Fishermen, whale watch captains, environmentalists and others came together yesterday at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast, Maine for a conference on offshore wind energy that was designed to help them get the information necessary to join the dialogue about wind development off the Maine coast.
About 160 people came to the conference, according to organizer Heather Deese, marine programs director at the Island Institute. Maine Sea Grant, the Maine Coastal Program, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences and the Quebec-Labrador Foundation also helped to make the event happen.
The conference was timely, some attendees said, because offshore wind power development is just beginning to become a reality in Maine. Researchers are preparing to develop a test site with scaled-down turbines that will be located off the southern shore of Monhegan Island. Also, state and federal officials have suggested that large deep-water wind farms in the Gulf of Maine could generate a total of 5 gigawatts of electricity, bring $20 billion in investment and create several thousand new jobs here by 2030.
Note EU-Digest: Offshore electricity generating wind-power projects in Maine and at other US coastal areas provide considerable opportunities for European offshore wind-power equipment manufacturers to cooperate with local governments, given their advanced knowledge and extensive experience on the subject.
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For the complete article: Offshore wind forum welcomes skeptical audience - Bangor Daily News
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