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DOE OSTI2022

Batteries Included: Top 10 Findings from Berkeley Lab Research on the Growth of Hybrid Power Plants in the United States

One of the most important electric power system trends of the 2010s was the rapid deployment of wind turbines and photovoltaic arrays, but a twist for the 2020s may be the rapid deployment of ‘hybrid’ generation resources. Hybrid power plants typically combine solar or wind (or other energy sources) with co-located storage. While hybridization helps to ease the challenge of balancing variable supply and demand, its relative novelty means that research is needed to facilitate integration and promote innovation. Combining the characteristics of multiple energy, storage, and conversion technologies poses complex questions for grid operations and economics. Project developers, system operators, planners, and regulators would benefit from better data, methods, and tools to estimate the costs, values, and system impacts of hybrid projects. This publication showcases some of Berkeley Lab’s robust research program intended to support private- and public-sector decision-making about hybrid plants in the United States. Our short briefing summarizes articles that we published between 2020 and 2022, links to the in-depth reports, and provides contact details for further engagement on the specific research topics: Growth: Developer interest in hybrid power plants is strong and growing Price vs. Value: PV+storage hybrids have low PPA prices and high value in some regions Market Drivers: Solar hybridization is driven by tax credits and other benefits Configuration Choices: Market prices have incentivized shorter duration batteries with PV Capacity Value: The capacity contribution of a hybrid is less than the sum of its parts Ancillary Services: AS markets are a valuable yet fleeting option for hybrids Market Participation: Hybrids can more flexibly engage with electricity markets Operations: The power system value of hybrids depends on how they are operated Distributed Hybrids: Growth of customer-sited PV+storage hybrids offers new opportunities Future Research: Where next? Priority areas for hybrid power research.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Wind and Weather Variability within the Californian Offshore Wind Energy Areas

Weather variability over the Northeast Pacific (NEP) region and its influence on wind resources within the Californian offshore wind energy areas (WEAs) at Humboldt and Morro Bay are characterized using 20-years reanalysis model and satellite data. The hub-height (180 m) winds at both locations are predominantly northwesterly driven by the NEP high pressure system, with strong coastal gradients in surface pressure, fluxes, planetary boundary layer (PBL) depths and cloudiness. These sharp coastal gradients and strong annual cycles of temperature and moisture advections pose potential challenges in accurately modeling the local wind resource. Hub-height wind speeds and power capacity factors significantly vary for different regimes of PBL depths, surface fluxes and rain area fractions. This highlights the importance of studying the physical mechanisms driving these weather regimes, hence our analysis of how large-scale NEP weather variability drives the local meteorology at the WEAs. Furthermore, at both WEAs, PBL tops and cloud boundaries intersect the rotor layer (80-280 m) more than 30% and 20% of the time, respectively. While PBL depths significantly modulates hub-height winds and power, cloud boundaries do not have a similar impact, likely due to reanalysis errors in simulating cloud boundaries accurately. These findings underscore the challenges in deploying tall wind turbines in shallow cloudy boundary layers, where the interaction between clouds, precipitation, and atmospheric layers can impact turbine efficiency. As turbines grow taller and are deployed in more complex meteorological conditions, understanding these interactions is crucial for improving wind power forecasting and optimizing energy production in coastal regions.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Potential Impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act on Domestic Manufacturing and Deployment for Land-Based Wind Turbines

The land-based wind energy industry in the United States has matured over the past several decades, representing 10% of the country's total electricity generation in 2022. It has experienced periods of rapid growth and decline in recent years, in large part because of supply chain disruptions at a global and domestic level. With the recent passing of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the industry faces unprecedented opportunities to strengthen domestic manufacturing and enable greater deployment over the next decade. To better understand the opportunities and challenges, the authors explore the value of relevant IRA provisions and provide a set of scenarios evaluating impacts on domestic component demand and manufacturing.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Control Co-Design of Wind Turbines

Wind energy is recognized worldwide as cost-effective and environmentally friendly, and it is among the fastest-growing sources of electrical energy. To further decrease the cost of wind energy, wind turbines are being designed at ever-larger scales. To expand the deployment of wind energy, wind turbines are also being designed on floating platforms for placement in deep-water locations offshore. Both larger-scale and floating wind turbines pose challenges because of their greater structural loads and deflections. Complex, large-scale systems such as modern wind turbines increasingly require a control co-design approach, whereby the system design and control design are performed in a more integrated fashion. This article reviews recent developments in control co-design of wind turbines. We provide an overview of wind turbine design objectives and constraints, issues in the design of key wind turbine components, modeling of the wind turbine and environment, and controller coupling issues. Wind turbine control functions and the integration of control design in co-design are detailed with a focus on co-design compatible control approaches.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Influencing Activity of Bats by Dimly Lighting Wind Turbine Surfaces with Ultraviolet Light

