The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced plans to award $3.15 million to 12 American component suppliers and manufacturers of small- and medium-sized wind turbines as a part of the 2024 Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP). These selections will advance distributed wind turbine technology through testing and commercialization, providing more certified technology options for clean energy deployment.
"DOE is working to ensure that farmers, rural small businesses, and electric cooperatives have more options for affordable, safe, and reliable clean energy systems," said Jeff Marootian, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. "These investments in projects to expand rural distributed wind will also support U.S. energy independence, a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris Administration's clean energy goals."
DOE-funded projects are spurring the innovations required for distributed wind energy technologies, which are deployed close to the end consumer, to be used in emerging modular power generation markets. Managed by NREL on behalf of DOE's Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO), CIP is designed to make distributed wind energy technologies more cost competitive, reliable, grid-compatible, and accessible. Once these 2024 contracts are finalized, DOE will have awarded 77 subcontracts to 30 companies, totaling $18.5 million in funding while leveraging $11.2 million in additional private-sector investment since CIP began in 2012.
Selected companies will receive cost-shared subcontracts and technical support from NREL. The 2024 selections include both former CIP awardees and several that are new to the program including the manufacturer of a 1-megawatt wind turbine, which is the largest turbine that can qualify for CIP funding, as well as a vertical-axis wind turbine manufacturer and an Alaska-based developer.
The 2024 award categories and selections are as follows.
Prototype Installation and Testing
Prototype testing is intended to confirm that wind turbine designs or improvements are ready for certification testing.
Accelerate Wind, Birmingham, Alabama: Perform full-scale testing of their 12-kW prototype rooftop wind turbine at Windward Engineering in Utah with an award of $231,993.
Pecos Wind Power, Somerville, Massachusetts: Perform testing of their 85-kW PW85 prototype wind turbine in Neodesha, Kansas with an award of $200,000.
Turbine Certification
These projects apply to manufacturers of small and medium wind turbines who are testing for certification to national and/or international turbine and electrical safety standards.
NPS Solutions, Darien, Connecticut: Pursue certification of their NPS 100C-24-37 turbine with an award of $295,979.
Sonsight Wind, Grayson, Georgia: Pursue certification of their 3.5-kW turbine with an award of $299,893.
Uprise, San Diego, California: Pursue certification of their 10-kW deployable turbine system with an award of $300,000.
Chava Wind, Homestead, Florida: Pursue type certification of their 21-kW vertical-axis wind turbine with an award of $366,237.
Inverter Certification
These projects address the need for inverters designed for small- and medium-scale wind turbines to be tested and certified to electrical safety standards. An inverter makes the electricity generated by a wind turbine compatible with and connects it to the electric grid.
Eocycle America Corporation, Swanton, Vermont: Certify the inverter for their EOS S-16 turbine with an award of $108,550.
EWT Americas, Bloomington, Minnesota: Certify their 1-megawatt inverter with an award of $198,265.
Windurance LLC, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania: Upgrade and certify their 90-kW inverter to a 120-kW rating with an award of $199,309.
Manufacturing Process Innovation
These projects support designing, building, and validating improved wind turbine manufacturing processes to reduce costs and increase throughput.
Bergey Windpower Company, Norman, Oklahoma: Implement advanced blade manufacturing processes to help meet growing demand and reduce costs with an award of $500,000.
Product Commercialization and Market Development
Focused on developing markets for new products or introducing existing products into new markets, this topic area helps address barriers to commercialization and deployment of improved distributed wind energy technologies. Projects focus on key market opportunities identified in NREL's 2022 Distributed Wind Futures Study, including rural and agricultural markets.
EWT Americas, Bloomington, Minnesota: Educate customers on wind turbine potential for agribusiness, and commercial and industrial operations in the windy Midwest with an award of $149,050.
Intelligent Energy Systems, Anchorage, Alaska: Address obstacles to distributed wind investment in Alaska with an award of $150,000.
Siva Powers America, East Amherst, New York: Address deployment obstacles in eight key states, accessing rural markets utilizing both U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Energy for America Program and the IRA Energy Community Tax Credit Bonus with an award of $150,000.
This year's awardees follow a tradition of successful CIP funding which has supported the integration of distributed wind with other distributed energy resources. For example, three recently developed wind turbines, funded by CIP awards, have been installed on NREL's Flatirons Campus in Colorado. These turbines will facilitate research on design features commonly found in small wind turbines used for distributed applications.
Additionally, CIP selections and the WETO-funded National Distributed Wind Network support USDA and DOE's new Rural and Agricultural Income & Savings from Renewable Energy (RAISE) Initiative, which is focused on helping farmers, rural small businesses, and electric cooperatives cut costs and increase income from clean energy. The 2024 CIP selections will provide more certified technology options for deployment in support of the RAISE initiative.
For further information about CIP, including examples of past awards, visit the CIP project website. Selected CIP awardees will negotiate their cost-share contracts; therefore, award amounts are subject to change pending negotiations.
