Offshore Wind Energy

Floating offshore wind is a strategic opportunity for Maine to meet its renewable energy targets and create a resilient Maine-made clean energy industry. In 2009, Maine’s Legislature embraced this opportunity by passing the Maine Wind Energy Act, which set the goal of offshore wind generating 5,000 megawatts by 20301. With one of the nation’s most robust offshore wind resources, and nearly a decade and a half of floating offshore wind innovation, Maine is poised to be a global leader in this burgeoning industry.

  • Goal 1: Research Objective
    Prioritize offshore wind research in three areas: 1) the technical aspects of engineering, manufacturing, installing, and operating floating wind turbines and farms in the Gulf of Maine, 2) their environmental and ecological impacts, and 3) the human dimensions and socioeconomic impact of offshore wind development.
  • Goal 2: Enterprise Objective
    Catalyze the development of a floating offshore wind farm in the Gulf of Maine, and support the development of a local supply chain that creates export opportunities for services, processes, and technology developed and patented in Maine.
  • Goal 3: Workforce Objective
    Sustain world-class floating offshore wind research facilities and educational programs to train the next generation of offshore wind professionals and technicians.
  • Goal 4: Climate Change Objective
    Expand Maine’s clean energy portfolio by sourcing energy from Maine’s abundant floating offshore wind resource and catalyze the creation of a commercial floating offshore wind industry in the Gulf of Maine.

Opportunity

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates the U.S. offshore wind resource potential is more than 2,000 GW of capacity, almost double the nation’s electricity use2. Much of this capacity, nearly 60%, is over water depths greater than 60 meters, a depth too deep for fixed bottom technologies.

The Gulf of Maine (GOM) has 156 GW of offshore wind capacity within 50 miles offshore and is one of the best offshore wind resources in the world. Winds in the GOM are at their strongest and most consistent in the winter, when Maine’s energy use is at its peak. Harnessing just 3% of the GOM’s offshore wind resource will allow Maine to electrify heating and transportation, attract $20 billion of renewable energy investment, create over 10,000 jobs, and allow the state to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.

Maine’s Resources

Over the past 14 years, the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC) has been a leader in developing an economical way to harness clean, renewable offshore wind energy from our deep ocean waters. Since its founding, with support of the National Science Foundation, ASCC has created 14 spinoff companies, received 120 patents, financially sponsored more than 2,600 students, and been honored with more than 40 national and international awards for research excellence. ASCC has collaborated with dozens of private and public entities in Maine and beyond. The center is dedicated to driving research innovation in green energy and materials to create a greener, more sustainable world while bolstering economic development in Maine and beyond. Unique research facilities have been built at UMaine, including the Alfond W2 Wind-Wave basin, the only such facility in the U.S. that can apply accurate wind and wave environments on offshore wind turbines (see figure). This is a 1:50-scale offshore model testing facility that accurately simulates towing tests, variable water depths, and scaled wind and wave conditions that represent some of the worst storms possible anywhere on Earth .

The university has also developed and operated two unique FOWT test sites — one off Castine for intermediate scale prototype testing, and the other off Monhegan Island for full-scale FOWT testing.

The University of Maine’s School of Marine Science has substantial research infrastructure that has been applied to understanding offshore wind development-environmental interactions. Specifically, the University of Maine partners with the Northeast Regional Association of Ocean Observing Systems to deploy and maintain buoys in the Gulf of Maine to observe wind, waves, current speed and direction, and other oceanographic conditions known to influence the composition and abundance of marine organisms. Facilities at the Ira C. Darling Marine Center include a new flowing seawater lab and research vessels for deployment of oceanographic and ecological monitoring equipment. Expertise in fisheries science, benthic ecology, marine mammals, and oceanography have regularly contributed to offshore wind projects in Castine, Monhegan Island, and the new proposed Research Array. The New Jersey Audubon Society conducted radar studies to track birds and bats for one year to assess movement patterns of aerial vertebrates near the test site location near Monhegan Island, and the Lubird Kennedy Environmental Services conducted 41 surveys to determine the bird species presences and relative abundance at the UMaine Deepwater Offshore Wind Test Site.

The Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) was founded by David Evers, who has made great strides in bringing critical ecological issues to the forefront of our nation’s and the world’s consciousness. Their mission is to assess emerging threats to wildlife and ecosystems through collaborative research, and to use scientific findings to advance environmental awareness and inform decision makers.

