National Wind Technology Center Video (Text Version)
This is the text version for the National Wind Technology Center video.
The video opens with the picture of the flag of the United States, flapping in the wind. It cuts to a picture of the Rocky Mountains in Golden, Colorado, as the dialogue begins. It shifts over several scenes: first it focuses on the mountains, and then a natural scene with a branch in the foreground and a turbine spinning in the background.
Jim Johnson: "It's a beautiful location."
(Voiceover)
This land is one of extremes…
The video shifts to a close up of a bearded man who is standing outside. He is wearing a hard hat that reads "NREL."
Jim Johnson: "The highest speeds we've ever had out here have been in the 140 mile per hour plus range."
(Voiceover)
…When it comes to the wind.
As Jim talks, the video pans through several natural scenes. There are close ups of grains swaying in the wind, wide Colorado plains and long shots of wide plains with mountains in the distance.
Jim Johnson: "We get the really high wind events from the west during the October through May period. Then, we get the really slower, more lazy if you want to call it that, winds that occur in the great plains, but are very steady normally."
The shots of natural scenes end with an image of a wind turbine, slowly turning in the wind.
(Voiceover)
The gentle breezes that roll in from the east and the strong gusts that sweep through Eldorado Canyon make this site, just south of Boulder, Colorado, ideal for research.
A series of different images of differently-angled shots of wind turbines flows across the screen. The video ends with an image of Jim Johnson and another coworker standing in a field, pointing out into the distance.
Jim Johnson: "Two over here… two here."
(Voiceover)
Engineers with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL…
Jim Johnson: "My name is Jim Johnson."
The shadow of a massive wind turbine stretches far across a gravel road. In the distance are grassy plains and the Rocky Mountains.
(Voiceover)
Work in the shadows of these often massive machines.
The video shows a close shot from the bottom-up of Jim standing next to a wind turbine. The turbine stretches high into the sky above him.
Jim Johnson: "This is about an 80-foot tall tower."
(Voiceover)
They believe the answer to many of our country's energy and environmental concerns is literally blowing in the wind.
Jim Johnson: "Right now, wind is in high demand."
The video switches to a shot of Robert Thresher, who sits inside an office. The walls are covered with several papers and charts, which are hung on the wall, and the desk is covered with books. Robert Thresher sits in a chair in the middle of the office, wearing a dark suit.
Robert Thresher: "The goal is really to make wind-generated electricity kind of the cheapest form of energy on the planet."
The video walks through several images of wind turbines, all spinning in the wind beneath a cloudy sky. It ends on an image of a wind farm, with several tall, white turbines spread across a field.
(Voiceover)
Robert Thresher leads NREL's National Wind Technology Center, about 20 miles north of NREL's main campus. He says wind power makes up less than 1% of the electricity in the United States. His team is working with wind turbine developers to change that.
Robert Thresher: "The wind could supply up to 20% of the nation's electrical needs."
(Voiceover)
It'll take machines that perform better, last longer, and cost less.
Robert Thresher: "20 years ago, wind-generated electricity cost about 40 cents a kilowatt hour. Whereas today it costs about five to eight cents a kilowatt hour, depending on the site you're at."
More images of wind turbines dominate the screen, with turbines spinning in the distance, silhouetted by the Rocky Mountains. The words "3 cents a kilowatt hour" scroll along the bottom of the screen.
(Voiceover)
The goal is about three cents a kilowatt hour. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is rising to the challenge, designing and testing wind turbines of all sizes.
Robert Thresher: "I happen to think they're beautiful."
The video switches to an image of a wind turbine. The three short turbine blades are curved sharply at the tips.
(Voiceover)
Engineers evaluate everything from the smaller residential wind machines to utility-scale turbines that truly tower over the land…
The video turns to images of large wind turbines, with huge, flat blades.
Jim Johnson: "Diameters that are large enough to fly a 747 through with 40-feet of extra space on either side of the diameter."
The video scrolls through images of different types of wind turbines. It pans by a wind farm before coming to a shot of a single, large wind turbine spinning on a farm.
(Voiceover)
…To make sure they stand the test of time.
The video switches to an image of a man in a dark office. Two computers stand on the left side of the screen.
Walt Musial: "It has to operate pretty flawlessly for about twenty years."
The scene changes to the inside of a facility. It slowly pans across a large room that is full of large electronic equipment.
(Voiceover)
It doesn't take decades to assess the reliability of these machines. Here the lifespan of a turbine is tested in months.
The image focuses on the Industrial User Facility, a blocky, gray building. The front half of the building is one story high, while the back rises another story higher. The video then switches to an image of Jim Johnson standing next to a huge, cylindrical machine.
