a number of obstacles tossed in the path of the permitting process by others, not Friends of Sears Island, not me personally by any means, but it has the potential to slow the process which is not productive,” said Rolf Olson, the vice president of Friends of Sears Island.
Steve Miller, a member of the Alliance for Sears Island, said his group was planning a demonstration because it felt the state was breaking its promise to Maine residents by locating the port on the island.
The next step involves the Maine DOT applying for state and federal permits that include assessments on the environmental impact of the project.
As of now, the permitting process could take up to a year and the total cost could be millions of dollars.
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Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.