Maine to hold 2009 EnergyOcean conference

Maine will be host to an international conference on ocean energy next year, which officials hope will give the state an opportunity to promote itself as a leader in the growing renewable energy industry.

Gov. John Baldacci’s office said Tuesday that more than 300 offshore energy developers, financiers, researchers and policymakers from around the world are expected to attend the 2009 EnergyOcean conference.

The exact location of the conference was not announced. But Baldacci said he believes the event will help highlight the state’s effort to encourage development of wind, tidal and other renewable energy projects in Maine.

Maine’s Department of Economic and Community Development is co-sponsoring the current EnergyOcean conference, being held in Galveston, Texas. Elaine Scott, director of communications and marketing for the Maine DECD, said she hopes bringing the conference to Maine will highlight both the state’s ample renewable energy resources and the various companies working on the issue.

“I think it is going to, hopefully, position us as a leader” in the industry, Scott said in an interview from Texas. “We have the natural resources in terms of offshore wind power, tidal energy and wave energy.”

Wind and tidal energy account for a tiny portion of the U.S. energy supply. But interest in wind, tidal and other ocean-related energy projects has exploded in the U.S. in recent years as more state governments, businesses and residential consumers seek to expand the amount of power they get from renewable sources.

State officials believe Maine is uniquely positioned to benefit from these trends.

Maine has one industrial-size wind energy facility, a 28-turbine wind farm operating in the Aroostook County town of Mars Hill. But work is under way on two more industrial wind facilities, and several additional large-scale wind projects are in the planning stages.

At a conference held last week in Northport, state officials and energy company representatives said offshore wind and tidal energy represent a vast, untapped resource for renewable energy in Maine.

A representative with the federal National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimated that Maine’s deep coastal waters have the potential to generate 133 gigawatts – or 133,000 megawatts – of wind energy. The Mars Hill wind farm, by comparison, can produce up to 42 megawatts of power.

In addition to wind and tidal energy, the EnergyOcean conference also explores wave, current, thermal, solar and ocean-related biomass energy.

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