NOWRDC makes US$9M available to advance offshore wind Innovation

The announcement advances the consortium’s long-term strategy to identify innovative technology to further drive down costs of offshore wind development in the US.

The solicitation, open to companies and academic and research institutions, seeks new solutions that remove barriers and address issues essential for cost reduction, deployment, and industry growth in the US.

Proposals should demonstrate technology with a high potential for replicability, providing a feasible path to commercialisation that delivers benefits to multiple categories of end-users.

The solicitation has three rounds, each containing multiple challenge areas: Round 1: enabling large-scale turbines; Round 2: support structure innovation and supply chain; Round 3: electrical systems and innovation; mitigation of use conflicts.

Consortium executive director Carrie Cullen Hitt said, “I am pleased to release this opportunity for offshore wind research. The challenge areas reflect critical topics identified by industry to move development forward by lowering costs and furthering the US supply chain.”

Vice chairman of the consortium and chairman of the research and development committee Jan Matthiesen said, “This industry-led R&D initiative has already demonstrated its role in offshore wind innovation. Building on the success of the prior solicitation of the National Offshore Wind R&D Consortium, we look forward to awarding additional high-calibre projects through this second solicitation.”

Over the past 12 months, 20 projects received awards from the consortium, representing over US$17.3M in funding.

The consortium, a not-for-profit organisation, supports cost-effective and responsible development of offshore wind to maximise economic benefits to the US. It was established in 2018 when the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority was awarded US$18.5M from the US Department of Energy. In addition to New York’s ongoing support, the Commonwealths of Virginia and Massachusetts and the State of Maryland now also contribute to the consortium’s funding.

Interested proposers can find more details about the solicitation, including challenge areas within these rounds, here.