FLoating Offshore Wind ReadINess (FLOWIN) Prize

The Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is launching the FLoating Offshore Wind ReadINess (FLOWIN) Prize in accordance with authorizations under the Energy Act of 2020.

Donor Name: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)

State: All States

County: All Counties

Type of Grant: Prize

Deadline: 01/14/2023

Size of the Grant: $900,000

Details:

The objectives of the prize are to advance designs for floating offshore wind platforms for on-site manufacturing; improve the readiness of the supply chain to enable mass production and assembly in the United States; lower associated costs and risks; and further the principles of job quality, inclusion and environmental justice embodied in the Biden administration’s executive orders and Justice40 Initiative. The overarching goal of the FLOWIN prize is to establish a pathway to cost-effective domestic manufacture and deployment of commercial utility-scale floating wind farms in U.S. waters.

Prize Goals

Advance designs of floating offshore wind turbine platforms for manufacturing
Improve supply chain readiness to enable mass production and assembly in the United States
Lower associated costs and risks
Further the principles of inclusion and environmental justice embodied in the administration’s Justice40 Initiative.

Prize Phases

Phase One: Qualification and Teaming

The winning submissions will be those teams that have:
- Determined critical hurdles to the commercialization of their floating platform technology.
- Demonstrated they can make significant progress toward identifying and developing a supply chain within the United States to produce the technology.
- Up to eight winning teams will receive $100,000 each in cash and $75,000 each in vouchers for technical support provided by DOE national laboratories.
Phase Two: U.S. Manufacturing Approaches
- Only Phase One winners are eligible to compete in this phase.
- This phase will have up to five winners, each receiving a cash prize of $450,000 and a technical services voucher valued at $100,000.
  Teams will be judged on their progress in developing a plan for mass production and assembly of floating offshore wind energy platforms.
Phase Three: Detailed Implementation Pathways
- This phase is only open to Phase Two winners.
- It is anticipated there will be up to three winners in Phase Three, each receiving a cash prize of $900,000.
- Winners of this phase will complete location-specific implementation pathways for the U.S. manufacture and deployment of their floating offshore wind energy technologies.
$6.85 million in cash prizes and in-kind support
- The FLOWIN total prize pool is $5.75 million in cash, with up to $1.1 million in vouchers for technical support from DOE national laboratories. Prizes will be divided among multiple awardees and awards will be made for each phase. Only winning teams will be eligible to compete for the next phase.

Eligibility Criteria

The competition is only open to legally formed entities including for-profits, nonprofits, academic institutions, and non-federal government entities such as states, counties, tribes, and municipalities. Competitors are subject to the following requirements:

If a lead competitor is a private entity, it must be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States.
If the lead competitor is an academic institution, it must be based in the United States.
DOE employees, employees of sponsoring organizations, members of their immediate families (e.g., spouses, children, siblings, or parents), and persons living in the same household as such persons, whether or not related, are not eligible to participate in the prize.
Individuals who worked at DOE (federal employees or support service contractors) within six months prior to the submission deadline of any contest are not eligible to participate in any prize contests in this program.
Federal entities and federal employees are not eligible to participate in any portion of the prize.
DOE national laboratory and other federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) employees cannot compete in the prize.
Individuals are not eligible to compete on their own. Because of the scope of this prize, only legally formed entities may compete in this prize.
Entities publicly banned from doing business with the U.S. government such as entities and individuals debarred, suspended, or otherwise excluded from or ineligible for participating in federal programs are not eligible to compete.
Entities identified as a restricted party on one or more screening lists of the Departments of Commerce, State, and Treasury are not eligible to compete.