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Wind Research and Development

Wind Research and Development

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE’s) Wind Program leads the nation's efforts to improve the performance, lower the costs, and accelerate the deployment of wind power technologies.

To learn more about the specific research areas sponsored by the Wind Program, read on below:

Offshore Wind: Funding research to develop and demonstrate effective turbine technologies and overcome key barriers to deployment along U.S. coastlines.

Distributed Wind: Addressing the cost, performance, and engineering challenges associated with small and medium wind turbines by focusing on design optimization, testing, certification, and manufacturing.

Atmosphere to Electrons: Optimizing wind plant design, siting, and operation through an improved understanding of the complex physics governing wind flow into and through wind plants.

Resource Assessment and Characterization: Supporting efforts to accurately define, measure, and forecast the United States’ land-based and offshore wind resources. 

Next-Generation Wind Technology: Increasing the performance and reliability of next-generation wind technologies with industry partners through prototype, component, and utility-scale turbine research and development.

Testing and Certification: Developing and using testing facilities to support research and certification of wind turbine technologies at the component, turbine, and wind plant levels.

Wind Manufacturing and Supply Chain: Collaborating with wind technology suppliers to increase reliability while lowering production costs, and to promote an industry that can meet all domestic demands while competing in the global market. 

Grid Integration: Working with electric grid operators, utilities, regulators, and industry to incorporate increasing amounts of wind energy into the power system while maintaining economic and reliable operation of the grid. 

Environmental Impacts and Siting of Wind Projects: Reducing barriers to wind power deployment and increasing the acceptance of wind power technologies by addressing siting and environmental issues. 

Workforce Development and Education: Addressing the wind industry’s workforce needs through targeted investments to ensure that qualified workers and skilled scientists and engineers will support continued growth in the U.S. wind industry. 

Read more about the Wind Program's Wind Vision Report, which revisits the findings of its 2008 report, 20% Wind Energy by 2030, and develops a renewed vision for U.S. wind power research, development, and deployment on the  Wind Vision Web page.

To learn more about the Wind Program's successes in working with businesses, industry partners, universities, research labs, and other stakeholders to improve the performance and accelerate the deployment of wind power, visit EERE's Wind Success Stories Web page.

To access technical resources from the wind industry on the specific technologies or wind energy research topics through publications, data, analysis, and R&D labs and facilities, visit the Wind Technology Resource Center