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Oregon project aims for floating offshore turbine future
February 7, 2014After nearly five years of floating offshore wind farm planning off the coast of Maine, a project in Oregon may leapfrog those efforts. An initial go-ahead from federal ocean regulators marks the starting line for a pilot project off Coos Bay, which will need to clear several more regulatory and financial hurdles before being built. […]
Japan commits to floating offshore wind
March 30, 2012In order to compensate for the abandonment of many nuclear plants, the Japanese government has set its sights on the abundant wind resources off its coast. A 15MW pilot floating wind turbine project is under construction not far from Fukushima; if all goes well, the project could expand to as large as 1000MW. Along with […]
Pilot floating offshore wind project proposed in Maine
December 5, 2011Statoil has submitted an application for an offshore lease 12-15 miles from the coast of Maine for a pilot floating offshore wind farm project. Statoil, a Norwegian company, installed a single floating turbine in Norwegian waters in 2009, but has decided to move toward a larger installation in Scotland or Maine (or perhaps both). The […]
Down East wind features call for half-mile or more setbacks, floating offshore, limited forest ridge development
February 12, 2011Down East magazine, a Maine institution, has published a series of stories on wind power in Maine, with enough detail to be valuable to people in any rural state who are trying to find the proper balance on wind development. The series includes in-depth articles on the University of Maine’s leadership in developing floating far-offshore […]
The latest on far-offshore floating wind turbines
May 5, 2011Regular readers will know that I’m excited by the potentials for far-offshore floating wind turbines. Less construction noise, less disturbance of the seafloor, more construction can take place on land rather than at sea (meaning less loud boat activity)…..it all adds up to much less noise impact in our coastal ocean environment, which is very […]
Floating deepwater wind turbines on track in Maine
March 14, 2013Ocean-based renewables are destined to be a huge piece of a future carbon-free energy system—tidal, wave, and offshore wind are all likely to become more technologically and economically viable over the coming decade or two. As these offshore renewables mature, they will reduce the current pressure to site wind farms in more populated areas closer […]
Dreaming big in offshore wind, inspired by sycamore seeds
July 27, 2010Most of the new wind turbine designs you see floating around the tech blogosphere are oriented toward small backyard turbines, in the tens or hundreds of kW range. So it was kind of a thrill to see this new design for a 10MW offshore turbine, partly inspired by a spinning sycamore seed: After an 18-month feasibility […]
Maine towns keep wind farms at arm’s length as state looks to far offshore sites
March 25, 2010“As goes Maine, so goes the Nation?” While this old political truism has faded in recent decades, the State of Maine is currently blazing trails in carefully considered wind power development. At the local level, small towns continue to pass moratoriums and strict setback standards. Most recently, Thorndike became the third town to set a […]
Feds looking for ways to assess effects of offshore wind turbines on defense radars
January 5, 2010While offshore wind, especially floating deep offshore designs just beginning to be tested, offers great promise for reliable electrical generation out of earshot of communities, there remain several key technical hurdles to overcome. In addition to needing more ships that can transport and install offshore turbines and vastly expanded transmission lines, a key concern is […]
Deep Offshore Wind Planning Surges in Gulf of Maine
November 9, 2009The promise of deep offshore wind energy is moving forward rapidly in the wake of the world’s first floating wind turbine, deployed off Norway in September by StatoilHydro. The Gulf of Maine is in line to see similar turbines in coming years, thanks to a focused effort by the National Renewable Energy Lab and regional […]
2011 stranding blamed on Royal Navy bomb explosions
June 29, 2015In July 2011, 70 pilot whales were spotted in the shallow Kyle of Durness on the north coast of Scotland; as the tide went out, at least 39 were stranded. Quick efforts by locals and live-stranding groups managed to refloat 20 animals, but 19 perished. This month, a report commissioned by the UK’s governing agency, […]