TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE • February 8, 2022
The United States currently produces almost no electricity from wind farms in ocean waters. That’s about to change – fast. State leaders have spent years laying the groundwork: requiring their utilities to purchase set amounts of offshore power by certain dates, investing in ports and transmission infrastructure and setting up workforce training programs. As a quickly growing list of projects enters the permitting and construction phases, many states are betting on offshore wind to be a crucial source of renewable power – and an economic driver that will create thousands of manufacturing and maritime jobs. Eight East Coast states have individually set goals or mandates that total 39 gigawatts of capacity by 2040. Leaders in Maine are pursuing a small-scale floating offshore wind project to research new technology. Because waters in the Gulf of Maine get deep quickly, fixed-bottom projects are not feasible, and the region is likely to be a proving ground for floating turbines. The University of Maine has been a leader in developing that technology.