The Portland (ME) Press Herald reports that a study from the
University of Maine shows that floating giant wind turbines 10
miles off the coast could be producing electricity for just 8-10
cents a kilowatt hour, on par with current costs: Building
floating platforms on land and towing them to their deepwater
locations will be much cheaper than erecting turbine towers on
the sea floor, researchers say. Seabed turbines are common in
Europe and are the preferred design for proposed wind farms in
shallow waters off the East Coast of the United States. These
projections are part of an exhaustive study of the feasibility
of offshore wind in Maine that’s aimed at energy developers
around the world. The $1 million study, paid for by the federal
Department of Energy, is meant to answer many questions that
developers will have about whether it makes sense to invest in
the Gulf of Maine… This demonstration, with a total capacity of
25 megawatts, will be too small and experimental to produce
market rate power, according