Wind energy producers need deployable devices for wind turbines that prevent bat fatalities. Based on the speculation that bats approach turbines after visually mistaking them for trees, we tested a potential light-based deterrence method. It is likely that the affected bats see ultraviolet (UV) light at low intensities. Here, we present the results of a multi-month experiment to cast dim, flickering UV light across wind turbine surfaces at night. Our objectives were to refine and test a practical system for dimly UV-illuminating turbines while testing whether the experimental UV treatment influenced the activity of bats, birds, and insects. We mounted upward-facing UV light arrays on turbines and used thermal-imaging cameras to quantify the presence and activity of night-flying animals. The results demonstrated that the turbines can be lit to the highest reaches of the blades with “invisible” UV light, and the animal responses to such experimental treatment can be concurrently monitored. The UV treatment did not significantly change nighttime bat, insect, or bird activity at the wind turbine. Our findings show how observing flying animals with thermal cameras at night can help test emerging technologies intended to variably affect their behaviors around wind turbines.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Sensitivity of Wind Turbine Array Downstream Effects to the Parameterization Used in WRF

The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model has been extensively used for wind energy applications, and current releases include a scheme that can be applied to examine the effects of wind turbine arrays on the atmospheric flow and electricity generation from wind turbines. Herein we present a high-resolution simulation using two different wind farm parameterizations: 1) the “Fitch” parameterization that is included in WRF releases and 2) the recently developed Explicit Wake Parameterization (EWP) scheme. We compare the schemes using a single yearlong simulation for a domain centered on the highest density of current turbine deployments in the contiguous United States (Iowa). Pairwise analyses are applied to diagnose the downstream wake effects and impact of wind turbine arrays on near-surface climate conditions. On average, use of the EWP scheme results in small-magnitude wake effects within wind farm arrays and faster recovery of full WT array wakes. This in turn leads to smaller impacts on near-surface climate variables and reduced array–array interactions, which at a systemwide scale lead to summertime capacity factors (i.e., the electrical power produced relative to nameplate installed capacity) that are 2%–3% higher than those from the more commonly applied Fitch parameterization. It is currently not possible to make recommendations with regard to which wind farm parameterization exhibits higher fidelity or to draw inferences with regard to whether the relative performance may vary with prevailing climate conditions and/or wind turbine deployment configuration. However, the sensitivities documented herein to the wind farm parameterization are of sufficient magnitude to potentially influence wind turbine array siting decisions. Thus, our research findings imply high value in undertaking combined long-term high-fidelity observational studies in support of model validation and verification.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

A Methodology for Measuring Blade Clearance on an Operating Utility-Scale Wind Turbine

This report describes the deployment of eleven laser sensors to measure the clearance between blades and tower in a 1.5-MW wind turbine whose rotor was mounted first in upwind and then in downwind configurations. The experimental recordings are compared to the numerical predictions generated by an aeroservoelastic model of the turbine. Good agreement is found between the two datasets, although discrepancies up to 30~cm are observed. The sources of this error are discussed. This methodology is found to be a valuable resource for the validation of the numerical predictions of the flapwise deflections of wind turbine blades. The accurate prediction of these deflections is increasingly important as wind turbines grow in size and become increasingly flexible.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Estimating National-Scale Wind Potential Using Spatially Explicit Turbine Layout Optimization

