“Despite setbacks and delays, the UMaine project is likely to be the first floating commercial-scale wind farm in the U.S.” says Portland Press-Herald’s Tux Turkel, probably the most experienced energy reporter still writing for a New England newspaper.
UMaine and its Maine Aqua Ventus partners have been trying since 2014 to get a pair of their patented, semi-submersible platforms in the waters off Monhegan Island, with two, 6-megawatt turbines atop. … But this year, General Electric introduced a 12-megawatt offshore turbine with an 853-foot blade height, more than two football fields in length.
Maine Aqua Ventus now wants to beef up its platform design to accommodate a single 9.5-megawatt turbine for the Monhegan site, rather than two smaller units. The target date is 2022, seven years later than originally estimated.
You can read the whole article here.
Return to the Concord Monitor