Media Cover Event Marking Offshore Wind Turbine’s First Year

The Associated Press, Bangor Daily News, Mainebiz and WVII (Channel 7) covered an event held in Castine where officials from the University of Maine and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and members of Maine’s congressional delegation marked one year since the deployment of VolturnUS, a prototype that’s one-eighth the scale of a full-size offshore wind turbine. UMaine officials reported the turbine successfully withstood more than a dozen severe storms in its first year. UMaine also signed an agreement with the DOE that will give the university $3.8 million to continue design and engineering work on the full-scale turbine. “Today, we can declare VolturnUS mission accomplished,” said Habib Dagher, the director of UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, who added he is now preparing to turn his attention to designing and building the full-scale version. WABI (Channel 5) and The Republic carried the AP report, and the Sun Journal carried the BDN report.