SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Engineers at the University of Rhode Island, along with colleagues from the University of Maine, have been awarded a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research program to study floating offshore wind turbines.
URI said that offshore wind turbines with fixed foundations built into the sea floor, similar to the Block Island Wind Farm, are not economical in water that is more than 200 feet deep. Thus, new floating turbines are in development that could allow for electricity to be generated in deeper water further offshore where winds are stronger, the university said.
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However, URI ocean engineering professor and project leader Stephan Grilli said uncertainties from ocean wave behavior and other marine-related factors are major challenges to the development of floating turbines. Such uncertainties can lead to reduced operational life for the turbines, he said, as they are top-heavy structures.
With the grant, URI and UM engineers will model and test a system for controlling the motion of floating turbines. Grilli said the researchers will used computational models that operate in parallel with scale models of actual floating turbines to anticipate the forces that the structures will face on the water and predict their behavior, helping to control the system.
URI also said the project has received multiple endorsements from local industries and agencies, including from Raytheon Co. and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
