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United States Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu will be visiting the University of Maine on June 14 to tour the Advanced Engineering Wood Composites Center and learn more about the facility’s work on offshore wind turbines, according to a Wednesday press release from Gov. John Baldacci’s office.
The facility is leading the DeepCwind Consortium, a group of universities, governmental entities, private companies and nonprofit organizations now working on a prototype for an offshore wind turbine near Monhegan Island.
The Department of Energy is a partner in that project. In October 2009, the department gave AEWC an $8 million dollar grant for the research and development of the turbines, according to an article that month in The Maine Campus.
A July 2008 report from the Department of Energy stated the goal of harnessing 20 percent of the nation’s power from wind by the year 2030.
In January, AEWC received a $12.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce to build a new 30,000 square-foot laboratory where researchers will test ideas for the turbines. The lab is expected to be completed by spring 2011, according to a January brief in The Maine Campus.
“I am pleased that Secretary Chu will see firsthand the groundbreaking work on alternative energy being conducted by [AEWC director] Dr. Habib Dagher and the other scientists at the Center,” Baldacci said in the press release. “The federal government has been very supportive of the deepwater wind project, and has been a real partner in Maine’s efforts to develop a more stable and secure energy supply that is renewable and will create jobs here in Maine.”
Chu accepted the invitation from Sen. Susan Collins, who will visit the facility with him.
