The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA–E) intends to issue a new Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) that would seek to develop new technical pathways for the design of economically competitive Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWTs). The program envisions leveraging the Control Co-Design (CCD) methodology, which brings together engineering disciplines to work concurrently, as opposed to sequentially, and considers dynamic control aspects from the beginning of the design. By analyzing the numerous dynamic sub-system interactions of the FOWTs, the CCD methodology can identify control solutions for optimal designs that are not achievable otherwise. Projects in this program are envisioned in three fundamental areas: (1) radically new FOWT designs with significantly lower mass/kW, (2) a new generation of computer tools to control co-design the FOWTs, and (3) real-data from full and lab-scale experiments to validate the FOWT designs and computer tools.
State of the art FOWT technology has achieved an average LCOE of approximately $0.15-0.18/kWh, which it is still too high in comparison to the current $0.03-0.05/kWh for land-based wind turbine technologies.[1] High capital expenditures (CAPEX) are the key driver of the LCOE of a FOWT. A significant portion of these CAPEX is the cost of the steel that existing floating platforms incorporate. Floating platforms are designed to be large and heavy in an effort to (a) imitate the onshore wind turbine dynamics, (b) keep the system as stable as possible and (c) maximize system survivability during events such as large sea storms. Internal ARPA-E analysis shows that the cost of steel accounts for between 50% and 70% of the overall CAPEX for existing FOWT designs. Consequently, this envisioned program seeks to support the design of radically new FOWTs that maximize the insufficient specific power per unit of mass (W/kg), while maintaining, or ideally increasing, the turbine generation efficiency.
The technologies that will be developed under this FOA could lead to substantial technical advancements in fields of significance to U.S. national interests. If successful, this program will create a pathway towards FOWTs that are economically competitive. This would open up access to an untapped and bountiful source of U.S. energy[2], and a vast associated supply chain market.
More details on the envisioned program can be found in a recently released RFI, which contains a draft of the technical section of the FOA and provides instructions for readers to provide feedback to ARPA-E. Additionally, in support of this RFI and draft technical section, ARPA-E plans to organize a one day “Industry Day” on January 15th, 2019. The primary purpose of the industry day will be to evaluate and strengthen the draft technical section prior to release of the FOA. Participants will lend their technical expertise to suggest any necessary refinements to the draft technical section.
In order to realize the envisioned program goals, ARPA‐E aims to bring together diverse engineering and scientific communities. These communities include, but are not limited to control and systems engineering, co-design, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, electrical and mechanical systems, power electronics, electrical generators, structural engineering, naval engineering, modeling, optimization, economics, multi-scale and multi-physics computer algorithms, parallel computing, distributed sensors, intelligent signal processing and actuator networks; as well as developers of offshore wind energy systems and electrical utilities.
As a general matter, ARPA-E strongly encourages outstanding scientists and engineers from different organizations, scientific disciplines, and technology sectors to form project teams. Interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration spanning organizational boundaries enables and accelerates the achievement of scientific and technological outcomes that were previously viewed as extremely difficult, if not impossible.
The Teaming Partner List is being compiled to facilitate the formation of new project teams. The Teaming Partner List will be available on ARPA-E eXCHANGE (http://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov), ARPA-E’s online application portal, starting December 03, 2018. The Teaming Partner List will be updated periodically, until the close of the Full Application period, to reflect new Teaming Partners who have provided their information.
Any organization that would like to be included on this list should complete all required fields in the following link: https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Applicantprofile.aspx. Required information includes: Organization Name, Contact Name, Contact Address, Contact Email, Contact Phone, Organization Type, Area of Technical Expertise, and Brief Description of Capabilities.
By submitting a response to this Notice, you consent to the publication of the above-referenced information. By facilitating this Teaming Partner List, ARPA-E does not endorse or otherwise evaluate the qualifications of the entities that self-identify themselves for placement on the Teaming Partner List. ARPA-E will not pay for the provision of any information, nor will it compensate any respondents for the development of such information. Responses submitted to other email addresses or by other means will not be considered.
This Notice does not constitute a FOA. No FOA exists at this time. Applicants must refer to the final FOA, expected to be issued in February 2019, for instructions on submitting an application and for the terms and conditions of funding.
[1] Stehly, T., Beiter, P., Heimiller, D., Scott, G. (2018). 2017 Cost of Wind Energy Review. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Technical Report NREL/TP-6A20-72167.
[2] Estimate that the gross offshore wind resource in the U.S is over 151 quads/yr (“gross potential”). This number is still as large as ~25 quads/yr even once losses and conservative assumptions about what would be feasible to recover given technical, legal, regulatory and social inhibiting factors are incorporated. Fifty-eight percent of this “technical potential” lies in waters deeper than 60 m, accounting for ~14 quads/yr, which exceeds the entire U.S. annual electricity consumption in 2017 (13 quads/yr).