The U.S. Department of Energy has selected finalists in an ongoing competition to accelerate technology development and commercialization of floating offshore wind energy. This is part of a broader government initiative aimed at accelerating floating offshore wind farms.
The government says floating offshore wind has the potential to supply large amounts of renewable energy, but new technologies are needed to make floating turbine manufacturing and installation more economical and efficient. I believe that manufacturing will be necessary. According to US research, floating turbines could produce 2.8 terawatts of electricity in the US alone, which would be more than double the current US electricity consumption. Approximately two-thirds of the U.S.'s offshore wind potential is in ocean areas where floating and fixed-bottom turbines are more practical and cost-effective. The Biden administration has set a goal of installing 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind by 2035.
Floating offshore wind farms may be one of the biggest challenges in the transition to clean energy. The export highlights that these structures may be the largest man-made structures ever constructed. These must be able to float and maintain operation in high wind regions of the ocean that are too deep for current fixed-bottom offshore wind turbines.
The FLOWIN (American-Made FLoating Offshore Wind ReadINess) competition was launched to bring together the design, manufacturing, supply chain, and transportation components needed to deploy floating wind turbines. This is a three-phase contest, with nine Phase 1 winners to be announced in March 2023.
In Phase 2, which was just completed, these companies faced the challenge of adapting the design to production. They faced the challenge of planning for mass production, assembly, and deployment. They were also required to submit cost estimates and production throughput analysis. The competition is run by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The five second-stage award winners each received $450,000 in cash and $100,000 in credits for technical assistance at Department of Energy national laboratories. The overall FLOWIN competition funding pool totals $5.85 million, plus up to $1.175 million in technical support vouchers from DOE National Laboratories.
PelaStar, Glosten's lightweight tension leg platform technology, is one of the Phase 2 winners. The PelaStar partnership, which includes Everett Floating Structures, FibreMax, Avient-Dyneema, GMC Limited, Triton Anchor, Havfram, Foss Offshore Wind, Geodis, TRC, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, presented aggressive deployment plans. They proposed an approach to assemble and install one 15MW floating wind turbine every week starting in the early 2030s.
Other finalists include WindFloat, FloatHOME's triangular platform; Developed in collaboration with backers such as Principle Power and Aker Solutions, the product features features such as a damping system that absorbs wave-excited motion, and is designed to provide stability in deep water. It's a generation.
Technip Energies' INO15 design is a semi-submersible three-row floating platform. This design can be assembled at a low cost at the port and is robust enough to withstand harsh operating environments. The Tetra Triple-One floating platform uses a building block arrangement to completely produce the required parts in an industrialized manufacturing environment and transport them to the assembly site. This allows portside construction for a variety of platform configurations, turbine sizes, and site conditions.
Finally, the WHEEL US concept incorporates tanks for buoyancy and balance, and can serve as a temporary barge platform, assembled with wind turbines near shore and towed out to sea.
These teams will advance to the final award phase and complete a location-specific implementation pathway for domestic manufacturing and deployment of floating offshore wind energy technology. Up to three winners of Phase 3 will each receive his $900,000 prize.
It is also part of a broader Biden administration interagency effort, including DOE, Interior, Commerce, and Transportation, to advance U.S. leadership in the design, deployment, and manufacturing of floating wind energy technology. Since the initiative began in September 2022, the United States has committed more than $950 million in planning, leasing activities, research, development, demonstration, deployment, and more to realize the full potential of this renewable power source. I have spent .
About two-thirds of the country's offshore wind potential is in waters deep enough to make floating offshore wind turbines more practical and cost-effective than fixed-bottom turbines. Efforts are focused on advancing floating turbine design, transmission planning with floating offshore wind projects, and investing in the Pacific Coast's first offshore wind farm.
Last month, the Department of Energy announced its intention to issue $20 million in funding for projects to improve floating offshore wind systems through improvements and innovations in floating platform design, manufacturing, deployment, and turbine-platform integration research. This funding opportunity will also provide him with $3.5 million to establish a floating offshore wind center of excellence.
The first floating offshore wind farm in the United States will include a lease that will be auctioned off the coast of California in 2023. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management also recently proposed 10 new leases, two in Oregon and eight in the Gulf of Maine, all likely to rely on floating turbines.
