Maine researcher tests new (offshore) wind turbine design

[jpak]

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20081208-NEWS-81208025

ORONO, Maine (AP) — Building the ideal wind turbine for offshore waters is no simple feat.

At the University of Maine's Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center, researchers are designing, manufacturing and testing windmill blades and towers in search of a solution.

Habib Dagher, director of the center, is working with a number of companies on developing wind turbine technology that is suitable for conditions that are found where waters are hundreds of feet deep, out of sight from land. Out there, waves can swell 40 feet and winds can roar at 80 mph or more.

First, Dagher said, such a wind turbine must be big — a 300-foot tower from the water to the hub of the turbine with blades that are 200 feet long. By comparison, land-based windmills are typically about 240 feet tall with 130-foot blades.

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