Posted on August 11, 2020
An experimental offshore wind power project conceived a dozen years ago took a major step forward Wednesday.
The University of Maine will collaborate with New England Aqua Ventus LLC, which includes two global energy companies that are investing $100 million in the project. That investment comes on top of $47 million in grants already awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Diamond Offshore Wind, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp., and RWE Renewables, the world’s second-largest offshore wind company, have joined the public-private partnership, the university announced Wednesday. The goal is to show the feasibility of a full-scale, floating wind turbine in deep water, where winds are more consistent and turbine blades are out of sight from the mainland.
Chris Wisseman, CEO of Diamond Offshore Wind, said his company and RWE are currently responsible for about a quarter of the world’s offshore wind energy supply, most of it produced in shallow coastal waters.
“We’re both keenly interested in floating offshore wind,” Wisseman said. “Offshore wind has really taken off in the last decade and floating fits in places like Maine, California and Japan where the oceans are really deep.”
Using a floating concrete hull featuring a can-and-box design commonly used to build bridges, the project will support a 10- to 12-megawatt wind turbine 2 miles south of Monhegan Island and 14 miles from the Maine coast. Three mooring lines will anchor the hull in 300 feet of water.
“The beauty of this technology is that you can make it locally,” said Dr. Habib Dagher, executive director of the university’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, where the VolturnUS hull technology was invented. “That keeps jobs local, too.”
Other advantages of concrete hulls over steel are lower cost, more availability and resistance to corrosion, Dagher said. The concrete hulls are designed to last 100 years, compared with 25 for those made of steel. That means concrete hulls potentially could be reused after having a new turbine mounted.
Source: coastalnewstoday
