US research program awards $1.9M to marine energy projects  

The U.S. Testing Expertise and Access to Marine Energy Research (TEAMER) program has approved 15 marine energy projects and allocated nearly $1.9 million through its fourteenth request for technical support (RFTS). 

According to TEAMER, technical expertise and access to facilities will be provided, enabling recipients to advance testing, modeling, and innovation for marine energy technologies.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and managed by the Pacific Ocean Energy Trust, the TEAMER program was created to accelerate the commercialization of marine renewables. 

Selected applicants and their respective facilities will finalize test plans, a requirement for the commencement of assistance activities, TEAMER noted. Applications for the fifteenth RFTS are open until February 7, 2025.

Among the approved projects, Buogra Limited will conduct basin testing of its Buogralon wave energy converter (WEC) at the University of Maine. Deep Anchor Solutions will work with the American Bureau of Shipping to advance its Deeply Embedded Ring Anchor through certification and risk assessment.  

Hydrokinetic Energy will also leverage the American Bureau of Shipping’s facilities to test its hydrokinetic turbine in open water conditions under third-party surveillance.

Laminar Scientific will investigate a novel nearshore mooring method aimed at reducing capital expenditure in collaboration with AMOG Consulting. Michigan State University plans to evaluate the integration of floating offshore platforms with wave energy converters in wave tank tests at the University of Michigan.

The Morlais Marine Characterisation Research Project will focus on improving imaging sonar classification through sensor fusion for tidal energy environmental monitoring at MarineSitu. Ocean Energy USA will assess how station-keeping affects the performance of its OE35 oscillating water column wave energy converter, with support from Sandia National Laboratories.

Ocergy will examine the feasibility of integrating wave energy into its OCG-Data platform, while Orbital Marine Power will develop adaptable environmental monitoring packages for floating tidal turbines, utilizing expertise from the University of Washington and MarineSitu.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will conduct flume-scale testing of blade-integrated collision monitoring at the University of Washington, while PEAK LLC will evaluate its coastal WEC, FlexOWC, with assistance from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.

Poseidon’s Kite will pursue tank testing of its wave energy panel at Stevens Institute of Technology. Sitkana will receive advisory and development support for its technology at Sandia National Laboratories. The University of Minnesota Duluth will conduct system identification wave tank testing for a wall-mounted vertical oscillating surge wave energy converter at Michigan Technological University.

Wavepiston will work with Sandia National Laboratories and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to evaluate and refine its Wavepiston wave energy converter.

The applications for the submission of the 14th batch of requests for technical support (RFTS) were opened in September.

In June, the U.S.-based program also added the Bourne Tidal Test Site (BTTS) as its newest open-water testing facility. Operated by the Marine Renewable Energy Collaborative of New England, the site is located in the seven-meter deep waters of the Cape Cod Canal in Massachusetts, which experiences flows exceeding 1.5 meters per second. The grid-connected platform allows open-water testing of prototype tidal devices up to three meters.