Marine Energy

DOE announces $1.8 million for continuing marine energy projects at national labs

DOE announces $1.8 million for continuing marine energy projects at national labs
(photo courtesy NREL)

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) has announced nearly $1.8 million for nine projects to further marine energy research and development at DOE’s national laboratories.

These projects will advance marine energy technologies and their roles in achieving national and local clean energy goals. Total available marine energy resources in the U.S. are equivalent about 57% of all U.S. power generation. Even if only a small portion of this technical resource potential is captured, marine energy technologies would make significant contributions to energy needs. Marine energy resources are predictable and consistently available, meaning technologies that harness this power can complement other renewables like wind energy and solar power. 

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) will lead these projects.  

The projects announced today are “Saplings” funded under WPTO’s Seedlings and Saplings program to encourage and support new and innovative research ideas at DOE’s national laboratories. Most started as “Seedlings” and received up to $100,000. The “Saplings” will receive additional funding of $80,000 to $500,000. 

The nine projects are:

  • Development of a commercialization pathway for the marine mobile off-grid turbine at NREL
  • Efficient motor drives for wave energy converters at Sandia
  • Extraction of high-purity magnesium feedstock from seawater for domestic magnesium production at PNNL
  • Loads data for reference model composite tidal turbine blades using instrumentation best practices and submerged blade validation at NREL
  • Maturation of flexible antifouling and low-drag coatings for marine energy and the blue economy at PNNL
  • Novel eco-friendly, high-lubricity ionic liquids for marine turbomachinery lubrication at ORNL
  • Optimizing environmental DNA/RNA methods for monitoring fish at tidal energy sites at PNNL
  • Open data sets and simulations for the reference model project at Sandia
  • Underwater wireless communication for marine applications at NREL