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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

U.S. Department of Energy Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) 2024 Small Turbine Certification and/or Listing Awardee: NPS Solutions LLC

This fact sheet describes the 2024 Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) award received by NPS Solutions LLC for Small Turbine Certification and/or Listing. The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) CIP awards cost-shared subcontracts and technical support to manufacturers of small and medium-sized wind turbines. Managed by NREL on behalf of DOE's Wind Energy Technologies Office, CIP helps advance wind energy as a cost-effective, distributed generation technology option.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

2020 System Optimization Awardee: Pecos Wind Power

With support from the Competitiveness Improvement Project's System Optimization Award, Pecos Wind Power will help lower the cost of distributed wind technology and expand deployment. To do so, the company will optimize their PW85 distributed wind turbine to achieve a production levelized cost of energy of $0.099 per kilowatt hour, which is a 48% cost reduction in distributed wind energy costs. This reduction is a critical step toward Pecos Wind Power's ultimate target of $0.089 per kilowatt-hour. This fact sheet provides an overview of Pecos Wind Power's project, how the company will achieve the goals of the award, and how the project fits within the overall Competitiveness Improvement Project.

CIP↗
DOE OSTI2021

2020 System Optimization Awardee: Carter Wind Turbines

With support from the Competitiveness Improvement Project's System Optimization Award, Carter Wind Energy aims to lower the cost of distributed wind technology and expand deployment. To do so, the company will improve the cost-effectiveness and reliability of midsize wind turbines for remote, off-grid power applications, creating new wind energy deployment opportunities worldwide. This fact sheet provides an overview of Carter Wind Energy's project, how the company will achieve the goals of the award, and how the project fits within the overall Competitiveness Improvement Project.

CIP↗
DOE OSTI2022

2021 Prototype Manufacture and Installation Awardee: Pecos Wind Power, Inc.

Through the 2021 Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP), Pecos Wind Power will manufacture a prototype of its 85-kilowatt (kW) horizontal-axis distributed wind turbine, the PW85, a new wind turbine that began development in 2017 when the company was founded. The PW85 wind turbine includes an industry-leading rotor diameter (30 meters) and full-span variable pitch blades to target a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of $0.103/kilowatt-hour in low annual wind speeds (6 meters per second). This is 55% lower than the average small wind turbine project installed in 2018. The goal of this project is to spur the development of increasingly lower-cost, high-capacity-factor distributed wind turbines. As a result, Pecos Wind Power will manufacture and install wind turbines that increase the geographic area in which distributed wind power is cost competitive with retail-priced electricity and other distributed energy resources - primarily solar energy.

CIP↗
DOE OSTI2021

Competitiveness Improvement Project 2020 Informational Workshop

These presentations from the Dec. 8, 2020, Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) workshop provide an overview of the CIP process, evaluation criteria, certification requirements, and NREL's technical support opportunities for those interested in applying to CIP solicitations.

49 EE - Wind and Water Power Program - Wind (EE-4W↗
DOE OSTI2023

2022 Product Commercialization and Market Development Awardee: Bergey Windpower

In 2023, consumers will finance more than 80% of the residential solar energy systems they purchase, which they use as collateral (called "non-recourse loans"). Similar loans are not yet offered to fund distributed wind energy systems. To accelerate deployment of small wind systems, which power individual rural homes and farms, the United States will need to make consumer loans available at reasonable rates with modest downpayments and collateral requirements. A team led by Bergey Windpower Co. is creating new consumer financing options to reduce or eliminate the upfront cash needed to buy distributed wind energy systems. This new financing structure would decrease purchase costs for small wind turbines produced by Bergey Windpower and possibly other manufacturers. Product financing is instrumental in growing wind power market share, clean energy manufacturing, and installation jobs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Bergey Windpower's previous Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) awards have led to the development of affordable, high-performance wind turbines, microgrids, and components.

CIP↗
DOE OSTI2021

2020 Component Innovation Awardee: Carter Wind Turbines

With support from the Competitiveness Improvement Project's Component Innovation Award, Carter Wind Energy aims to address the need for lower-cost, more-reliable distributed wind energy generation. The company plans to increase efficiency and improve the energy capture of its Carter Model 300 midsize, self-erecting wind turbine. This fact sheet provides an overview of Carter Wind Energy's project, how the company will achieve the goals of the award, and how the project fits within the overall Competitiveness Improvement Project.

CIP↗
DOE OSTI2018

Competitiveness Improvement Project Informational Workshop

This presentation was given at the Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) Informational Workshop on December 6, 2017. Topics covered during the workshop include an overview of the CIP, past projects, scoring criteria, technical support opportunities, certification body requirements, standards applicable to distributed wind generators, information on the National Electric Code, certification testing requirements, test site requirements, National Environmental Policy Act, design review, levelized cost of energy, procurement/contracting, project management/deliverables, and outreach materials.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

2022 Small Turbine Certification Awardee: NPS Solutions

Inverters convert the direct current power generated by wind turbines into the alternating current needed to serve local loads and feed onto the electricity grid. Although distributed wind systems typically supply electricity for homes and businesses near the turbines, these systems can also provide clean power to strengthen grid resilience. Certification to UL 1741 SA ensures that inverters will enable distributed wind turbines to provide grid support services and stay online when the grid experiences stability issues. Small companies often find the electrical listing process too complex and expensive to undertake on their own, so few distributed wind turbine inverters are certified to this standard. A U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) award is helping NPS Solutions (NPS) secure this critical certification for the inverter in its 100-kilowatt NPS 100C wind turbine, which is optimized for on-site generation at farms, businesses, schools, hospitals, and remote locations.

