WABI Reports on New Wind and Wave Facility
WABI (Channel 5) reported on the new wind and wave laboratory being built at the University of Maine. Earlier this summer, UMaine broke ground for an $8 million facility that will house W² — the world’s first wind and wave lab to feature a rotating open-jet wind tunnel above a 100-foot-long by 30-foot-wide by 15-foot-deep wave basin. Waves and wind can be created from different directions converging at a point and creating a storm. The W² facility is an expansion of the UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center. “We’ve surveyed over 50 companies across the U.S. that are in different sectors — in the oil and gas sector, in the ocean energy sector, as well as in the boat-building sector. And they all are excited about a facility like this, where they can come and test their devices,” said Habib Dagher, director of the UMaine Composites Center. “If you’ve seen the movie ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,’ essentially we’ll be shrinking ships here, we’ll be shrinking offshore wind devices, tidal devices and testing them here under these extreme storms.” The Maine Edge also carried a report about the facility.