The planned launch later this year of a second-generation floating wind turbine platform off the Maine coast will mark the latest step in the state’s winding path to developing an offshore wind energy industry.
Maine’s formal interest in developing ocean wind energy dates back to 2008, when former Gov. John Baldacci created an Ocean Energy Task Force to devise a strategy.
The work began in the midst of a deep recession marked by soaring petroleum prices, in a state with the greatest dependence on heating oil. Baldacci and other advocates saw ocean energy as a tool to free Maine from its imported petroleum addiction.
Underscoring the potential, U.S. Sen. and former Maine Gov. Angus King called the Gulf of Maine “the Saudi Arabia of Wind.” Two years later, the Legislature unanimously passed the Ocean Energy Act, which among other things set a target of developing 5,000 megawatt of offshore wind capacity by 2030. Today, it seems that no generation will be in place by that date.
But the outlook was brighter 15 years ago.
An outgrowth of the Ocean Energy Act was finding a site in state waters to test a full-scale version of floating technology pioneered at the University of Maine. After a selection process, the state chose a site three miles off Monhegan Island, buoyed by $47 million in federal grants.
The initial plan was to erect two, 6-megawatt turbines on a pair of floating platforms, then a single, 12-megawatt project, as turbine technology evolved and grew in capacity. To test the concept in the water, the UMaine team launched VolturnUS, a one-eighth scale prototype of a patented concrete floating platform off Castine for 18 months, starting in 2013.
Today, the Monhegan test site has been effectively abandoned. It was superseded by interest in a multi-platform “research array” in federal waters that will use the UMaine tech sometime after 2030.
Also on the table, in 2012, was a $120 million plan from Statoil to float four, 3-megawatt wind turbines in state waters off Boothbay Harbor.
But the political climate changed after 2010, when Republican Paul LePage was elected governor.
In 2013, the Maine PUC approved a 20-year contract for power from the project. LePage opposed it, because it would increase rates for electricity customers. He pushed through legislation to reopen the competitive bidding process at the PUC to allow the University of Maine to submit a proposal.
Soon after, an Associated Press review of documents found the administration had also initially floated “a much more aggressive effort to explicitly void” Statoil’s agreement even before its move to reopen bidding became public.
Frustrated by the maneuvering, Statoil pulled the plug on its project. At the time, Democratic Senate President Justin Alfond said he worried that Maine could wind up with no projects at all.
“There’s definitely a dark cloud over the state of Maine with Statoil leaving today,” Alfond said, “and I don’t know if we [will] ever recover fully from this in our offshore wind industry.”
But a recovery did begin in 2018, with the election of Gov. Janet Mills. She has made renewable energy a hallmark of her administration, including the Maine Won’t Wait climate action plan that promotes offshore wind. Mills will leave office after two terms in 2026, and it remains to be seen to what degree the next governor — and Legislature — will embrace ocean energy.
Changes in leadership have consequences, as was underlined by Statoil’s reaction to LePage’s actions.
Spurned by LePage, Statoil pivoted to Scotland, launching what was then the world’s first commercial-scale floating wind farm in 2017, Hywind Scotland. In 2022, the company now named Equinor refined its pilot technology to develop Hywind Tampen off Norway, an 88-megawatt farm set atop cylindrical concrete spar buoys.
Meanwhile, Principle Power, an American company that also once considered Maine but abandoned the effort in 2010 after complaining it was edged out by UMaine, christened a 48-megawatt floater off Scotland in 2021, the Kincardine Offshore Windfarm. It uses a three-column, semi-submersible platform made of steel developed for a single test turbine off Portugal in 2011.
Principle Power and its partners later launched a three-platform, 25-megawatt farm off Portugal called WindFloat Atlantic, which was connected to the grid in 2019.
Now they have begun fabricating floating structures for a three-platform, 30-megawatt demonstration project off southern France called Eoliennes Flottantes. It’s located in a marine reserve in the Gulf of Lion and will feature an artificial reef to encourage fish habitat, according to the developers.
This progression is an example of how a competitor has moved ahead of Maine in the test-refine-build sequence envisioned for the research array. The goals sound similar.
The French project, Principle Power says, will demonstrate its third generation WindFloat technology.
“These small commercial projects,” it says, “allow us to test our products with different wind turbines, site conditions, supply chains, fabrications methods, contracting strategies, among others, and are stepping stones that enable us to move confidently to design commercial scale projects.”
