The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to provide federal funding to North Carolina State University (NCSU) to prototype and characterize the performance of a novel current energy conversion device called MARINER, designed to harness power from different oceanic current sites.
Office of NEPA Policy and Compliance
September 29, 2025
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to provide federal funding to North Carolina State University (NCSU) to prototype and characterize the performance of a novel current energy conversion device called MARINER, designed to harness power from different oceanic current sites.
Project activities would include numerical modeling development to simulate locomotion and power generation of a scalable energy conversion system, and validating these tools through laboratory-scale experiments at NCSU's Aerospace Engineering Laboratory in Raleigh, NC. A 1/20th scale energy conversion system would also be prototyped and tested at this facility to demonstrate, optimize and address and potential system risk. Energy resource analysis, site characterization, planning for the environmental permitting of aggregate materials, economic analysis, and the development of an ocean deployment plan would occur at East Carolina University's Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese, NC.