Small Wind Turbine Research

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory and U.S. Department of Energy (NREL/DOE) Small Wind Project's objectives are to reduce barriers to wind energy expansion, stabilize the market, and expand the number of small wind turbine systems installed in the United States. "Small wind turbine" refers to a turbine less than or equal to 100 kW. "Distributed wind" and "distributed small wind" are other industry terms for a small wind turbine.

Since 1996, NREL's small wind turbine research has provided turbine testing, turbine development, and prototype refinement leading to more commercially available small wind turbines.

Work is conducted under the following areas:

Independent Testing

The Independent Testing project tests commercially available small wind turbine systems to industry and international standards to help industry provide consumers with more certified small wind turbine systems. Tested and certified small wind turbines give consumers greater confidence that the systems they install will perform within specified wind regimes as advertised by the manufacturer.

Regional Test Centers

NREL's assistance to create regional test centers will expand the number of small wind turbines that can undergo independent testing. NREL's National Wind Technology Center has the ability to test up to eight small wind turbines per year. Requests and desires of consumers, manufacturers, or state and utility incentive programs require that more small wind turbines are tested and certified.

Turbine Development

Turbine development supports continued market expansion of small wind turbines by funding manufacturers through competitive solicitations to refine prototype systems leading to commercialization.

Field Verification Project

The Field Verification Project provided small wind turbine manufacturers with opportunities to operate and monitor their turbines under a range of distributed power applications and environments throughout the United States. This experience helped U.S. firms validate and improve the performance and reliability of their wind turbine technology while expanding regional experience with wind energy technologies.

Regional Field Verification

The Regional Field Verification project focused on regionally specific issues and opportunities and tested turbines to gain operational knowledge that could be applied nationwide.