AUGUSTA, Maine — Sears Island in Searsport will serve as the staging ground for Maine’s new offshore wind port, Gov. Janet Mills announced Tuesday.
The decision to use the 941-acre island after years of planning and public feedback was not surprising. The Maine Department of Transportation previously tipped its hand by saying Sears Island was better than nearby Mack Point because it is already owned by the state and will cost far less to develop.
It is an initial part of Maine’s grand plan to unlock the potential of offshore wind. The site has received criticism from conservation groups and an alliance of conservatives and progressives who argued the wind port will damage the wildlife, hiking and birding opportunities that draw visitors from around the world to the largest undeveloped island in Penobscot Bay.
The deepwater port is key to Maine’s climate goals that include using 100 percent renewable energy by 2040. The project that Mills, a Democrat, first announced in 2021 has highlighted the tricky politics behind the state’s wind and environmental initiatives.
The port will need to receive state and federal permits along with additional public input. It is likely to be operational by 2029. The Mills administration has previously said it would use 100 acres of the state-owned Sears Island for developing the wind port.
The state evaluated both locations “thoroughly and objectively,” Mills said at a news conference. Searsport Town Manager James Gillway noted the closure of the Bucksport paper mill in 2014 by saying the region has gone through “tough economic times” over the past decade.
“Floating offshore wind will change that,” he said.
The state previously said it would build massive hulls at the port to steady the tall blade structures and lessen risks from shipping large components out to sea for assembling the offshore port. Though the opposition has made plenty of noise, a coalition including environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Council of Maine and labor unions signed a statement supporting Maine’s offshore wind port but not indicating a location preference.
“Building a deepwater port to construct floating wind turbines is our best opportunity to create new jobs and generate the large amounts of Maine-made clean energy we need to power the future,” said Jack Shapiro, the Natural Resources Council of Maine’s climate and clean energy director.
State officials also previously considered locating the offshore wind site in Eastport and Portland before zeroing in on Sears Island and Mack Point.
An alliance of conservation-minded groups, including Friends of Sears Island, argued for using Mack Point because it is already developed and privately owned, with a working waterfront for cargo traffic. But while each site had a development price tag between $400 million to $500 million, the DOT has said Mack Point would cost more due to its private ownership and additional challenges related to an existing rail line, dredging and sediment disposal.
While the state owns Sears Island, tribes that called it Wassumkeag, or “bright sand beach,” used it over thousands of years for camping, hunting, fishing and resting along paddling routes. Maine Coast Heritage Trust holds about 600 acres of the island under a 2007 conservation easement, with Friends of Sears Island managing the conserved area and 330 acres reserved as a “transportation parcel” for potential use as a cargo and container port.
Rolf Olsen, vice president of Friends of Sears Island, has argued the state was not sharing more specifics about the stated disadvantages of Mack Point nor considering the added costs from wetland damage in preferring the island for the wind port. Olsen was part of the advisory group that met between 2022 and last summer to offer feedback on Maine’s proposal that could join a small group of offshore wind projects approved by the Biden administration.
But local officials such as Gillway, a former Republican state lawmaker, said last year opponents of the project were ignoring its economic benefits and how University of Maine researchers have worked to “finetune” the state’s offshore wind potential.
