Funding Selections: Installation Noise Reduction and Reliable Moorings for Offshore Wind and Marine Energy

Project Title: Bending Fatigue Evaluation of Various Belt Tension Members for Marine Energy Converters Moorings 

Location: Coraopolis, PA 

Award Amount: $837,835 

Project Description: Develop a power transmission belt manufactured with high-quality fibers or steel cords and protective coatings that will allow reliable operation of the wave energy converter.  

Project Title: Fatigue Testing of Nylon Mooring Ropes to Improve Design Standards for Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Installations 

Location: Orono, ME 

Award Amount: $1,000,000 

Project Description: Advance the state of the art in nylon permanent moorings through multi-scale fatigue testing in collaboration with multiple leading rope suppliers to lower the cost of floating offshore wind systems.  

Project Title: Qualification of Polyamide Ropes for Long-Term Mooring Floating Offshore Wind Applications 

Locations: Prairie Village, KS 

Award Amount: $738,862 

Project Description: Compare a polyamide (PA6) rope against a polyester benchmark, with an overall goal of creating less stiff offshore wind mooring lines. Test and validate a PA6 rope design in Nogueira da Maia, Portugal and Houston, TX considering fatigue, stiffness, impact of installation-induced twist, and effectiveness of filter design for ropes with elasticity.  

Project Title: Mooring Line Autonomous Inspection and Condition Assessment using Resident Mission Bots 

Location: Niskayuna, NY 

Award Amount: $997,784 

Project Description: Develop and test the first mooring line autonomous inspection and condition assessment technology using Resident Mission Bots (MOORCAMBOT) system, capable of performing unsupervised visual inspections and assessing mooring line conditions of floating offshore wind turbines. 

Project Title: Development and Testing of a Modular Sensor Solution for Mooring Line Condition Monitoring 

Location: Houston, TX 

Award Amount: $984,375 

Project Description: Acquire a sensor for long-term mooring line monitoring to better understand the reliability of floating offshore wind turbine mooring lines.The sensor will collect data for the evaluation of mooring line tension, vibrations, the presence of derelict fishing gear, vessel strikes, anchor drags on mooring line or bottom chain, and damage to the anchors. 

Project Title: Floating Offshore Wind Shared Anchor Solution Validations Through Scaled Model Field Tests and Numerical Simulations 

Location: College Station, TX 

Award Amount: $932,194 

Project Description: Advance shared anchor array modeling and perform a field demonstration of the deeply embedded ring anchor. The versatile deeply embedded ring anchor can be quietly installed in any soil, has multiline potential, and has omni-directional (all directions) loading capabilities—ensuring adaptability to fit any mooring or loading configuration.

Project Title: Validation of Shared Array Models with Physical Testing of Shared Anchors 

Location: Chelmsford, MA 

Award Amount: $999,323 

Project Description: Physically test Triton’s anchor with shared anchor loading scenarios. Designed from the ground up for vertical and omni-directional loading, the anchor uses a group of deeply embedded helical piles. It is designed for local construction, smaller deployment vessels, and silent, environmentally friendly installation.  

Project Title: Precise Measurements of Acoustic Pressure, Particle Motion and Seabed Vibration During Installation of Alternate Wind Turbine Foundations 

Location: Santa Cruz, CA 

Award Amount: $1,196,083 

Project Description: Collect detailed measurements of radiated noise from alternate foundations and/or installation methods such as gravity base (large concrete structures that rest on the seabed) or suction buckets (foundations that are sunk into the seabed using pumps). The project will use innovative measurement tools that will measure multiple aspects of noise in both the water and seafloor.

Project Title: Self-Floating Alternatives for Quiet Installation of Offshore Wind Foundations and Overcoming Supply Chain Gaps 

Location: Arvada, CO 

Award Amount: $800,000 

Project Description: Lead a comparative evaluationofsuction bucket jackets (part of foundation above seabed) and gravity-based foundations, which have been successful for offshore wind projects in Europe and Asia. Self-floating designs of these foundation alternatives avoid impact hammering, and their fabrication employs more local skilled labor, uses less costly materials, and does not require costly and scarce heavy-lift vessels.  

Project Title: Silent Helical Pile Foundations for Fixed Bottom Offshore Wind 

Location: Chelmsford, MA 

Award Amount: $1,303,792 

Project Description: Conduct a feasibility study and take noise measurements of a helically installed turbine foundation. Evaluating and testing this foundation type could support fixed-bottom offshore wind installation by solving challenges created by impulsive and high intensity noise of impact hammer-driven installation. 

Project Title: Gentle-Driving of Piles for U.S. Seabed and Marine Ecological Conditions 

Location: Medford, MA 

Award Amount: $488,232 

Project Description: Conduct a desktop feasibility study of technology used to gently drive piles, which involves combining two vibration types that have been shown to install piles with lower forces and decreased noise emissions. This work will build on past European development and research to explore how gentle pile driving could address multiple environmental and installation challenges in U.S. waters.  

Project Title: Integrated Passive and Active Underwater Wave Control for Comprehensive Noise Abatement in Offshore Wind Installation 

Location: Best Lafayette, IN 

Award Amount: $3,817,741 

Project Description: Develop a triple-action noise abatement system to control noise propagation in both the seabed and water column (area between ocean surface and seafloor). This system will use a combination of noise-canceling sound waves and a noise mitigation sheath. The Purdue team will conduct modeling, laboratory testing, and open-water testing.  

Project Title: Adaptive Hybrid Noise Mitigation for Offshore Wind Turbine Construction using Metamaterials (or engineered material)  

Location: Ann Arbor, MI 

Award Amount: $2,401,977 

Project Description: Design and demonstrate a noise abatement system that uses acoustic metamaterials including a multi-layer inflatable balloon curtain to reduce noise moving through the water column, complemented by an array of metamaterial mini-piles to suppress noise traveling through the seabed. The team will conduct noise abatement simulations, laboratory experiments to verify simulations, and open-water scale prototype testing at DOE’s Sequim Bay test site in the PNNL Bio-Acoustics & Flow Laboratory. 

Project Title: Reducing Offshore Wind Installation Noise (ROWIN) 

Location: Richland, WA 

Award Amount: $500,000

Project Description: Synthesize information about noise reduction technologies; host expert workshops; and publish educational briefs, online tools, and a best practices guidance document on the Tethys environmental effects database.