These projects at 17 universities, including five minority-serving institutions, will address challenges facing marine and ocean renewable energy industries and spur innovation and development.
“The oceans hold incredible potential for renewable energy to power homes, businesses, and even offshore work such as marine research,” said Jeff Marootian, principal deputy assistant secretary for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “These projects harness the creativity of researchers at universities across the country to spur innovation in marine and ocean renewable energy.”
While marine energy is not yet widely deployed across the country, the total available marine energy resource in the United States is equivalent to nearly 60% of all U.S. power generation, DOE said. Therefore, even if only a small portion of this technical resource potential is captured, marine energy technologies could make “significant” contributions to U.S. energy needs.
The marine energy projects selected through this funding opportunity seek to:
Generate publicly available data and test platforms that will help identify cost reductions and performance improvements to advance marine energy devices.
Oregon State University (Corvallis, Oregon): $500,000
Rutgers University (New Brunswick, New Jersey): $500,000
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan): Two awards—$998,700 and $500,000
Advance potential synergies between offshore wind and/or marine energy and aquaculture development. (This topic area is a joint effort between DOE’s Water Power Technologies Office and Wind Energy Technologies Office.)
Boston University (Boston, Massachusetts): $375,000
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (San Luis Obispo, California): $375,000
University of Hawaii at Manoa (Honolulu, Hawaii): $497,000
University of New Hampshire (Durham, New Hampshire): $375,000
Support undergraduate senior design and/or research projects in marine energy.
Baldwin Wallace University (Berea, Ohio): $499,800
Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, Florida): $500,000
Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (College Station, Texas): $500,000
University of Alaska Fairbanks (Fairbanks, Alaska): $500,000
University of Houston (Houston, Texas): $500,000
University of Washington (Seattle, Washington): $500,000
University of Wisconsin-Madison (Madison, Wisconsin): $500,000
Advance additional ideas that support the Water Power Technologies Office’s Marine Energy Program objectives.
Michigan Technological University (Houghton, Michigan): $598,800
North Carolina State University (Raleigh, North Carolina): Two awards—$1,000,000 and $1,000,000
Oregon State University (Corvallis, Oregon): Two awards—$999,500 and $1,000,000
State University of New York at Stony Brook (Stony Brook, New York): Two awards—$500,000 and $500,000
University of Alaska Fairbanks (Fairbanks, Alaska): $1,000,000
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan): $994,200
University of New Hampshire (Durham, New Hampshire): Two awards—$985,300 and $1,000,000
University of Washington (Seattle, Washington): $999,300
These projects were selected through the Marine Energy University Foundational R&D funding opportunity from the Water Power Technologies Office and Wind Energy Technologies Office.
Award amounts are rounded and may change pending final negotiations, and selection for award negotiations is not a commitment by DOE to issue an award or provide funding. Before funding is issued, DOE and the applicants will undergo a process, and DOE may cancel negotiations and rescind the selection for any reason during that time.
