The Bureau of Ocean Vitality Administration (BOEM) has executed the primary U.S. floating offshore wind power analysis lease, overlaying almost 15,000 acres off the coast of Maine.
The groundbreaking lease is located 28 nautical miles off the coast of Maine on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf and is poised to host as much as 12 floating offshore wind generators, with a possible to generate 144 megawatts of renewable power.
The analysis initiative, a collaboration between the State of Maine, the fishing neighborhood, wildlife consultants, and the offshore wind trade, goals to review the potential of floating offshore wind power, its environmental impacts, and its compatibility with present ocean makes use of.
“Floating wind opens up alternatives to supply renewable power in deeper water farther offshore,” stated BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein.
Maine Governor Janet Mills touted offshore winds as providing a historic alternative for Maine to create good-paying jobs, scale back reliance on fossil fuels, and combat local weather change by chopping greenhouse fuel emissions.
The Division of the Inside, beneath the Biden-Harris administration, has authorized 9 offshore wind tasks with over 13 gigawatts of capability, sufficient to energy almost 5 million properties. It has performed 5 offshore wind lease auctions, together with record-breaking gross sales offshore New York and in new areas such because the Pacific Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, and plans as much as 12 extra lease gross sales by 2028.
The State of Maine’s renewable power analysis lease software, submitted in 2021, led to BOEM’s Dedication of No Aggressive Curiosity in March 2023, and after an environmental evaluation, the lease was supplied to Maine on Might 24, 2024.
As a analysis lease, Maine or its appointed operator will discover each environmental and engineering elements of the undertaking, with findings made publicly obtainable to tell future commercial-scale floating offshore wind tasks. Whereas building exercise on the analysis array isn’t anticipated for a number of years, the lessee should first submit a Analysis Actions Plan to BOEM, which will probably be topic to environmental evaluation beneath the Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act.
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