Island Institute Offshore Wind Exploitation webinar 7/7/11 AUDIO recordings.

The meeting was organized by Island Institute. Speakers included Heather Deese, Ph.D., II Director of Marine Programs, Amanda LaBelle, II Marine Programs Associate, Suzanne Pude II Community Energy Director, & Birgitta Polson, II Community Energy Fellow. Matt Nixon from Maine State Planning office also spoke..  See Power Point Slides from the Webinar. 

 
AUDIO
* Welcome to meeting. 4 minutes 10 seconds

* Heather Dietz, Intro part 1. 3 minutes Describes Island Institute Concern over threat of energy costs for islands drives them. Research tech Outreach. Stance of offshore wind energy supportive. apprriately siteds and where local benefits aligned with local costs.

* Heather Dietz, Part 2. 2 minutes Describes offshore wind energy Maine motivations is that water is quite deep. Strength of wind and proximity to major load centers. High level interest and support funding from feds. Concern is high dependence on fossil fuel Vulnerable. And have strong wind.

* Heather Dietz, Part 3. 2 minutes Maine has 5 gigawatt goal by 2030 = 3% of national energy development. Also other uses of electricity. Very early stages One full scale one existing StatOil has the Hywind floating wind turbine10 miles off Norway. And U Maine has its plan.

* Heather Dietz Part 4. 2min 4 seconds Current status of state. Governor's ocean energy task Force. LD 1810 ocean wind legislation and 25 mw pilot project green ocean energy

* Heather Dietz reads UMaine official Jake Ward's 2 memos. 5 minutes Maine's 5 GW by 2030 plan. DeepCwind tech update UMaine offshore wind lab.

* Matt Nixon, GIS expert, State Planning Office. 5 minutes

*Question and Answer period 1. 5 minutes. Maine compared to other states? More action south of Cape Cod. Because pole tech is old tech. 800 ocean windmills are seafloor mounted off Europe. Siting within ten miles of Monhegan - become precedent?  

Answer. Two siting locations within state waters: 1. a process that would allow for permit application in state waters, and (2) the experimental prototypes. (3) Commercial sized incentivizing development offshore would be ten miles out. Subsidized longterm rate at which electricity would be purchased is being considered by PUC power [FIGURE 22A]. Outside that the pilot 25 megawatt project would be considered by PUC whether off Monhegan, off Matinicus or off Portland would be up to the specific interest of developers putting in proposals.

* Q&A on undersea cables and corridors. 5 min 
Will they be sent directly to Boston by undersea cable.Or Maine?

* Heather Dietz on outreach to fishers and NGOs

* Amanda LaBelle & Suzanne Pude on coming events. 11 min. August 11th film and discussion, "On the Horizon" at The Strand Theatre in Rockland. September 15: Island Institute hosts "Sites and Sounds of Offshore Wind Energy" In Oct November "Wind Turbines on Land and Sea"

* Alan Round of Gulf of ME Research Institute on Spatial Data. 4 minutes

* Role of Maine SeaGrant. 2 min 40 sec Discussion of Seagrant's role in offshore wind energy development: outreach re DeepCwind in an ongoing series of "grange hall" style informal conversations with coastal communities. [Note poll on how well the webinar went.]

* BOEMRE and offshore sites update. 2min13sec
 
* Local Benefits

* Entire Webinar audio Click here. 77minutes