The five-startup cohort of Greentown Go Energize 2023 has spent the last six months working closely with Vineyard Wind—a joint venture between Avangrid and Vineyard Offshore that’s the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the United States—and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) to advance innovations for responsible offshore wind development.
A total of 40 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity is set to come online in the United States in the next decade. Harnessing this abundant resource will increase grid reliability and diversity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With only 42 megawatts of offshore wind capacity currently operational, the U.S. offshore wind industry is poised for significant growth and ripe for innovation—but given the industry’s complexity, it can be uniquely challenging for startups to enter this space.
That’s why this Greentown Go program set out to remove barriers hindering the commercialization of innovative technologies within the offshore wind industry by providing education and fostering robust relationships across networks. At the same time, Go Energize 2023 allowed Vineyard Wind to better understand and leverage cutting-edge technologies that can help it carry out projects with a high level of environmental stewardship and minimized ecological impact—qualities that are critical as offshore-wind developers execute large-scale projects.
The five participating startups—Blue Atlas Robotics, FutureOn, HyperKelp, Lobster Robotics, and SeaDeep—were chosen in a highly competitive selection process that saw more than 60 applications from a dozen countries. Throughout the accelerator, they worked with the program partners to advance their commercialization efforts while connecting with offshore wind developers, NGOs, scientists, federal agencies, and other key players and preparing for partnerships in the burgeoning U.S. offshore wind industry. Programming around industry education and connections included:
- A tour of MassCEC’s Wind Technology Testing Center, which offers the latest methodologies for wind-turbine-blade testing and prototype development.
- A session with Carbon Trust providing guidance topics including barriers to market entry, customer expectations, distribution channels, and competitive positioning in the European and U.S. offshore wind markets.
- A panel with the Regional Wildlife Science Collaborative for Offshore Wind that discussed methodologies for offshore data collection, integrations of cutting-edge technologies in wind observation, and the establishment of standards, management protocols, and tools for effective data sharing.
- An overview from Oceantic Network (formerly the Business Network for Offshore Wind) on the siting and permitting, construction and installation, and operations and maintenance phases of offshore wind farms.
- An Offshore Wind Innovation Mixer in partnership with The Offshore Wind Innovation Hub—a program run by the Urban Future Lab at NYU Tandon School of Engineering.
A group of experienced startup mentors and industry experts, including Vineyard Wind and MassCEC representatives, also provided valuable guidance to the cohort’s founding teams.
Read about the startups, their progress during the accelerator, and how they worked with Vineyard Wind and MassCEC below, and check out a recording of the Go Energize 2023 final showcase here!
Blue Atlas Robotics
Technology at a glance: Blue Atlas Robotics, based in Odense, Denmark, has developed and commercialized a robot platform that removes operational and data limitations present today when using available methods for underwater inspections.
Progress during the program: Go Energize 2023 helped Blue Atlas Robotics establish its presence in the U.S. market and the startup has secured its first U.S. customer. It plans to launch a pilot project in the coming year.
“Our experience of being part of the Go Energize 2023 program has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Blue Atlas Robotics CEO Mads Andersen. “The team at Greentown has, throughout all the sessions, ensured access to an impressive list of industry experts, both from the federal as well as private sector, giving access to making valuable connections and gaining knowledge for all the participating companies.”
FutureOn
Technology at a glance: FutureOn’s FieldTwin creates a dynamic and 3D geospatial common data environment across surface, subsea, and subsurface domains, with open API connectivity into third-party tools and existing customer workflows. The startup is based in Oslo, Norway.
Work with program partners: FutureOn is collaborating with Avangrid—a parent company of Vineyard Wind—and its geographic information system (known as GIS) team on a three-month pilot of the startup’s digital-twin solution. At the Go Energize 2023 Final Showcase, FutureOn’s VP of Energy Transition Adam Duffy explained how FutureOn used the Go Energize program to build out a Vineyard Wind 1 demo project to provide rich 3D visualization of turbines, substation, and subsea infrastructure from the water and from shore. This an editable 3D model allowing layout optimization, co-location studies, and scenario maturation for the neighboring project development portfolio.
HyperKelp
Technology at a glance: HyperKelp, hailing from Encinitas, CA, produces the Kelp Smart Buoy—a hosted payload platform capable of carrying hundreds of sensors—that collects and transmits marine-level data for wind farmers, climate scientists, and military intelligence officials.
Progress during the program: HyperKelp’s technology has previously been deployed in the defense industry, and so Go Energize 2023 was crucial for exploring how its solution can be applied to offshore wind. HyperKelp and Avangrid are scoping a potential project where the startup would retrofit its buoys with an acoustic signal classifier, primarily for whale monitoring.
Lobster Robotics
Technology at a glance: Lobster Robotics, based in Delft, Netherlands, develops lightweight, low-cost, fast robots for visual surveying to lower the cost of surveying in offshore wind farms.
Work with program partners: Lobster Robotics signed an MOU with Avangrid to pursue further validation of its tech through field trials and integrated testing in 2024. The partnership will focus around mapping seagrass beds off the coast of Massachusetts.
“Go Energize 2023 really enabled us to accelerate,” says Lobster Robotics CEO Stephan Rutten. “They introduced us to exactly the right people in our prospective client’s organization and gave us valuable workshops and access to mentors to help us enter the fledgling U.S. offshore wind market.”
SeaDeep
Technology at a glance: SeaDeep revolutionizes underwater assessments with AI-powered subsea vision for inspecting marine environments and substructures in real-time and with high-fidelity using low-cost, off-the-shelf cameras. The startup is based in Somerville, MA.
Work with program partners: SeaDeep recently received non-dilutive funding from MassCEC to explore coral reefs off the Gulf of Mexico in the interest of protecting their ecology. SeaDeep is also working with Avangrid to scope a potential pilot where the startup would help in benthic habitat mapping.
“Participating in the Go Energize 2023 Program with Vineyard Wind and Avangrid has been a transformative experience for SeaDeep,” says SeaDeep CEO Eric Osherow. “The collaborative environment and targeted support from the amazing teams at Greentown and Vineyard have accelerated our growth and solidified our commitment to sustainable marine innovation.”
Greentown Labs runs Greentown Go programs across five tracks: Go Make (manufacturing), Go Move (transportation), Go Energize (energy and electricity), Go Build (buildings), and Go Grow (food and agriculture). These startup-corporate partnerships programs challenge the status quo within each key greenhouse-gas sector as they accelerate partnerships between industry giants and innovators. Learn about current programs here, and get in touch if you’re a corporate interested in running a Go program!