The University of Maine's Advanced Structures and Composites Center was recently awarded a federal grant for its floating wind farm project from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The UMaine project was one of five selected from more than 70 proposals to receive money to move to the next phase of the project.

These projects have the potential to receive up to $47 million each over a 4-year period, subject to congressional appropriations.

Dr. Habib Dagher, Advanced Structures and Composites Center director and principal investigator for the project, said in a release he was pleased to see the project go to the next phase.

“We are pleased that the DOE has selected our team's program after a rigorous technical review,” he said. “This (research and development) program could be transformational for our state, and will help us demonstrate a unique, patent pending floating wind turbine technology called VolturnUS.”

This spring, a one-eighth scale model of a wind turbine will be deployed offshore from Monhegan Island.

The composites center is expected to partner with private enterprises for another $40 million in funding for the project

“The United States has tremendous untapped clean energy resources and it is important for us to develop technologies that will allow us to utilize those resources in ways that are economically viable,” said Steve Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy, in a release. “Today's announcement of awards to the first offshore wind projects in the US paves the way to a cleaner, more sustainable and more diverse domestic energy portfolio that develops every source of American energy.”

See also: Statoil and University of Maine get millions in wind energy grants