The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced a $20 million investment in offshore wind energy resource characterization and technology demonstrations. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) supports offshore wind development by improving the ability to forecast energy production and by demonstrating innovative technologies not yet deployed at commercial scale. By providing funding, technical assistance and government coordination, the DOE can help lower the cost of energy and technology risk, enabling continued cost-effective deployment of wind power.
Two topic areas are covered, which include:
- The overall goal of these projects is to improve wind resource characterization and modeling in offshore wind energy development areas, in order to more accurately predict the power output of future offshore wind projects and integrate this power more seamlessly into the grid. Additionally, this goal will build off of previous land-based wind resource characterization work and collaborate with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
- The overall goal of these projects is to enable the demonstration of a new technology and/or methodology, thus advancing the state of wind energy in the U.S. Proposed projects must either a) implement an innovative technology and/or b) employ a methodology that has yet to be used in the U.S. for offshore wind, at an offshore project that is planned to be operational by 2025.
Concept papers for this funding opportunity are due Thursday, April 30, 2020, and full applications are due on Thursday, July 9, 2020 at 5 p.m. EST. For more information, see the original release or visit the EERE Exchange website.