DURHAM, N.H.—The University of New Hampshire is getting $700,000 in federal stimulus funds to help develop three deepwater wind energy test sites in the Gulf of Maine.
The money is part of $8 million going to a consortium of schools led by the University of Maine. UNH's role involves deploying and testing the first prototype floating structure with a wind turbine. The goal is to install the turbine in the next year just south of the Isles of Shoals.
While other offshore wind projects consist of turbines mounted on shafts sunk into the ocean floor in relatively shallow water, deepwater wind uses floating turbines moored to the ocean floor. The only other deepwater wind energy facility in the world is in Norway.
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