Floating Offshore Wind Turbines Are Coming Home To Roost In US

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The US Department of Energy has poured a ton of figurative blood, sweat, and tears into supporting innovative floating platforms for offshore wind turbines, only to see them float off to Europe where public policy support for offshore wind development runs strong. Now that the US is finally getting its policy ducks in the water, made-in-the-USA floating wind platforms are finally coming home.

Floating Platforms For More Offshore Wind

Floating wind turbine platforms are an engineering challenge, but the Energy Department has been pitching them as the key to opening up vast offshore wind resources in deep water, where conventional fixed-bottom platforms are impractical if not impossible (see more floating wind news here).

One focus of Energy Department support for the US floating wind industry has been the firm Principle Power, which first crossed the CleanTechnica radar back in 2009. It’s been a long road but finally the end is in sight.

“By 2014 Principle Power was demonstrating its floating wind power technology off the coast of Oregon, again with the support of the US Department of Energy, and the company has continued to help shepherd the floating wind industry along here in the US,” we reported back in 2021.

Floating Wind Turbines Float Home

Unfortunately for US offshore wind fans, that helpfulness had yet to materialize in domestic waters as of 2021, but Principle Power was laying the groundwork for its come-home moment, eventually.

In 2019 the company teamed up in a consortium to win a $3.6 million grant from the Energy Department’s ARPA-E high risk, high reward funding office. The grant supported the development of new software billed as “the world’s first digital twin software tailored to floating offshore wind applications.”

“This digital twin model will be a real-time, high-fidelity numerical representation of the WindFloat Atlantic (WFA) Project, which will be one of the world’s first floating offshore wind farms,” Principle Power enthused in a press statement.

They also noted that WindFloat Atlantic is off the coat of northern Portugal, not the US. However, Sam Kanner, R&D Lead at Principle Power, explained that the new “DigiFloat” software will go to benefit the whole floating offshore wind industry, with the anticipation of reduced downtime and reduced costs, among other benefits.

The WindFloat Atlantic Factor

WindFloat Atlantic was up and running in 2020, leaving the US floating wind industry even farther behind in the dust. Nevertheless, the project — a venture joining Principle Power with the European energy firms EDP Renewables, Engie, and Repsol — serves as a global showcase that can help the US offshore wind industry kick into high gear.

By the end of 2023, the three semi-submersible floating turbines at WindFloat Atlantic had generated 80 gigawattt-hours of electricity, exceeding production expectations while battling killer storms, including one with wave heights of 20 meters and wind gusts of 139 kilometers per hour.

“With three years of operating successfully, it is demonstrated that floating technology is mature and reliable even in challenging environments and that it will allow to unlock offshore wind opportunities worldwide,” Principle Power reported earlier this year.

In addition to the DigiFloat software, the site has been a hub for testing offshore robotics and other new technologies aimed at reducing the overall cost of floating offshore wind. It also models community engagement and education strategies, including environmental studies.

Next Steps For US Floating Wind

If you’re wondering where the Energy Department has been all this time, that’s a good question. The answer is the sprawling Energy Earthshots initiative, launched in 2021 by the Biden-Harris administration with the aim of pumping the can-do spirit of the successful 1950’s Moonshot program into US renewable energy industries.

The program includes a focus on floating offshore wind, with the goal of reducing costs down to $45 per megawatt-hour by 2035.

In support of that goal, in 2022 the Energy Department’s Wind Energy Technologies Office kicked off a $5.85 million competitive grant program under the title FLOWIN Prize, short for FLoating Offshore Wind ReadINess, aimed at supporting commercial deployment of floating offshore wind turbines.

Principle Power has also been eyeballing commercial deployment in the US, based on its experience with 75 megawatts’ worth of floating turbines in operation including lessons learned from WindFloat Atlantic.

The company teamed up with the Aker Solutions branch of the Norwegian firm Aker to compete for a share of FLOWEIN prize money. On May 15 the Energy Department included the consortium in a group of five projects selected to pass from the Phase 2 level to the all-important Phase 3.

In a celebratory press release dated May 15, Principle Power described how Phase 2 helped push their floating platform in the direction of the US market.

“The work has allowed the consortium to plan for maximized automation, streamlined project execution plans, and optimization of final assembly processes for serial manufacturing of low-risk solutions,” they noted.

The FloatHOME consortium — comprised of Principle Power and Aker Solutions — will apply this know-how, along with feedback from suppliers, to its Phase 3 efforts. As described by Principle Power, the Phase 3 competitors are tasked with producing “detailed designs for dedicated new facilities, redevelopment of ports, optimizations in platform design for manufacturability, and design engineering refinements to lower cost and increase domestic content for floating wind projects in the United States.”

Onwards & Upwards For The US Offshore Wind Industry

The US offshore wind industry has been recruiting new fans among legacy firms like Aker, which have spotted a vast new business opportunity. Aker has roots stretching back far into the 19th century, and its Aker Solutions branch has been busy in the offshore area since the 1980’s. Apparently they are ready for a change of pace.

“Utilizing our own yards, supply chain network and international footprint, we have the skills, know-how and infrastructure needed to optimize the design, engineering, and construction of floating offshore wind projects globally,” explains the company’s Senior VP for US Renewables, Christoffer Valstad.

CleanTechnica is also keeping an eye out for new innovations in floating offshore wind technology. In one avenue of exploration, researchers have been applying vertical axis turbine technology to floating offshore wind platforms, with the aim of lightening the load and cutting costs. Under the vertical axis category we’re seeing some pretty crazy things including tower-less wind turbines, so stay tuned for more on that.

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Image: The firm Principle Power is firming up plans for steering its floating wind turbine platform into US waters (courtesy of Principle Power).

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