For centuries Maine has made its living from the sea, and industries from shipbuilding to commercial fishing have provided jobs to successive generations of the state’s people.

It’s now time to find out if the next generation of maritime jobs will come from a plan to generate electrical power from the winds that blow over the rough waters in the Gulf of Maine. It’s an idea that could attract billions of dollars in investment and change the way that we buy and use power.

It’s also a gamble, because instead of using proven but expensive technology developed for shallow-water wind farms in Europe, researchers at the University of Maine are proposing floating platforms in deep water. The means to make it work are still being developed, but if it works, Maine stands to gain both from power at a stable price and a leadership role in manufacturing and servicing a new technology that will be in demand elsewhere.

The question is whether private industry will jump in and invest in the testing and implementation of the deep-water wind-farm concept developed by the university, using both state and federal funds.

A sales pitch last week included access to a $1 million U.S. Department of Energy-funded study that compiles all the environmental data that would be needed to put together a proposal, from water depths and wind speed to the migratory patterns of birds and whales.

Proposals will be graded by the Maine Public Utilities Commission and a contract awarded, first for a small-scale demonstration project, and then for full-size commercial project by 2020, which would generate as much power as the former Maine Yankee nuclear power plant.

At that size, backers say, it would produce electricity at a price competitive with electricity generated from conventional sources, including power derived from natural gas, without a government subsidy other than what has already been spent on research.

That assumes that natural gas prices will fluctuate but trend upward, doubling in a decade.

That is consistent with history, but such long-range projections have been wrong in the past. Still, if they are right this time, Maine will have a home-grown power source sufficient to not only light homes but heat them as well, and an industry that will provide jobs into the future.

The level of interest from developers should reveal if the private sector wants to get behind this vision of Maine’s maritime future.

 

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