This wave pool might look like something on a Hollywood film set, but it's actually being used by researchers to develop wind turbines capable of capturing strong winds off the Coast of Maine.

We started working on offshore wind in the state of Maine close to about 17 years ago. Just to give you a sense, if we harness just about 3% of the offshore wind resource within 50 miles in the Gulf of Maine, we can heat every home and drive every car. Just 3% Every single home. Yeah, exactly.

But because the sea floor drastically dips, wind turbines can't be bolted to the bottom of the ocean. So Dr. Habib Dager leads a team of engineers working to create cutting-edge floating technology that's capable of sitting on the surface of the ocean, even where the sea floor is 150 feet deep.

What you see behind you is what we call a semi-submersible. It's three stabilization pontoons. So when the wind blows, those pontoons basically basically give it the stability to keep it from just toppling over.

This is a scaled-down version. The real one will be 70 times bigger, and just a single turn of one of those turbines can generate enough energy to power a home for at least a day. Now it's time for the stress test. This 100-foot long, 15-foot deep wave pool mimics the strong winds and waves the turbines would encounter during the worst storms.

You could see the waves have gotten bigger. The wind, you could feel the wind coming in right now.

They're even big just for us to look at.

Exactly.

If it's hard to imagine these waves in real life, take a look at this little guy. He represents a 6-foot man standing at the base of a turbine that's around 800 feet tall.

Even in an extreme storm like that, it's staying fairly stable, which is really what this design is supposed to do.

About 80% of Americans live within 200 miles of the Coast, making a case for offshore winds access to affordable and reliable power. But despite that, some people are concerned about investing in offshore wind infrastructure.

Does this make any sense at all to spend this much money, this much effort on a technology that's expensive, where we don't know all the answers? Absolutely not. The answer is just a flat no.

Dr. Dauger, on the other hand, has no doubts that this renewable energy technology is worth it.

The new generation wants to have more energy. The new generation wants a cleaner environment because the new generation has to live in a world that otherwise would be much more difficult to live in because of climate change. The sun's always going to shine and the wind's always going to blow. I'm very hopeful that regardless of where the policy takes us, we're going to get there.

Maura Barrett, NBC News, Bangor, Maine.

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