The US’ National Offshore Wind Research & Development Consortium (NOWRDC) will award $7m in funding for a range of new technology projects in the areas of floating and fixed foundations, array performance and control optimisation and power system design.

The financing is matched against three core R&D “pillars” established as part of NOWRDC's earlier roadmap work. The consortium said the awards will “mark an important step in advancing the long-term strategy for identifying innovative technology to further drive down costs of offshore wind development, making it even more competitive with other generation resources”.