ARPA-E Archived Funding Opportunities

Objective:

The Advanced Research Projects Agency –Energy (ARPA-E) in the U.S. Department of Energy is seeking comments on a draft technical section for a possible future program solicitation, which focuses on Control Co-Design of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines. In particular, the draft technical section is appended hereto as Attachment A. ARPA-E seeks input from experts in the fields of 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.

All of the information in this RFI and Attachment A is subject to change. Please carefully review the REQUEST FOR INFORMATION GUIDELINES below. Please note, in particular, that the information you provide will be used by ARPA-E solely for program planning, without attribution. THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. THIS NOTICE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA). NO FOA EXISTS AT THIS TIME. Respondents shall not include any information in their response to this RFI that might be considered proprietary or confidential.

Purpose and Need for Information:

The purpose of this RFI is solely to solicit input for ARPA-E consideration, to inform preparation of the draft technical section of a possible future program solicitation prior to its release. ARPA-E will not provide funding or compensation for any information submitted in response to this RFI, and ARPA-E may use information submitted to this RFI without any attribution to the source. This RFI provides the broad research community with an opportunity to contribute views and opinions regarding the draft technical section in Attachment A.

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION GUIDELINES:

No material submitted for review will be returned and there will be no formal or informal debriefing concerning the review of any submitted material. ARPA-E may contact respondents to request clarification or seek additional information relevant to this RFI. All responses provided will be considered, but ARPA-E will not respond to individual submissions or publish publicly a compendium of responses. [Note: Responses to this RFI may be subject to Freedom of Information Act requests.] Respondents shall not include any information in their response to this RFI that might be considered proprietary or confidential.

Responses to this RFI should be submitted in PDF format to the email address ARPA-E-RFI@hq.doe.gov by 5:00 PM Eastern Time on January 8^th, 2019. Emails should conform to the following guidelines:

• Please insert “Comments on Draft CCD FOWT Technical Section”” in the subject line of your email, and include your name, title, organization, type of organization (e.g. university, non-governmental organization, small business, large business, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), government-owned/government-operated (GOGO), etc.), email address, telephone number, and area of expertise in the body of your email.
• Responses to this RFI are limited to no more than 3 pages in length (12 point font size).

Questions: ARPA-E encourages responses that address any subset of the following questions, and encourages the inclusion of references to important supplementary information.

• The draft Technical Section proposes three fundamental areas (see Section C.4). The first area (C.4.1. New Designs) enumerates a list of examples (cases 1 to 5) where CCD techniques can enable cheaper FOWTs. Please expand these cases and provide additional examples.
• The second area (C.4.2. Computer Tools) details a list of elements (e1 to e10) that are critical for a new generation of computer tools. Please prioritize these elements and provide additional ones.
• The third area (C.4.3. Experiments) describes some key components to collect real data from FOWT. Please provide additional information or critical ideas in this area.
• Section D introduces a new metric space to evaluate the new FOWT designs. The second metric (M2) of this space depends on three factors: a material factor f_t, a manufacturing factor f_m and an installation factor f_i. Table 3 suggests some values for the material factors, f_t. Please analyze these values and provide new ones if necessary. Also, should some additional materials be included? If this is the case, please provide the corresponding material factors. 
• Simultaneously, Table 4 suggests some values for the manufacturing and installation factors, f_m and f_i. Please analyze these values and provide new ones if necessary. 
• Section D.3 proposes a list of conditions (a to h) to validate each new FOWT design. Please analyze these conditions and provide additional ones if necessary.
• Section C.2 describes three CCD techniques. Please expand these proposed techniques and provide some additional methodologies.
• Section C.1 emphasizes the multidisciplinary nature of the program, with the concurrent control engineering aspects of the control co-design approach. Also, Section E.2 describes the program and project interactions needed to develop a successful CCD approach. Please analyze the aspects (a) to (e) described in the Section (e.g., IP issues, etc.), identify potential hurdles (collaboration challenges, etc.), propose solutions, and suggest how ARPA-E can facilitate these team and multi-team collaborations.