Letter from the Wind Energy Technologies Office Acting Director from the Fall 2018 Wind R&D Newsletter.
Wind Energy Technologies Office
October 12, 2018
minute read time
With the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) Offshore WINDPOWER 2018 Conference upon us, industry stakeholders can celebrate another year of progress for U.S. offshore wind. In fact, with more than 25,000 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity in the pipeline, the U.S. offshore wind industry is taking off.
To understand the latest U.S. wind facts and trends, check out three market reports recently released by the Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) at energy.gov/windreport. Together, these publications provide a realistic view of the state of the wind industry in America. Spoiler alert—it's strong and the future is bright.
At WETO, part of that bright future means investing in early-stage research and development (R&D) projects. Read this newsletter to learn more about what WETO is doing to advance offshore wind energy technologies, including:
- The novel feature that researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed to integrate stereo vision into software to better "see" the flight patterns of bird and bats.
- How research at the Scaled Wind Farm Technology facility in Lubbock, Texas, shows that a wind turbine can modulate real power for grid stability and provide regulating reserves using a frequency signal input to the wind turbine controller.
- A 4-year extension of the International Energy Agency's (IEA's) Task 30 to refine the accuracy of coupled engineering tools used to design offshore wind power plants.
- A new process for detecting wind turbine failures that could ultimately help improve maintenance planning and turbine availability.
- How the Wind Forecast Improvement Project has improved foundational weather forecasts in challenging areas of complex terrain.
Arguably, the year’s most exciting news in U.S. offshore wind—the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE's) selection of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to administer a $41 million offshore wind R&D consortium—will be explored during a session with WETO’s Offshore Wind Technology Manager Alana Duerr at AWEA Offshore WINDPOWER. For more information on WETO’s activities at the conference, please refer to page 3 of this newsletter.
I'm looking forward to an informative, inspiring, and productive Offshore WINDPOWER conference. Stop by the WETO booth on Wednesday afternoon to view demonstrations of online tools such as the U.S. Wind Turbine Database and Tethys environmental effects Knowledge Base.
Sincerely,
Valerie Reed, Acting Director, Wind Energy Technologies Office
For more information about WETO's research and development project portfolio, visit our interactive projects map.