By WPED Staff | June 5, 2020
The National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium announced selection of 12 projects for contract negotiation, completing its first solicitation for offshore wind research and development technology projects. The 12 awards totaling $10.3 million will support a variety of research areas, including comprehensive U.S. supply chain analyses, studying the impacts of offshore wind on the electric grid system, and innovations in anchoring structures.
“The Consortium is excited to advance offshore wind deployment in the U.S. by supporting these innovation and research projects,” said Carrie Cullen Hitt, Executive Director, National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium. “Today’s announcement builds on our collective commitment to drive down costs and make offshore wind more a competitive alternative in generating energy.”
Vincent Schellings, GM for Engineering & Product Development, Offshore Wind at GE Renewables, said, “The National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium is a model for how you bring public and private sector interests together to advance our clean energy future. Through the Consortium, we’re able to harness critical funding resources and focus them on the right initiatives to advance the offshore industry and ultimately expand the U.S. supply chain in ways that attract new jobs and private sector investments.”
The Consortium’s efforts were realized through a competitive solicitation which closed in December 2019. The awarded projects include:
- Demonstration of Shallow-Water Mooring Components for FOWTs (ShallowFloat), Principle Power
- Design and Certification of Taut-synthetic Moorings for Floating Wind Turbines, University of Maine
- Dual-Functional Tuned Inerter Damper for Enhanced Semi-Sub Offshore Wind Turbine, Virginia Tech University
- Innovative Anchoring System for Floating Offshore Wind, Triton Systems
- Techno-Economic Mooring Configuration and Design for Floating Offshore Wind, University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Development of Advanced Methods for Evaluating Grid Stability Impacts, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- Development of a Metocean Reference Site near the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Wind Energy Areas, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
- Enabling Condition Based Maintenance for Offshore Wind, General Electric
- Physics Based Digital Twins for Optimal Asset Management, Tufts University
- Radar Based Wake Optimization of Offshore Wind Farms, General Electric
- Survival Modeling for Offshore Wind Prognostics, Tagup
- 20 GW by 2035: Supply Chain Roadmap for Offshore Wind in the U.S., National Renewable Energy Laboratory
In addition to these projects, eight projects previously received funding from the Consortium last year, bringing the total projects funded to over $17.3 million. The full listing of the projects that have been funded by the Consortium is available here.
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