https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/hope-floats-maine
"For generations, the deep waters in the Gulf of Maine have been the life
source for the robust fishing and tourism economies for which the state is
known. But today, the region is poised to provide a new resource: wind power.
As offshore wind farms grow in number both here and abroad, they do so mostly
in the category of fixed-bottom turbines where the machinery is connected
directly to the seabed and, therefore, directly to the grid. In the case of the
Gulf of Maine, the water is so deep, nearing depths of 1,200 feet in certain
places, that the standard fix-bottom wind turbine we’ve come to know, like in
the Block Island Wind Farm and the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, just
won’t do. For offshore wind to work in Maine, it will have to float.
This is why Habib Dagher, professor of structural and civil engineering at the
University of Maine, set his sights on designing floating turbines and, along
with four colleagues, founded the Advanced Structures & Composites Center at
the school in 1996. Since then, Dagher, his colleague Anthony Viselli, and two
others created VolturnUS, a floating concrete platform designed to support wind
turbines—a novel technology that has elevated the state into a leadership role
in the field. This summer, Governor Janet Mills signed LD 1895, a bill calling
for the procurement of offshore wind in the gulf, which accompanied additional
legislation to study the lease site where the windmills will be launched. The
bill passed on bipartisan lines, and if all goes as planned, Maine could be
producing 3 gigawatts of floating wind power by 2040, enough that the state
could even export power regionally to New Hampshire and Massachusetts. By some
estimates, Maine's offshore wind could eventually even power all of New
England.
Momentum for this project is seemingly everywhere. Engineering efforts at the
University of Maine have been shored up by a growing organizing coalition of
environmental and labor groups. As the state moves forward on a 12-wind-turbine
research project 30 miles off the coast of Portland, Maine, stakeholders are on
the front lines of establishing just how to get such a large infrastructure
project done quickly—and inclusively—which they argue is the only way to
decarbonize responsibly. Many people working on floating offshore wind in Maine
know they have an audience: Experts believe that because of the limited shallow
shoreline that predominates most coasts, the future of offshore wind worldwide
is floating, which puts Maine at the forefront of the challenge where outsiders
are watching to see if it gets done, and how."
Via
Reasons to be Cheerful:
<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/what-we-are-reading-bike-maps-offshore-wind/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
