U.S. Department of Energy Archives

Meet the Small Business Owners Electrifying Maine’s Rural Coast

September 10, 2025 — On a sunny, 85-degree day in August of 2025, some 9,300 oysters were loaded into ice-filled containers on southern Maine’s Casco Bay. The boat shuttling them from the warm, shallow waters of Recompense Cove to the marina two miles away hummed quietly. Notably missing: the roar of an engine and the smell of diesel.

Heron, the boat in question, is a 28-foot aluminum vessel that runs on two 100% electric outboards, the motors that hang off of small and medium-sized boats. It’s one of the first commercial workboats in the United States to use electric outboards. The vessel officially splashed into the waters of South Freeport, Maine on July 17, 2025. The moment, though, had been years in the making. It required a coalition of industry-wide partners, a $500,000 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant, and at least that much in matching funds from the operating businesses’ cost share agreement and philanthropic investments through the Rockland, Maine-based Island Institute, the Maine Technology Institute, and others. Altogether, the $1 million private-public investment covers Heron’s $425,000 sticker price and the costs to install two high-capacity shoreside chargers. A portion of these funds also supports data collection and research to assess the viability of electric technology in the greater aquaculture industry.

Willy Leathers is the director of farm operations and owner of Maine Ocean Farms, the mid-size aquaculture business that operates this particular boat. The 10-acre plot he and farm co-founder Eric Oransky tend to on Recompense Cove holds about 3 million oysters. The two farmers are among a growing group of small business owners on the cutting edge of marine innovation along rural and remote parts of Maine’s coast. They’ve been in operation together just shy of a decade, and have seen the aquaculture industry spring up around them in the coves and small islands that make up Casco Bay. Beyond the bay is the wide-open Gulf of Maine, which has been documented as one of the world’s fastest-warming bodies of water. Between 2004-2016, it warmed more quickly than 99% of the global ocean, a trend scientists attribute to climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels.

Read the full article at the Daily Yonder

Auburn University team wins USD 2.5 million grant to produce aquafeed from pollution

January 2, 2024 — Peter He and his team of researchers at the Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, U.S.A., have received a USD 2.5 million (EUR 2.4 million) grant to convert polluted waste from paper mills into aquafeed.

The grant is part of a USD 20 million (EUR 19.22 million) investment the U.S. Department of Energy has recently made in the study of algae and its use in the development of biofuels and bioproducts.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

New England awarded $390M federal grant for offshore wind infrastructure upgrades

August 7, 2024 — A regional project to upgrade the infrastructure connecting offshore wind farms to the electric grid was awarded nearly $390 million in federal funding through a competitive grant program, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced Tuesday.

The Power Up New England project, submitted by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources on behalf of all six New England states, was one eight projects nationwide awarded $2.2 billion through DOE’s Grid Innovation Program.

The project is a collaboration among state agency energy departments, local utility companies and an unnamed “emerging technology developer.” It aims to ready the region for the flurry of new offshore wind projects which, once finished, collectively bring several thousand megawatts of renewable electricity to the regional grid. The $389 million in federal funding, which requires a $500 million local match, specifically pays for new and upgraded interconnection points in southeastern Massachusetts and southeastern Connecticut, as well as new battery storage systems in southwest Connecticut and in Maine.

Read the full article at the Rhode Island Current

$1.1M+ in Northeast Offshore Renewable Energy Studies Includes NYSG-Funded Project

May 23, 2022 — The Northeast Sea Grant Consortium (NESGC) — in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office and Water Power Technologies Office, and NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NOAA Fisheries) — has invested over $1.1 million in federal funds to support six projects advancing social science and technology research on offshore renewable energy in the Northeast United States.

One of the projects, a nearly $200,000 study supported by the NESGC, including New York Sea Grant (NYSG), as well as DOE and NOAA Fisheries, is led by Cornell University investigator Maha Haji, who is focusing on the development of a tool that would empower stakeholders to make more informed decisions that could substantially increase economic efficiencies in the long term, thereby increasing economic resiliency.

Read the full story at Stony Brook University News

DOE Releases Report Detailing Strategies to Expand Offshore Wind Deployment

January 12, 2022 — The following was released by the U.S. Department of Energy:

The U.S. Department of Energy today announced the release of a report that outlines regional and national strategies to accelerate U.S. offshore wind deployment and operation. The report summarizes the current status of offshore wind in the United States, describes challenges to accelerating its deployment, and identifies strategies to secure United States global leadership in the industry.

Implementing the strategies discussed in the report could help the country achieve the interagency goal to deploy 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2030, which would support 77,000 good paying jobs, catalyze $12 billion per year in capital investments, revitalize ports, cut 78 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, and unlock a pathway to 110 GW offshore wind by 2050.

