Down East 2013 ©
No state is better suited than Maine to research, perfect, and refine energy from offshore wind turbines. That’s the message Maine’s Congressional delegation and Governor John Baldacci delivered to Energy Secretary Steven Chu this morning at the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. Senator Susan Collins, Sen. Olympia Snowe, Representative Michael Michaud, Rep. Pingree, and Dr. Habib Dagher, UMaine Professor and Director of the Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center, met with Secretary Chu to detail the $20 million plan. In a joint statement the delegation said, “Today we presented Secretary Chu with an ambitious proposal for a National Deepwater Offshore Wind Research Center to be operated by the University of Maine. Maine has the natural resources, the technology, the skills and the hard-working people to become a world leader in wind energy. Locating a National Deepwater Research Center in Maine will give our state a big advantage in the race to develop deepwater, offshore wind energy.” The Maine delegation asked Chu to allocate $20 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the first year of the project, and continued funding for four years. If approved, the funding would support the construction of a floating test facility and a research center at the university.