ASSOCIATED PRESS • March 29, 2021
The Biden administration is moving to sharply increase offshore wind energy along the East Coast, saying Monday it is taking initial steps toward approving a huge wind farm off the New Jersey coast as part of an effort to generate electricity for more than 10 million homes nationwide by 2030. Monday’s announcement focused on conventional offshore wind turbines, which have been deployed for decades in Europe on towers set into the seabed along shallow coastal waters. But to reach the Biden administration’s goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030, developers will need to add a mix of floating technology in deeper water, according to New England Aqua Ventus, the partnership working with UMaine on a floating platform. “This is a tremendous opportunity for Maine to be a first mover in North America to successfully develop and deploy grid-scale floating turbine technology.”