PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 20, 2020
Maine will create the nation’s first floating offshore research wind farm, Gov. Janet Mills announced Friday. The project would include as many as a dozen turbines floating 20 to 40 miles offshore in the Gulf of Maine. The turbines would send power to the mainland electric grid in the southern half of the state. But their primary purpose would be research, with a goal of working with the fishing industry to develop the technology in a sustainable way. Only a few floating wind power floating now operate in the world, in places such as Scotland and Portugal. Maine officials want to conduct research on marine impacts as the technology is developing in the United States.