DOE Announces Effort to Advance U.S. Wind Power Manufacturing Capacity

June 11, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between DOE and six leading wind industry turbine manufacturers: Ge Energy, Siemens Power Generation, Vestas Wind Systems, Clipper Turbine Works, Suzlon Energy and Gamesa Corporation.

The two-year collaboration is designed to promote wind energy in the U.S. through advanced technology R&D and siting strategies aimed to advance industrial wind power manufacturing capabilities.

"The MOU between DOE and the six major turbine manufacturers demonstrates the shared commitment of the federal government and the private sector to create the roadmap necessary to achieve 20% wind energy by 2030," DOE Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Andy Karsner.

"To dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance our energy security, clean power generation at the gigawatt-scale will be necessary to expand the domestic wind manufacturing base and streamline the permitting process."

As part of the U.S. federal government's Advanced Energy Initiative announced in 2006, clean, secure and sustainable wind energy has the potential to play an increasingly important role in the government's long-term energy strategy to make investments that fundamentally change the way the U.S. powers their homes and businesses and that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions growth by 2025.

This MOU builds on the recently released DOE report 20 Percent Wind Energy in 2030 that examines the technical feasibility of harnessing wind power to provide up to 20% of U.S. total electricity needs by 2030. The report finds that by using wind power to meet 20% of those needs, the U.S. can eliminate 7.6 cumulative gigatons of CO2 by 2030 and 825 million metric tons in 2030 and every year thereafter.

Under the MOU, DOE and the six turbine manufacturers will collaborate to gather and exchange information to define specific needs for achieving 20% wind energy by 2030. The MOU addresses the following areas:

• Turbine reliability and operability R&D to create more reliable components; improve turbine capacity factors; and reduce installation and operations and maintenance costs.
• Siting strategies to address environmental and technical issues like radar interference in a standardized framework based on industry best practices.
• Standards development for turbine certification and universal generator interconnection.
• Manufacturing advances in design, process automation and fabrication techniques to reduce product-to-product variability and premature failure while increasing the domestic manufacturing base.
• Workforce development including the development, standardization and certification of wind energy curricula for mechanical and power systems engineers and community college training programs.

In 2007, U.S. cumulative wind energy capacity reached 16,818 megawatts (MW) - with more than 5,000 MW of wind installed in 2007. Wind contributed to more than 30% of the new U.S. electricity generation capacity in 2007, making it the second largest source of new power generation in the nation - surpassed only by natural gas. The U.S. wind energy industry invested approximately $9B in new generating capacity in 2007, and has experienced a 30% annual growth rate in the last five years.

The full text of the Memorandum of Understanding is available for download at the DOE web site.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).