Media report on DOE funds awarded for wind turbine development
The Portland Press Herald, WVII (Channel 7) and the Associated Press reported the University of Maine was awarded roughly $5 million to continue development of a floating platform to support up to a 12-megawatt wind turbine. The grant was awarded to UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, which has developed two similar platforms capable of holding smaller, 6-megawatt turbines planned for deployment off the coast of Monhegan Island as a demonstration project, according to the Press Herald. UMaine was among 13 projects that received a total of $23 million. The $5 million grant will allow designers to refocus efforts on a single-platform design, instead of creating two smaller turbines linked together. The precise funding amount and structure of the grant is expected to be finalized in the coming months, the Press Herald article states. “We are hopeful we can reduce the Monhegan project from two floating platforms to a single slightly larger platform, reducing the hardware in the water, total amount of blade swept area, and impacts to the environment and fisheries,” said Habib Dagher, executive director of the UMaine Composites Center. USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, Bangor Daily News, News Center Maine and WGAN carried the AP report, and Windpower Engineering & Development published the DOE news release.