Grand Challenges in Wind Energy Science

In collaboration with global experts, NREL is leading the discussion of critical challenges in the research and development (R&D) of wind energy to support low-cost and efficient grid integration, resilience, and security.

As national demand on the electrical grid increases, R&D efforts focus on enhancing wind energy's role by addressing critical challenges in energy system design, development, and deployment. To prioritize these challenges and guide future research, NREL convened a 2017 workshop that brought together 70 wind energy experts from 15 countries, resulting in identifying the industry's “grand challenges” that require continued scientific progress.

Following that workshop, the momentum to address wind energy's grand challenges grew. In 2019, 29 scientists from NREL and other worldwide academic, government, and industry organizations coauthored an article on the issue published in the journal Science.

Building on this foundation, NREL researchers led a global collaboration in 2022, partnering with 100 wind energy experts to author a series of 10 articles for Wind Energy Science (see the Publications section below) that explored the challenges in depth and identified key research opportunities. This effort was supported and guided by the European Academy of Wind Energy Publications Committee.

The work continued in February 2023, when NREL again convened wind energy experts from around the world in Boulder, Colorado, to not only further explore the five grand challenges but also examine eight cross-disciplinary issues created at the intersections of the grand challenges. Ongoing efforts with partners and collaborators continue to advance these critical topics.

Objectives

Many countries around the world, including the United States, have growing energy needs. For wind energy to increasingly contribute to electricity demands, the industry will need to make progress in all five of the grand challenge areas. With these R&D needs identified, researchers can better tailor their work to fill the gaps, which could enable more efficient, affordable, and reliable wind energy generation.

Focus Areas

This effort identified five focus areas for R&D in wind energy, which also offer opportunities for cross-disciplinary work between them. Standardized R&D in all these areas also requires data to be accessible through digitalization efforts.

Grand Challenge 1: The Atmosphere

To improve technology performance and reliability, researchers must increase characterization of air turbulence, wakes (slower air movement downwind of a wind turbine), and local weather to understand their effect on energy generation.

Grand Challenge 2: The Wind Turbine

To update modeling tools to accurately simulate modern energy systems, researchers need more experimental data to validate upgrades and develop new simulation tools, especially for use with supercomputers. 

Grand Challenge 3: The Plant and Grid

To optimize grid resilience and security, further research must analyze complex air flow through wind farms and systems integration, especially in hybrid with other resources.

Grand Challenge 4: Environmental Codesign

To minimize  the impact of energy infrastructure on the environment, interdisciplinary research considers codesign from a technology's inception through installation and operation.

Grand Challenge 5: Social Science

To ensure smooth integration within society, researchers also work to improve policy and standards of wind energy technologies, siting, and workforce.

Publications

Grand Challenges Revisited: Wind Energy Research Needs for a Global Energy Transition, NREL Technical Report (2024)

Grand Challenges: Wind Energy Research Needs for a Global Energy Transition, Wind Energy Science Discussions (2022)

The Atmosphere
Impact of Atmospheric Turbulence on Performance and Loads of Wind Turbines: Knowledge Gaps and Research Challenges, Wind Energy Science (2024)

Mesoscale Wind Plant Wakes, Wind Energy Science (2024)

Scientific Challenges to Characterizing the Wind Resource in the Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer, Wind Energy Science (2022)

The Wind Turbine
Grand Challenges of Wind Energy Science—Meeting the Needs and Services of the Power System, Wind Energy Science (2024)

Grand Challenges in the Design, Manufacture, and Operation of Future Wind Turbine Systems, Wind Energy Science (2023)

Current Status and Grand Challenges for Small Wind Turbine Technology, Wind Energy Science (2022)

The Plant and Grid
Grand Challenges of Wind Energy Science—The Grid, Wind Energy Science (2024)

Wind-Farm Flow Control: Prospects and Challenges, Wind Energy Science (2023)

Digitalization
Grand Challenges in the Digitalization of Wind Energy, Wind Energy Science (2023)

Environmental Codesign
Interdisciplinary Research Challenges in Wind Energy at the Intersection of Engineering and Environmental Science, Wind Energy Science (2024)

Social Science
Social Aspects of Wind Energy Development, Wind Energy Science (2024)

Tackling Grand Challenges in Wind Energy Through a Socio-Technical Perspective, Nature Energy (2023)

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