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Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a $20 million investment in offshore wind energy resource characterization and technology demonstrations. This Funding Opportunity Announcement supports offshore wind development by improving the ability to forecast energy production, and by demonstrating innovative technologies not yet deployed at commercial scale. Concept papers are due Thursday, April 30, 2020. Read the Progress Alert from DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), CAISO, Avangrid, and General Electric recently demonstrated the capability of large utility-scale wind plants to provide essential reliability services to the electricity grid. The testing, partially funded by DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office, was conducted in late 2019 over several days at Avangrid’s 131-megawatt Tule Wind Farm east of San Diego.
The testing covered a range of the wind plant’s capability to provide frequency and voltage support, including ramping, regulation up and down following CAISO’s dispatch signals, primary frequency response, and reactive power and voltage control even when wind is not blowing.
The resulting CAISO report concludes that many existing wind plants have the necessary hardware to provide the full suite of essential grid services, provided some simple changes in how they operate are made.
NREL has released a new version of its FLOw Redirection and Induction in Steady State (FLORIS) model for wind plant performance optimization. FLORIS, which was co-developed by NREL and the Delft University of Technology, is an open-source platform available for download and collaborative development. The latest update leverages new modeling tools to enhance FORIS’s ability to accurately design and analyze wind plant control strategies for larger arrays of turbines. Since 2018, more than 2,000 users have accessed the tool to inform turbine operation as well as wind plant design. By optimizing flow control strategies like wake steering, FLORIS enables existing wind energy facilities to improve productivity and increase profits.
For more information on the new model, see the FLORIS 1.1.14 documentation or read the new discussion paper in Wind Energy Science.
DOE’s Office of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (EERE) will launch a new website to replace eXCHANGE for funding opportunity announcements and application submission. We are looking for volunteers to pilot the new process. Beginning in Fiscal Year 2021, organizations interested in responding to EERE opportunities will use the EERE Program Information Center (EPIC) to view open opportunities and submit applications. The EPIC Application Submissions Pilot will take place in May—June, 2020. Interested organizations will have a chance to register early and get a firsthand look at EPIC and how the process is changing. The biggest change to the registration process is that your organization must register before your individual applicant accounts can be created. During the pilot, participants will be asked to register in EPIC and submit a test application. Participants will have access to training videos and will be asked to provide feedback on the new process.
Upcoming Events
April 21-22, 2020
DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office will participate in the Business Network for Offshore Wind’s International Partnering Forum’s “IPF Virtual” April 21-22, 2020 in advance of this year’s in-person conference, now scheduled for August 18-21, 2020 in Providence, Rhode Island. Throughout the virtual conference, WETO-funded researchers from DOE National Laboratories will discuss emerging technologies for offshore wind resource characterization and floating technology innovations.
Agenda and registration details can be found here.
April 20, 2020 11:00 AM–1:00 PM ET
The Wind Turbine Radar Interference Mitigation Working Group, a consortium of federal agencies composed of the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Federal Aviation Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and the Department of Homeland Security invite you to a virtual webinar to discuss research needs for offshore wind development that may impact sensitive radar systems. The goals of the webinar include building relationships between key industry stakeholders and agencies around offshore wind-radar issues, obtaining government and industry perspectives on potential impacts of offshore wind on radar missions, as well as obtaining a better understanding of the future direction of the offshore wind market.
Registration is required no later than April 17, 2020. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
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