Over $10 million awarded for projects advancing US offshore wind –

Yesterday,
The National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium announced the
selection of twelve projects for contract negotiation, completing its first solicitation
for offshore wind research and development technology projects.

The awards, totaling
$10.3 million, will support a variety of research areas, including U.S. supply
chain analysis, a study of impacts of offshore wind on the electric grid system
and innovations in anchoring structures.

The Consortium’s efforts were realized through a competitive
solicitation, closed in December 2019. The awarded projects include:

• Demonstration of Shallow-Water Mooring Components for FOWTs
  (ShallowFloat), Principal Power, Inc.
• 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, Inc
• 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, Inc.
• 20GW by 2035: Supply Chain Roadmap for Offshore
  Wind in the US, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

In addition to these projects, eight projects
received funding from the Consortium last year, bringing the total project
funded to as estimated $17.3 million, according to the organization.

The Consortium was awarded $18.5 million from the
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 2018 and was established as the first
federally funded public-private partnership focused on advancing offshore wind
technology in the United States.

Carrie Cullen Hitt, Executive Director, National
Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium, said, “Today’s announcement
builds on our collective commitment to drive down costs and make offshore wind
more a competitive alternative in generating energy.”

Also, 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 US supply chain in ways that attract new jobs and private
sector investments.”