The Trump administration has stopped the $ 12.5 million investigation grant from Maine University to build a floating platform for high seas on high seas, when a new 375 tonne concrete prototype was launched to start operating this summer in the Gulf of Maine.
The U.S. Energy Arpa-ER Financing Program said in a letter of April 11 that he “immediately suspended” the grant for 90 days at the Compost Center and Advanced Structure of the University, emphasizing that no cost may be allowed during the suspension period. “The agency granted the grant by virtue of the Biden administration to advance wind energy development in outside the sea as Maine, which are deeper of 150 feet, the border for turbines fixed at the bottom of the sea.
About two thirds of wind energy out of the sea is in deep water according to federal data. The Gulf of Maine has about 156 GW of wind capacity outside the coast at 50 miles.
DOE said that the university did not comply with the “no more” subsidy terms, but does not include specific claims. The media reports link the passage to continuous attacks of President Donald Trump on the federal support for the development of wind energy out of the sea, but also to his continuous dispute with the governor of Maine Janet Mills (d) on an unrelated policy subject, the transgender athletes in high school sports. DOE did not respond to media queries.
“The University of Maine system maintains that it complies with all state and federal laws and with the conditions of its federal subsidies and contracts, several of which have been recently completed or suspended,” said the Samantha Warren system spokeswoman in a statement. The university “is currently evaluating the federal warning … and the next steps for the project and related Maine contracts and jobs.” The suspension warning, published online by a state republican legislator, says that the University of Maine “has the right to oppose and provide information and documentation that is challenged by this suspension.”
The letter came only hours after the light concrete concrete concrete designed by student researchers and university professors and manufactured by more than 50 local contractors was transported to Penobscot’s Bay, said Warren. It integrates a patented system of new generation motion to reduce the impacts of the waves and the wind, said the university previously.
Including a system of cushion similar to that used in high buildings in the seismic regions, the helmet is lighter, smaller and less expensive to build than the versions previously tested, said that university developers including the cyanbro contractor and the Maritima Marine Academy, the University of Maine launched the first floating turbine demonstration in 2013, with its data used to improve the data used in 2013. Current prototype technology.
Related development
In another politically connected action, the developer of what was to be the first floating wind matrix on the high sea of Maine, which is based on Volurnus technology, has stopped the project. Pine Tree Offshore Wind requested to suspend negotiations with state regulators to sell the power of floating 12 turbines planned in a Federal Maine lease area, with the capacity to generate 144 MW. The company requested the pause “due to the recent changes in the energy scene that have particularly led to the uncertainty in the wind industry out of the sea,” said Maine’s public utilities commission in a presentation on March 28.
“So the project is really waiting to advance substantially until this contract can be completed,” said Jack Shapiro, director of climate and clean energy of the Maine Natural Resources Council.
The group also plans to support the legislation introduced on April 24 by Sensan Susan Collins (R) and Angus King (I) to prohibit the administration proposed by the drilling of oil and gas on the coast of New England. “The offshore drilling on the coast could affect the main ones … for generations,” Collins said in a statement.
Shapiro said previous studies have shown that the Gulf of Maine has no easily oil and gas reserves.