National renewable energy potential assessments play a broad and critical role in analysis of the clean energy transition by providing foundational estimates of developable clean resources. Common to all past wind potential assessments is an assumption that wraps the complexity of wind plant layout (arrangement of turbines) into a single metric known as capacity density, or rated power capacity per unit of land area. Quite often, a singular capacity density or rotor-diameter driven capacity density is used in wind potential assessments across broad geographies despite the complexities of local drivers. Here, we present a new wind technical potential assessment for the United States, leveraging a spatial optimization approach in lieu of the traditional uniform capacity density. The optimization approach is a spatially explicit method for determining the potential locations of individual wind turbines-taking into account the turbine configuration, plant economics and losses, wind resource, and siting considerations. Our approach accounts for the interactions between wind technology design, wind plant layout, and the vast array of regulatory, land use and infrastructure conflicts with wind development. Our results highlight the potential ability of larger turbines to enable increased wind capacity, up to a point, and increased generation when siting turbines in and around spatial constraints; moreover, they demonstrate and capture the LCOE benefit of relatively lower capacity densities and reduced wake losses when land is relatively abundant. These insights provide foundational knowledge for the wind sector as it develops and pursues future turbine models and as wind energy markets expand in zero-carbon futures. Further, when applied in capacity expansion models, supply curves developed by these methods can provide detailed local insights about where wind turbines might be deployed in and among known siting constraints for those regions where wind energy is determined to be economic, providing critical nuance to local decision-makers and stakeholders.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Power and Wind Shear Implications of Large Wind Turbine Scenarios in the US Central Plains

Continued growth of wind turbine physical dimensions is examined in terms of the implications for wind speed, power and shear across the rotor plane. High-resolution simulations with the Weather Research and Forecasting model are used to generate statistics of wind speed profiles for scenarios of current and future wind turbines. The nine-month simulations, focused on the eastern Central Plains, show that the power scales broadly as expected with the increase in rotor diameter (D) and wind speeds at hub-height (H). Increasing wind turbine dimensions from current values (approximately H = 100 m, D = 100 m) to those of the new International Energy Agency reference wind turbine (H = 150 m, D = 240 m), the power across the rotor plane increases 7.1 times. The mean domain-wide wind shear exponent (α) decreases from 0.21 (H = 100 m, D = 100 m) to 0.19 for the largest wind turbine scenario considered (H = 168 m, D = 248 m) and the frequency of extreme positive shear (α > 0.2) declines from 48% to 38% of 10-min periods. Thus, deployment of larger wind turbines potentially yields considerable net benefits for both the wind resource and reductions in fatigue loading related to vertical shear.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Power output of turbines mounted on tension-leg platforms subjected to fully developed ocean gravity waves

A concern in the deployment of large wind turbines on ocean floating platforms is the effect of floating-platform motions on their electrical power generation. Further, it is not clear how floating motions influence waking, which might affect the combined power generation of collections of turbines. We examine the average power output of a single and a collection of NREL 5 MW wind turbines mounted on a tension-leg platform (TLP) under the action of fully developed ocean wave motions, coupling floating motions with the large-eddy simulation (LES) of atmospheric and rotor dynamics. The ocean dynamics enter as fully developed waves derived from the Pierson–Moskowitz spectrum. To assess the influence of ocean motions, we performed simulations over the full range of wind speeds in the operational range of the turbine, reporting comparisons of average power output when the platforms are allowed to move to when they are held rigidly in place. In all simulations, we find that the effects of the TLP floating-platform's induced motions have a minor effect on single and multiple turbine power production and wake deficits. Even when using coherent and large amplitude harmonic-floating-induced perturbations, any significant wake modifications from floating motions are confined to the near-wake region, where downstream turbines are unlikely to be located. The relatively small amplitude of TLP motions relative to pre-existing turbulent fluctuations are the primary reason for low wake and power modifications downstream.

Restrepo, Juan [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000326092882)↗
DOE OSTI2022

Advanced Distributed Wind Turbine Controls Series: Part 2-Wind Energy in Isolated Grids – Microgrids, Infrastructure Resilience, and Advanced Controls Launchpad (MIRACL)

In an isolated grid, wind turbines are typically deployed to provide energy to maximize energy production, reduce diesel-fuel consumption, reduce carbon emissions, and reduce costs for energy and fuel transportation. However, in addition to solely providing energy to the power system, wind turbines contain rotating masses and inverter-based controls that can enable various reliability and resilience services through advance controls. As part of the Microgrids, Infrastructure Resilience, and Advanced Controls Launchpad (MIRACL) this paper demonstrates, through desktop simulations, advanced wind turbine controls that can be employed to support higher contributions of wind in isolated grids, and to demonstrate ways that wind can play a role in supporting stability of an isolated grid. This isolated grid used in these desktop simulations is comprised of a wind turbine (600 kW), solar PV (430 kW), battery energy storage system (1 MW/1MWh), a simulated diesel generator (2 MW) and various types of loads (critical, dynamic). We developed a model of the subsystems in MATLAB/Simulink and validated them with available data from real-world components on NREL's Flatirons Campus. These validated models are then configured for various case studies. We compare the output of the desktop simulation with a baseline case with the diesel generator. Active and reactive power control of the wind turbine can help improve frequency and voltage responses in the isolated grid, respectively. By utilizing a small integrated battery energy storage system in the DC-link of the wind turbine, we also demonstrate that wind turbines can help blackstart a critical load comparable to its rated power and support other renewables (e.g. solar PV) come online and pick up an additional load. This report illustrates some of these reliability and resilience services a wind turbine can provide in an isolated grid.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Incorporating Wind Turbine Choice in High-Resolution Geospatial Supply Curve and Capacity Expansion Models

