DOE picks winners in USD-25m marine energy R&D programme

The US has selected 12 projects to get USD 25 million (EUR 21.8m) in financing in support of research aimed at cutting costs and accelerating the deployment of marine energy devices, as well as testing new concepts.

The funds will be provided by the Department of Energy (DOE), through its Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Water Power Technologies Office, it was announced on Tuesday. Projects were selected in three main categories.

The first two topic areas cover projects dealing with research related to scientific and engineering challenges for power generation from dynamic, low-velocity and high-density waves and currents. Among the winners in this category are Seattle-based Oscilla Power, which will conduct an open-ocean scaled testing of its wave energy converter with the University of Maine, and Virginia-based company Columbia Power Technologies which will design and test a prototype low-power wave energy converter suitable for powering maritime sensors, monitoring, and communications equipment. The Texas A&M University will work on a prototype of a surface-riding wave energy converter, while Florida Atlantic University will develop a low-flow marine current turbine to provide partial power to recharge battery banks onboard an unmanned mobile at-sea recharge station for aerial drones and potentially other unmanned marine vehicles.

Projects in the third category seek to cut the costs and time to permit projects. The full list of winners can be found at DOE’s website: https://www.energy.gov/articles/us-department-energy-awards-25-million-next-generation-marine-energy-research-projects.

US undersecretary of energy, Mark Menezes, commented that the advancement of next-generation marine energy will help the country “ensure a secure, reliable, and enduring supply of American energy.”

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.872)

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