The Biden-Harris Administration, through the US Department of Energy (DOE), has announced its intent to use $30 million from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund research and development projects that will lower costs for wind energy projects on land and offshore to benefit communities across the country.
Applicants for the forthcoming $28 million funding opportunity must submit projects that support the following initiatives:
- Advancing technologies needed to transmit large amounts of electricity from offshore wind over long distances. Funding in this topic area ($9.7 million) will support standards for high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission for offshore wind, develop and validate innovative controls to ensure reliability and compatibility with alternating current and direct current, and identify and address gaps in education and workforce training to support HVDC transmission deployment for U.S. offshore wind.
- Helping coastal communities benefit from offshore wind development through social science research and community engagement. Funding in this topic area ($6.9 million) will help characterize economic and other impacts of offshore wind development on local communities, and support research enabling communities to better participate in, and benefit from, offshore wind development.
- Improving permitting processes to make distributed wind more accessible to communities where distributed wind can be cost-effectively and equitably deployed. To reduce costs and accelerate the equitable deployment of community-based clean energy, funding in this topic area ($3.3 million) will support innovative zoning and permitting approaches for distributed wind projects.
- Improving technologies that help bats avoid wind turbines as the industry works to minimize impacts to local wildlife and ecosystems. Funding in this topic area ($8 million) will support bat behavioural research, technology development, and field testing to advance bat deterrent technologies.
