Image: Maine Aquaventus
A floating offshore wind analysis challenge off the coast of Maine has cleared one other regulatory hurdle. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has now introduced a Determination of No Competitive Interest for the proposed analysis lease space. This determination follows BOEM’s Request for Competitive Interest (RFCI) within the Gulf of Maine, which was issued final August.
BOEM’s willpower means it’s going to transfer ahead with the State of Maine’s analysis software, which could possibly be used to tell any future industrial offshore wind growth within the Gulf of Maine, in addition to the deployment of floating offshore wind expertise nationwide.
Back in July 2021, Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed into regulation laws prohibiting new offshore wind tasks in state waters —the place as much as 75% of Maine’s industrial lobster harvesting happens — saying Maine’s precedence was to find offshore wind tasks in federal waters within the Gulf of Maine. Those waters are at a depth that might require using floaters and Gov. Mills had beforehand signed separate laws to advance the state’s creation of America’s first analysis space for floating offshore wind in federal waters within the Gulf of Maine.
To implement the floating wind research project, the University of Maine is collaborating with New England Aqua Ventus, LLC (NEAV), a three way partnership between Diamond Offshore Wind, a subsidiary of the Mitsubishi Corporation, and RWE Renewables.
As the developer, NEAV will personal and handle all points of allowing, development and meeting, deployment and ongoing operations for the challenge. The college’ds Advanced Structures and Composites Center will proceed with design and engineering, analysis and growth and post-construction monitoring.
BOEM says the following steps for processing the analysis software embody publishing a Determination of No Competitive Interest within the Federal Register and initiating an environmental overview of potential impacts from offshore wind leasing actions related to the analysis lease.