Maine Sea Grant supports marine science for Maine people through sharing information and solving problems as one of 34 NOAA programs throughout the coastal and Great Lakes states. Working in partnership with University of Maine Cooperative Extension, members of this team work on issues of concern to Maine’s coastal communities. This 25-person committee helps identify stakeholder needs and ensures that our work is relevant to the people of Maine.

Maine Maritime Academy is building capacity for conducting research on training/O&M operations.

The Nature Conservancy tackles the dual threats of accelerated climate change and unprecedented biodiversity loss, using science to determine where to focus and how to achieve long-lasting results. In order to maximize the ability to impact change, this team brings together real-world solutions, policy expertise, and collaborative partnerships.

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute is dedicated to the resilience of the Gulf of Maine ecosystem and the surrounding communities who depend on it. GMRI develops and supports solutions that will benefit the bioregion for years, and takes an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to understanding how natural, social, and economic systems interact.

Maine is heavily engaged in offshore wind through the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO), which is leading a road mapping effort for offshore wind, bringing the Departments of Transportation, Economic and Community Development, Marine Resources, and Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Past Research Activities

In 2008, Governor John Baldacci established the Maine Ocean Energy Task Force to recommend a strategy to develop the renewable ocean energy resources in the Gulf of Maine. The Ocean Energy Task Force Final Report, published in December 2009, set Maine’s renewable ocean energy goals, including the installation of 5 GW (5,000 megawatts) of offshore wind energy by 2030. Beginning in 2010, UMaine, in collaboration with regional partners, conducted comprehensive environmental studies with five plus years of baseline ecological data, including a radar study, boat survey, acoustic bat survey, passive acoustic avian monitoring, and avian and bat monitoring at the 1:8 scale turbine in Castine. In 2013, UMaine and its partners successfully deployed the Volturnus 1:8, a 1/8th scale, 65-foot-tall prototype that was the first grid-connected floating

wind turbine in the Americas. Data collected during this deployment is being used to inform design and construction of an 11MW full-scale floating

offshore wind turbine utilizing the Volturnus platform technology .

Current Research Activities

A timeline of past and future planned floating offshore wind deployments off the Maine coast takes a deliberate approach (“crawl before you walk and walk before your run”) to address engineering, environmental, and social issues of offshore

wind deployment in the Gulf of Maine. Following the successful 2013 deployment of Volturnus. 1:8, the University of Maine is working with the U.S. Department of Energy and commercial partners RWE and Diamond Offshore Wind (a Mitsubishi corporation), to design an 11 MW demonstration floater, expected to be installed in 2024 off Monhegan Island. The State of Maine submitted a BOEM proposal to develop up to ten to twelve turbines floating research array, 150MW project called the Maine Research Array (MeRA) in 2026- 2027.

Maine Offshore Wind Roadmap

The State of Maine Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) has been leading the development of the Maine Offshore Wind Initiative. As stated on the GEO’s website this road map will create an economic development plan for the offshore wind industry in Maine by building on the state’s record of planning, research and development, and innovation that stretches back over a decade:

This work is supported by a $2.166 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) to the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) to develop the road map as an initiative for growing Maine’s overall economy and improving Maine’s economic resilience through targeted development of this global industry. The Offshore Wind Roadmap will be developed by an expert advisory committee and several working groups with broad public input, focusing on energy markets, ports and infrastructure, socioeconomic impacts, equity, manufacturing and supply chains, workforce development, and ocean and environmental compatibility. This effort will identify how to support the growing offshore wind sector in a way that embraces the opportunity, while ensuring compatibility with our Maine coastal heritage and minimizing the impacts on fisheries and the environment. Maine’s 10-year economic strategy identifies offshore wind as a critical opportunity to grow the state’s economy, and encourages the state to set forth a balanced agenda that maximizes economic benefits for Maine people while creating a culture of innovation that creates a foundation for future leadership in this growing industry .

