Winners take on a six-month mentoring and business development program residency designed to prepare them for strategic partnerships with major offshore wind developers and to be part of the larger offshore wind value chain. The program aims to enable innovators to overcome barriers to adoption and continue to successfully commercialize their solutions in New York and beyond.
Applications will be accepted until March 21, 2025. Through a highly competitive selection process, applicants will have to demonstrate the potential and economic impact of their innovation. Shortlisted applicants will advance to a public pitch event in New York before a panel of experts representing academia, industry, and government.
Launched in January 2023, the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub is led by Equinor in collaboration with Urban Future Lab at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and the National Offshore Wind Research & Development Consortium (NOWRDC) supported by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), the New York City-based Innovation Hub seeks to advance an inclusive supply chain and accelerate New York’s local green economy.
“We look forward to building on the strong foundation of the Innovation Hub and supporting the next round of entrepreneurs and emerging technologies,” says Molly Morris, President of Equinor Renewables Americas. “The solutions identified by the innovators will play a critical role in advancing the offshore energy industry, developing supply chains, and strengthening energy security for future generations of New Yorkers.”
“The Offshore Wind Innovation Hub is a critical pipeline for helping grow New York’s offshore wind sector,” says Doreen M. Harris, President and CEO of NYSERDA. “Providing support for visionary clean energy concepts through to the commercialization of groundbreaking innovations, programs like this are a catalyst to developing inventive and sustainable offshore wind technologies that will help power the future of New York.”
Cohort companies selected for the Innovation Hub will be individually paired with knowledgeable Equinor mentors and gain industry-specific guidance on technology development from NOWRDC, which includes experts from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). NYSERDA also provides funding for the NOWRDC to support the advancement of offshore wind technologies.
“The Offshore Wind Innovation Hub team pulls together a broad and truly useful program of mentorship, educational, and networking resources. Across the spectrum of commercial maturity represented by this Cohort, we saw each of the Cohort companies take exactly what they needed from the huge array of support available,” said Russell Bingham, Head of Product at Pliant Energy Systems. “For us at Pliant, the Hub has been a primary enabler of customer engagement and a source of mentorship as we’ve moved to commercialize our tech in offshore wind and beyond—we’ve made great strides towards fielding robots with customers and developed a newly robust and customer-vetted commercialization plan.”
“New York City is a leading global hub for the green economy, and the significant advances in the Offshore Wind sector are creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs to scale technologies that address critical challenges in the deployment of renewable energy,” says New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) Chief Operating Officer Melissa Román Burch. “After the outstanding success of the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub’s last two cohorts, NYCEDC is excited for the next round of innovators who will demonstrate their sustainable impact throughout the five boroughs and beyond.”
“The Offshore Wind Innovation Hub’s 2025 Call for Innovators is a vital opportunity to connect cutting-edge technologies with the resources, partnerships, and community needed to scale impactful solutions to support offshore wind energy,” says Lyndie Hice-Dunton, Executive Director at National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium (NOWRDC). “NOWRDC is committed to driving the innovation necessary to unlock the full potential of this growing ecosystem. We are excited to collaborate with forward-thinking, innovative companies who share our vision of a thriving, sustainable offshore wind industry.”
Following the success of the inaugural cohort in 2023, last year’s Innovation Hub cohort of six companies was chosen from among 78 accelerator applicants. This year, the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub is seeking technologies within wind power and site characterization, project and port development, installation, commissioning, construction, transmission, operations, maintenance, conflict reduction, and stakeholder engagement. These topics have been selected as critical areas of innovation to advance successful offshore wind projects in the US.
Selected companies then participate in a rigorous accelerator program, in which they receive scale-up support, bespoke business development assistance, industry mentorship, access to expert workshops, tenants at the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub in Brooklyn, and exclusive network access.
Last year’s cohort includes Pliant Energy Systems (Brooklyn, US), Sensatek (Daytona Beach, US), Triton Anchor (Boston, US), Boxkite Software (Bristol, UK), Claviate (Aarhus, DK), and Indeximate (Hinckley, UK). The cohort showcased exceptional achievements during the program, which included securing new contracts, company establishment in New York, testing and validating novel technology, pilot demonstrations, strengthening product value propositions, and forming critical partnerships.
“The Offshore Wind Innovation Hub’s accelerator program provides innovators with hands-on support and unprecedented access to leaders from industry, government, academia, and research,” says Jack Fritzinger, Interim Director of the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub with Urban Future Lab at NYU Tandon NYU Tandon School of Engineering. “Our past two cohorts have seen great success, and we’re excited to expand the program with this new cohort of visionary founders.”
“Indeximate has hugely benefited from being included in the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub’s 2024 cohort—it has been a great privilege for us to play a part,” said Dr. Chirs Minto, Director at Indeximate. “The program has benefited us in so many ways—a deeper understanding of the US market and what it will take to play in it, the support of the Climate Exchange Network and Colombia Tech to develop our Value Proposition and road test working in the market as well of course as the deep insight offered by Equinor into assessing and exploiting our offering. The introductions to US Venture Capital have positioned ourselves superbly for our next stage of expansion.”
“The Offshore Wind Innovation Hub exemplifies NYU Tandon’s commitment to confronting climate change through engineering solutions,” says Linda Ng Boyle, Vice Dean for Research at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. “By bridging entrepreneurs and industry leaders with Tandon’s academic research expertise, particularly through our Sustainable Engineering Initiative, we’re contributing to the development of a robust offshore wind ecosystem in New York. The success of our previous cohorts demonstrates how these types of partnerships can support the deployment of technologies vital for renewable energy and a more sustainable future.”
