The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Wind Program is committed to developing and deploying a portfolio of innovative technologies for renewable, domestic power generation to support an ever-growing industry. In support of the President’s strategy to diversify our nation’s clean energy mix, an elite team of researchers, academics, scientists, engineers, and wind industry experts revisited the findings of the Energy Department’s 2008 20% Wind by 2030 report and built upon its findings to conceptualize a new vision for wind energy through 2050.
The Wind Vision Report takes America’s current installed wind power capacity across all facets of wind energy (land-based, offshore, and distributed) as its baseline and assesses the potential economic, environmental, and social benefits of a scenario where U.S. wind power supplies 10% of the nation’s electrical demand in 2020, 20% in 2030, and 35% in 2050.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Image Gallery has a collection of wind energy photographs. Additional photos pertaining to the Distributed Wind Market Report can be found in a distributed wind report gallery on the eFormative website.
Videos
DOE's "Wind Turbines 101" video explains how wind technologies work and highlights some of the Wind Program's efforts in R&D in this area:
Learn more about Wind Vision—the Energy Department's new initiative to revisit the findings of the 2008 DOE 20% Wind Energy by 2030 report, and to develop a renewed vision for U.S. wind power research, development, and deployment—by watching the videos and presentations below.
Department of Energy Wind Vision: An Industry Preview
Wind Vision Testimonials
Wind Vision
Wind Vision Presentation
Additional videos, including some that highlight a few of the Program's project partners, can be found in the WINDExchange video database.
Audio Files
The WINDExchange podcasts page includes a series of radio interviews produced with the National Association of Farm Broadcasters. These concise podcasts provide information on wind energy to rural stakeholders, and cover topics such as economic impacts of wind production on rural communities and small wind certification.
Animations
The Program's widgets provide several valuable resources to learn about wind energy.
Wind Power Generation Widget
This widget shows how wind farms and wind turbines work. You can share this widget on your own website.
Inside a Wind Turbine Animation
This animation displays the inner workings of a wind turbine, showing how each piece works together to create renewable electricity for our nation.
Distributed Wind Energy Systems Animation
This animation explains the distributed wind system and illustrates how a turbine at a residential home can offset its energy usage.
Maps
WINDExchange provides wind maps and validation to help homeowners, communities, states and regions consider and plan for wind energy deployment. The maps show the existing wind capacity and the potential wind resources up to 140 meters above ground, including land-based and offshore maps. Read about the available wind maps for utility-, community-, and residential-scale wind development.