Offshore Wind Wire

Maine Governor John Baldacci announced today that the state has chosen three demonstration sites for testing deep water offshore wind technology.

“Maine has great potential to be the leader in offshore wind development,” Baldacci said.  “The selection of the demonstration sites is an important step toward that goal.”

Over the course of several months, the Maine State Planning Office and Maine Department of Conservation had met with fishermen and other stakeholders and reviewed technical data to identify possible testing sites.  The public comment period on the potential sites closed at the end of November.  The three testing sites are near Monhegan Island, Boon Island and Damariscove Island.  Of these, only Monhegan Island is populated.

A consortium led by the University of Maine will use the site off Monhegan Island.  The group recently received an $8 million grant from the Department of Energy to develop deep water turbine technology.  The university plans to have a demonstration project operational in 2011.

The other two sites are available to private developers, according to Baldacci’s office.