Three additional wind turbines projects are receiving a total of more than $1.8 million to boost the speed and scale of midsize wind turbine technology development and deployment. These grants will help reach the goal of doubling U.S. renewable energy generation capacity, and will promote energy security, environmental quality, and clean energy jobs.
‘Wind power holds enormous potential to help reach our nation’s clean energy goals,’ said Secretary Chu. ‘Today’s awards will help better integrate wind energy into the electrical grid and will support the development of midsize wind turbines that can be used to provide renewable electricity in communities across the country.’
Electricity grid operators need to accurately predict and plan for the energy output of wind power plants in their systems. With better forecasting, utilities can more reliably connect variable power sources such as wind energy with electricity grids, and can decrease their need for back-up energy sources such as natural gas or hydropower.
The two funding recipients announced today – AWS Truepower LLC in Albany, New York and WindLogics, Inc. in Sant Paul, Minnesota – will lead teams of several partners and work with DOE and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to deploy advanced atmospheric measurement systems over a broad area, provide data that allow advanced weather prediction systems to improve short-term turbine-level wind forecasts, and demonstrate the value of these forecasting improvements for electric utility operations.
NOAA will provide project support in the areas of research instrument deployment and operation, data assimilation, advanced weather modeling, and meteorology expertise and analysis. A network of sophisticated atmospheric instrumentation will be deployed and operated in the regions identified and supported by the AWS Truepower and WindLogics teams. Data from these networks and other sources will be incorporated into an advanced weather forecast model by NOAA to provide more accurate wind forecasts.
In addition to the funding for short-term wind energy forecasting, DOE announced that three projects will receive approximately $620,000 each to accelerate the first phase of development, testing, and commercialization of domestically manufactured midsize wind turbines with rated generating capacities between 200 and 500 kilowatts. Midsize turbines are often used to generate renewable electricity at schools, farms, factories, private and public facilities, remote locations, and community and tribal wind energy plants. Their size allows installation at the site of electricity use, minimizing the need for new electricity transmission infrastructure.
DOE will provide funding over two years to strengthen the U.S. midsize turbine market and help address factors that have contributed to slow growth in the midsize wind turbine market to date, including a small number of available midsize turbine models. These projects will leverage private sector investments to advance innovative technologies that lower the installed costs and improve the productivity of midsize turbines. Awardees will also support a variety of equipment manufacturers and supply chain vendors in the United States. Each of the grantees will be eligible to apply for a second phase of the projects, with up to $4 million available in additional funding.
Additional detail on all of the selected projects is below:
Short-Term Wind Forecasting
* AWS Truepower, LLC (Albany, New York) – $2.15 million
This project will target a region of high wind energy use in Texas, and will assess utility system benefits with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages an electric power system with the largest amount of wind power capacity in the United States. The Truepower project team will also include Texas Technological University, the North Carolina State University, the University of Oklahoma, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and consultants MESO, Inc., and ICF International.
* WindLogics, Inc. (Saint Paul, Minnesota) – $1.25 million
This project will span portions of several Upper-Midwest states with many active wind energy projects, and will assess utility benefits with the Midwest Independent System Operator. WindLogics is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, the largest operator of wind power plants in North America. NextEra will provide meteorological data from 14 wind plants totaling nearly two gigawatts of operating capacity. Other partners in the WindLogics project will include South Dakota State University and DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Midsize Wind Turbine Development
* Clean Green Energy, LLC (Brighton, Michigan)
This project is working to bring a 200-kilowatt vertical axis wind turbine design into cost-effective mass production. The vertical turbine design will allow for distributed onsite generation near buildings.
* Northern Power Systems (Barre, Vermont)
This project is leveraging almost $10 million in private sector capital to develop a 450-kilowatt turbine, helping to complete the final turbine design, procurement, and prototype testing within 18 months. The project is expected to reduce the cost of energy from midsize turbines.
* Texas Tech University (Lubbock, Texas)
This project aims to adapt a turbine featuring two blades located downwind of the tower. This turbine design builds upon a commercially-produced architecture and scales it up to a 500-kilowatt rated output. The tilt-down guyed tower (braced by guy wires and hinged near its base) allows installation without cranes. This project seeks to compete on cost with fossil fuel power generation.
