ENR reports on wave energy device testing in new lab
Engineering News-Record (ENR) reported three ocean engineering firms in January completed testing of wave energy converters, gauging how they will respond to severe offshore storms, at the University of Maine’s Harold Alfond W2 Ocean Engineering Lab. The lab, which opened in November, houses the world’s first offshore wind-wave test basin with a rotating open-jet wind tunnel over a multidirectional wave basin that mimics severe storms at sea, said Habib Dagher, director of the UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center. The lab is one of five U.S. facilities selected to conduct 1:50-scale testing as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s $2.25 million Wave Energy Prize competition, according to the article. The 20-month design-build-test competition seeks to drive innovation in wave-energy devices through a rigorous testing program, the article states. “Helping to identify the best ideas in the U.S. to convert wave energy into electricity is yet another way that UMaine participates in developing clean, low-cost, domestic renewable energy,” Dagher said.