Maine moves one step closer to floating offshore wind

Deep waters off the coast of Maine may soon host some of the nation’s first floating offshore wind turbines, an emerging but potentially essential technology in the clean energy transition.

The state of Maine and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management agreed to lease 15 square miles of federal waters in the Gulf of Maine to build an array of floating offshore wind turbines for research purposes. In that stretch of ocean, located about 30 miles southeast of Portland, the company Diamond Offshore Wind will install 12 floating wind turbines capable of generating 144 megawatts of clean electricity.

“Floating wind opens up opportunities to produce renewable energy in deeper water farther offshore,” BOEM director Elizabeth Klein said in a press release.

As opposed to commercial offshore wind leases designated for full-scale energy development, the lease announced Monday is for a smaller-scale deployment meant to help the state evaluate how to balance floating offshore wind with the needs of the fishing industry and natural ocean ecosystems.

Offshore wind is a key technology for eliminating the use of planet-warming fossil fuels in the electricity sector, particularly in the Northeast, where space for land-based wind and solar power is limited. The country’s first utility-scale offshore wind installation opened this year off the coast of Long Island, New York, and construction is underway on others in Massachusetts and Virginia.

But those are all traditional offshore wind projects, located in shallow waters where turbines can be built directly into the seafloor. The Gulf of Maine is generally too deep for that approach to work, which makes floating turbines the best option for the state’s energy planning. In these deep-water projects, turbines stand atop a floating base anchored to the bottom of the ocean by metal cables.

The lease announcement follows a law Maine passed in 2023 to generate 3 gigawatts of electricity from offshore wind by 2040, most of which will come from floating projects. Maine will have a long way to go even after this initial installation, but the lease is seen as a promising step toward making floating offshore wind a reality for the state — and the U.S. in general.

An environmental assessment for the project was completed prior to signing the lease. During the first 120 days of the lease agreement, the state must submit plans for how it will communicate with fishing interests, Native American tribes, and federal agencies. Following approval of these and a final research-activities plan, construction can begin immediately.

“It could be the first significant floating offshore wind project in the Western Hemisphere,” Jack Shapiro, climate and clean energy director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, told Canary Media.

“By being the first project through the gates, it’s going to do a whole lot of technology de-risking [and] development of port facilities and supply chains,” Shapiro said, adding that building this first project will ​“provide a huge amount of future cost reductions” for the still-early floating turbine approach.

Those potential cost reductions could be felt as far away as the California coast. The Golden State’s goal of generating 25 gigawatts of electricity from offshore wind by 2045 depends heavily on deploying floating turbines in the deep waters of the Pacific coast, according to a recent plan by the California Energy Commission. BOEM in 2022 awarded leases to several floating offshore wind projects off the California coast, though none have yet been built.

At the federal level, the Biden administration has set a goal to install 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind by 2035.

National clean energy groups also took notice of Maine’s new research lease. In a statement to Canary Media, Ray Long, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy, emphasized how it demonstrates ​“progress being made to responsibly harness America’s abundant offshore wind resources.”

Long added that the further development of offshore wind will drive economic development and create tens of thousands of jobs. In Maine, the announcement is already being celebrated for the potential economic impact it will have.

“The Research Array will bring great-paying, family-sustaining union jobs with excellent benefits,” said Grant Provost, the business agent for an ironworkers union. The floating turbines and other infrastructure needed to complete the project will be built under a project labor agreement with the building and construction trades unions, Provost said.

The clean energy sector already employs about 15,000 people in Maine, according to the governor’s office. By 2030, the state hopes to have at least 30,000 clean energy jobs, with offshore wind projects like this one providing the bulk of new opportunities.