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Friday, October 16, 2009
Maine pulls in $8M for floating offshore wind farm
By Mass High Tech staff
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The University of Maine has received $8 million in federal stimulus funding to move forward on its 10-year plan to create the country’s first floating deepwater offshore wind farm.
The grant, a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was awarded to the university’s DeepCwind Deepwater Offshore Wind Consortium. The funding will apply to two years’ operation of an offshore wind test site that includes two 10-kilowatt and one 100-kilowatt floating offshore wind turbines.
Maine Gov. John Baldacci said that the state currently produces 95 percent of New England’s on-shore wind power, and by 2030, it plans to produce 5 gigawatts of wind power. Baldacci calculated that if the 2030 plan is successful, Maine may add 15,600 jobs in the next 20 years.
Last month, Baldacci and clean energy business officials took a six-day business trip to Europe to showcase Maine’s wind and ocean energy capabilities to the leading renewable energy developers in Germany and Spain. Members of the Maine delegation said the trip is meant to showcase the state as an attractive place for foreign investment, as well as for local developers to make key contacts with their European suppliers and bankers.
Also last month, Newton-based First Wind won $40.4 million in federal stimulus funding to apply to the development of its planned second wind power turbine farm at Stetson Ridge in Maine.
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