To achieve national decarbonization goals, U.S. annual deployment of wind energy will need to increase by at least fivefold compared to the recent past. Modeling and analysis frameworks can help inform where and how wind energy deployment might occur and thereby help enable the achievement of decarbonization goals. However, most prior wind energy modeling and analysis studies rely on generalized representations of wind energy technologies. Since wind energy technology advancements are expected to increase the competitiveness of wind energy, it is important to incorporate more detailed representations of turbine technology into wind energy modeling. Here we present a new method that incorporates wind turbine choice into the technology representation of land-based wind energy in long-term planning models. Our method integrates three previously published modeling and analysis capabilities: 1) bottom-up cost modeling to estimate future technology costs, 2) geospatial modeling to represent siting decisions, and 3) power sector modeling to evaluate potential deployment. We refer to this approach as a "customized turbine choice" methodology because it creates a composite turbine scenario by choosing from multiple wind turbine technologies—using site-specific optimized turbine layout and selecting the least-cost technology at each location. We demonstrate the capabilities of this new modeling pipeline by examining how the selection of four different wind turbine configurations might evolve from 2021 through 2040. Our results show that using our customized turbine choice methodology could lead to higher estimates for wind future deployment, which indicates that more simplified modeling might underestimate the role that wind energy could play in meeting decarbonization goals. Future research is needed to further explore the implications of turbine choice and to better inform technology researchers, original equipment manufacturers, and other wind industry stakeholders about the market potential of different wind turbine technologies.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

OC6 Phase IV: Validation of CFD Models for Stiesdal TetraSpar Floating Offshore Wind Platform

ABSTRACT With only a few floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) farms deployed anywhere in the world, FOWT technology is still in its infancy, building on a modicum of real‐world experience to advance the nascent industry. To support further development, engineers rely heavily on modeling tools to accurately portray the behavior of these complex systems under realistic environmental conditions. This reliance creates a need for verification and validation of such tools to improve reliability of load and dynamic response prediction and analysis capabilities of FOWT systems. The Offshore Code Comparison Collaboration, Continued with Correlation and unCertainty (OC6) project was created under the framework of the International Energy Agency to address this need and considers a three‐sided verification and validation between engineering level models, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and experimental results. In this paper, a novel floating offshore wind platform, the Stiesdal TetraSpar, is simulated using CFD under the load conditions defined by Phase IV of the OC6 project. The comparison of these CFD results against the experimental results demonstrated the ability to predict the platform response to waves when imposing the measured wave signals as input. Although validation versus experiment was largely successful, the damping behavior was impacted by uncertainties likely originating from the mooring system and sensor umbilical cable. This extensive comparison effort with multiple CFD practitioners offers insight into best practices to achieve reliable results.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Wind power production from very large offshore wind farms

In this work, we provide the first quantitative assessment of power production and wake generation from offshore wind energy lease areas along the U.S. east coast. Deploying 15-MW wind turbines, with spacing equal to the European average, yields electricity production of 116 TWh/year or 3% of current national supply. However, power production is reduced by one-third due to wakes caused by upwind wind turbines and wind farms. Under some flow conditions whole wind-farm wakes can extend up to 90 km downwind of the largest lease areas, and the frequency-weighted average area with a 5% velocity deficit is 2.6 times the footprint of the lease areas. Simulations including maritime corridors demonstrate reduction in the wake effects leading to power-efficiency gains and may offer contingent benefits. First-order scaling rules are developed that describe how “wake shadows” from large offshore wind farms scale with prevailing meteorology and wind turbine installed densities.

