A consortium led by Principle Power was selected for a major grant for DeepFarm, a project to develop pioneering mooring systems for deepwater floating offshore wind platforms
Image: Principle Power selected for DeepFarm offshore floating wind farm. Photo: Courtesy of Erich Westendarp/Pixabay
A consortium of partners led by Principle Power has been selected for contract negotiations for a $850k grant (including $85k cost share) from The National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium for DeepFarm, a project to develop pioneering mooring systems for deepwater floating offshore wind platforms.
DeepFarm, a selection of deepwater mooring research initiatives, will help accelerate the deployment of deepwater floating offshore wind projects by investigating a variety of innovative mooring components, each contributing to the design of a pioneering mooring system to reduce the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCoE) of floating offshore wind.
“This award once again demonstrates Principle Power’s ability to lead cutting edge research and innovation, building on our technical excellence and proven expertise in floating wind. We are looking forward to working with the key market players, world-class universities and leading research centers to deliver technical solutions for mooring systems that will underpin the competitiveness of floating wind while achieving significant cost reductions,” said Joao Metelo, CEO of Principle Power.
DeepFarm will enhance currently available open-source software tools for floating turbine design – FAST.Farm & MoorDyn – to optimize innovative mooring system components while reducing lifecycle costs. The project will also entail the development of an open-source mooring system design coupled with an LCoE assessment of shared-anchor layouts. The accuracy of these open-source models will be bolstered through techno-economic feasibility studies of the utilized mooring hardware.
The consortium, led by Principle Power, includes a diverse set of industry players, including Aker Solutions, the American Bureau of Shipping, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Scana Offshore, and the University of Massachusetts.
“Principle Power is thrilled to lead this talented consortium. Successful execution will undoubtedly contribute to the growth and maturation of the U.S. offshore wind market by helping to unlock the potential of deepwater projects,” said Steven Barras, CTO of Principle Power.
Source: Company Press Release