US-Denmark Partnership Reveals USD 4.2 Million Opportunity to Boost Floating Offshore Wind | Offshore Wind - Offshore WIND
US-Denmark Partnership Reveals USD 4.2 Million Opportunity to Boost Floating Offshore Wind | Offshore Wind
US-Denmark Partnership Reveals USD 4.2 Million Opportunity to Boost Floating Offshore Wind
The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Offices (WETO) and Innovation Fund Denmark are planning to release a USD 4.2 million opportunity to advance floating offshore wind.
The announcement builds on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between DOE, the Denmark Ministry of Higher Education and Science, the Denmark Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities, and the Innovation Fund Denmark signed in 2021.
The joint funding will specifically target the improvement of mooring technologies and methods used to secure floating platforms to the seafloor, according to DOE.
DOE and Innovation Fund Denmark are seeking proposals addressing five topic areas: compatibility strategies for mooring, cabling, and coexistence; mass-producible, high-reliability moorings; novel station-keeping systems and components; monitoring and inspection technologies for moorings; open topic: research and development that more broadly support mooring systems for industry-scale deployment of floating offshore wind.
This is a joint funding opportunity between the US and Denmark to advance the global floating offshore wind industry by encouraging bilateral collaboration to increase the impact of research and development in each country, according to DOE.
“About two-thirds of U.S. offshore wind energy potential exists over waters too deep for today’s fixed-bottom wind turbine foundations, and instead require floating platforms. This partnership between DOE and Innovation Fund Denmark will advance floating offshore wind R&D to further each nation’s respective climate goals,” said Geri Richmond, DOE Under Secretary for Science & Innovation.
“This effort supports the Floating Offshore Wind ShotTM, a target to reduce the cost of floating offshore wind in the U.S. 70% by 2035.”
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Innovation Fund Denmark and WETO are each contributing approximately USD 2 million.
Performing teams must include both US and Danish entities collaborating on each awarded project and should include significant effort from both US and Danish partners, DOE said.
According to the department, US applicants must include minority-serving institutions and can involve other US participants.
The funding is expected to be released this spring with four or more projects planned to be awarded.
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Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.