US DoE opens $12 million call for tidal and wave projects

 
Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) at the US Department of Energy (US DoE) has launched a $12 million funding call to support innovation in tidal and wave energy sectors.

WPTO is soliciting applications that support research, testing, and development of marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) technologies that harness the energy from waves and tidal currents in oceans and rivers.

The funding opportunity will support projects in the following topic areas:

• Wave energy converters (WEC) systems advancement – funding will support the development and testing of scaled, yet fully operational, WEC devices in open water that show high potential to succeed commercially in large utility scale markets and compete with other forms of energy generation in the longer term.
• Open topic for MHK technology development – applicants can propose projects addressing their most important MHK technology development problems, while the WPTO has encouraged applications in wave energy, tidal, river in-stream, or ocean current energy.

The deadline for submitting concept papers has been set for January 17, while the full application must be submitted by March 1, 2017.

The WPTO hosted an informational webinar on this funding opportunity on December 20, which can be viewed online.