Following outcry, Maine health department waters down proposed staffing ratios Thursday, January 23, Maine clinics see high demand for birth control Tuesday, January 21, Use of yellow flag law grows since Lewiston mass shootings Friday, January 17, Battery ownership question remains unresolved Thursday, January 16, Maine real estate mostly unaffected by commission changes Tuesday, January 14, Yarmouth approves plan to remove two Royal River dams Monday, January 13, The list of Maine parents waiting for a lawyer grew by percent in Monday, January 6, Abortion funds take on bigger role as access to funding shifts Friday, December 27, Report shows growing need in residential care facilities Monday, December 23, But in an undisclosed location in Trenton, contractors are putting the finishing touches on a ton concrete structure aimed at putting Maine back in the global race to design cost-effective platforms for the next era of ocean energy β commercial, floating offshore wind farms.
If all goes as planned, researchers from the University of Maine will launch the foot wide, quarter-scale concrete hull, with a turbine blade reaching feet above the waterline, later this year off Castine.
It has been 12 years since they tested a one-eighth scale prototype of an earlier UMaine design in the same location. It was hailed then as the first floating wind turbine producing power in North America, and it made Maine a global contender in developing this technology.
Since , though, Maine and the United States have been passed by other countries that have full-scale floating projects at sea and by developers that are ahead in advancing their designs. As unfolds, Maine offshore energy ambitions are at a pivotal point.
Progress must be made on two fronts this year, participants say, for the state to regain momentum in the global race to advance floating wind technology. First, Maine must make notable headway in refining the design for commercial-scale floating platforms.
