Wind Energy News
Stay up to date on the latest wind energy research and development news at the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory.
July 9, 2020
Released each year, electricity-generation technology cost and performance data power forward-looking analyses at NREL and beyond.
July 2, 2020
Spotting a solar panel on a rooftop or powering a small health center in a rural community was once rare. Fast forward a decade and the on-site, distributed solar energy boom is now powering everything from single-family homes to entire industries. Could that successful model be applied to wind energy?
June 29, 2020
After four days of online presentations, the U.S. DOE announced the winners of the 2020 Collegiate Wind Competition. The award for the Turbine Digital Design contest went to California State University Maritime Academy, while James Madison University claimed the award for the Project Development contest.
June 25, 2020
As health care workers continue to fight on the front lines, NREL volunteers do what they can to help by manufacturing face shields for healthcare workers, paramedics, and firefighters in Colorado.
June 11, 2020
During National Oceans Month, we celebrate water power researchers who are discovering innovative ways to harness marine energy to generate electricity.
June 10, 2020
Offshore wind, with its potential for domestic electricity-generating capacity of more than 2,000 gigawatts, could supply enough electricity to meet the needs of the entire United States twice over. NREL researchers are working with partners to make reliable, affordable, and accessible offshore wind energy a reality.
June 5, 2020
Global Wind Day, celebrated worldwide on June 15, offers an opportunity to highlight NREL's leadership in wind energy research. On behalf of the U.S. DOE, NREL represents the United States by participating in 16 of the 18 International Energy Agency Wind Technology Collaboration Programme research tasks.
June 5, 2020
From workforce development programs that prepare young people for jobs in the wind industry to a new reference wind turbine that expands capabilities to assess offshore designs, NREL led some exciting projects featured in the Wind Energy Technologies Office's biannual Research and Development Newsletter.
May 20, 2020
NREL is supporting distance learning for K-12 students through exciting, hands-on Wind for Schools programs such as KidWind and NEED (National Energy Education Development).
May 13, 2020
Learn about the Wind Workforce Webinar Series and how we are bringing the wind energy experts to you.
May 6, 2020
The Gulf of Mexico presents many advantages and unique challenges for offshore wind. Now, two recent studies conducted by NREL and funded by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management have yielded promising results for the future of offshore wind energy in this region.
April 21, 2020
NREL's pioneering thermoplastics work is helping close the circle, ensuring today's blades become tomorrow's blades, too.
April 9, 2020
Bats are notoriously difficult to study, and there is still much we do not know about them. To help improve understanding of bats and their behavior around wind turbines, NREL is collaborating on several research and development projects funded by the U.S. DOE Wind Energy Technologies Office. These efforts are helping minimize wind turbine-bat encounters through monitoring, deterrence, and curtailment.
April 8, 2020
NREL has extended the U.S. Department of Energy's Competitiveness Improvement Project distributed wind request for proposals submission deadline to May 5 at 2 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time.
April 2, 2020
Over 26,000 megawatts (MW) of planned offshore wind capacity exists in the offshore wind development pipeline. Rapidly falling technology costs for offshore wind, including floating offshore wind technology, have aided the growth of this pipeline, and promise to help wind become a significant part of the power mix in coastal communities.
March 10, 2020
NREL researchers demonstrated a new advanced material used to manufacture wind turbine blades to manufacturing industry representatives during a Women in Manufacturing (WiM) event.
March 9, 2020
NREL has released a new version of its FLOw Redirection and Induction in Steady State (FLORIS) model for wind plant performance optimization. The latest update enhances FLORIS's ability to accurately design and analyze wind farm control strategies for larger arrays of turbines.
Feb. 27, 2020
At a glance, the towns of Norman, Oklahoma, and Potsdam, New York, have little in common. You can say the same about Lakewood, Colorado, and Grayson, Georgia. In fact, all of these towns have one thing in common: a small business that applied for, and won funding from, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) for distributed wind.
Feb. 18, 2020
New edition also shows continued growth in U.S. installed wind and solar photovoltaic capacity, energy storage, and electric vehicle sales.
Feb. 12, 2020
NREL recently released the International Energy Agency 15-megawatt reference turbine, or IEA 15-MW for short, which features options for both fixed-bottom turbines and those with floating substructures. This open-source model can accommodate multiple software tools and will provide industry, researchers, and academics a public-domain tool for designing next-generation offshore wind turbines.
Feb. 6, 2020
NREL was recently selected by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) for a two-year, $500,000 collaboration with the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) and Global Marine Group to develop solutions to address commercial fishing access in U.S. offshore wind farms.
Jan. 13, 2020
Wind farm development in the United States often takes place in rural areas with land that is largely the property of farmers and ranchers who lease their land to developers. With wind power capacity additions projected to continue growing, rural residents often wonder if wind energy will be a good neighbor.
Jan. 9, 2020
The contiguous United States has the technical resource potential to generate up to 32,700 terawatt-hours of electricity per year--more than eight times the amount of electricity consumed in the United States in 2018. However, significant cost and performance improvements in wind power technology are needed for the wind industry to reach this potential.
Jan. 2, 2020
An oft-repeated refrain—the sun doesn't always shine, is sometimes seen as an impediment to renewable energy. But it's also an impetus toward discovering the best ways to store that energy until it's needed.
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