Download: Floating Offshore Wind Shot Progress and Priorities report
The Floating Offshore Wind Shot™ is an interagency initiative led by the U.S. departments of Energy (DOE), the Interior (DOI), Commerce, and Transportation (DOT) seeks to position the United States as a leader in floating offshore wind turbine design, development, and manufacturing.
Progress to Date
Between September 2022 and May 2024, DOE, DOI, and DOT dedicated over $950 million to advance the Floating Offshore Wind Shot.
This support includes planning, leasing actions, research, development, demonstration, and deployment efforts through mechanisms such as direct federal investments, associated cost share, and lease-related bidding credits.
On May 16, 2024, DOE released the Progress and Priorities report, which documents over 50 milestones achieved to advance the Floating Offshore Wind Shot. The accomplishments below highlight a few of the most impactful programs, projects, and achievements.
Over $950M
in support dedicated to the Floating Offshore Wind Shot since its establishment
Featured Accomplishments
In April 2024, the ATLANTIS program from DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy announced $38 million in additional funding to six projects to develop floating offshore wind designs.
DOElaunched the three-phase, $6.85 million investment FLOWIN prize to develop the domestic supply chain for floating offshore wind energy.
DOEinvestedover $18 million to support high-voltage, direct current voltage source converter systems and standards, controls, and curricula, announced September 2023.
In January 2024, DOT announced a$426.7 million award to establish the first offshore wind terminal on the Pacific Coast funded by the Infrastructure For Rebuilding America program.
DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, starting in August 2022, funded new research to model and analyze the levelized cost of hydrogen for de-centralized offshore-wind-to-hydrogen systems and evaluate performance.
DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held the first floating offshore wind lease auction off the coast of California in December 2022 and released the final wind energy lease areas off the coast of Oregon in February 2024 and in the Gulf of Maine in March 2024.
The program, supported by DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was expanded to Washington, Oregon, and California to ensure continued discussion with communities related to floating offshore wind energy.
An report published in September 2023 by DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory will inform future convening and collaboration opportunities to advance ports to support floating offshore wind on the West Coast.
The DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory initiative convened local stakeholders to discuss the West Coast’s key transmission needs relating to the build-out of floating offshore wind energy.
In 2023, DOE-funded projects on the West Coast began data collection to support monitoring of bird, bat, and marine mammal presence in potential energy development areas. In addition, studies are underway to develop autonomous monitoring systems for marine organisms and the seabed.
Near-Term Priorities
Building on the Advancing Offshore Wind Energy in the United Statesstrategy and stakeholder feedback, the Floating Offshore Wind Shot partner agencies have identified the following near-term priorities:
Cost Reductions
Advance research of resource assessment, floating system designs and modeling, manufacturing techniques, and operations and maintenance systems.
Supply Chain Development
Identify gaps and solutions to inform decision making and develop robust, regional supply chains, while mobilizing critical investment through federal programs and lease bidding credits.
Expanded, Just, and Sustainable Deployment
Advance siting and leasing of floating offshore wind, while increasing tribal leasing engagement and the understanding of floating offshore wind impacts on the environment, fisheries and communities, and building opportunities for workforce development.
Transmission Development
Complete in-depth offshore wind transmission studies; improve planning tools and models to support the development of strategic and equitable offshore transmission; and advance critical offshore high-voltage direct current transmission components.
Co-Generation Opportunities
Conduct techno-economic analyses for floating offshore with hydrogen generation and energy storage options, and develop effective reference designs and demonstrations.
Download the full report.
Floating Offshore Wind Energy News
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Gathering Data to Understand the Interactions Between Wildlife and Offshore Wind Energy
The Wind Energy Technologies Office is exploring the relationship between wildlife and wind turbines.
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Biden-Harris Administration Celebrates Progress in Domestic Floating Offshore Wind
The Departments of Energy, Interior, Commerce, and Transportation today released a report summarizing their progress toward the goals of the Floating Offshore Wind Shot™, an initiative to drive U.S. leadership in design, deployment, and manufacturing.
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WETO released a roadmap assessing current practices, and future challenges and needs for operating and maintaining U.S. offshore wind farms, as well as specific recommendations for technology innovations that could help address the identified needs and gaps.
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Five Competitors Advance to Final Round of FLoating Offshore Wind ReadINess Prize
Congratulations to the Phase Two winners of the FLoating Offshore Wind ReadINess (FLOWIN) Prize! Competing teams began with a proven design for a floating offshore wind energy substructure, and in the last phase worked to develop a pathway for mass production and assembly of gigawatt-scale wind farms.
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Notice of Intent: $48 Million Funding Opportunity for National and Regional Research and Development of Offshore Wind Technologies
This opportunity will fund $48 million of projects that address several major areas of need for offshore wind, including accelerating research and development of offshore wind platforms, expanding the reach of the domestic supply chain, improving offshore wildlife protection through new monitoring technologies, and advancing U.S. academic leadership in floating offshore wind.
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Factsheet Outlines Resources Available for Offshore Wind Deployment
The Biden-Harris administration released a new fact sheet that describes federal resources available to support offshore wind deployment.
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Coming Soon: Funding to Improve Aerodynamic Performance of Offshore Wind Turbines?
WETO plans to invest $5.1 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in research and technology development to advance modeling for offshore wind turbine blades at adverse conditions.
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DOE and Innovation Fund Denmark Announce Upcoming $4 Million Opportunity to Advance Floating Offshore Wind
This proposed funding opportunity aims to improve mooring technologies and methods, which are used to secure floating platforms to the sea floor, for both the U.S. and Denmark.
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DOE Announces New $1.65 Million Incubator Program Funding 18 Research Projects to Advance Wind Energy
WETO is funding 18 projects at between $75,000 and 150,000 each in the topic areas of Data Synthesis/Artificial Intelligence; Novel Wind Energy Architectures, Approaches, and Components R&D, Systems Integration, and an open topic area.
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A Ripple Effect: Stakeholders Benefit from Shared Offshore Wind Research
A multiyear project advanced understanding of environmental effects, identified existing information gaps, and described future environmental research efforts needed to responsibly develop offshore wind energy projects in U.S. waters.
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