Ok, it’s just a 1/8 scale prototype floating wind turbine but it is an offshore wind turbine nonetheless. It only took a couple of decades to begin offshore wind in the US, while Scotland, Germany, and other countries zoomed ahead of us. But we are in the game now, with potentially huge wind farms coming. W00t!
The 65-foot-tall VolturnsUS 1:8 prototype is a small-scale model of the giant 6-megawatt turbines the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center and its partners in the DeepCWind Costortium hope to have in the water someday. They believe that by 2030 they can grab 5 gigawatts of power with a large array of turbines some 20 miles off the coast, away from conflicts and where the winds blow strong and consistent.