The team behind the New England Aqua Ventus I offshore wind project hopes for a large turnout at a Thursday, Nov. 14 meeting in Bristol.
University of Maine officials plan to update the community and gather feedback about plans for the pilot wind power farm in the waters off Monhegan.
The university welcomes all members of the community to attend and participate in the meeting, from people with comments or questions to those who are just curious about the project.
The group would especially like to hear from local shrimp draggers. A preliminary plan to connect the wind turbines to the mainland with an underwater cable would bar dragging in the immediate vicinity of the cable.
The meeting will take place from 6 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 14 at the Bristol Consolidated School gym.
Maine Sea Grant Director Paul Anderson, Dr. Damian C. Brady, a professor and scientist at the Darling Marine Center; and University of Maine Vice President for Innovation and Economic Development James S. “Jake” Ward IV will attend the meeting.
“We’d love to have a roomful and try to answer as many questions as we can,” Anderson said.
The UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center plans to build a pair of six-megawatt Volturn US wind turbines and moor the turbines off Monhegan in 2017, according to a university brochure. The turbines will stand on floating concrete platforms.
The center has partnered with industry leaders to invest in the $93.6 million pilot wind farm, New England Aqua Ventus I.
The farm will be at the UMaine “deep-water offshore wind test site” in the Gulf of Maine, approximately 12 miles from the mainland and three miles south of Monhegan, on the border between state and federal waters.
The goal of the program is to eventually reduce the cost of offshore wind to compete with other forms of electricity generation without government subsidies, according to the brochure.
The center deployed a fully functioning prototype of the turbines, Volturn US 1:8, in the waters off Castine May 31. The center hopes to learn from the miniature turbine in order to optimize the design and technology of the full-size turbines.
The turbines of New England Aqua Ventus I, like the prototype, will supply electricity to the grid via an underwater cable.
The closest Central Maine Power Company substation is in Bristol, “so the cable is likely to come ashore somewhere on (the east) side of the peninsula,” Anderson said. A map of the potential transmission route places the entry point in New Harbor.
The potential transmission route would take the cable northwest, from the test site across Muscongus Bay to the mainland.
The cable requires a closure area for mobile fishing gear, Anderson said. The closure would not affect the lobster fishery, but would affect shrimp draggers.
The university realizes the shrimp fishery is important in the area, and wants to place the cable where “it will affect as few fishermen as possible or maybe none,” Anderson said.
The university would like to hear from the draggers and all fishermen at the upcoming meeting in order to further this goal, Anderson said.
A separate cable will connect the turbines to Monhegan. The island might be able to access electricity from the turbines or connect to the mainland grid via an underwater cable.
“Those details are still being worked out,” Anderson said.
Either option could provide a significant benefit for Monhegan. The island relies on diesel generators for electricity and its average price of electricity ranks among the most expensive in the country.
Other concerns about the project, especially on Monhegan, focus on what the turbines will look and sound like, as well as the impact on the island lobster fishery, Anderson said.
Island lobstermen want to know how close to the turbines they will be able to fish. The test site itself will be closed.
The lights on the turbines, necessary for navigational safety, will be visible from the island at night, Anderson said, and might be visible from the mainland on clear nights.
As for noise issues, “We don’t think they’re going to hear this three miles away, but we don’t know that,” Anderson said. The university has efforts underway to simulate what the turbines will look and sound like.
The university will hold similar meetings in Friendship on Tuesday, Nov. 12 at the town office, and Port Clyde on Monday, Nov. 25 at the Herring Gut Learning Center.
