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U.S. Department of Energy Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Wind Program Newsletter

Letter from the Wind Program Director

Head and shoulder photograph of a man, Jose Zayas, wearing a brown suit, white shirt, red tie Enlarge image

Jose Zayas, Wind Program Director

Illustration of several wind turbines and the words 'Start up the turbines. Take a closer look.'

The DOE Wind Program has updated its popular wind turbine animation. Check it out to see what's inside a wind turbine and how wind energy works, and share the widget with your friends.

I write this letter to you during a very exciting time for the wind energy industry. As reported by AWEA earlier this year, 2012 proved to be another record-setting year for wind energy. More.

In the News

DOE Awards $10.5 Million for Small Business Research and Development in Clean Energy Technologies

Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE's) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy recently awarded 70 grants totaling $10.5 million to small businesses to develop technologies with a strong potential for commercialization and job creation. These awards will help small businesses with promising ideas for clean energy solutions that could improve manufacturing processes, boost building efficiency, reduce reliance on foreign oil, and generate electricity from renewable sources. More.

10 Colleges to Compete in First Collegiate Wind Competition

Washington, D.C. — In April, DOE and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced that 10 collegiate teams were selected to participate in its inaugural Collegiate Wind Competition that will take place in the spring of 2014. More.

New DOE Report Finds Wind Power Can Serve as Cost-Effective Long-Term Hedge Against Natural Gas Price Increases

Berkeley, California — DOE recently released a new report by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that investigates the degree to which wind power can still serve as a cost-effective hedge against rising natural gas prices, given the significant reduction in gas prices in recent years, coupled with expectations that gas prices will remain low for many years to come. More.

DOE Names Two 2012 Wind Cooperatives of the Year

New Orleans — DOE presented the East River Electric Power Cooperative of South Dakota and the Golden Valley Electric Association of Alaska with a 2012 Wind Cooperative of the Year Award at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association TechAdvantage 2013 Conference held in New Orleans in February. More.

DOE Hosts Booth at WINDPOWER

Chicago, Illinois — Visit DOE's booth, #1808, at the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) WINDPOWER 2013 Conference & Exhibition in Chicago, Illinois, May 5-8, 2013, to learn about DOE's wind energy research and development activities and get a copy of the program's latest publications. DOE Wind Program representatives will be staffing the booth at the exhibit to answer questions and program researchers will be giving presentations at the conference. View list of DOE Wind Program presenters. More.

Current R&D

New Test Facilities Opening this Fall

Two of the world's largest state-of-the-art drivetrain test facilities will soon be open for business—the Clemson University Wind Turbine Drivetrain Testing Facility at the Restoration Institute in South Carolina and the 5-MW dynamometer at the DOE National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado. More.

Construction Completed on Wind Plant Optimization R&D Facility

DOE and Sandia National Laboratories have completed construction of a new state-of-the-art wind plant research facility at Texas Tech University. The Scaled Wind Farm Technology Facility (SWiFT) is the first U.S. facility specifically designed and constructed to tackle the challenges of DOE's Wind Farms of the Future Initiative. More.

Mitigating Wind-Radar Interference

DOE and federal agency partners recently completed the final operational field test in a 2-year initiative to accelerate the deployment of the most promising new technologies for mitigating radar interference caused by the physical and electromagnetic effects of wind turbines. These new mitigation technologies are expected to open up new areas to wind developers that have been deferred, delayed, or cancelled because of wind turbine interference with radar systems. More.

New DOE Reports Assess Offshore Wind Market and Supply Chain

DOE recently released two new offshore wind energy reports prepared for DOE by Navigant Consulting., Inc., that provide wind industry stakeholders with the latest information about the U.S. offshore wind market and manufacturing supply chain. More.

DOE 2012 Market Report on U.S. Wind Technologies for Distributed Applications

DOE will soon release its annual 2012 Market Report on U.S. Wind Technologies in Distributed Applications. This report offers clear data-based market analysis and statistics to provide consumers, policy makers, and industry players with the up-to-date information they need to make informed decisions about distributed wind applications. More.

Breaking News

In addition to providing this quarterly R&D Newsletter, the DOE Wind Program also offers timely updates on funding opportunities, events, and publications.

Funding Opportunities

Applications for 48C Advanced Manufacturing Tax Credit due July 23, 2013.

Wind Program Events

See the Wind Powering America website for a calendar of wind power-related events.

2011 Cost of Wind Energy Review

Learn about wind generation cost trends and drivers and gain insight into current component-level costs and the data and tools used for this analysis. Thumbnail of the publication

Recent Publications