PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 14, 2024
The University of Maine is home to the nation's largest team of engineers dedicated to floating offshore wind. In the next decade, UMaine researchers envision turbine platforms floating in the ocean beyond the horizon, stretching more than 700 feet skyward and anchored with mooring lines. “These structures are massive,” said Anthony Viselli, chief engineer for offshore wind technology at the university’s Advanced Composites Center. “These would be some of the largest moving structures that humankind has endeavored to create. And there would be many of them.” Floating turbines are the only way U.S. states can capture offshore wind energy on a large scale. In the U.S. alone, 2.8 terawatts of wind energy potential blows over ocean waters too deep for traditional turbines that affix to the ocean floor. That’s enough to power 350 million homes.