UMaine continues to develop floating concrete wind turbine

BANGOR, Maine (WABI) - A top official with the U.S. Department of Energy made a stop at the UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center Thursday.

Paul Dabbar visited the Orono facility to look at the latest technologies researchers are developing.

His stop focused on the VolturnUS floating concrete hull which also supports a wind turbine.

It was designed to reduce the cost of offshore wind energy in Maine.

This project is expected to be completed in 2023.

“Their next step here is to scale up this test to something bigger next year. Once they do that, next step is for them to have a full-scale large turbine, the largest turbine available in the world down the road. So, I think they’ll be starting testing on this in about a year at this facility.”

While there, he also saw a demonstration of the world’s largest polymer 3-D printer.

You can learn more about the work at the center by visiting composites.umaine.edu.

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