CEE Spinout Wins Accelerator Grant to Continue Wind Energy Research

Andrew Myers, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern received a $1.7 million grant by Massachusetts Clean Energy Center's (MassCEC) Catalyst and InnovateMass programs, which will support the develop of an innovative floating wind turbine.

CEE Associate Professor Andrew Myers, an expert in structural engineering, and Senior Research Engineer Jim Papadopoulos, an expert in structural/mechanical design, recently founded a startup company developing novel offshore wind energy solutions spun out from research conducted at Northeastern University. Now, their startup T-Omega Wind has received a new grant to continue development.

Myers’ research at Northeastern focuses on expanding the potential of wind turbine technology to harvest offshore wind energy across the globe. The size of the global offshore wind resource is vast. In the United States, there is enough capacity along the U.S. eastern seaboard alone to power the whole country. There are obstacles to doing so, however. Existing technology, which is fixed to the seafloor, is limited to relatively shallow water depths and is expensive and difficult to fabricate and deploy because the technology has been transplanted from onshore turbine designs, rather than being optimized for the ocean. Myers and Papadopoulos’ purposefully redesigned the wind turbine for ocean use. Their design lowers the cost of energy, floats for expanded deployment, and can be deployed with minimal coastal infrastructure.

Myers and his startup won a grant of up to £100,000 GBP (~$131K) from TechX Clean Energy Accelerator by the Net Zero Technology Centre in Scotland. The grant includes mentoring from experts, and follows previous startup competition wins by Myers and Papadopoulos, including from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and the Cleantech Open.

Related Faculty: Andrew T. Myers

Related Departments:Civil & Environmental Engineering