Offshore Wind Wire

By Peter Brennan

The University of Maine received a $12.4 million federal stimulus grant Friday to build a laboratory that will develop cutting edge offshore wind power technology.

School officials will use the funding to build the Advanced Nanocomposites in Renewable Energy Laboratory at UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center.

The laboratory “will be the only facility of its kind in the United States to include complete development capabilities for designing, prototyping and testing large structural hybrid composite and nanocomposite components for the deep water offshore wind energy industry,” the university said in a press release.

The grant is a boost for the state, which is pushing to become a leader in offshore wind development.  State officials are also trying to position the university as a center for deep water wind turbine research and development.  In December, Governor John Baldacci selected three deepwater offshore wind test sites and gave control of one of those locations to the university.  Last year the school headed up a consortium that received $8 million in stimulus funding for deep water turbine research.

Last week’s stimulus funding came from the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology.  It was part of a 12-school, $250 million grant to develop new, advanced laboratories nationwide, according to Commerce documents.

In a Dec. 11 letter to the Commerce Department, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) campaigned for the new laboratory funding and said the project was “critical” to developing floating deepwater offshore wind technology.  The laboratory is scheduled to be completed in early 2011.

“Once complete, the Advanced Nancomposites in Renewable Energy Laboratory would be a unique national facility with the capabilities to design, manufacture and test advanced composites components for offshore wind facilities,” Collins wrote.