The VolturnUS is a floating concrete structure that supports a wind turbine, designed by University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center and deployed by DeepCwind Consortium in 2013. The VolturnUS can support wind turbines in water depths of or more. The DeepCwind Consortium and its partners deployed a 1:8 scale VolturnUS in 2013. Efforts are now underway by Maine Aqua Ventus 1, GP, LLC, to deploy to full-scale VolturnUS structures off the coast of Monhegan Island, Maine, in the UMaine Deepwater Offshore Wind Test Site. This demonstration project, known as New England Aqua Ventus I, is planned to deploy two 6 MW wind turbines by 2020. The

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universities, flagshi ...

announced in September 2017 that its VolturnUS design became the first floating offshore wind turbine to meet

American Bureau of Shipping American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

requirements for floating offshore wind turbines, demonstrating the feasibility of the VolturnUS concept. The design review was conducted against the

(ABS) Guide for Building and Classing Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Installations.

History

North America’s first floating grid-connected wind turbine was lowered into the

Penobscot River The Penobscot River (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 22, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Maine. Including the river's We ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

on 31 May 2013 by the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center and its partners. The VolturnUS 1:8 was towed down the Penobscot River where it was deployed for 18 months in Castine, ME, along with a UMaine-developed floating

LiDAR Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...

. The prototype employs a 20 kW Renewegy VP-20 wind turbine with a rotor. It is tall - that is 1:8 the scale of a 6-megawatt (MW), rotor diameter design. The VolturnUS design utilizes a concrete semi-submersible floating hull and a composite materials tower designed to reduce both capital and operation & maintenance costs, and to allow local manufacturing throughout the US and the world. The VolturnUS technology is the culmination of collaborative research and development conducted by the University of Maine-led DeepCwind Consortium. During its deployment, it experienced numerous storm events representative of design environmental conditions prescribed by the American Bureau of Shipping Guide for Building and Classing Floating Offshore Wind Turbines, 2013. It was taken out of the water in November 2014. VolturnUS' floating concrete hull technology can support wind turbines in water depths of or more, and has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of offshore wind. With 12 independent cost estimates from around the U.S. and the world, it has been found to significantly reduce costs compared to existing floating systems. The design has also received a complete third-party engineering review.

Scaling up

In June 2016, the UMaine-led New England Aqua Ventus I project won top tier status from the

US Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United State ...

(DOE) Advanced Technology Demonstration Program for Offshore Wind. This means that the New England Aqua Ventus project is now automatically eligible for an additional $39.9 million in construction funding from the DOE, as long as the project continues to meet its milestones. The developer asserts that the New England Aqua Ventus I project will likely become the first commercial scale floating wind project in the Americas. U.S. Senators

Susan Collins Susan Margaret Collins (born December 7, 1952) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Maine. A member of the Republican Party, she has held her seat since 1997 and is Maine's longest-serving member of Co ...

and

Angus King Angus Stanley King Jr. (born March 31, 1944) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Maine since 2013. A political independent since 1993, he previously served as the 72nd governor of Maine from 1995 ...

announced in June 2016 that Maine’s New England Aqua Ventus I floating offshore wind demonstration project was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to participate in the Offshore Wind Advanced Technology Demonstration program. The project is opposed by Senator Dow with Bill LR1613. New England Aqua Ventus I is one of two leading projects that are each eligible for up to $39.9 million in additional funding over three years for the construction phase of the demonstration program. In 2020, UMaine expected costs to be $74/MWh by 2027 and $57/MWh by 2032. In 2021, Maine applied for an offshore test area.

References

{{reflist

External links

Aqua Ventus I
wind farm website
Advance Structures and Composites Center - VoluturnUS
Wind power in Maine Offshore engineering Renewable energy policy in the United States University of Maine Floating wind turbines

History

Scaling up

See also

References

External links