Jim Johnson: "This is what we call the Industrial User Facility. It's designed to be able to do wind turbine blade testing."
A machine holds a single huge turbine blade. It shakes it back and forth, up and down, vigorously.
(Voiceover)
Engineers bend the blades…
Jim Johnson: "The tip is nearly touching the floor and almost touching the ceiling when it's deflecting."
Another machine holds an entire small turbine, with short, curved blades, as it shakes it violently up and down.
(Voiceover)
Even break them both inside, and sometimes partially outside, this building.
Jim stands next to a huge wind turbine blade, which stretches all the way across the room. An external shot of the facility shows the tip of the blade jutting out of the side of the building.
Jim Johnson: "You're only seeing about the first 30 meters of it because the other 15 or 20 meters is outside the building."
(Voiceover)
It is spectacular to see.
Different machines put different stresses on the blades. Some rock them side to side, while others violently shake them violently up and down.
Jim Johnson: "We're one of maybe four or five labs in the world that can do this. The only one in the United States. It was designed to be able to accommodate two, maybe three manufacturers at the same time and keep their information and hardware segregated."
Walt Musial: "This is the control room for the Dynamometer Testing Facility."
The video changes to an image of the Dynamometer Testing Facility. Large cylindrical machines are made to slowly spin around.
(Voiceover)
The wind turbine drive trains are put through equally rigorous trials.
Walt Musial: "The drive train consists of this main shaft, the gear box, the generator, and then the system that converts that electricity back onto the grid."
Jim Johnson: "So we're simulating the wind mechanically."
A montage of images flash by the screen. Images of wind turbines and drive trains being tested flash across the screen. The montage ends with the NREL logo and another image of a large wind farm. The video then slowly pans into an image of a wind farm in the ocean, where turbines stand above the water.
(Voiceover)
Industry partners use the information to iron out problems with their prototypes. The innovations of the future are generated here. The next frontier takes the wind turbines into the water. It's already a reality in Europe.
Walt Musial: "When we look at the potential for offshore, it's enormous."
A map of the United States is shown, before the video returns to Walt's office.
(Voiceover)
Twenty-eight states border a coastline.
Walt Musial: "Inside those 28 states, we use 78% of the electricity in the nation."
The video pans by a few images, including those of wind turbines and old power lines.
(Voiceover)
All of the wind sites in the U.S. are on land, and moving electricity isn't easy when the system is more than a century old.
The video returns to a shot of Jim Johnson, standing outside. A wind turbine spins in the distance, framed by the distant Rocky Mountains.
Jim Johnson: "It doesn't do a good job of being able to take that resource in the center part of the country and move the electricity to where the loads are. That's our biggest obstacle in wind energy in the United States right now."
(Voiceover)
Water isn't the only uncharted territory.
Robert Thresher: "To reduce the cost for land-based systems, to go into lower and lower wind speed regions."
(Voiceover)
NREL is developing turbines to create electricity where the wind just isn't as strong.
The video zooms in on one of the small turbines with short, sharply curved blades. It pans out to show Jim Johnson standing outside, with the turbine in the distance.
Jim Johnson: "There's 20 times more lower-wind speed sites throughout the great plains than there are the higher wind speed sites."
(Voiceover)
Expectations are high. The turbine towers are taller than ever to tap into the rich winds at greater altitudes.
The video pans across images of huge wind turbines, towering over their surroundings. Then the shot returns to Walt's office.
Walt Musial: "Every time I try to guess where the maximum size of a machine will be, I'm always wrong. It keeps growing and growing."
The scene changes to one of a large red barn, with a fence in the foreground. In the fields next to the barn, large turbines spin in the wind.
(Voiceover)
The machines are more powerful. They produce more energy. That means fewer, for example, on the land of a rancher or farmer helping to harvest the wind.
Jim Johnson: "He gets a $200,000 a year income from those hundred-plus machines on his property."
(Voiceover)
Cultivating low-cost, renewable energy.
Robert Thresher: "Then you can be a good citizen and be green and clean."
As the video comes to an end, it cycles through many of the recurring images in the video: The NREL logo, wind turbines spinning in the wind, the turbine drive trains spinning, and the wide Colorado fields, with grasses blowing in the winds.
(Voiceover)
NREL's National Wind Technology Center is pioneering the field to harness the power of nature.
The last shot is of the setting sun. The sun is low on the horizon, and the image is heavily shadowed. The silhouette of a single wind turbine turns slowly in the night.
Robert Thresher: "It's really a great challenge, been a great challenge, and it's a great joy to see it going out and being used."
The video ends with the NREL logo and the words "Department of Energy's NREL: National Renewable Energy Laboratory."
