The Clean Energy Future Is Roiling Both Friends and Foes

The
Energy

Transition

Resistance to wind and solar projects from environmentalists is among an array of impediments to widespread conversion to renewables.

This is the second article in a three-part series examining the speed, challenges and politics of the American economy moving toward clean energy.

Aug 12, 2023

If there is anywhere in the country primed to welcome the clean energy transition, it is Penobscot Bay in Maine. Electricity prices there are high and volatile. The ocean waters are warming fast, threatening the lobster fishery. Miles offshore, winds blow strong enough to heat every home and power every car in the state.

For more than 15 years, researchers at the University of Maine have been honing scale models of floating wind turbines inspired by oil rigs. They are now confident they can mass-produce turbine blades the length of football fields and float them miles into the ocean. It is the kind of breakthrough in clean energy technology that is allowing a much faster transition to renewables than many…