DOWN EAST magazine • July 2023
There is an effort to bring “big wind” to the Gulf of Maine, with arrays proposed for 40 or more miles offshore, where the winds are highest and most sustained. In 2009, Maine set a goal of installing 5,000 megawatts of wind power in the Gulf of Maine by 2030. To date, not a single watt has been sited offshore. The governor has proposed a research array, with a dozen or so large floating turbines, anchored with long cables to the seabed. It’s the kind of large-scale undertaking on which meeting the state’s emissions goals depends — and which plenty of Mainers oppose. If Maine’s energy history shows us anything, it is this: transitions are usually wrenching.