UCF leads $3.3M project to enhance floating wind turbine technology

ORLANDO, Fla. — A University of Central Florida (UCF) engineering professor, Tuhin Das, is leading a $3.3 million research project funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to study floating offshore wind turbines.

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Das aims to develop a software platform that simulates the impact of external factors, like changing winds and crashing waves, on floating wind turbine systems. The project aims to diversify the nation’s energy resources and boost renewable energy contributions to the power grid.

During the initial phase, funded with $772,000, Das demonstrated the software’s potential benefits, showing results comparable to industry-accepted models and experimental data.

The recent $3.3 million grant from ARPA-E will fund phase two of the research, allowing further investigation for the next three years.

The software platform is envisioned to become publicly accessible, hosted on the university’s website, and available for licensing and commercialization. The goal is to enable researchers from academia and the industry to use it to advance wind turbine research and innovation.

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Floating offshore wind turbine farms are still limited, with only a few in operation, but Das hopes his software will support the development of more offshore wind turbines and promote renewable energy.

The research, initiated in 2019, is based on acausal modeling, which offers a declarative approach to modeling governing equations, allowing for better model reusability than traditional methods.

Das collaborated with researchers from the University of Maine and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory during the first phase to generate experimental data and validate the software.

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The UCF team, consisting of graduate students and a postdoctoral research scholar, plans to work diligently over the next few years to advance the project’s objectives, according to a news release.

This research holds promise for the field of floating offshore wind turbines, driving innovation in renewable energy for the nation’s power infrastructure.

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