The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) released a $4.75 million funding opportunity that will create one or more university-led Centers of Excellence to increase offshore wind expertise at U.S. universities; develop partnerships to address key offshore wind development challenges; and educate the next generation of offshore wind experts in the United States.

According to DOE, the Centers of Excellence will catalyze innovative research, educational programming, and stakeholder engagement to address regional and technological challenges within the U.S. offshore wind sector. The Centers will establish strong cross-sector partnerships to identify and conduct critical, multi-disciplinary research that can address key offshore wind energy technology and deployment challenges.

In addition to pursuing interdisciplinary research, these university-led Centers of Excellence will help develop the next generation of leaders by providing undergraduate and graduate students direct experience addressing key offshore wind challenges that will prepare them for careers in the sector.

All of these activities will help meet the Biden-Harris administration’s goals of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 and 100% clean electricity grid by 2035. Applicants must submit concept papers by 5 p.m. ET on June 8, 2023, to be eligible to submit a full application.

Offshore Wind Centers of Excellence

This funding opportunity intends to seed one to two university-led Centers of Excellence to catalyze an education, research, and partnership ecosystem to address technology, deployment, and workforce needs of the U.S. offshore wind industry to develop the next generations of leadership for the U.S. industry.

The university-led Centers of Excellence funded through this opportunity are intended to accelerate and maximize the effectiveness, reliability, and sustainability of U.S. offshore wind deployment and operation through partnership with entities such as wind project developers, technology manufacturers, and other industry participants; other institutions of higher education; other research institutions, such as national laboratories; non-governmental organizations; tribes; and state and local-level governments relevant to emerging commercial-scale offshore wind development.

US invests $26 million to support reliable and resilient clean energy grid

In addition, as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $26 million for eight selected projects to demonstrate how solar, wind, storage, and other clean energy resources can support a reliable and efficient U.S. power grid. The projects will deploy innovative clean energy technologies at 15 sites across the country to build and support a resilient grid that automatically adjusts to changing demands—providing Americans everywhere peace of mind in the event of interruptions to the power grid.

The Solar and Wind Grid Services and Reliability Demonstration program will fund eight projects at 15 sites in 13 states and Puerto Rico. Research teams consisting of utilities, laboratories, universities, and industry will test how wind and solar plants can more reliably transmit clean energy and protect against disruptions to the network of high-voltage power lines that carry electricity from centralized generation sources, known as the bulk power system. DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that wind and solar energy could provide as much as 80% of generation on a grid run on 100% clean electricity.