A $5 billion undersea power line proposal aimed at spurring coastal wind farm development off the Mid-Atlantic states should complement Maine efforts, officials said Tuesday.
Internet giant Google would own more than a third of the undersea project, which would be under development for the next 10 years and run as far as 20 miles offshore from New Jersey to Virginia. Other investors include Swiss investment house Good Energies, Japanese conglomerate Marubeni and Maryland-based Trans-Elect.
“I think it’s a great sign that we have private investors willing to spend over $5 billion to build an offshore transmission line,” said Habib Dagher, a University of Maine professor who has been at the vanguard of Maine’s efforts to develop offshore wind. “In many ways, I see this as a very positive step for the industry and the United States.
“It’s going to move things forward,” he said.
The Mid-Atlantic transmission line would allow power from future offshore wind farms to be collected and sent to the mainland. Wind farms in that part of the coastal United States would use shallow-water turbines, with the windmills actually sunk into the seabed.
Maine has aggressively pursued development of deep-water wind, and UMaine plans to have the country’s first floating test turbine in the waters several miles off Monhegan Island in 2012. The water off the coast of Maine becomes deep much quicker than in the Mid-Atlantic region, necessitating the exploration of floating turbines.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has helped secure more than $25 million in federal funds to further the university’s research, development and eventual commercialization of offshore wind technology. On Tuesday, she noted estimates that development of 5 gigawatts of offshore wind in Maine could attract $20 billion of investment to the state and create more than 15,000 green energy jobs, sustained over 30 years. Five gigawatts would power more than 1 million homes for a year.
The kind of private investment proposed by Google and its partners is the logical next step following public investment in R&D, said Collins.
“Maine has the manufacturing infrastructure and work force to partner with the University of Maine to make this new industry of deep-water, offshore wind technology a reality,” Collins said. “To make this enterprise successful, however, we must have the kind of private sector investment proposed by Google and Good Energies to build on the collaboration of the state and federal governments, university researchers, and the consortium of business partners that we have in Maine.”
The Mid-Atlantic plan fits in with what the New England governors have envisioned for producing, transmitting and using offshore power, said John Kerry, director of the state Office of Energy Independence & Security. It’s generally acknowledged that there are more than 100,000 megawatts of wind power to be tapped off the New England coast, said Kerry. By comparison, a nuclear power plant generates roughly 1,000 megawatts.
Given the potential development of offshore wind in this region, both Kerry and Dagher predicted additional investment to tap into future farms.
“It’s only a matter of time before they add another $5 billion, moving up to New England and the provinces,” said Kerry. “I think it has a potential to really enhance the flow of electricity from the Northeast to more urban areas.”
Added Dagher: “I think Maine is ideally positioned with deep-water offshore to tie into such a line. We just need to extend the line [south].”
There have been proposals to transmit wind power from the Midwest, across the country to the East Coast, a heavy-consuming region. Building up the East Coast’s green generation and transmission capabilities would allow it to compete against such proposals, said Kerry, and against nuclear in the South and coal in the Midwest.
“If Maine companies and other companies invest in offshore wind development, that helps us create jobs in Maine, it helps with environmental issues — mitigating fossil fuels. It helps develop long-term energy,” said Kerry. “For Maine citizens, it will hopefully reduce rates for electricity and natural gas.”
And an increasing number of Maine companies are exploring the offshore wind business, from construction to manufacturing of turbines and blades, Dagher noted. If the transmission lines further spur wind farm development up and down the coast, he said, that could provide opportunities for those companies.
There’s a similar transmission proposal for coastal Maine currently in the study phase with ISO New England, the operator of the New England power grid. The Green Line project has been proposed by the New England Independent Transmission Co. LLC. It has a land-based component, which would tie in green Canadian power at Haynesville, south of Houlton, to the grid.
Another component would transfer electric energy from the Maine Yankee substation in Wiscasset to Boston, using a 140-mile submarine cable. The line would transmit renewable energy from Maine, with sources including wind, biomass and tidal.
The Green Line and the midcoast proposals don’t really compete, said Stephen Conant, senior vice president at New England Independent Transmission. The Google announcement highlights the attention that offshore wind is receiving, he said.
“In the big picture, I think it’s a positive story for anybody who’s involved in offshore wind,” Conant said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.