A National Deepwater Offshore Wind Research Centre, to be operated by the University of Maine, was proposed during a recent meeting with Energy Secretary Steven Chu at the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C.

Governor John Baldacci joined Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and Representatives Mike Michaud and Chellie Pingree for a meeting with Secretary Chu.

The Governor and Congressional Delegation asked Secretary Chu to allocate $20 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the first year of the project, and asked him to support additional Congressional funding over the next four years.

The Governor and Congressional Delegation stated that Maine has “the natural resources, the technology, the skills and the hard-working people to become a world leader in wind energy”.

The goal of the Centre would be to enable the design and testing of a large scale floating offshore wind platform that could serve as the basis of a large-scale offshore wind industry.

The Research Centre would include a facility at the University of Maine as well as a coastal and offshore test facility.

The group said Maine is particularly well-suited as a site for such a project as it already has Legislation signed by the Governor. Moreover, the ongoing wind power developments show Maine’s commitment to developing wind power.  Plus, the University of Maine’s Composites Lab has become a national leader in the technology needed to build offshore wind power.