The US Department of Energy’s National Offshore Wind R&D Consortium has issued a request for proposals to secure funding for research and development in several areas.
One area is plant technology advancement, such as optimising the performance of wind farms, reducing the costs of foundations, developing innovative mooring and anchoring technologies for floating wind, and reducing the cost and risk associated with the transmission and distribution of electricity from offshore wind projects.
Another topic covers installation, operations and maintenance and the supply chain.
This includes heavy lift vessel alternatives, digitisation of offshore wind through advanced analytics, and technologies to accelerate US supply chain development.
A third area involves offshore wind power resource and physical site characterisation, such as wind resource assessment and the development of a metocean reference site.
The National Offshore Wind R&D Consortium aims to conduct research and development to address technological barriers and lower the costs and risks of offshore wind in the US.
It is administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.