Travelers heading south on Highway 93 out of Boulder, Colorado, do not have to venture far before the majestic Flatirons to the west begin to peter off, pausing at the edge of Eldorado Canyon. The canyon, a narrow inlet into the Rocky Mountains, produces some of the region’s gustiest winds.
Just a few miles to the south, travelers looking to the east spy a different lofty site: a set of towering wind turbines filling the horizon—turbines that, as you might expect, are put to the test against those gusty canyon winds.
Come 2026, that horizon will feature another even bigger turbine: a GE Vernova 3.4-megawatt 140-meter Sierra, with sweeping blades that reach down to just 10 meters above the ground.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) Flatirons Campus is home to the turbines, as well as numerous other research assets that allow staff to model and validate everything related to sustainable energy—from fatigue characterization of wind turbine blades to validation of wave energy converter performance to studies on the durability of photovoltaic trackers and panels.
But every once in awhile, those assets need an upgrade. That is why NREL, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO), has issued a purchase order for a new turbine that will enable research that more closely represents contemporary turbines and wind farms. The turbine will supplement the existing 1.5-megawatt turbine owned by DOE but with more capabilities.
Expanding Research Potential
This state-of-the-art turbine will offer several key benefits. “The turbine that NREL selected has some really nice features,” said Mike Derby, DOE’s wind technology program manager.
One of those features, he said, is the turbine’s two-piece blades that will allow researchers to swap out blade tips—and replace them with tips that can be fabricated in NREL’s own Composites Manufacturing Education and Technology Facility (CoMET), also located at the Flatirons Campus.
A new wind turbine will be added to the mix at NREL’s Flatirons Campus, just south (left) of the U.S. Department of Energy’s existing 1.5-megawatt turbine (pictured far right). Photo by Taylor Mankle, NREL
“We can take the old tip off and put on something else we’d like to try,” Derby said, adding that researchers could create blade tips with different aerodynamics or acoustics, some kind of structural modification, or new materials. “This gives us an option to replace a piece of the blade—which is much less expensive than trying to replace or fabricate an entire blade—and do some really interesting work.”
Another important element of the new turbine’s capabilities will be the addition of two transformers that can output different voltages levels, a request from WETO and some of NREL’s grid integration researchers. “Most of the distribution voltage at Flatirons is 13.2 kilovolts, but most large wind plants use 34.5 kilovolts,” said Jeroen van Dam, an NREL research engineer who is managing the installation of the new turbine. For greater flexibility, researchers will be able to select the output from the appropriate transformer based on whether they want the turbine to interact with other on-site assets—such as the hydrogen electrolyzer, other wind turbines, or the dynamometer—or conduct wind-only research at a higher voltage.
Finally, the turbine comes with a partner, GE Vernova’s Advanced Research Center, which has similar research priorities.
“We wanted an active research partner,” van Dam said. “Sure, you can operate in normal mode, but if you want to make changes, what you really need is the person who designed it to be on board, right?”
The relationship is designed to be mutually beneficial for GE Vernova as well.
“It’s a benefit that we can leverage NREL’s resources to do research on future technologies,” said Greg Cooper, external partnerships manager for GE Vernova’s onshore wind division. “Whether that be interfacing with NREL’s hydrogen or battery storage or working on turbine technology development on the mechanical side.”
Cooper adds that GE Vernova is also researching grid-forming potential for its turbines, and NREL’s controllable grid interface will be a helpful asset in that work.
“It’s a great opportunity for partnership between GE Vernova and NREL to install one of our modern turbines that’s relevant for the current market,” Cooper said.
Next Steps
Long before the turbine arrives, construction must begin to prepare the site. NREL just finalized a contract with a construction company that, over the next year, will design and build the foundation for the turbine—a challenge in Colorado’s rocky soil. Next, they will dig hefty trenches where the electrical cables will be laid to connect the device to the Flatirons Campus’ power distribution grid. The construction team will also reroute one of the small roads on campus to allow for easy access.
Once the turbine is delivered in spring of 2026, the construction company will carefully fit together the pieces of the tower, the gearbox, and the blades before commissioning the entire unit.
At that point, it will be up to the NREL and DOE team to begin planning their research projects.
“The wind energy research team already has some solid ideas for how to incorporate the new turbine into their work,” said Daniel Laird, director of the National Wind Technology Center at NREL. “We’re excited about the opportunities to optimize wind power for applications beyond just bulk power production.”
The new turbine is also slated to support research on the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) platform. ARIES connects a variety of renewable energy assets with emulated grid scenarios, enabling energy system integration research, validation, and demonstration at a scale that reflects the real challenges faced by industry. On the ARIES platform, the new turbine’s modern technology will be integrated with physical and virtual assets such as the water electrolyzer and hydrogen storage, the controllable grid interface, and the ARIES Cyber Range.
Researchers will also make use of the new turbine as they investigate direct and indirect electrification of industrial processes. For example, the new turbine will enable the team to explore potential benefits of renewable-energy-driven microgrids that could produce low-cost hydrogen for industrial use. The turbine could also eventually output direct current (DC) electricity, which would enable the team to investigate the potential benefits of producing direct power for industrial processes or close coupling with electrolyzers.
Whatever its use, the turbine is going to be a significant addition to the world-class research capabilities at the Flatirons Campus.
“Together with the ARIES platform, hydrogen production, and the grid simulator, it makes for a really nice suite of capabilities that the new turbine’s going to enhance,” Derby said.
Learn more about NREL’s wind energy research, and sign up for The Leading Edge newsletter to stay up to date on everything our wind energy researchers are working on.