New England Aqua Ventus I, 11 MW Floating Offshore Wind Demonstration Project

Funded through DOE and private industry, ASCC is poised to deploy the first U.S. commercial-scale 11 MW FOWT in 2024. This demonstration project is unique in that it will mount an 11 MW wind turbine to a floating semisubmersible concrete hull designed by the ASCC. The innovative concrete hull technology allows for the hull to be fabricated locally. Hull fabrication, construction, and deployment provide a major economic opportunity for Maine. A typical offshore wind project may have approximately 25% of its capex in the hull, therefore a gigawatt-scale project would require nearly $1 billion in hull procurement. The patented Volturnus hull technology has been demonstrated in independent reports to reduce the cost of offshore wind to <6 cents kWh at commercial scale. The turbine is held in position by mooring lines securely anchored to the seabed, and connected by subsea cable to the Maine power grid. The project goals are to demonstrate the innovative design of the Volturnus with a full-size offshore wind turbine, develop the state supply chain by working with local contractors and manufacturers to generate local economic benefit, create and keep Maine jobs in Maine, and provide renewable energy now and in the future.

Maine Research Array (MeRA) Maine Floating Offshore Wind Research Site

In October 2021, the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) submitted an application to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to lease a 15.2-square- mile area nearly thirty miles offshore in the Gulf of Maine for the nation’s first floating offshore wind research site in federal waters. The state hopes to deploy a small-scale research array of twelve or fewer wind turbines on innovative floating hulls designed at the University of Maine. This project will advance UMaine’s patented technology and will foster leading research into how floating offshore wind interacts with Maine’s marine environment, fishing industry, shipping and navigation routes, and more.

Research Priorities

Research is needed in three areas: 1) the technical aspects of engineering, manufacturing, installing, and operating floating wind turbines, 2) their environmental and ecological impacts, and 3) the human dimensions of offshore wind development. Research should also explore ways that offshore wind can coexist with, and enhance, other marine industries.

  • Technology/Engineering
    • FOWT modeling and design for next- generation large turbines (>15-30MW turbines)
    • Next-generation floating offshore wind hull technologies suitable for large turbines (15- 30 MW)
    • Active and passive controls for large floating wind turbine systems
    • Innovations in design, manufacturing and towers and blades, including the use of advanced materials and manufacturing processes, such as thermoset and thermoplastics composites
    • Anchors and mooring systems innovations for water depths and geophysical conditions unique to the GOM
  • Manufacturing scale-up methods for locally produced concrete hulls
    • Green materials for local fabrication of hull components, including green concrete technologies, and ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC)
    • Tow-out and installation methods
    • Grid integration, including inter-array, dynamic and export cables, and floating substations
    • Operations and maintenance (O&M), including use of digital twins, Artificial Intelligence (AI), sensors, data processing, and remote and drone monitoring to reduce costs and injuries
    • Port facilities development specifically to FOWT
    • Development of locally-produced vessels to support O&M operations, including composite materials CTVs, and 3D-printed tooling and vessels
  • Environmental and Ecological Sciences
    • Marine ecosystems, including fish and wildlife, response to floating offshore wind turbines
  • Social Sciences
    • Human dimensions of floating offshore wind development
    • Transdisciplinary sustainability science research and workforce-relevant skills and training programs in the state
    • Applications of human dimensions and social-environmental systems knowledge to decision making and business development, and acceleration through collaborative research in partnership with the fishing and shipping industries, other seafood-related sectors, and port and municipal authorities
  • Convergence of engineering, environment, and social sciences:
    • Co-location of aquaculture and floating offshore wind
    • Opportunities for the fishing industry to participate in floating offshore wind
    • Designs of FOWT systems to enhance ocean ecological habitat

Potential Economic Impact

In June 2019, Governor Janet Mills signed into law LD994, announcing the establishment of the Maine Offshore Wind Initiative to capture a portion of an offshore wind market estimated to be valued at $1 trillion by 2040. Maine’s 10-year Economic Development Strategy identifies offshore wind as a key component to its goal of adding 75,000 jobs to the state’s economy by 2030. According to the Workforce Development Institute, these are well-paying jobs requiring technical skills and spanning 74 occupations, including direct jobs in engineering, manufacturing and construction and indirect impacts in downstream and supply chain professions. The University of Maine conducted an analysis of the statewide economic impact of a commercial-scale (500MW) floating offshore wind farm in the Gulf of Maine. Such a farm would consist of nearly a $2 billion investment, would generate 3,077 full- and part-time jobs (in hull fabrication alone) during construction, and 1,602 operation and maintenance jobs.

  1. Maine Revised Statutes, Title 35-A, §3404.
  2. U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, “Computing America’s Offshore Wind Energy Potential,” September 9, 2016.