Recently announced by the office of Gov. Rick Perry, the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF) is awarding $2.2 million to the Texas A&M University (TAMU) Wind Energy Center for a collaborative project that brings together researchers from universities across the state to develop and increase the capacity of offshore wind energy technology, and help bring it to market.
The TETF award will support the development of new offshore wind farms, turbine and platform technologies in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Offshore Wind Advanced Technology Demonstration Project. The state’s award will be contingent on the GOWind project receiving a $50 million award from the DOE, which will be announced in early May 2014.
The GOWind project will consist of three MW direct drive offshore wind turbine generators for a total of 18 MWs ultimately leading to a large-scale commercial wind farm buildout in the Gulf of Mexico.
Press release, April 10, 2014; Image: baryonyxcorp