Gulf of Maine next on deck for floating wind as US seeks interest in gigascale play

Announcement marks first step towards lease auctions by 2024 in region of North Atlantic seen as holding potential for up to 65GW of plant

UMaine's part-scale VolturnUS floating wind turbine prototype off Maine.Foto: UMaine

Tim Ferry

President Joe Biden’s administration took the first steps towards developing one of the country’s most promising untapped wind resources off the coasts of three US states in New England with the issuance of a request for interest (RFI) in the vast expanses of the Gulf of Maine.

The Department of Interior (DoI) announced its RFI for the Gulf of Maine planning area encompassing 13.7 million acres (5.5 million hectares) of federal waters off the Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire coasts that could hold up to 65GW of offshore wind energy, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

“President Biden has set ambitious goals to address the climate crisis, and in response the Interior Department is taking historic steps to develop a robust and sustainable clean energy future,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a news release.

“Today’s announcement for the Gulf of Maine represents one of the many milestones that this administration has achieved to advance offshore wind development.”

The RFI will be published 19 August, and will be followed by a 45-day comment period, through which BOEM will obtain feedback from stakeholders.

Based on this feedback, BOEM will establish a “call area”, which will be further refined through stakeholder and industry engagement to create WEAs that would be carved into lease areas. BOEM expects to hold lease auctions in the Gulf of Maine as early as mid-2024.

With average windspeeds exceeding 9 metres/s, the area stretching to the Canadian border has long been in the frame for potential development. Deep waters up to 700-metres necessitate floating platforms, however, prompting the industry to first focus on the easier-to-access shallow waters of southern New England and the mid-Atlantic.

But with technology rapidly advancing and spurred by the administration’s lofty goals of 30GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 – and 110GW by 2050 – the federal government is advancing areas that were until recently out of reach.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the agency charged with managing energy development in federal waters, is rapidly advancing floating wind power in the deep waters of the Pacific. California is expected to see an auction for five leases in two wind energy areas (WEA) as early as November, while Oregon is advancing towards establishing its WEA next year.

The Department of Energy (DoE) in its 2022 Offshore Wind Market Report sees the levelised cost of energy (LCOE) for floating wind declining from the current some $200/MWh to between $58-120/MWh by 2030.

The Gulf of Maine is home to multiple ocean users, however, including a powerful lobster fishery, to which the state of Maine has already made concessions, including banning offshore wind development in state waters.

“As we work to spur offshore wind development and deploy floating offshore wind technology nationwide, BOEM recognises the rich cultural heritage and ecological importance of the Gulf of Maine region, which is why we are using the best available science and traditional knowledge from ocean users and other stakeholders in our planning and leasing process,” said BOEM director Amanda Lefton.

While BOEM is spearheading floating wind in the Gulf of Maine, state policies are also driving interest. Massachusetts recently raised its offshore wind mandate by 40% to 5.6GW and has already contracted 3.2GW, while Maine has likewise charted aggressive clean energy commitments, with a requirement that 80% of the state’s power come from renewable sources by 2030.

Along with the RFI for the commercial leasing, the DoI also issued a request for competitive interest (RFCI) in response to the Maine governor’s energy office application for acreage for an up-to-144MW array in the Gulf of Maine.

The submission for the 12-turbine project, which will use the VolturnUS concrete floating foundations developed at the University of Maine, marks a key step forward in the technology’s commercialisation, with the first full-size prototype of the concept currently being built by UMaine with Mitsubishi-owned Diamond Offshore and utility RWE as part of the Aqua Ventus project.

The application for the demonstration project clears the way for the Maine Public Utilities Commission to negotiate a power purchase agreement with the UMaine’s development partner, New England Aqua Ventus.

BOEM plans to complete the review of at least 16 construction and operations plans, representing some 22GW of capacity by 2025, along with five lease auctions around the country, including in the Gulf of Maine, the Gulf of Mexico, California, Oregon, and the Central Atlantic.

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