Offshore Wind Energy Research, Development, Demonstration, and Commercial Application Act of 2009 - Requires the Secretary of Energy to implement a program to: (1) improve the energy efficiency, reliability, and capacity of offshore wind turbines; and (2) reduce the cost of manufacturing, construction, deployment, generation, and maintenance of offshore wind energy systems.
Requires the Secretary to implement the program to support: (1) the design, demonstration, and deployment of advanced wind turbine foundations and support structures, blades, turbine systems, components, and supporting land- and water-based infrastructure for application in shallow water, transitional depths, and deep offshore water; (2) the full-scale testing and establishment of regional demonstrations of offshore wind components and systems to validate technology and performance issues relating to the components; (3) assessments of the offshore wind resources for inclusion in a publicly accessible database; (4) the design, demonstration, and deployment of integrated sensors, actuators, and advanced materials; (5) advanced blade manufacturing activity to stimulate the development of the blade manufacturing capacity of the United States; and (6) methods to assess and mitigate the effects of wind energy systems on marine ecosystems and marine industries.
Requires the Secretary to award competitive grants to institutions of higher education to establish national offshore wind centers. Requires such a center to be designed to: (1) focus on deepwater floating offshore wind energy technologies; and (2) facilitate the conduct of initiatives to advance program activities.