On December 29, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory released a third round of Requests for Proposals under DOE’s Distributed Wind Competitiveness Improvement Project.
Wind Energy Technologies Office
December 30, 2014
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On December 29, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) released a third round of Requests for Proposals (RFPs) under DOE’s Distributed Wind Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP). The CIP aims to help U.S. manufacturers of small and mid-sized wind turbines with rotor swept areas up to 1,000 square meters improve their turbine designs and manufacturing processes to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and eventually earn certification that shows they have met performance and safety requirements.
The topics of the RFPs released on the 29th include: Component Improvements and Overall System Optimization; Manufacturing Process Upgrades; Turbine Certification (for wind turbines with rotor swept areas less than 200 square meters); and Type Certification (for turbines with rotor swept areas greater than 200 square meters but less than 1,000 square meters). Proposals are due the week of February 9, 2015.
The first two CIP solicitations issued in 2012 and 2013 resulted in subcontracts to Pika Energy for manufacturing process improvements; Bergey Windpower for component improvements; Endurance Power for prototype testing; Northern Power Systems for component improvements; Pika Energy for component improvements and manufacturing process improvements; and Urban Green Energy for certification testing.
For more information about this and other Wind Program funding opportunities, please visit the Wind Program’s Financial Opportunities Webpage.