Environmentalists don’t want wind industry hub at Sears Island

by Abigail Curtis

Midcoast environmental groups want to keep the pressure on the state as they advocate against building a floating offshore wind assembly, manufacturing and launching facility on Sears Island.

Stephen Miller, the executive director of the Islesboro Islands Trust, announced Wednesday morning that his organization has hired a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm to analyze Searsport offshore wind facility options on Sears Island and on Mack Point on the mainland.  

Meanwhile, to bring more attention to the issue, the Friends of Sears Island has invited speakers from area environmental groups to speak at a virtual informational forum from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday night.  

“This is not an issue that’s in the public spotlight,” Rolf Olsen, the vice president of the Friends of Sears Island, said. “I hope people start to think about this more, because this is important …  The land that’s needed [to support offshore wind] is huge, and it’s really going to alter things here.”

Climate change and renewable energy are issues that have been front and center for Gov. Janet Mills since her election.

In 2019, Mills announced an offshore wind initiative, and a report from her office the following year touted offshore wind as a significant opportunity for economic recovery. In 2020, the governor directed the Maine Department of Transportation to look at the Port of Searsport, the state’s second-busiest port, to assess its potential to support the offshore wind industry.

The state’s goal is to use 80 percent renewable energy by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050.

Last fall, a feasibility study commissioned by the Maine DOT determined that either Sears Island or Mack Point could be good sites for a marine terminal that would serve as a centralized hub. However, the study’s engineers found that Sears Island, with a lower building cost, would be more practical for the offshore wind hub.

According to preliminary estimates, building a floating offshore wind port in two phases on Mack Point would take four years and cost around $449 million — more than $150 million more than it would to build the port on Sears Island.

Not much has changed since the study was released last November, according to Paul Merrill of the Maine DOT. The state is working to convene a stakeholder group but it hasn’t officially been formed yet.

“We are really early in this,” Merrill said. “We know there are a lot of stakeholders with varying viewpoints. We welcome the conversation.”

Although many in the region are excited that the midcoast may find itself at the forefront of the new floating offshore wind industry, the potential to build on Sears Island hasn’t sat well with environmentalists. They would like the undeveloped 940-acre island to remain that way.

For Miller, that is mainly because the island and surrounding waters are home to forests, wetlands, eel grass and essential fish habitat, and any industrial development there would change or destroy some of those things.

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