New York’s Offshore Wind Innovation Hub Selects Six New Companies

June 7, 2024, by Adrijana Buljan

Boxkite Software, Claviate, Indeximate, Pliant Energy Systems, Sensatek, and Triton Anchor have been selected by the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub in New York to receive support to further develop their solutions that could help advance offshore wind in the state and the US.

The Offshore Wind Innovation Hub, officially launched in January 2023, is led by Equinor in collaboration with Urban Future Lab at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and the National Offshore Wind R&D Consortium (NOWRDC) supported by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC).

Last year, the Innovation Hub opened its first call for applications and selected the first six start-ups that went through the Hub’s accelerator programme. The companies in the 2023 cohort were Benchmark Labs, Flucto, Heerema Engineering Solutions, RCAM Technologies, OSC, and VinciVR.

The six new companies were selected from a pool of 78 applicants based on the novelty of their solutions and criteria revolving around economic impact as this year’s selection process focused on innovations that can improve the project economics of US offshore wind. These criteria included scalability, market traction, and potential local impact of the solutions.

UK-based Boxkite Software entered the accelerator programme with its solution that provides fast bankable-level accuracy energy yield assessments to assess site feasibility and design. Danish company Claviate will get support for its visual data platform that uses smart (IOT) cameras and AI for transparency and process optimisation of construction management (and is GDPR-compliant).

New York company Pliant Energy Systems has developed an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with robotic propulsion technology which, according to the company, enables new seafloor surveying capabilities and has a lower environmental impact than vehicles with spinning propeller thrusters.

The Hub also selected UK company Indeximate and its fibre optic sensing technology for predictive maintenance of subsea power cables that remotely profiles their integrity and condition, and structural health monitoring technology for turbine blades developed by Florida-based Sensatek that uses video images where every pixel is a vibration sensor.

The Massachusetts company Triton Anchor, which was recently announced as one of the winners of the second phase of the FLoating Offshore Wind ReadINess (FLOWIN) Prize in the United States, is also in the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub’s 2024 cohort with its modular foundation installation system that allows for any mooring configuration.

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The Hub’s 2024 cohort will take on a six-month mentoring and business development programme residency, designed to prepare them for strategic partnerships with major offshore wind developers, suppliers, and the wider offshore wind value chain.

The six companies will now be individually paired with Equinor mentors and gain industry-specific guidance on technology development from the National Offshore Wind R&D Consortium (NOWRDC).