SEARSPORT, Maine — The location of a staging port for offshore wind farms is sparking a debate over land use and conservation in Penobscot Bay.
The State of Maine is considering two locations in Searsport—Sears Island and Mack Point—that could be used for a port-of-call for wind turbines and other materials headed to farms in the Gulf of Maine.
For conservationists, a massive infrastructure project on Sears Island—which is covered in forest and used for recreation—seems counterintuitive.
“Why would you choose to cut down 75 to 100 acres of forest that’s already sequestering carbon instead of repurposing what is essentially a brownfield site on Mack point,” Rolf Olsen, a member of the Offshore Wind Port Advisory Group, said on Wednesday.
In addition to environmental impacts, Rolf worries a build on Sears Island would impact the surrounding community. “That level of construction could be disruptive to the experience of visiting the island.”
But Sears Island has some clear advantages that have attracted local and state leaders to the site. For one, the 940-acre site is already owned by the government. And most of that land is in a conservation easement, the Maine Department of Transportation already owns 330 acres, eliminating any costs of leasing land for a wind port—something Searsport Town Manager James Gillway sees as a key advantage.
“That’s in my mind pretty significant. In the end, we’re trying to levelized the cost of energy,” Gillway said on Wednesday.
Gillway adds that the Mack Point site would require dredging, which he thinks would hurt its chances of being approved by the U.S. government. “Sears Island would probably likely be the only place it could obtain a permit through the federal government process.”
Still, conservationists continue to resist an offshore wind port at Sears Island.
“We are very pro-green energy and the development of offshore wind,” Jill Howell of the non-profit Upstream Watch said, “But not at the expense of already conserved area.”