Governor Janet Mills has announced that the State of Maine has selected a section of state-owned Sears Island that is reserved for port development as its preferred site for a port facility to support the floating offshore wind industry.
The selection of the site follows a public stakeholder process led by the Maine Department of Transportation and Maine Port Authority to consider the State’s primary port development options, including multiple potential sites in the Port of Searsport, the Port of Eastport, and the Port of Portland. The State concluded that the Sears Island parcel is the most feasible port development site in terms of location, logistics, cost, and environmental impact based on input from port and offshore wind stakeholders, including the University of Maine, and on technical and engineering analyses.
Sears Island is a 941-acre island off the coast of Searsport. In 2009, Sears Island was, by agreement, divided into two parcels: approximately 601 acres, or two-thirds of the island, was placed in a permanent conservation easement held by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, while the remaining one-third, or approximately 330 acres, was reserved by MaineDOT for future development.
The site selected by the State is expected to be about 100 acres in totality, which is about one-third of the State-owned parcel or a little more than one-tenth of the entire island. The proposed port would be a purpose-built facility for floating offshore wind fabrication, staging, assembly, maintenance, and deployment.
