The Department of Energy is launching a new competition to attract US companies to design and build floating wind turbines for offshore areas.
The competition offers a combination of $5.75 million in prize money and up to $1.1 million in assistance from Department of Energy laboratories. The goal is to encourage companies and inventors to design mass-produced platforms called “floats”.
In doing so, the Biden administration seeks to overcome a major obstacle to offshore wind energy.
In waters deeper than 200 feet, conventional wind turbines built on foundations that extend to the ocean floor become too expensive, said Walter Musial, principal engineer at DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
This currently prevents wind energy from being harvested in about two-thirds of U.S. offshore areas where wind turbines might be close to population centers, he explained in an interview.
A few oil and gas rigs have been built to operate on floating platforms and moored by ropes or chains to the bottom in high energy areas. “But what oil and gas companies have never done is mass-produce their structures. Most floating oil rigs are [a] unique,” Musial said.
“We want to industrialize this,” he added, noting that some foreign countries are building supply chains capable of producing multiple floating platforms.
The Biden administration and the recently passed Cut Inflation Act have focused on renewable energy projects that create more American jobs, especially in economically disadvantaged areas, he pointed out. . “We want to build supply chains here.”
Deep offshore waters are a barrier to wind power generation along the entire West Coast, the East Coast above Cape Cod and around Hawaii, he noted. And in some areas where there is shallow water nearby, moving the turbines farther away would reduce conflict with fishing companies and with coastal residents who value their views.
The objective of the competition, officially called the Floating Offshore Wind Readiness Prize, or FLOWIN, is to help produce approximately 1,000 15-megawatt floats with turbines generating roughly enough clean electricity to power approximately 5 million households.
The competition will consist of three phases. The first phase, which ends in mid-January, is designed to attract teams who have ideas for commercial technologies that would reduce the cost of floats. Up to eight winners would receive $100,000 in cash and move on to a second round where each team would develop a path for mass production and assembly. Up to five winners would receive $450,000 in cash and vouchers for $100,000 in technical support from Department of Energy laboratories.
They would compete in a third phase and develop plans for production and deployment in specific US regions. (The floats are designed to be assembled in ports and then towed to offshore locations.) Up to three potential contest winners would each receive $900,000 in cash.
Reprinted from E&E news courtesy of POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2022. E&E News provides essential information for energy and environmental professionals.