Phase I of ARPA-E's ATLANTIS has come to an end. A lot of progress has been made in the Control-Co-Design (CCD) of the USFLOWT. FWTC has been working with Colorado School of Mines (CSM) to support this project that had been initiated in 2019 by one of our very own principals (Rick Damiani) while at NREL, and that NREL's Senu Sirnivas still leads today together with CSM, the University Colorado at Boulder, the University of Virginia, and the American Bureau of Shipping. Recently, USFLOWT was showcased at the ARPA-E Summit 2022 in Denver, and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm paid a nice visit to the USFLOWT booth.
We hope USFLOWT will continue efforts toward a new testing phase, with a subscale demonstration project that would see us involved as aero-hydro-structural designers. Whatever the outcome of ATLANTIS's Phase II will be, we have had a great pleasure working with the USFLOWT team, a talented group of individuals that are truly passionate about making this concept a reality.
A moment from ARPA-E Summit 2022. USFLOWT PI Team with Dr. Mario Garcia-Sanz of ARPA-E. Photo credit: Dr. Lucy Pao (CU).