Sep 7 2010
The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC), located at Augusta ME, has called for proposals for the construction of 30MW deepwater offshore wind and tidal renewable energy demo projects.
The Utility has set the deadline for receiving the proposals as first of May 2011. This proposal calling falls in line with the statement issued by John Baldacci, Governor of the state, who wanted ME to be the first state to develop offshore renewable energy resources in the US.
PUC specifies that the deepwater offshore wind energy pilot project should deploy one or more floating type of wind turbines in the gulf of Maine at a minimum distance of 10 nautical miles from the shore and at a depth of minimum 300 feet with connectivity to the electrical transmission grid of Maine.
Similarly, it wanted the tidal energy demonstration project to use tidal energy as the main source of electric power with an installed power production capability of 5 MW or less and the primary purpose of the project is to test its viability of usage and technology. Further the PUC wanted the tidal energy units to have its own mooring and anchoring systems and a power connectivity line. The demo project will also be used for assessing the effects of the technology on the environment.
According to the officials of PUC, the utility will sign long term contracts up to a period of 20 years to cover the 30 MW installed production capacity of the offshore wind turbines and not more than 5 MW power production of tidal energy demo project. The produced power can be sold to one or more numbers of authorized transmission and distribution utility companies. PUC expects the successful bidders to finance the project.