The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the White House have made offshore wind a centerpiece of plans to strengthen the nation's energy infrastructure, announcing a goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 a huge leap from the 42 megawat
Part of a two-year DOE-funded project, partners including GE and Glosten investigate lighter-weight, more economically competitive designs for offshore wind.
GE researchers unveiled details of an ongoing two-year, $4 MM project through the ARPA-E s ATLANTIS (Aerodynamic Turbines Lighter and Afloat with Nautical Technologies and Integrated Servo-control) program to design and develop advanced controls to support a 12 MW Floating Offshore Wind Turbine. GE is partnering on the project with Glosten, one of the leading design and consulting firms in the marine industry, and the developer of the PelaStar tension-leg platform floating wind turbine foundation.
Rogier Blom, a Senior Principal Engineer in Model-Based Controls and the project s principal investigator, says the enormity of building a floating platform that can support a structure as massive as an 850+ ft. offshore turbine cannot be understated, stating,
GE is looking to unlock the potential of far offshore wind installations through the development of massive turbines that can operate in deeper waters, using advanced floating platforms to keep them steady as waves crash around them.