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www.sname.org/sname/mt October 2012 subsidies. With full-scale wind farms, developers and ?nanciers are less likely to take risk and therefore prefer to use proven, existing technology. This in turn may slow development and therefore reductions in the cost of energy. Demonstration projects validate new technologies, resulting in a steeper learning curve and ultimately enabling greater deployment for less cost. By providing funding, technical assistance, and government coordination to accelerate deployment of demonstration projects, DOE can help mitigate risks and facilitate the development of a domestic offshore wind industry. In March 2012, DOE announced $180 million of funding available for advanced technology demonstration projects. Up to six awards will be made before the end of the year. The projects are expected to be regionally diverse, in a variety of water depths, and will include both bottom ?xed and ?oating offshore wind technologies. All of the projects will include one or more multi-megawatt turbines and be grid connected. The funding will be divided between two topic areas. One project will be funded under the ?rst topic area, accelerating pilot deployment.? This project will be a fast track pilot project targeted for commissioning by the end of calendar year 2014. The intent is to reduce uncertainty with respect to the future of the offshore wind industry in the U.S., while evaluating technology options targeted at improving the cost effectiveness of future offshore wind systems. Uncertainty will be reduced by providing a pathway for full- scale commercial offshore wind farms with respect to permitting, approvals, and environmental reviews. This project will also establish a baseline cost for offshore wind energy in the U.S.; reduce ?nancing risk; address issues raised by the public; begin the establishment of infrastructure for offshore wind installation, operations, and maintenance; and contribute to the evaluation of offshore wind technology and economic potential in the U.S. Building on international offshore wind experience, advanced next-generation turbines, support structures, and installation methods are anticipated. Five projects are expected to be funded initially in the second topic area, innovating commercial viability.? These projects will be broader in scope, of longer duration, and will focus more on bringing technological innovation to market. After initial design and engineering work is complete, there will be a down select process from the initial ?ve projects to three, which will continue with construction and deployment. A wide range of innovative projects are expected here, including multiple types of bottom ?xed and ?oating foundations. Projects are expected to employ a holistic systems design approach addressing all aspects of hardware cost, performance, deployment, operability, and maintenance to attain demonstrable step changes in offshore wind cost of energy. Innovations are anticipated in the turbines, blades, controls, support structures, electrical subsystems, and installation methods. Advanced materials and construction methods are also expected. In multiple-turbine projects, DOE is also interested in collecting and analyzing data that would help to better understand turbine-to-turbine interaction. All of the awards in both topic areas are chosen through a competitive process and require cost sharing by the awardees. Applicants are typically consortia and are likely to include offshore wind power proj- ect developers, research institutions, electric utilities, equipment manufactur- ers, marine engineering and construction specialists, and state and local govern- ments. All projects will collect data on meteorological and oceanographic (met- ocean), environmental monitoring, turbine, structural response, system per- formance, and cost. Data and lessons learned not protected by intellectual property agreements will be disseminated to the public to move the U.S. offshore wind industry forward . MTJose Zayas is the program manager for the U.S. Department of Energys Wind and Hydropower Program. Learn More For further information on oshore wind power in the United States, check out the following resources. U.S. Department of Energy, 20% Wind Energy by 2030: Increasing Wind Energys Contribution to U.S. Electricity Supply? (2008). Available at wind.energy.gov/ wind_energy_report.html Musial, W. and Ram, B., Large-Scale Oshore Wind Power in the United States: Assessment of Opportunities and Barriers,? National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2010). Available at www.nrel.gov/wind/ pdfs/40745.pdf U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of the Interior, A National Oshore Wind Strategy: Creating an Oshore Wind Energy Industry in the United States? (2011). Available at wind.energy.gov/ pdfs/national_oshore_wind_strategy.pdf Figure 4: Floating oshore wind loads.