14 DAY TRIAL // The waters off the coast of Maine in the US are now home to a floating wind turbine, which has recently been installed here and which is to become operational this coming summer.
This floating turbine is to be kept a close eye on by engineers working with the University of Maine. Their goal is that of determining exactly what problems harvesting wind power in this part of the US might pose on the longer run.
Thus, this particular floating wind turbine will only exist as a test, Oil Price explains. After its providing engineers with whatever information concerning offshore wind power they might need, the final turbines will be installed.
Apparently, by the year 2030, as many as 80 such floating wind turbines will be up and running off the coast of Maine, at a distance of about 20 miles from shore.
The team behind this project explains that, unlike the wind farms built on land, floating wind turbines cannot be accused of negatively impacting on landscapes or of causing noise pollution.
As well as this, since there are few birds who venture at such a great distance from land, conservationists can no longer argue that harvesting wind power by means of turbines affects biodiversity.
“You will not be able to see them, you will not be able to hear them, so nobody will know they’re there essentially, but they’re out there creating clean, renewable energy to power our state,” explained Habib Dagher, presently working as the director of the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center.
The decision to invest in building such a floating wind farm off the coast of Maine has to do with the fact that this type of renewables is fairly “abundant” in this part of the US.
“[There is] the equivalent of 150 nuclear power plants worth of wind blowing off the coast of Maine. It only takes two nuclear power plants to power the whole state, that’s how big that resource is,” Habib Dagher stated.