Energy Secretary Chu hails University of Maine's wind research
June 16, 2010
Energy Secretary Steven Chu praised the
Secretary Chu visited the university's Orono campus to learn more about its 10-year plan to design and deploy deepwater wind technology, an effort that could pave the way for the first floating commercial wind farm in the United States.
"It's part of the leadership
Invited by Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Chu was given a tour of the university's Advanced Structures and
The University of Maine-led DeepCwind Consortium National Research Program received $7.1 million from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act in October to develop offshore wind turbine performance and reliability improvements.
As part of that research, DeepCWind is collecting data and testing out three different platform types capable of supporting a 120 kW wind turbine. The prototype will be tested at the
To date, there have only been two floating wind farms in the world, a decommissioned, demonstration farm off the coast of Italy and a 2.4 MW floating turbine off of Norway, which supplies energy to the ountry's grid. There are currently no commercial offshore wind farms in the
Dagher and his colleagues have estimated that offshore wind energy projects could create up to 15,000 jobs a year between 2020 and 2030 if floating wind farms are up and running in the Gulf of Maine.
"We must expand and diversify American energy resources and, in doing so, improve our environment, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and spur the creation of green energy jobs," said Collins last week when announcing