The U.S. Division of Vitality (DOE) has launched the Powering the Blue Financial system™: Energy at Sea Prize, which is able to award as much as $1.7 million to rivals to advance applied sciences that use marine power to energy ocean-based actions.
Subsequent-generation maritime or “blue” applied sciences are shifting farther offshore to seize knowledge throughout the ocean. Purposes could embrace ocean-observing gadgets, aquaculture installations, and rather more, and all require entry to constant, domestically obtainable energy. The prize challenges rivals to satisfy this want by figuring out new, modern, and possible marine power ideas that harness the ability of the ocean.
“Marine power applied sciences have unbelievable potential to energy programs out at sea that serve broad societal wants, like gathering knowledge about our huge and largely unexplored oceans,” mentioned Jeff Marootian, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Vitality Effectivity and Renewable Vitality. “I’m excited to see the ingenious ideas rivals develop and the way they will help advance our objective to attain net-zero emissions throughout all sectors of our economic system by 2050.”
Ideas can energy any off-grid use within the ocean with marine power, which incorporates energy from waves, tides, and ocean currents. To speed up the commercialization of the nascent marine power trade, rivals’ ideas ought to have a excessive potential for eventual deployment at sea.
Over two phases, the Energy at Sea Prize will incentivize rivals to develop novel, marine energy-powered ideas by selecting at the least one integration problem particular to the blue economic system:
Entry: How does the answer assist to scale back the excessive value or restricted alternatives for service, upkeep, and/or intervention?
Deployment length: How does the answer enhance the deployment length at sea?
Vitality storage: How does the answer enhance the capabilities at present restricted by battery capability?
Environmental/ecological affect: How does the answer reduce the adverse results of interactions with native wildlife?
Harsh operational situations: How does the answer handle operations in difficult situations and undesirable progress of marine organisms?
Hybridization with different renewable power assets: How does the answer make the most of marine power to deal with energy gaps attributable to intermittency of different non-marine renewable power assets?
Suitability of energy: How does the answer maximize effectivity?
The primary part, CONCEPT, will heart on creating groups and sound ideas, awarding as much as 20 winners from a money prize pool of as much as $200,000. Ideas in early phases of growth are welcome—from a system, subsystem, or part that has not but been developed to those who have had some earlier work accomplished as much as the prototype stage. The CONCEPT part is now open for submissions and can shut on July 26, 2024.
The second part, DEVELOP, goals to higher place rivals for continued expertise growth following the prize. As much as 20 DEVELOP part winners might be chosen and share a money prize pool of as much as $1.5 million.
This prize helps the objectives of the DOE Water Energy Applied sciences Workplace (WPTO)’s Powering the Blue Financial system initiative. It’s funded by WPTO and is run by DOE’s Nationwide Renewable Vitality Laboratory (NREL). The Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Workplace of Aquaculture, NOAA-led U.S. Built-in Ocean Observing System, NOAA Ocean Acidification Program, NOAA’s Nationwide Sea Grant School Program, and DOE’s Pacific Northwest Nationwide Laboratory additionally present technical assist.
