The state of Maine has selected an island as the preferred site for a new hub for its floating offshore wind industry in the Gulf of Maine.
Governor Janet Mills announced that Sears Point in Penobscot Bay will be the site for the hub and deepwater port. Turbines will be assembled there and shipped to the site.
The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is expected to hold an auction for wind lease sites in the Gulf of Maine this year. The Gulf of Maine is deep, and any wind projects would require floating platforms, a nascent technology.
Sears Point, off Maine’s central coast, is environmentally protected and state owned. Some have objected to its designation as a wind assembly hub. One third has been set aside however for development.
Mills, a Democrat, said: "This was not an easy decision, nor is it one that I made lightly.
“Sears Island is the best choice for an offshore wind port because it is already owned by the state, designated for the purpose of port development, will cost less in the short term and long term, and is expected to result in less environmental harm."
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