“The Offshore Wind Energy Strategies Report outlines strategic priorities and actionable information to accelerate offshore wind deployment and achieve the Administration’s goal of 30 gigawatts by 2030,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Kelly Speakes-Backman. Meeting the goal of 30 GW by 2030 will create good-paying American jobs, reduce carbon emissions, and bolster the nation’s global clean energy leadership.”

Prepared by DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office, the report lays out strategies and actions needed to accelerate cost-effective, reliable U.S. offshore wind deployment and operation. The five strategic priorities areas are:

Increase demand for offshore wind energy and grow the domestic supply chain at lower cost by considering expansion of Federal incentives related to offshore wind energy.
Continue and catalyze offshore wind energy cost reductions through technology innovation and adaptations that enable industry growth and provide affordable electricity throughout the country.
Improve siting and regulatory processes by increasing transparency and predictability, auctioning new lease areas, understanding development impacts, expanding stakeholder engagement, and facilitating ocean co-use.
Invest in supply chain development, including customized offshore wind ports and vessels to establish a logistics network and attract further investment.
Plan efficient and reliable transmission and grid integration to deliver offshore wind energy at scale.

Each strategic priority area is supported by several focus areas and detailed initiatives. The report also includes initiatives specific to offshore wind in four U.S. coastal regions—Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, and Great Lakes.

The report was developed with input from other agencies, including the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the Transportation Department’s Maritime Administration, the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as well as DOE’s Office of Electricity, Loan Programs Office, and Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy.

Read the report, or for more information on DOE’s work to advance offshore wind energy, see DOE’s Offshore Wind R&D web page.

New tool maps birds, fish in offshore wind areas

September 23, 2021 — While federal and state officials eagerly pursue a rapid and significant deployment of offshore wind turbines to generate cleaner power along the East Coast, scientists and advocates on Wednesday unveiled a new mapping tool designed to give developers, regulators and the public a better sense of the natural resources below the surface in the neighborhood of proposed wind projects.

Last year, the U.S. offshore wind pipeline grew by 24 percent with more than 35,000 megawatts now in various stages of development, the U.S. Department of Energy said in its latest offshore wind market report. Massachusetts has authorized up to 5,600 MW and so far has contracted for about 1,600 MW of offshore wind power. But even before the first turbine is installed, the industry is facing headwinds from two federal lawsuits that focus on the protection of endangered species like the North Atlantic right whale and commercial fishing interests.

The marine mapping tool rolled out Wednesday by The Nature Conservancy covers the coast from Maine through North Carolina and includes information about the makeup of the seafloor, the fish and invertebrates that live near the bottom of the ocean in a given area, the marine mammals that frequent a chosen swath of ocean, the bird species that are known to be in the area and more. The tool allows a user to compare data from different times of the year and incorporates historical data as well.

Read the full story at WWLP

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford City Officials Draft New Business Plan For Fishing Port

March 9, 2018 — New Bedford city officials have unveiled a draft plan to expand the business opportunities for the city’s lucrative port.

The Port of New Bedford is the number one commercial fishing port in the country, hauling in $9.8 billion each year. Ninety percent of that economic value is tied to the fishing industry.

However, city officials are looking to diversify the port’s business and they’re betting on offshore wind.

Mayor Jon Mitchell said according to a study by the federal Department of Energy, one of the windiest spots along the Eastern seaboard is about 25 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.

Read and listen to the full story at Rhode Island NPR

MAINE: Fishermen air concerns about floating wind turbine test site off Monhegan

March 2, 2017 — Locals and fishermen wondering how floating wind turbines will affect fishing grounds and the feel of their town had a chance to air questions and grievances to people behind the project this week.

“We need the resource to fish on, but we also need to be able to get to the resource,” said Richard Nelson, a 30-plus-year lobsterman based out of Friendship. “It’s a balancing act. Renewables are positive unto themselves, but as fisherman we have to be able to get to the fish.”

Fishermen worry about how close they’ll be able to get to the turbines without entering restricted space, and also want to avoid getting traps stuck on underwater wires and moorings. Those boundaries likely will be set by the U.S. Coast Guard much later in the planning process.

The University of Maine’s vision for an offshore energy farm made up of floating turbines is grinding toward fruition, scheduled to start running electricity to the grid by 2019.

The U.S. Department of Energy, University of Maine Advanced Structures Composites Center and its partners hosted a pair of informational sessions on Tuesday at the St. George Town Hall, drawing a few dozen locals. The group is scheduled to host a similar session Wednesday, March 1, on Monhegan Island, where some residents have expressed trepidation or outright opposition to the selected location of the pair of turbines.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News