Department of Energy’s AESOPS Grant for Advancing Extreme-Scale Offshore Wind Aerodynamics

The intended FOA would seek applications to fill a critical void in the development of multi-megawatt wind turbines for offshore deployment. Existing aerodynamic design tools and analysis methods are not well validated for these extreme scales, placing the cost of development and performance expectations from these designs at significant risk. The FOA would support the necessary data and analysis to validate tools used in the design and development of extreme-scale wind turbine rotors and facilitate the accelerated development and deployment of cost-effective offshore wind technology.

Specifically, WETO seeks to address the lack of open-source data on the behavior of wind turbine airfoils in operation at high Reynolds numbers, i.e., at conditions in which air flow tends to be more turbulent and that are more representative of conditions as the scale of turbines increases. This FOA would provide up to $5.1 million in total funding. EERE envisions awarding 1 to 3 financial assistance awards in the form of cooperative agreements in the planned FOA. The estimated period of performance for all awards will be three (3) years. The overall goals of this FOA would be to:
• Collect and disseminate benchmark aerodynamic data to inform the design of next-generation wind turbine airfoils and blades;
• Develop and validate improved modeling and simulation tools for the behavior of idling or parked wind blades; and
• Provide the wind industry with physical insights and trustworthy models to minimize the risk of developing and deploying extreme-scale offshore wind turbines.

To view the entire NOI document, visit the EERE Exchange Website at https://eere-exchange.energy.gov.