CIP↗
DOE OSTI2022

2020 Awardee of Two Small Wind Turbine Certification and Listing Awards: QED

With support from the Competitiveness Improvement Project's Small Wind Turbine Certification and Listing awards, QED Wind Power LLC will expand their ability to manufacture and distribute their 20-kilowatt, small wind turbine model to larger national markets. QED Wind Power aims to achieve this by conducting and completing testing of their small wind turbine and achieve safety and performance certification and listing with support from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. This fact sheet provides an overview of QEDWind Power's project, how the company will achieve the goals of the two awards, and how the project fits within the overall Competitiveness Improvement Project.

CIP↗
DOE OSTI2022

2021 Prototype Installation and Testing Awardee: XFlow Energy Company

XFlow Energy Company (XFlow Energy) aims to reduce the cost of wind energy by designing vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs), which have a cheaper blade manufacturing process and a mechanically simpler design than traditional wind turbines, among other cost-saving advantages. However, a lack of modeling or simulation tools that can predict the coupling between aerodynamic and structural forces poses a significant challenge to developers of VAWTs. Known as aeroelastic models, these are not just important design tools - they're critical for certifying VAWTs of 25 kilowatts (kW), which is the size of XFlow Energy's prototype wind turbine. Without certification, XFlow Energy will not be able to deliver an independently validated product to its customers, and those customers will not be eligible for state and federal incentives. An accurate aeroelastic model could provide less-conservative structural optimization tactics than are currently used, resulting in a wind turbine with lower capital costs.

CIP↗
DOE OSTI2024

2022 Component Innovation Awardee: Pecos Wind Power

Distributed wind energy systems supply electricity for nearby homes and businesses, often in remote and rural regions. Systems capable of capturing energy in areas with low wind speeds make it possible to deploy these clean energy systems in many geographic locations. Pecos Wind Power's 85-kilowatt (kW) horizontal-axis PW85 wind turbine shows potential to reduce the levelized cost of energy by approximately 55% when compared to typical small wind systems while achieving utility-scale capacity factors of more than 40% in areas with lower wind speeds. To maximize cost competitiveness, the Pecos Wind Power turbine needs a blade optimized for low wind speeds. Through its 2022 Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) award, Pecos Wind Power and partner Wetzel Wind Energy Services will model, optimize, fabricate, and validate a 14.5-meter wind turbine blade made specifically for these applications. Three prior CIP awards supported Pecos Wind Power's initial development of the PW85 turbine.

CIP↗
DOE OSTI2022

2021 Prototype Testing Awardee: Sonsight Wind

For small wind turbines - those under 10 kilowatts (kW) in generating capacity - the combined costs for turbines, towers, foundations, power electronics, installation, and maintenance can result in a high levelized cost of energy (LCOE). This makes it difficult for small wind turbines to gain a foothold in the distributed energy revolution currently being led by solar power. Sites with high average wind speeds generally allow lower LCOE, but the vast majority of Americans live and work within more moderate-wind-speed areas, so small turbines should be cost effective to buy and use within such areas. Sonsight Wind's 3.5-kW horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT) is being developed to address these challenges.

CIP↗
DOE OSTI2023

2022 Prototype Manufacture and Installation Awardee: Sonsight Wind

The Sonsight Wind 3.5-kilowatt (kW) prototype turbine is designed to compete with solar power, meeting energy needs for a wide range of smaller-scale applications, such as powering individual homes and irrigation systems on farms and ranches in remote areas. The technology's innovative high-torque, low-rotations-per-minute generator permits the use of longer blades that, at moderate wind speed sites, generate the energy of a 5-kW turbine with lower thrust forces than similarly rated turbines. The 3.5-kW turbine is projected to ofer greater durability at a signifcantly lower levelized cost of energy. Sonsight Wind advanced the development of the prototype with a previous Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) funding award.

competitiveness improvement project↗
DOE OSTI2022

2021 Component Innovation Project Awardee: Bergey Windpower

In recent years, the cost of small wind turbines for homes, farms, and small businesses has decreased dramatically thanks to advances in American technology made possible by research and development support from the U.S. Department of Energy. But further reductions are needed to realize the gigawatt-scale potential of distributed wind energy to help electrify rural America, reduce carbon emissions, and create jobs. Currently, for residential- and farm-scale wind turbines with direct-drive, permanent-magnet alternators, the alternator is the highest-cost component of the wind turbine (excluding the tower). The Bergey Windpower Excel 15 wind turbine incorporates advanced technology in its rotor and controls and will soon incorporate advanced power electronics - but its alternator is based on technology that is more than a decade old. To help reduce capital expenditures of the Excel 15 wind turbine, Bergey Windpower is developing an advanced, lower- cost, permanent-magnet alternator.

CIP↗
DOE OSTI2022

2021 Component Innovation Awardee: Windurance, LLC

Distributed wind turbine manufacturers seeking to enter the market are often hampered by two challenges: not enough capital and no specific expertise in developing certified electronic equipment. A harsh reality is that off-the-shelf power electronics are neither certified nor cost-effective. This lack of certified controller equipment in the distributed wind energy industry adds expense and impedes market penetration related to certification for individual wind turbines, wind system projects, and installations. Normally, these certification costs would be borne repeatedly by individual turbine manufacturers or developers on a model-by-model or project-by-project basis, resulting in cost and time delays as well as uncertainty and risk for project developers and prospective owners. Windurance seeks to eliminate these challenges by developing and obtaining third-party certification of a standardized wind turbine controller. This will facilitate development, certification, and production while supporting efficiencies not easily achievable by individual manufacturers. Windurance's Distributed Wind Industry Turbine Controller will enable manufacturers to apply proprietary turbine- specific configurations and functionality. When applicable, manufacturers can expand on a Windurance-provided software framework to add unique or proprietary functionality.

CIP↗