ELLSWORTH, Maine — Enthusiasm for aggressively exploring the possibilities of offshore wind power development and wariness of what sort of undesirable consequences may arise were two themes that dominated the tenor of public comments made Wednesday night at a meeting about proposed offshore wind power test sites.
About 80 people attended the meeting, which is the first of five such public information meetings planned along Maine’s coast over the next three weeks. The purpose of the meetings, according to state and University of Maine officials involved in the siting effort, is to answer questions and get feedback about areas where UMaine and private firms might set up temporary equipment to test the feasibility of erecting deep-water wind turbines.
Seven sites along Maine’s coast have been proposed as possible test locations for offshore wind farms. They include areas off Cutler and Jonesport in Washington County, south of Isle au Haut, and near Matinicus, Monhegan, Damariscove and Boon islands, according to a map released recently by the Maine Department of Conservation. Damariscove is off Boothbay Harbor and Boon Island is off Cape Neddick in York County.
The sites all have water that is about 200 feet deep but lies within state waters, rather than in federal jurisdictions. Wind speeds tend to be higher further offshore, officials at the meeting said, and 200 feet is about as deep as fixed-base turbines can get. Any further offshore and the turbines would have to be mounted on floating platforms, which have not been proven to be a technically viable option, they said.
Maine DOC and the State Planning Office are working together to identify as many as five possible demonstration sites in the Gulf of Maine. One site would be picked as a wind energy research center operated by the University of Maine. State officials hope to come up with a list of recommended sites by mid-December.
The potential for tapping into Maine’s offshore wind resources and using them to generate electricity is huge, according to state officials. Habib Dagher, director of the UMaine Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center, said that, theoretically, 149 gigawatts of power could be generated by wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine. One gigawatt, he said, is roughly the peak power output of a typical nuclear power plant.
But Beth Nagusky, director of the Office of Innovation and Assistance at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, said the state is not interested in actually producing that much power from offshore wind turbines. The current estimate, she said, is that Maine could produce 300 megawatts, or about 10 percent of the statewide wind power goal of three gigawatts, with offshore wind farms. If each turbine can produce 5 megawatts, that would be about 60 turbines total.
“Maine has a tremendous wind resource,” Nagusky said.
But Maine is not at that stage of the development process, according to Robert Marvinney, state geologist with Maine DOC. At this point, Maine is merely trying to expedite the site selection process so UMaine and private firms can conduct feasibility research, he said.
“We’re just talking specifically about testing,” Marvinney said.
Several people at the meeting said they were encouraged that the state is seriously looking into alternate energy sources as a way to decrease Maine’s dependence on pollution-causing fossil fuels for its energy needs. But several also urged state officials to proceed cautiously to make sure there aren’t adverse effects on the environment or other types of coastal activity such as fishing.
An official with Friends of Acadia said the nonprofit advocacy group was concerned about the potential visual impact wind turbines off Isle au Haut might have on the part of Acadia National Park that is on the island. Marvinney had said earlier in the meeting that the state dismissed a potential site off Mount Desert Island because of visibility issues from the park, but FOA Conservation Director Stephanie Clement said the same concern should apply to Isle au Haut.
“We are very concerned about the Isle au Haut site,” Clement said. “That’s a resource value we hope to protect.”
Toby Stephenson, director of the Bar Harbor Whale Museum and a research associate at Allied Whale, said he is a proponent of wind energy and is “excited” about the offshore possibilities. But he said that none of the proposed sites has a high concentration of marine mammals, and more specifically endangered whales. How can researchers determine what sort of effect an offshore wind farm might have on whales if they don’t test in those areas, such as near Mount Desert Rock? he asked.
Peter Jumars, professor of oceanography at UMaine, expanded on Stephenson’s point. One or five test turbines won’t have the same effect in terms of generating noise as 20 turbines would, he said, and researchers will need to have a good sense of the scale of a fully developed offshore wind farm to determine what its true effects will be.
Others raised concerns about possible effects on the night sky, seabirds, lobsters and fishing grounds. One UMaine master’s degree student said that some seabirds are attracted to certain kinds of lights, and that the wrong kind of light on the turbines to alert pilots and boat captains could also attract birds into harm’s way of the moving turbine blades.
Deer Isle fisherman David Heanssler said that turbines could spook lobsters out of nearby fishing areas. He said that after a series of minor earthquakes shook Down East Maine in fall 2006, lobsters disappeared from around Deer Isle and did not reappear until the next spring.
“I’m concerned about something that might send vibrations down in the water and send the lobsters away,” Heanssler said.
One man at the meeting made it clear he strongly opposes the idea of offshore wind farms. Robert Bauer of Blue Hill said fishermen would be adversely affected by maritime security restrictions at the sites and accused state officials at the meeting of pushing a pro-development agenda without presenting the potential economic risks.
“This is another state program being rammed down our throats,” Bauer said toward the end of the meeting. “Like aquaculture, you guys are coming here and giving us a dog and pony show.”
Officials at the meeting said that they already have met with fishermen to discuss the testing sites and that they hope to avoid displacing any fishermen from where they usually set their gear.
Nagusky, who co-chairs the state Ocean Energy Task Force, said after the meeting that among the task force’s duties is examining not just the physical challenges but also the economic viability of developing offshore energy projects.
