WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public input on existing capabilities and needs of national-level offshore wind research and development (R&D) test facilities.

This RFI will allow industry and the public to provide knowledge and recommendations to DOE for the development of offshore wind facilities - increasing the partnership between the public and private sectors.

"Testing of offshore wind components and scale-prototypes is critical to help advance America's offshore wind industry," said Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes. "Through this request we are looking to better understand our U.S. offshore wind testing capabilities, and how we can improve those facilities to compete in the global market."

In this RFI, DOE is seeking information on the following:

Facilities that can conduct unique offshore wind R&D in the United States,

Needed upgrades to existing facilities or new facilities for the United States to be at the cutting edge of offshore wind R&D, and

Specific tests and analyses that could be carried out at existing, upgraded, or new facilities in order to advance the U.S. offshore wind industry.

The RFI is conducted by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO). WETO supports a wide scope of research, including the Offshore Wind Advanced Technology Demonstration Projects, the collection of hub-height wind and various metocean data by the DOE offshore wind LIDAR resource assessment buoys, floating offshore wind technology and cost reduction research, standards development, and the recently announced U.S. Offshore Wind R&D Consortium.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to osw.rfi@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00 p.m. EST on September 14, 2018.