Plans are to use a commercially available three-blade horizontal axis turbine. Although originally envisioned as one-third scale, about 100-feet to hub, it could be one-sixth, according to Habib Dagher, principal investigator of the 35-member public-private consortium, whose mission is to establish the state as a national leader in deepwater offshore wind technology.
“The actual scale is not finalized. We’re design-sizing the platform,” says Elizabeth Viselli, a spokeswoman for the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center, a consortium member that is overseeing design of the floater, materials selection and all testing stages.
That
