A supersize floating wind pilot is in the frame for installation at the Ocean Winds-Shell Mayflower Wind offshore wind joint venture project in the Atlantic Ocean after the US Department of Energy (DoE) announced new technology funding packages for the rapidly emerging sector.

Engineering consultancy Atkins landed one of three grants totalling $21m to develop a full-scale design of a floating wind platform suited to a 10MW-plus turbine – based on a scale model testing methodology pioneered for oil & gas floating production units – for future grid connection in Mayflower's lease areas off the state of Massachusetts.

Few details were immediately available about the project at Mayflower Wind, in the first stage being built around bottom-fixed turbines by the oil major with Engie-EPDR joint venture Ocean Winds, but the 1.6GW development site on lease OCS-A-0521, which is located 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, has water depths of 35-65 metres making some part of the acreage suitable to floating platforms.

The developer finalised a 20-year power purchase agreement earlier this year for 804MW of the wind farm’s total capacity with Massachusetts power distribution companies, with start-up slated “by the mid-2020s”.

The other two projects awarded DoE funding were the University of Maine’s bid to devise a new-generation mooring line concept for its landmark New England Alpha Ventus project, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution of Massachusetts’ plan to collect offshore wind resource data in the US Atlantic for development of novel atmosphere-ocean simulation tools.

In a statement the DoE said the backing would “support offshore wind development by demonstrating innovative technologies not previously commercially used in the US for offshore wind”.

"Demonstrating innovative technologies not yet deployed at commercial scale will lower the cost of energy and lend confidence to future investment decisions," said Daniel Simmons, assistant secretary for renewable energy at the DoE.

He added: "Improving the ability to accurately forecast wind power with enhanced weather models and demonstrating innovative energy production technologies can help reduce the cost of offshore wind."

Each project will leverage cost-shared funding from research partners, said the DoE, adding “by providing funding, technical assistance, and government-led coordination, [we] can increase confidence in pre-commercial technologies and methodologies, helping to lower the cost of energy from offshore wind”.

Technology

Mayflower US offshore wind project in frame for ultra-large floating pilot after Feds funding