U.S. DOE to invest $20 million in offshore wind energy technology demos

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced $20 million in funding in offshore wind energy resource characterisation and technology demonstrations for technologies not yet deployed at commercial scale.
This announcement seeks projects in the following areas:

Topic Area 1: The overall goal of this project is to improve wind resource characterisation and modelling in offshore wind energy development areas, in order to more accurately predict the power output of future offshore wind projects and more seamlessly integrate this power into the grid. Building on previous DOE land-based wind resource characterization work in complex terrain and subsequent model development in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, this project will focus on improving wind resource model physics for foundational wind forecasts and other applications in offshore wind energy development areas.
Topic Area 2: The overall goal of these projects is to enable the demonstration of a new technology and/or methodology that will advance the state of the art of offshore wind energy in the United States. The proposed project must either implement an innovative technology at engineering/pilot or full-scale, and/or employ a methodology that has yet to be used commercially in the United States for offshore wind, at an offshore wind project that is planned to be operational by 2025.

“This funding for offshore wind resource science will improve the weather models that wind plant developers and operators rely on to manage their fleet effectively and provide predictable, low-cost electricity,” said Assistant Secretary Daniel R Simmons.