Maine plans for floating-turbine ocean wind farms get federal funding

Tux Turkel at the Portland Press-Herald writes that two Maine-based projects to develop floating ocean wind farms got $4 million each in federal funds. They are among 7 projects nationally that got $28 million, total (NY Times item). From Turkel's story:

A team led by the University of Maine at Orono plans to install a pilot floating offshore wind farm with two, 6-megawatt direct-drive turbines on concrete, semi-submersible foundations. The turbines will rise 300 feet above the ocean – taller than the Washington Monument – and have blades 500-feet in diameter.

Additionally, a project led by Stamford, Connecticut-based Statoil North America plans to deploy four 3-megawatt wind turbines on floating spar buoy structures off Boothbay Harbor, at a water depth of approximately 460 feet.

These spar buoys and the University of Maine project will be assembled in a harbor to help reduce installation costs, and then towed to the site to access extensive deep-water offshore wind resources. Floating wind turbines can be placed further offshore, so they aren’t visible from land.

Here's the whole story.

Here's more about the Statoil project, called Hywind.