ELLSWORTH — Maine’s quest to become a leader in developing an alternative energy industry has plenty of support in Augusta and Orono, but along the shoreline people are more wary.

While some see the development of offshore wind energy as a powerful engine for economic growth in Maine, many in the state’s beleaguered lobster industry fear that wind farms will be just one more item on a growing list of obstacles to fishing in the Gulf of Maine.

Last month, the state’s Ocean Energy Task Force tentatively identified four sites along the Maine coast as potential locations for testing offshore wind generators. Three of the sites are located off relatively remote islands: Boon, near the New Hampshire border; Damariscove, near Pemaquid Point on the Midcoast; and Monhegan, at the mouth of Penobscot Bay. The fourth site is located off the Washington County coast, just a biscuit toss from Cutler.

One of the sites will be reserved for the University of Maine for testing the design and construction of wind turbine blades from high-tech composite materials. The other sites will be available for entrepreneurs who want to conduct research on offshore wind energy facilities. Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) granted $8 million to a public-private partnership led by the university to develop a deepwater offshore wind test center in Maine.

The four “ocean energy demonstration areas” chosen by the task force share several characteristics. Each of them is one to two square miles in size, is in state waters (inside the three-mile limit) and in relatively remote locations with water depths of approximately 200 feet. They share another feature as well. Virtually all of them are located where lobstermen set their gear. That could be a problem, according to State Geologist Robert Marvinney.

“This is not going to be easy,” Marvinney said last week. “We know the fishermen have a lot of concerns with these areas. Any new activities in those areas means they get moved aside somehow.”

That issue could be particularly acute Downeast, where the proposed test area is just about one mile offshore between Great Head and Western Head near the entrance to Cutler’s harbor.

According to Marvinney, the test site near Cutler “is not necessarily the place with the least amount of activity.”

Fishermen there are already concerned about gear loss from the heavy ship traffic bound for Cobscook Bay or for Canadian ports on the Bay of Fundy. Establishment of a test site would only mean more boat traffic with the potential for even more gear loss. And fishermen would be unable to set lobster gear or drag for shrimp, scallops or urchins in the test area. The other test sites, particularly those off Monhegan and Damariscove, also pose real problems for lobstermen and other fishermen who work in those areas.

Despite the challenges, Jake Ward, assistant vice president for research and economic development at the University of Maine, said it is critical to begin testing wind turbines in the near shore environment as a first step toward developing floating turbines that can operate in deep water far offshore, where the wind resources are greatest.

“There are technical challenges for deep water turbines that haven’t been addressed,” Ward said.

Currently, the university and its partners, among them Maine Maritime Academy, Cianbro Corp. and Bath Iron Works, have been working on computer simulations based on mathematical models to explore different aspects of turbine design and construction. The next step, Ward said, will be to test small working models, perhaps in the Maine Maritime Academy swimming pool, to see how accurate the computer models are. Turbines as tall as 100 feet or more could eventually be tested in the energy demonstration areas.

Ward said the test site operated by the university would allow researchers from several disciplines to explore the many questions surrounding offshore wind power. He envisions a combined exploration of the design and composite materials used to build turbines and the impact of turbines on seabirds, marine mammals and the environment.

“We really need to understand what are the interactions with life and the ecology in the environment,” Ward said.

By Dec. 15, the task force will report to Governor John Baldacci, announcing its final choices for the first wind energy demonstration areas.

For more maritime news, pick up a copy of The Ellsworth American.

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