An array of floating offshore wind turbines with mooring systems and power cables at three different water depths.
Large-scale floating offshore wind farms will be key contributors to meeting federal and state offshore wind energy targets. However, designing large arrays of floating offshore wind turbines—along with their anchors, mooring lines, and subsea power cables—represents an unprecedented engineering challenge that depends on local site conditions.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory today launched a 3-year, $3-million Floating Offshore Wind Array Design project, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which will develop a set of modelling tools to optimize designs for floating offshore wind farm arrays and develop several reference array designs for U.S. floating offshore wind farm sites.
This project announcement supports the Floating Offshore Wind Shot, which aims to drive U.S. leadership in floating offshore wind.