The Energy Department has announced $2 million to help efficiently harness wind energy using taller towers. These projects will help strengthen U.S. wind turbine component manufacturing, reduce the cost of clean and renewable wind energy, and expand the geographic range of cost-effective wind power in the United States. This effort supports the Energy Department’s broader Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative to increase the efficiency of the U.S. manufacturing sector and ensure that clean energy technologies continue to be made in America.
In the northeastern, southeastern, and western United States, wind conditions near the ground are often low or turbulent – limiting the amount of electricity generated from wind energy. Taller wind turbines take advantage of the stronger, more consistent winds available at greater heights – increasing the number of locations that can cost-effectively produce renewable wind energy.
The map show an expanded area of potential wind energy available by increasing hub height from 96 to 140m. Projects supported by the funding will engineer design concepts for fabricating and installing turbine and tower systems with a minimum hub height of 120m.
While utility-scale wind turbines in operation today average 90m, projects supported by this funding will engineer design concepts for fabricating and installing turbine and tower systems with a minimum hub height of 120m. Applicants should address the potential transportation and logistics challenges associated with larger towers. As described in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Analysis of Transportation and Logistics Challenges Affecting the Deployment of Larger Wind Turbines, enabling cost-effective deployment of wind turbines with hub heights up to 140m will unlock an additional 1,800 GW in wind power resource potential across 237,000 square-miles of the U.S., or an area roughly the size of Texas.
The Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy accelerates development and facilitates deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and market-based solutions that strengthen U.S. energy security, environmental quality, and economic vitality. For more information on funding opportunities for wind power research, development, testing, and deployment see the EERE Wind Program’s Funding Opportunities Web page.
NREL
www.nrel.gov
Filed Under: Components, News, Towers
Genie81 said: ” wind has a long way to go to become viable and at present is not so.”
Have you been living underground for the past couple of decades? Maybe digging tunnels in Yucca Mt? Your remark about windturbines and taller towers is equally ill informed.
Taller wind turbines only increase more noise and health issues. Surely by now governments have woken up to the fact that they (WTs) are costly and inefficient. There are far better forms of renewable energy but wind has a long way to go to become viable and at present is not so.