15 MW↗
DOE OSTI2025

Learning from Arctic Microgrids: Cost and Resiliency Projections for Renewable Energy Expansion with Hydrogen and Battery Storage

Electricity in rural Alaska is provided by more than 200 standalone microgrid systems powered predominantly by diesel generators. Incorporating renewable energy generation and storage to these systems can reduce their reliance on costly imported fuel and improve sustainability; however, uncertainty remains about optimal grid architectures to minimize cost, including how and when to incorporate long-duration energy storage. This study implements a novel, multi-pronged approach to assess the techno-economic feasibility of future energy pathways in the community of Kotzebue, which has already successfully deployed solar photovoltaics, wind turbines, and battery storage systems. Using real community load, resource, and generation data, we develop a series of comparison models using the HOMER Pro software tool to evaluate microgrid architectures to meet over 90% of the annual community electricity demand with renewable generation, considering both battery and hydrogen energy storage. We find that near-term planned capacity expansions in the community could enable over 50% renewable generation and reduce the total cost of energy. Additional build-outs to reach 75% renewable generation are shown to be competitive with current costs, but further capacity expansion is not currently economical. We additionally include a cost sensitivity analysis and a storage capacity sizing assessment that suggest hydrogen storage may be economically viable if battery costs increase, but large-scale seasonal storage via hydrogen is currently unlikely to be cost-effective nor practical for the region considered. While these findings are based on data and community priorities in Kotzebue, we expect this approach to be relevant to many communities in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions working to improve energy reliability, sustainability, and security.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Wind Energy Accomplishments and Year-End Performance Report: Fiscal Year 2024

As the largest source of clean, renewable power generation in the United States and one of the fastest growing sources of new electricity supply, wind energy will play a large role in the nation's energy future. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, scientists, engineers, analysts, and support professionals at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) worked to accelerate the pace of innovation in wind energy science and technology, advance grid systems integration, and develop sustainable solutions to deployment challenges. Much of NREL's research, development, and deployment work aligns with addressing the Grand Challenges of Wind Energy. Beginning in 2019, DOE's Wind Energy Technologies Office partnered with the International Energy Agency to identify the barriers to greater wind energy deployment and related research gaps. The world's leading wind energy scientists and engineers identified five research areas as critical to advancing wind energy deployment: wind atmospheric science, wind turbine systems, wind plants and grid, environmental co-design, and social science. In FY 2024, NREL's accomplishments helped narrow the research gaps in these critical areas. This report provides details on those accomplishments.

accomplishments↗
DOE OSTI2022

IACMI Project 4.10: Blade Finishing Automation (Final Report)

IACMI Project 4.10, the Innovative Wind Turbine Blade Finishing with Advanced Automated Technology project, performed research addressing the challenges and opportunities associated with automating wind turbine blade finishing operations, including blade trimming and grinding. These activities, developed and conducted in close cooperation with wind industry partners, included: • The development of new automation technology and systems; • The integration of automation technology and components; • The improvements of sensor technology and their deployment in automation systems • The elimination of extensive manual programing for the automation of wind blade finishing; • The rethinking of the approach to specific work tasks for automation systems; • The demonstration at scale of innovative wind turbine blade finishing automations systems. The IACMI Wind TA team worked with GE Renewable Energy and LM Wind Power to establish the metrics of the automated blade finishing system developed in the project. In addition, the project team helped to integrate the advanced automated systems into wind turbine blade production facilities. This project was divided into two phases. Phase I provided project management, preliminary techno-economic model development, early US wind turbine industry outreach, and early research into robotic solutions for automated wind blade finishing. This second phase continued with project management, as well as final techno-economic model development, advanced research into robotic solutions for automated wind blade finishing, as well as specifications and procurement of a robotic system for automated wind blade finishing. The 4.10 project leveraged the capabilities and facilities established through the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The IACMI Wind Technology Area (TA) designed and prepared for deployment a robotic automated wind turbine blade finishing system at the NREL/IACMI Composites Manufacturing Education and Technology (CoMET) facility. The results of this project led to follow-on funding to build upon and expand research in automated wind turbine blade finishing.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Defense & Disaster Deployable Turbine Fact Sheet

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Defense and Disaster Deployable Turbine (D3T) project is evaluating the market potential for rapidly deployable wind energy technologies. The D3T fact sheet outlines the work with military and wind industry stakeholders to develop deployable wind energy technologies that can meet the unique energy needs of defense operations and responses to humanitarian crises.

wind, defense, disaster, deployable, turbine, ener↗