Maine awarded the US’s first floating offshore wind analysis lease

The Bureau of Ocean Power Administration (BOEM) has awarded the US’s first floating offshore wind vitality analysis lease to the State of Maine.

The lease space covers beneath 15,000 acres and is 28 nautical miles offshore Maine on the US Outer Continental Shelf. It might permit for the deployment of as much as 12 floating offshore wind generators able to producing as much as 144 megawatts of unpolluted vitality.  

The analysis array will permit the state, the fishing group, wildlife consultants, the offshore wind business, and others to conduct in-depth research and completely consider floating offshore wind as a renewable vitality supply within the area.

The analysis carried out will consider floating offshore wind’s compatibility with present ocean makes use of and assess its potential results on the surroundings, provide chains, and job creation.

Dan Burgess, director of the Maine Governor’s Power Workplace, mentioned:

Harnessing the ample clear energy generated by offshore wind within the Gulf of Maine will develop Maine’s economic system, cut back carbon emissions, and assist the state attain 100% clear vitality by 2040.

Already a pioneer in floating offshore wind, this lease will additional the state’s ongoing analysis by offering vital firsthand expertise with the primary multi-turbine [floating wind] array in the US.

The analysis array will use floating offshore wind platform expertise designed by the College of Maine and deployed by its improvement accomplice, Diamond Offshore Wind. UMaine’s floating platform, generally known as VolturnUS, was lately awarded a $12.5 million grant from the US Division of Power.

BOEM obtained an software from the State of Maine for a renewable vitality analysis lease in October 2021. The identical 12 months, Governor Janet Mills (D-ME) signed bipartisan laws that discovered the analysis array within the public curiosity and directed the Maine Public Utilities Fee to barter an influence buy settlement for the analysis array. On March 20, 2023, BOEM issued a Dedication of No Aggressive Curiosity for the realm recognized in Maine’s software.

Earlier than development can start – and it’s not prone to happen for a number of years – Maine first has to submit a Analysis Actions Plan to BOEM, which can endure environmental evaluation beneath the Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act. Further particulars on the timing of development will grow to be clearer because the allowing course of progresses.

Renewable vitality investor Octopus Power Era, with a virtually $9 billion portfolio of initiatives worldwide, invests in floating offshore wind builders. Its CEO, Zoisa North-Bond, mentioned in response to the information of the US’s first floating offshore wind vitality analysis lease:

Floating offshore wind is essential to unlocking clear vitality in waters which might be too deep for conventional generators fastened to the seabed.

There’s an enormous untapped alternative for this as round 80% of worldwide offshore wind assets are situated in deep waters.

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