US Floating Offshore Wind Business To Deal with Maine

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With its tough, rocky coast, the US state of Maine could seem one of many least seemingly locations to launch an offshore wind trade. Nonetheless, the Granite State has been prepping for such an occasion all through the early 2000s, and all their goals simply would possibly come true.

One other Large Step For The Maine Offshore Wind Business

The large information round Maine is the environmental overview for a brand new offshore lease space. In a press release issued simply yesterday, the US Bureau of Ocean Power Administration introduced that it has awarded a Ultimate Environmental Evaluation for a research-scale offshore wind web site southeast of Portland, Maine.

“After fastidiously contemplating options described and analyzed within the Ultimate EA, in addition to feedback from the general public and cooperating and consulting businesses on the Draft EA, BOEM finds that the issuance of a wind vitality analysis lease inside the proposed lease space offshore Maine, and associated web site characterization and web site evaluation actions, would don’t have any vital affect on the setting,” BOEM acknowledged.

The plan is to launch as much as 12 wind generators within the offshore space, with a mixed capability of as much as 144 megawatts.

That’s small potatoes in comparison with different offshore websites alongside the Atlantic coast, however it’s an enormous step for a state that’s keen to tackle distinctive challenges within the offshore wind space. If all goes based on plan, BOEM anticipates that the Gulf of Maine may yield as much as 15 gigawatts’ value of unpolluted offshore kilowatts.

The characterization of the lease space as a analysis web site additionally signifies that BOEM can transfer the approval course of ahead with out having to problem an Environmental Influence Assertion, which is required below the Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act for industrial offshore wind leases.

Floating Offshore Wind Generators To The Rescue

In case you’re questioning how Maine goes to take care of its less-than-optimal shoreline, that’s a great query. Other than the rocks and the weird tidal exercise in some areas, a lot of the state’s prime wind assets are situated in water too deep for the typical offshore generators seen elsewhere alongside the Atlantic coast, perching on prime of tall monopiles sunk into the seabed.

The reply is new floating offshore wind know-how. As a substitute of sitting on monopiles, floating wind generators deploy on platforms which can be tethered to the seabed by cables.

In comparison with monopile generators, floating wind generators contain a way more complicated feat of engineering, which explains why they’re solely simply starting to emerge within the offshore wind trade (see extra floating turbine tales right here).

Floating Wind Generators For The USA

The US Division of Power has been supporting floating wind analysis packages right here within the US, solely to see the know-how float off to France and elsewhere.

A part of the problem is the comparatively excessive price of floating platforms. That’s an angle researchers in Maine have been exploring for years, and progress has been a very long time coming.

CleanTechnica caught up with the state of affairs again in 2019, after we famous that wind followers within the state “suffered a disappointing blow” a number of years earlier than, in 2014.

“[F]ormer Governor Paul LePage ixnayed a huge offshore wind proposal from Statoil, however he did greenlight a extra modest floating wind turbine R&D undertaking involving the College of Maine’s 1/8 scale VolturnUS floating wind turbine prototype, spearheaded by the agency Maine Aqua Ventus,” CleanTechnica famous.

“A beneficiant grant from the US Division of Power sweetened the pot, and now it appears to be like like all that onerous work is about to repay,” we added.

In reply to the platform problem, VolturnUS deploys concrete to assist scale back prices. “The College of Maine’s patented VolturnUS is a transformational floating concrete hull know-how to harness offshore wind vitality with the potential to considerably scale back the fee of offshore wind,” the varsity explains.

“VolturnUS can assist wind generators in water depths of 45 meters or extra,” the varsity additionally notes.

Native Sourcing Is The Key

Concrete is just not the primary materials that involves thoughts for flotation. Nonetheless, the varsity’s Superior Buildings & Composites Middle on the College of Maine, explains that the hull design was “impressed and constructed like an upside-down bridge” to resolve that problem.

CleanTechnica caught up with the undertaking final fall, after we noticed that the College of Maine undertaking has been listening to native sourcing as a further cost-cutting technique.

“ASCC notes that the brand new hull deploys customary pre-cast bridge building strategies that may be deployed virtually anyplace on the planet. In contrast to metal building, the supplies may be domestically sourced, and the developer could make use of native labor,” we famous.

Concrete additionally avoids the corrosion dangers that bedevil metal parts, which can assist scale back lifetime upkeep prices. “One other benefit is the heavier weight of the concrete construction, which acts as a cushion towards wave movement,” we additionally famous.

Subsequent Steps For Maine Offshore Wind Business

Don’t get too enthusiastic about Maine simply but. Other than know-how challenges, Maine Governor Janet Mills is going through blowback towards her administration’s number of undeveloped land on Sears Island to develop as an offshore companies hub and port facility.

Nonetheless, Governor Mills and different policymakers should not about to tug one other Paul LePage on the state’s offshore wind stakeholders. Fairly the other, in truth. Other than accessing zero-emission electrical energy within the age of local weather change, state policymakers have been eyeballing offshore wind as a serious new job-creating trade for Maine, together with tutorial and analysis positions.

Final 12 months, Maine issued an in depth roadmap for the state’s floating wind trade, in direction of a purpose of three,000 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2040.

Amongst different particulars, the roadmap additionally takes word of modern offshore know-how developed by the College of Maine. Along with the VolturnUS concrete hull, the Maine Offshore Wind Roadmap lists a floating LIDAR system referred to as referred to as “DeepCLi-DAR,” developed as to evaluate wind assets. The Roadmap additionally describes new reduced-impact artificial mooring strains and “the biggest polymer 3D printer that can be utilized within the manufacturing of composite parts and tooling.”

As of final 12 months, issues have been shifting alongside at a great clip in direction of floating a full scale, 11-megawatt demonstration turbine out to sea, below the wing of the agency New England Aqua Ventus. Initially, NEAV was a three way partnership of the College of Maine, RWE Renewables, and the Diamond Offshore Wind department of Mitsubishi. RWE reached out to CleanTechnica with an replace final fall, to tell us that the corporate was promoting its shares in NEAV to Diamond Offshore Wind, together with its shares within the Maine Analysis Array.

“The corporate stays optimistic about future industrial alternatives, together with within the Gulf of Maine, to ship floating offshore wind at scale into New England,” RWE instructed CleanTechnica.

As for Maine, the state is decided to grid-connect its floating turbine earlier than another state within the US, so keep tuned for extra on that.

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Picture (screenshot): Maine Offshore Wind Roadmap February 2023.