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June 8, 2009

Maine seeks offshore wind center

By The Mainebiz New Staff

The state's congressional delegation has asked U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu for $20 million to fund an offshore wind power research center off the Maine coast.

The delegation, along with Gov. John Baldacci and Habib Dagher, director of the University of Maine's Advanced Engineered Wood Composite Center, met with Chu on Friday in Washington, D.C., the Portland Press Herald reported. The group asked for $20 million in economic stimulus money to fund an offshore wind research center that would include a facility at UMaine and coastal and offshore test centers. Dagher estimates that winds blowing within 50 miles of the coast could generate as much energy as 40 nuclear power plants, the paper reported.

Baldacci and the delegation also asked Chu to support an additional four years of congressional funding for the project. The meeting came one day after the governor signed legislation to ease permitting of experimental ocean energy projects, the Bangor Daily News reported. His $306 million bond package, now under consideration by the appropriations committee, includes $7.5 million to create a Maine Marine Wind Energy fund.

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