ORONO (AP) — U.S. Secretary of Energy is visiting the University of Maine to learn more about the school’s research and development activity related to deep-water offshore wind energy.

Steven Chu on Monday was touring the university’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center to learn more about its 10-year plan to design and test floating deep-water wind turbine platforms.

Maine Gov. John E. Baldacci heralded the visit as proof Maine was a renewable energy leader.

“Secretary Chu’s visit recognizes the intense commitment and broad-based support behind renewable energy development in Maine,” Baladacci said in a prepared statement. “We’ve worked hard to build the technological and workforce strengths that have put Maine on this path.”

Maine voters on Tuesday approved a bond that provides $11 million to help a University of Maine-led consortium develop a testing site off midcoast Maine.

 Chu’s agency has provided key funding to the Center and partners to aid Maine’s efforts to aggressively pursue wind power development and green jobs.

 Baldacci said that public support for clean energy was reinforced in last week’s ballot with about 60 percent of Maine voters supporting the bond question that included, among other energy priorities, $11 million to support the development of the deepwater wind energy demonstration site spearheaded by University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center.

“Maine people recognize the economic, national security and environmental dangers in reliance on foreign fossil fuels to heat our homes and power our cars,” Baldacci said. “And they are supporting the work going on today that will create thousands of new jobs, and translate into a cleaner, safer power, putting our state in control of our energy future.”

Last week  Maine joined with nine other states and the U.S. Department of Interior to establish The Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy Consortium to work to streamline the review and siting process for offshore wind projects in federal waters, according to the release issued by the governor’s office Monday.

Maine has already identified three demonstration sites for offshore wind technology located in Maine coastal waters. The University of Maine will be using a site off Monhegan Island for its testing.

Maine has established a bold vision of reducing the State’s consumption of liquid fossil fuels by at least 30 percent by 2030, the release stated.

Chu’s visit follows one a week ago by other U.S. Department of Energy officials, who came to the State to recognize energy efficiency improvements being made to Maine homes.

 It is the second visit, by a cabinet-level member of President Barack Obama’s administration, made to the Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center in the past year, the Baldacci release noted.

 In August 2009 U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visited the center.

Here the German wind-energy company, REpower,  installs a 5 megawatt turbine in the North Sea, 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) off the coast of Scotland in 45 meters (147 feet) of water.