The U.S. has launched a new initiative to develop a set of standards for the offshore wind sector. The three-year project is a collaboration between the the Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Business Network for Offshore Wind and the…
Industry leaders to create U.S. offshore wind energy standards
These standards and guidelines will form the basis for BOEM to establish transparent compliance requirements that will help industry, in turn, provide safe and reliable U.S. offshore wind facilities that serve the U.S. electric supply
Why wind-farm developers should care about measuring atmospheric turbulence
By Sonia Wharton, Atmospheric Scientist, Deputy Group Leader, Energy Group Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory & Jennifer F. Newman, Postdoctoral Fellow National Wind Technology Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory The role of atmospheric turbulence in influencing wind-turbine power production remains an unsolved mystery despite a growing number of researchers who have attempted to make sense of…
Science-driven innovation can reduce wind energy costs by 50% by 2030
Research indicates that, if the United States continues to invest in wind research and development, wind energy can achieve costs competitive with the fuel-only cost of natural gas-fired electricity generation in less than 15 years.
Energy Department announces $13.4 million investment in community-based advanced transportation projects
Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) funding is an investment in highly-innovative, highly-leveraged, and scalable projects that will provide real-world experience and generate knowledge and lessons learned to help improve our nation’s energy security.
Report: How to cut the cost of wind energy in half
Wind plants of the future will use a collection of technologies that allow wind power plants and the turbines within them to not only respond to the atmosphere as an efficient, integrated system, but also to control the airflow within the plant to maximize power production.
Five million commercial customers could cut costs with battery storage
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Clean Energy Group (CEG) have released the first comprehensive public analysis detailing the potential size of the commercial behind-the-meter battery storage market in the U.S. NREL recently analyzed over 10,000 utility tariffs in 48 states, finding that more than five million of the 18…
What’s the difference between the installed capacity and electricity generation of energy sources?
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) refers to capacity as the maximum output of electricity that a generator can produce under ideal conditions.
Researchers study links across U.S. grids to move renewable energy & share capacity
This article was originally published by Iowa State University. Read it in its entirety here. The nearly 4,000 wind turbines all over the Iowa countryside, totaling more than 6,900 MW, provided almost 37% of all in-state electricity production in 2016. That’s enough to power about 1.8 million homes. But, on cool, windy days, when production…
NREL study shows India can integrate 175 GW of renewables into its electric grid
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has confirmed the technical and economic viability of integrating 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy into India’s grid by 2022. Working with the Ministry of Power and USAID — with co-sponsorship from the World Bank (ESMAP) and the 21st Century Power Partnership — NREL; Power…
What a U.S. grid modernization might look like
But we may not be taking full advantage of these resources, due to the seam that separates our power systems. Grid modernization is in order.
2015 Cost of Wind Energy Review (a 2017 publication)
This report uses representative utility-scale projects to estimate the levelized cost of wind energy (LCOE) for land-based and offshore wind plants in the United States. Data and results detailed here are derived from 2015 commissioned plants.
What journal bearings may contribute to wind turbine gearboxes
Journal bearings show promise in the planetary stage of wind turbine gearboxes.
Improving the analysis of gear-oil debris with a compact filter
Often discarded during regular maintenance, filters trap potentially valuable wear data that may not be collected or analyzed consistently using more standard, periodic oil analysis.
Flex power storage combines wind & solar for utility, commercial, & industrial users
The Flex solution is a versatile, standardized energy storage platform for utility, commercial and industrial users.
SMA system selected for storage test at NREL’s National Wind Technology Center
Renewable Energy Systems (RES) will use SMA’s power-conversion system for a 1-MW battery pilot project at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) — a premier wind-energy technology research facility. Using the proven RESolve energy storage system, the project will test various components of energy storage and educate…
The manufacturing evolution of wind-turbine blades
By Michelle Froese Senior Editor, Windpower Engineering & Development Wind-turbine blade manufacturing has come a long way over the last couple decades. Just ask Derek Berry, a Senior Engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, and the Director of the Wind Turbine Technology Area within the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing…
Funding for wind energy research may be on the line
Congressman Dave Loebsack (D-IA) and Congressman Mike Coffman (R-CO) need your help to find co-signers for their letter requesting funding for the Department of Energy’s Wind Energy Program.
Transmission could reduce power generation costs
To overcome the chicken-and-egg conundrum around transmission and deployment of remote renewable energy, coordinated generation and transmission planning, which isn’t the practice in many regions today, is really critical.
A business case for wind farm lifetime extension
Industry experts believe, when carefully planned, the life of a wind farm can have a lifetime extension to 40 years.