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At least 37 records · Page 2
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DOE OSTI2021

2020 Small Wind Turbine Certification Awardee: Star Wind Turbines

With support from the Competitiveness Improvement Project's Small Turbine Certification Award, Star Wind Turbines aims to earn third-party certification for their small wind turbine model STAR74-6. Certification will help instill public confidence in the product's performance and safety standards. This fact sheet provides an overview of Star Wind's project, how the company will achieve the goals of the award, and how the project fits within the overall Competitiveness Improvement Project.

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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.

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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.

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DOE OSTI2023

2022 Small Turbine Certification Awardee: Ryse Energy LLC - Americas

To meet the growing demands of the distributed wind market and comply with current U.S. standards, Ryse Energy LLC-Americas (Ryse Energy, formerly Primus Wind Power) plans to update all six products in its AIR Range family of micro wind turbines. A new, more cost-effective circuit board will be paired with other hardware upgrades, advanced control algorithms, and a Bluetooth function that allows users to more easily program and control the turbine. This Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) award will fund certification testing of the new circuit board to make sure it meets American National Standards Institute/American Clean Power Association (ANSI/ACP) and UL Federal Communications Commission (FCC) safety and quality standards. Primus Wind Power developed the prototype for the new circuit board with an earlier round of CIP funding, and Primus has received CIP awards supporting other certification and optimization projects.

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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.

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DOE OSTI2023

2022 Prototype Installation and Testing Awardee: Windward Engineering

The 60-kilowatt (kW) Zephyr 21/60 wind turbine from Windward Engineering uses a low-cost, full-span independent pitch system that can act as a redundant aerodynamic braking system. This design uses a relatively simple pneumatic rotary vane actuator, allowing each of the turbine's three blades to be pitched independently and any single blade to activate emergency braking for the entire turbine. A previous Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) funding award enabled Windward Engineering to design and develop the Zephyr 21/60 wind turbine's aeroelastic model and pitch system. At the end of this current Competitiveness Improvement Project award, a fully validated aeroelastic model will make it possible to certify Windward Engineering's Zephyr 21/60 design and quantify the technology's levelized cost of energy in preparation for certification and entry into the distributed wind market. The Zephyr 21/60 will feature an attractive levelized cost of energy, improved reliability, and a full-span pitch system for safe and redundant protection against rotor overspeed (which occurs when the rotor turns beyond its design limit).

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DOE OSTI2024

2022 System Optimization Awardee: XFlow Energy Company

Vertical-axis wind turbines offer several cost-saving advantages over traditional horizontal-axis wind turbines, including lower blade manufacturing costs and a simpler mechanical design. Unfortunately, until now, vertical configurations have not been able to match the power production and durability of more conventional horizontal-axis models. XFlow Energy Company (XFlow Energy) plans to improve the design and reduce the production costs of its 25-kilowatt (kW) vertical-axis wind turbine, delivering a levelized cost of energy that is competitive with that of U.S. retail electricity generated by coal-fired power plants. XFlow Energy's efficient turbine also is designed to maximize power production and longevity. Two previous Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) awards funded XFlow Energy's development of a 10-meter vertical-axis turbine prototype.

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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.

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DOE OSTI2023

2022 Prototype Design Development Awardee: RRD Engineering

The innovative BladeRunner distributed wind turbine concept from RRD Engineering will address the need for dependable, efficient, and affordable midsize turbines to power operations in the commercial, industrial, agricultural, military, governmental, and institutional sectors. The inventive design funded by this Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) award reduces LCOE by using materials and components that cost and weigh less than those found in conventional turbines, while delivering savings related to manufacturing and maintenance requirements.

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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.

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DOE OSTI2023

2022 Component Innovation Awardee: Carter Wind Turbines

Carter Wind Turbines will develop a competitively priced, portable, ultra-lightweight, self-erecting turbine that will expand the viability of wind energy systems for commercial and residential customers in areas far from population centers. The new turbine is a taller version of the Carter Model 300, which was developed with funding from previous Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) awards. Compared to conventional turbines, the new assembly is cheaper to ship, can be erected in one day without any cranes or heavy excavation equipment, and is compatible with the wide range of grid configurations and site conditions found in remote areas.

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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.

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DOE OSTI2024

2022 Component Innovation Awardee: Windurance

Combining battery energy storage with distributed wind energy systems can increase production, ability to meet local electricity demands, interconnection capacity, and potential sales of surplus energy back to the grid, while reducing demand charges and the overall levelized cost of energy (LCOE). Energy storage options for distributed wind energy systems can vary widely in terms of power level and energy storage capacity, and their potential benefits depend on factors including wind resource, turbine design, connection requirements, use patterns, utility rates, and regulations. Windurance received a 2022 Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) funding award to add battery energy storage capabilities to the company's bidirectional DC converter. The energy storage component will complete a comprehensive portfolio of power conversion and control electronics that can be seamlessly integrated with distributed wind systems. The company received earlier CIP awards to fund prototype design and construction of wind turbine pitch actuators, inverters, and controllers.

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DOE OSTI2024

2022 Small Turbine Certification Awardee: Eocycle America Corporation

Eocycle's Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) award will fund certification testing of the company's EOX S-16 25-kW turbine to make sure it meets UL electrical safety standards. In addition to validating the turbine's reliability and anticipated reduced maintenance requirements, UL certification will also boost consumer confidence in the technology, with the potential to increase the market for the entire small-wind industry.

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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.

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DOE OSTI2022

2021 Component Innovation Awardee: Siva Powers America

Siva Powers America earned a Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) Component Innovation award that will enable the company to evolve its 250/50 wind turbine design, discontinue its existing 13.4-meter wind turbine blades, and develop new 14.4-meter blades. These longer blades, which have additional extenders at the hub, will increase the rotor diameter to 35 meters, allowing for improved energy production at sites with lower wind resources. A collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) includes a redesign, build, and on-site structural test for the new prototype blades. This will ultimately allow Siva Powers America to pursue recertification of the SIVA 250/50 to meet international standards.

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DOE OSTI2022

2021 Small Turbine Certification Awardee: Intergrid LLC

Currently, there are no U.S., fully certified inverters for wind turbines in the 10-15-kilowatt (kW) range. The federal government's Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) and Small Business Innovation Research programs present the most viable paths for manufacturers in the distributed wind energy industry to conduct research, develop their products, and, ultimately, commercialize them. Through CIP, Intergrid LLC is reducing the cost, size, and weight of its legacy inverter for distributed wind turbines while increasing efficiency, reliability, and serviceability. To accomplish this, Intergrid will address three areas related to power electronics for distributed wind turbines: (1) Software verification and functional safety certification; (2) Simulation for grid-interconnecting testing; (3) Component alternatives that reduce cost and improve reliability and serviceability. The first two areas relate to long-term management of inverter software, which, for grid-connected inverters, must comply with three standards - one issued by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and two issued by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

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DOE OSTI2022

2020 Component Innovation Awardee: Windurance LLC

Currently, there is no wind system power-conversion component available to wind turbine OEMs that is certified to applicable standards for use in the U.S. distributed wind energy market. Off-the-shelf industrial drives have features that are not needed by distributed wind OEMs and lack other features that would be valuable for the operation and control of wind turbine generating systems. In addition to adding costs for OEMs, these industrial drives increase uncertainty and risk for project developers and prospective owners. All of this presents barriers and increases costs for the development of distributed wind in the United States. With funding from CIP, Windurance plans to develop an industry-specific power-conversion component that will offer application-specific features at lower cost for distributed wind OEMs.

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