DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy will fund 49 new Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) research and development projects across 23 states, totaling nearly $53.4 million in funding. These projects, selected for Phase II funding of up to $1.5 million, will build on successful SBIR/STTR projects that demonstrated technical feasibility in Phase I.

The two wind energy projects are:

  1. Current floating offshore wind anchoring and mooring solutions are expensive and not economical at quantity for a wind farm. Triton Systems, Inc. of Chelmsford, MA, is developing a new anchoring technology that will reduce the fabrication and installation costs of offshore wind farms and provide permitting benefits, such as less installation noise, compared to current market solutions.
  2. To support recycling of wind turbine blades at the end of their use, Carbon Rivers, LLC of Knoxville, TN, is developing a novel pyrolysis method of reclaiming the glass fibers from retired wind turbine blades for use in second-generation composites. This technology limits degradation of the glass fiber during the recovery process so that the fibers maintain the mechanical properties needed for reuse.