The University of Maine has launched a quarter-scale prototype of a floating wind turbine base that researchers hope will pave the way for commercial-scale wind power development in the Gulf of Maine.
Project officials first sought to float the 380-ton floating concrete base for the prototype from the seaplane ramp at Bar Harbor Airport in Trenton on Sunday, but initially could not get it far enough down the ramp to get it to float when high tide peaked at around noon, according to Bar Harbor Story.
A later attempt, shortly after midnight, was successful, according to UMaine spokesperson Marcus Wolf.
Wolf declined to immediately provide additional details about the launch but said more information would be released Tuesday afternoon.
The experimental turbine is a key part of Maine’s efforts since the late 2000s to promote development of commercial offshore wind projects in the Gulf of Maine. The gulf’s wind resources are considered substantial enough to generate significant amounts of electricity, but the gulf is too deep for the type of turbines that are mounted directly on the seafloor in other shallower locations around the globe.
The possibility of offshore wind farms in the gulf has generated opposition from Maine’s lobster industry, which believes the presence of floating turbines could harm lobsters.
In 2013, UMaine officials launched a one-eighth scale prototype of its proposed design in Castine.
After more than two years of negotiations, state regulators are expected this spring to decide if a proposed contract for utilities to buy power from a 12-platform wind farm is in the public interest, the Maine Monitor has reported. The proposed research array would be 30 miles off Portland and would serve as another step toward developing a commercial-scale wind farm in the Gulf of Maine, the Monitor reported.
