Wind Energy – DOE Award
Principle Power and Aker Solutions (the FloatHOME consortium) have been chosen as a winner for the second phase of the US Floating Offshore Wind Readiness (FLOWIN) Prize by the DOE.
The award consists of a $450,000 cash prize and $100,000 in technical assistance from the DOE National Labs. Prize money is being used to advance WindFloat manufacturing, supply chain, and deployment plans in the US market.
The FloatHOME consortium says that it has engaged both large-scale fabricators and smaller supply chain partners to assess their existing capacities and specific manufacturing requirements.
The companies say that this collaborative approach has enabled the consortium to build and evaluate various scenarios for serial production and assembly of WindFloat foundations to support the vision of using purpose-built facilities to produce subcomponent modules and efficient assembly within American ports.
The companies also say that these insights will be instrumental in supporting the next stage of the competition, which includes detailed designs for dedicated new facilities, redevelopment of ports, optimizations in platform design for manufacturability, and design engineering refinements to lower cost and increase domestic content for floating wind projects in the United States.
The Biden-Harris administration wants to deploy ambitious 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2030, and 15 GW of floating offshore wind by 2035. To achieve these targets, it is vital to engage the entire value chain in building capacity to deliver these ambitious volumes. By advancing to the next phase of the FLOWIN Prize, the FloatHOME consortium is set to play a pivotal role to ensure the industry meets these objectives on time and on budget, while maximizing benefits to local communities and minimizing the carbon footprint throughout the supply chain.
