US launches $3m floating wind array contest in face of 'unprecedented challenges'

The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has kicked off a $3m competition aimed at optimising floating wind array design, in an effort to support a 15GW target by 2035 for the nascent sector announced by the Biden administration last week (Friday) and drive down the levellised cost of energy (LCOE) of the technology.

“Large arrays of floating offshore wind turbines pose an unprecedented engineering challenge, [with] many interrelated parts of the design need[ing] to be considered simultaneously,” said NREL.