Loss of federal funding, diminished investor interest and a President Trump anti-offshore wind Executive Order make Maine’s plans for developing a commercial-scale offshore wind manufacturing facility on Sears Island obsolete. To date, neither Governor Mills nor MDOT officially recognize this reality.

What is the current state of Maine’s Offshore Wind initiative? Is there hope for the Research Array? Are the Maine Dept. of Transportation and the Governor’s Energy Office re-evaluating the state’s offshore wind aspirations?

A year ago, Governor Mills loudly proclaimed Sears Island as the site for an offshore wind manufacturing facility that would cost more than $700 million. After years of discussions and millions of taxpayer dollars spent on offshore wind, including about $6 million spent specifically on the Sears Island development plans, we find the current radio silence unacceptable and unconscionable. 

Sure, uncertainty and turmoil reign in the federal offshore wind world. But with so much of Maine’s renewable energy focus placed on offshore wind, the public needs to know what action MDOT and other state agencies are taking to further our urgent need for clean, sustainable energy to replace fossil fuels.

Maine’s Research Array

Thoughtful observers of Maine’s offshore wind planning activity, including Chris Wissemann, chief executive officer of Diamond Offshore Wind, and Cianbro’s Peter Vigue, say Maine might still be able to pursue the 10-to-12 turbine Research Array. 

Maine’s Research Array could produce up to 144 megawatts of clean electricity; enough to power around 27,000 households. While clearly nowhere near the electricity production envisioned in the Maine Offshore Wind Roadmap, those 144 megawatts represent a small step toward keeping Maine’s renewable energy goals alive.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Maine finalized terms for a research lease in August last year, following a finding last spring of “no significant impact on the environment.” Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 104 / Wednesday, May 29, 2024 / Notices p.46419.

According to BOEM, “The research array will allow the State, the fishing community, wildlife experts, the offshore wind industry, and others to conduct in-depth studies and thoroughly evaluate floating offshore wind as a renewable energy source in the region. Research conducted on the array will evaluate its compatibility with existing ocean uses and assess its potential effects on the environment, supply chains, and job creation.”

The Governor’s Office of Energy explained, “The array is a key priority for the State that will help fulfill the objectives of the Maine Offshore Wind Roadmap by advancing critical research and innovation to develop offshore wind responsibly.”

During Offshore Wind Port Advisory Group meetings between May 2022 and June 2023, the DOT told participants that offshore wind planning changed from focus on the Research Array deployment first, commercial-scale later, to exclusive endorsement of full commercial-scale development.

Given that the Research Array, as described above, would inform, improve and provide crucial support for the future of Maine’s renewable energy goals, we wonder about the DOT’s environmentally irresponsible decision to focus entirely on developing a commercial-scale Sears Island offshore wind facility.

Evidence shows that at least as early as March 2021, the DOT sought to develop and thereby destroy Sears Island under the guise of climate change response. But first developing Sears Island for the Research Array, with commercial-scale to follow later, was never fiscally sound. So, the offshore wind planning leaped over the Research Array.

Despite that ignoble past, it may not be too late to re-orient State planning and action back to fulfillment of the Research Array’s intended purpose.

University of Maine to launch quarter-scale offshore wind turbine

Meanwhile, the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composite Center continues its own offshore wind research with the construction of a quarter-scale floating offshore wind foundation and turbine.

To be anchored near Castine in non-federal waters of Penobscot Bay, presumably in the same location as the 2013 prototype, media reported that this floating turbine’s blades will reach more than 100 feet above the water compared to 65 feet for the protype. This scale model reportedly will weigh 750,000 pounds. The smaller 2013 model weighed 9,000 pounds.

The UMASCC anticipates launching and installing the new quarter-scale turbine later this year.

The Trump Administration effects on Maine’s offshore wind

In a report just issued by the Congressional Research Service on February 19 this year, they note that existing offshore wind leases “may be affected” by President Trump’s January 2025 Wind Leasing Memorandum. 

The steps needed to develop the Research Array include submitting “construction and operations plans (COPs) and related planning materials to BOEM for approval” and applying for “permits that must be obtained from other agencies before project construction may commence, including permits from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” CRS report.

The GEO earlier  pointed out that, “Since the research lease was executed in Fall 2024, the State’s developer partner for the array, Pine Tree Offshore Wind, has been negotiating with the Public Utilities Commission on the power purchase agreement. Once the PPA is finalized, PTOW will continue working with the State and begin the surveying and permitting process.”

The PUC and PTOW have yet to finalize a power purchase agreement. The Maine Offshore Wind Research Consortium’s research ignores landside manufacturing, assembling and launching and permitting issues, raising questions about the Research Array’s near-term future. 

Moving forward out of the fog

These circumstances demand disclosure from the Governor’s administration. Developing an offshore wind manufacturing facility on Sears Island cannot and should not consume another nickel of taxpayer money or dominate important resource attention, as it has since 2020. That is dead in the water (so to speak).

How Maine furthers its urgent renewable energy climate change response must be addressed within the new federal reality. Can Maine establish at least an opening for offshore wind through the Research Array? Does the quarter-scale UMASCC installation in Penobscot Bay help maintain overall renewable energy momentum? These and related questions need immediate consideration in an open and transparent process.

We’re calling on the DOT, the GEO and all the organizations that backed the Governor’s Sears Island announcement last February to seize this opportunity for Maine to re-evaluate the offshore wind initiative and take creative steps now toward our renewable energy goals without any development on Sears Island. 

For the Alliance for Sears Island:

Jill Howell, Steve Miller, Peter Nichols