DOE Announces $5 Million in Funding for GE Renewables Tall Wind Tower Demonstration
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Wind Energy Technologies has announced the selection of GE Renewables to receive $5 million in DOE funding. GE will test, design and demonstrate a 140-meter wind turbine, formed by a 10-meter 3-D printed concrete pedestal topped with a 130-meter “soft” steel section, with up-tower components installed using a climbing crane. These innovations will help the wind industry overcome the transportation constraints currently hindering tall tower installations in the United States. Taller wind turbine towers can enable access to higher wind speeds, thereby increasing energy capture and reducing cost, but continued economies of scale are currently limited by transportation constraints.
This project was chosen as an alternate selection to a Fiscal Year 2019 funding opportunity that was originally announced in October, 2019.
NREL recently published a report that quantifies the potential impact of offshore wind on a near-future electricity system in the U.S. Northeast. This study analyzes the Northeast power system in 2024 for scenarios with up to 7 gigawatts of offshore wind. Read the report to learn about offshore wind’s potential impacts on generation dispatch, curtailment, transmission congestion, capacity credits, locational marginal prices, and production cost savings in the Northeastern United States.
On January 8, U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette announced the launch of the Energy Storage Grand Challenge, a comprehensive program to accelerate the development, commercialization, and utilization of next-generation energy storage technologies and sustain American global leadership in energy storage. The Grand Challenge builds on the $158 million Advanced Energy Storage Initiative announced in President Trump's Fiscal Year 2020 budget request.
On December 19, DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy published a blog that builds on a recent Science article defining the grand challenges driving wind energy innovation. Read the blog.
A U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-funded offshore wind demonstration project proposed for deployment off the coast of Maine achieved a major milestone on December 9, 2019, when Maine Aqua Ventus I and Central Maine Power Company signed the project’s 20-year Power Purchase.
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