Advanced Structures & Composites Center

The 12MW Maine Aqua Ventus offshore wind project cleared a critical hurdle today when state regulators approved a term sheet for a long-term energy contract. The Maine Public Utilities Commission voted 2-to-1 to accept the proponent’s bid to produce an estimated 43,000MWh/year at a price of 23 cents/kWh. The price shall increase 2.25% annually for […]

Cape Wind is probably the most famous wind farm in the United States, which is especially telling because it doesn’t exist. Its planned 130 turbines in Massachusetts’ Nantucket Sound have been controversial enough to receive national attention — both supporting and opposing the project — ever since developers announced it in 2001. After years of […]

Maine Aqua Ventus GP LLC released yesterday the public version of its proposal to develop a groundbreaking offshore wind project in the Gulf of Maine, called Maine Aqua Ventus I. This follows the last-month’s ruling by the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC), according to which Maine Aqua Ventus should release some of the details on its offshore […]

This morning, Maine Aqua Ventus GP LLC released the public version of its proposal to develop a groundbreaking offshore wind project in the Gulf of Maine, called Maine Aqua Ventus I. Maine Aqua Ventus I is the state’s only still-active offshore wind opportunity and is competing nationally against projects in five other states for grant funding […]

(CBS News) NEW YORK – As we head into another season of air conditioning bills, there’s an alternative source of energy picking up speed: harnessing wind power. One pilot program which is off the ground and out to sea. With a christening on the Penobscot River, VolturnUS was launched — the nation’s first floating turbine […]

The first floating wind turbine in U.S. history went upright and onto the water in Brewer, Maine, on Friday, on its way to being put in place and connected to the grid off the coast near the town of Castine. The 65-foot-tall VolturnUS 1:8 prototype is a small-scale model of the giant 6-megawatt turbines the University of Maine’s Advanced […]

The first grid-connected offshore floating wind turbinein the United States is now afloat, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The concrete-composite floating platform wind turbine was deployed off the coast of Castine, Maine by a team led by the University of Maine. Learn more, here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2013/06/03/maine-makes-waves-with-americas-first-offshore-floating-wind-turbine/

General Event Information: The University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center’s launch of VolturnUS 1:8, the first grid-connected offshore wind turbine to be deployed off the coast of North America, will be held at Cianbro, 517 South Main Street, Brewer, Maine on May 31, 2013. This event begins at 11 am and lasts until 1 […]

Habib Dagher, the director of the Advanced Structures and Composites Center, is busy planning the first phase of a “potential $93.2 million deepwater offshore wind demonstration project by the U.S. Department of Energy.The DOE held a competition to screen proposals for clean energy that would jumpstart wind farms in the United States. Seventy competitors submitted proposals for a chance […]

The UMaine Composites Centre-led team of industry leaders and national laboratories is one of five awardees selected from over 70 competing proposals. In this initial phase, each project will receive up to $4 million to complete the engineering, design and permitting phase of this award. In a year, DOE will select up to three of these projects for […]