DOE Announces Partnerships to Expand U

DOE Announces Partnerships to Expand U.S. Wind Development

The Department of Energy is establishing partnerships with 21 public and private entities to expand potential U.S. wind development through advances in cost-effective low-wind-speed technology. The value of the cost-shared projects is expected to total $60 million over the next four years.

To date, much of the commercial wind power development has occurred at high-wind sites. The new low-wind-speed projects will focus on technology improvements for making more widespread low-wind-speed sites cost competitive with high-wind sites. Efforts include new R&D projects targeting multi-megawatt scale components and turbine systems for land, as well as offshore applications.

The new partnerships are being launched under a three-phase technology development project aimed at the department’s goal of reducing wind-powered electricity generation costs at low-speed sites (annual average wind speeds of approximately 13 miles per hour, measured at a height of 10 meters) to 3 cents per kilowatt-hour. For more information, including links to detailed wind resource maps for most states, visit the DOE website—Wind Powering America—at www.eere.energy.gov/windpoweringamerica/wind_resources.html.