United States to release $14.5M funding opportunity for marine energy research

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WTPO) has issued a notice of intent for a $14.5 million funding opportunity to support marine energy research at U.S. institutions of higher education, including minority-serving institutions.

The funding opportunity is expected to be released in fall 2023 in partnership with DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO).

Foundational research is critical to advancing novel and new technologies like marine energy and floating offshore wind, DOE said.

While marine energy is not yet widely deployed across the country, the total available marine energy resource in the United States is equivalent to approximately 57% of all U.S. power generation in 2019.  

On the other hand, floating offshore wind has 2.8 terawatts of potential power, which if fully developed would equate to more than double the current U.S. electricity consumption. 

Floating offshore wind has 2.8 terawatts of potential power, which if fully developed would equate to more than double the current U.S. electricity consumption. 

The proposed opportunity is expected to fund projects through four topic areas focused on: 

• Generating publicly available (open-source) data and information on cost reductions and performance improvements of marine energy devices for use by the industry and other stakeholders.  
• Assessing and advancing potential synergies between floating offshore wind and/or marine energy and aquaculture development and exploring promising pathways to maximize benefits. (This topic area is a joint effort between WPTO and WETO.) 
• Supporting undergraduate senior design and/or research projects in marine energy.  
• An open topic area where applicants can propose activities that address the needs of the marine energy industry not covered by other topic areas.  

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