The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a series of investments to accelerate the deployment of floating offshore wind in the country.

The DOE will partner with various institutions to explore two-thirds of the country’s offshore wind resources in deep waters that need floating platforms.

The energy department will also use $100 million, a part of the funds available under the President’s Inflation Reduction Act, to launch a 20-month West Offshore Wind Transmission Study.

The study will help DOE examine the possibilities of expanding transmission to harness power from floating offshore wind for the communities on the West Coast. It is also expected to pave ways to support grid reliability, resilience, and ocean co-use.

The investments are part of the Biden-Harris administration’s Floating Offshore Wind Shot Summit. The government aims to deploy 15 GW of floating offshore wind by 2035 and reduce the cost of by over 70%.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said, “President Biden wants America to become a global leader of offshore wind technology and deployment, and with his historic climate investments, DOE is capturing this potential to spur private investment, boost the domestic supply chain and deliver on our bold clean energy goals.”

Floating wind focussed developments

The DOE also announced that California would become the first state along the West Coast to join the National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium, a research consortium funded by DOE.

Last October, the U.S. government said it would hold a lease sale for areas off the West Coast for wind projects critical to achieving the administration’s offshore wind energy goals of 30 GW by 2030 and a floating offshore wind energy target of 15 GW by 2035.

The department’s National Laboratories and National Renewable Energy Laboratory announced the development of an industry-informed roadmap for new operations and maintenance technologies and processes to enhance the cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability at offshore wind sites.

DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management have deployed a floating scientific research buoy located approximately 15 miles east of Oahu, Hawaii.

The buoy will help the lab collect offshore wind resources, and meteorological, and oceanographic data.

In October 2022, the DOE said it intends to use $30 million from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund wind power research.

According to the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the country needs to deploy 70–150 GW of wind energy and 40–90 GW of solar every year until 2030 to decarbonize America’s power sector by 2035.