by Jbs082809 c3 — September 2, 2009—The clean wind energy industry must expand significantly in the next two decades to fulfill a strategy of generating 20 percent of the nation’s electricity, says the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). To provide the technological foundation for that growth, NREL is embarking on significant improvements at its National Wind Technology Center.
Engineers are installing the two largest turbines ever tested at the laboratory—a 1.5 MW turbine manufactured by General Electric and a 2.3 MW turbine from Siemens Power Generation. Both turbines are being erected on the NWTC’s eastern perimeter for commissioning and operations in October. They will run for years under close observation and elaborate instrumentation. With data from these experiments, researchers will be working with the wind industry to increase turbine performance, improve durability, and decrease loads.
The new turbines also allow NREL to take a significant step forward in generating its own clean electricity and meeting the laboratory’s aggressive sustainability goals and reduce greenhouse gas emissions for its expanding research campus and support facilities. The new turbines are expected to generate twice as much energy as the NWTC uses. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), NREL, and Xcel Energy are working to define an agreement that will allow surplus energy to be exported and sold to the local utility grid.
