Posted on May 5, 2025
The Trump Administration has halted the University of Maine’s $12.5 million research grant to build a floating offshore wind energy turbine platform just as a new 375-ton concrete prototype hull was launched to begin operation this summer in the Gulf of Maine.
The U.S. Energy Dept.’s ARPA-E research funding program said In an April 11 letter it was “immediately suspending” the grant for 90 days to the university’s Advanced Structure and Composites Center, noting that no costs incurred during the suspension period will be allowable.” The agency awarded the grant under the Biden Administration to advance wind power development in offshore areas such as Maine’s that are deeper than 150 ft, the limit for turbines fixed to the sea bottom.
About two-thirds of US offshore wind energy is in deep waters according to federal data. The Gulf of Maine has nearly 156 GW of offshore wind capacity within 50 miles.
DOE said the university did not comply with “one or more” grant terms but includes no specific claims. Media reports link the move to continued attacks by President Donald Trump on federal support for U.S offshore wind energy development, but also to his ongoing dispute with Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) on an unrelated policy issue, transgender athletes in high school sports. DOE did not respond to media queries.
“The University of Maine System maintains it is compliant with all state and federal laws, and with the conditions of its federal grants and contracts, a number of which have been recently terminated or suspended,” system spokeswoman Samantha Warren said in a statement. The university “is currently assessing the federal notice … and the next steps for the project and related Maine contracts and jobs.” The suspension notice, posted on line by a state Republican legislator, says the University of Maine “has the right to object and provide information and documentation challenging this suspension.”
The letter arrived only hours after the lightweight concrete floating hull designed by university student and faculty researchers and fabricated by more than 50 local contractors was transported to Penobscot Bay, said Warren. It integrates a patented next-generation motion-mitigating system to reduce wave and wind impacts, the university said previously.
Including a damping system similar to what is used in tall buildings in seismic regions, the hull is lighter, smaller and less costly to construct than versions that have been previously tested, said university developers that include contractor Cianbro and the Marine Maritime Academy, The University of Maine launched the first U.S. grid-connected floating turbine demonstration in 2013, with its data used to improve technology of the current prototype.
Related Development
In another politically-connected action, the developer of what was to be Maine’s irst offshore floating wind array, set to be based on the VolturnUS technology, has paused the project. Pine Tree Offshore Wind asked to suspend negotiations with state regulators to sell power from a planned 12-turbine floating development in a federal Gulf of Maine lease area, with capacity to generate 144 MW. The company requested the pause “due to recent shifts in the energy landscape that have in particular caused uncertainty in the offshore wind industry,” the Maine Public Utilities Commission said in a March 28 filing.
“So the project really is sort of waiting to substantially move forward until that contract can be finalized,” said Jack Shapiro, climate and clean energy director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine.
The group also plans to support federal legislation introduced April 24 by Sens. Susan Collins (R) and Angus King (I) to ban administration proposed oil and gas drilling off the New England coast. “Offshore drilling along the coast could impact Mainers … for generations,” Collins said in a statement.
Shapiro said previous studies have shown that the Gulf of Maine does not have readily available oil and gas reserves.
