The Fall 2021 edition of the Wind R&D Newsletter highlights efforts by Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories and industry partners that are helping the United States reach the Biden administration’s 30-GW-by-2030 national offshore wind deployment goal.
Offshore WINDPOWER 2021, convening October 13–15, provides a forum for wind energy stakeholders from government, industry, and academia to learn about and hear from a global community of top developers and experts in offshore wind. This year’s conference comes at a time when there is much to be excited about in wind energy in all its forms—offshore, land-based, and distributed. With strong support from leaders across the country, wind energy is on the cusp of a major expansion.
The NOWRDC supports research to accelerate the U.S. offshore wind energy industry. Now, with 40 offshore wind R&D awards issued—totaling $28.3 million across 25 states—the organization is driving critical innovation in U.S. offshore wind. Learn more.
As wind turbines and plant sizes grow, is there a point at which costs plateau? Researchers analyze the average cost per megawatt to develop and maintain offshore wind plants—and how these could change if trends toward larger turbines and power plants continue. Learn more.
SEER, the U.S. Offshore Wind Synthesis of Environmental Effects Research, is designed to shed light on the environmental effects of offshore wind development, identify existing gaps in information, and prioritize future environmental research efforts. Learn more.
Various energy industry stakeholders are calling for interconnection queue reform. While many projects that apply for interconnection are never built, data from these queues nonetheless provide a glimpse of the types of projects under development. Learn more.
Weather models have difficulty forecasting the cold, near-ground temperatures in cold pools, resulting in subtle errors that have a big impact on the magnitude and timing of wind power predictions. A new method can cut wind speed errors by as much as 20%. Learn more.
The National Rotor Testbed is an open platform for testing new wind turbine technologies and collaborating among national laboratories to validate advanced computational models for wind turbines. The platform now includes wake control research. Learn more.
Distributed wind energy systems have unique characteristics, such as likely threats, geography, stakeholders, risk tolerance, and mitigations. A multilaboratory research team is using resilience metrics to evaluate the benefits of distributed wind. Learn more.
Offshore wind research buoys are equipped with instruments that can take wind speed measurements as high as 250 meters—the height of today’s wind turbines. Results will help wind power plant operators make investment and siting decisions. Learn more.
