Governor Janet Mills has proposed a new offshore wind turbine port off from Sears Island to help jumpstart clean energy in Maine. But the Sears Island community is upset.

Based on research and data from offshore and port stakeholders as well as input from the University of Maine, Mills concluded that Sears Island is the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly location for the new wind port. 

However, this has caused a lot of backlash from the local community. The community doesn’t want the eye soar of a new plant. A protest was held by dozens of upset locals only a day after the proposal was announced. The protest was held on the Arcadia Highway Bridge in Belfast Maine. The protestors were greeted by many honks of support from passing by cars. 

State officials say that Sears Island is the best spot for the wind turbine port because it has a large open space for building as well as naturally deep water near the port. This will allow builders not to have to dredge in the port. In building here this will allow for less environmental impact to the surrounding area.

Jamie McGhee an electrical engineering technologies teacher here at SMCC had this to say when asked about this issue, “The development of offshore wind farms on the east coast of the US has been plagued with many issues, including massive project cost overruns, lack of trained workforce and lack of proper ships to do the work. Europe has decades of experience doing this, so they can put together a project on time at cost. I think Maine should focus on solar photovoltaics, in my opinion, it is a much better source of renewable energy than offshore wind.”   

He then went on to list some advantages of solar power in the US.

“Some of the advantages for solar in the US are:

• Plenty of land for installations
• Trained workforce
• Solar typically has no moving parts and requires no maintenance
• Decommissioning of solar is very easy and relatively inexpensive”

Finally, Jamie finished with, “People should understand that Maine has very little potential for offshore wind in the near future due to the deep water, europe is installing all of their offshore wind farms in shallow water, deep water installations are a new emerging potential.”

This proposal may look good in the grand scheme of things but it has possible blowbacks from the local community. Integrating the new industrial change into the local community might prove to be difficult. Maine as a community might be better off in solar power rather than wind for its renewable energy future.