The purpose of this Notice of Intent is to provide potential applicants advance notice that the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Wind and Water Power Technologies Office (WWPTO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “U.S. Wind Manufacturing: Larger Blades to Access Greater Wind Resources and Lower Costs", Number DE-FOA-0001214. The full Notice of Intent document is posted in the "FOA Documents" section below.
This FOA will support Research and Development (R&D) partnerships leading to innovative designs and processes for the manufacturing and assembly of wind turbine blades in order to facilitate deployment of the next generation of multi-megawatt wind turbines. Supported projects will develop cost-competitive integrated solutions that address the challenges of fabricating, transporting overland and assembling rotor blades longer than 60m, with design concepts scalable to greater lengths, and installing them at wind turbine hub heights of at least 120m. Multi-organizational teams including at least an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) turbine designer, a blade manufacturer and an installation/logistics firm are expected.
The proposed FOA is intended to be forward-looking in addressing U.S. market dynamics and domestic manufacturing opportunities through innovative solutions to constructing and assembling larger blades directly applicable to mitigating U.S. transportation constraints. Awards under the FOA will support partnerships between DOE and research and development (R&D) teams, including manufacturers. The resulting designs must be manufacturable in the U.S. in accordance with the U.S. Manufacturing Plan to be submitted as part of the application.
NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this Notice of Intent. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. The applicant must first register and create an account on the EERE eXCHANGE website. A User Guide for EERE eXCHANGE can be found on the EERE website https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/Manuals.aspx after logging in to the system.