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U.S. DOE annouces bold new plan for generating 20% of US energy needs from wind turbines.

Submitted by: John Warner on Jun 04, 2008 at 11:28 am Tagged with: Alternative Energy, Wind Energy Source: U.S. DOE

On June 2, 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) with 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 research and development, and siting strategies aimed to advance industrial wind power manufacturing capabilities. Under the MOU, DOE and the six turbine manufacturers will collaborate to gather and exchange information to define specific needs for achieving 20 percent wind energy by 2030. The MOU addresses the following areas:

* Turbine Reliability and Operability Research & Development 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.

The agreement 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 percent of the nation’s total electricity needs by 2030. The ambitious report finds that by using wind power to meet 20 percent of our nation’s electricity needs, we can eliminate 7.6 cumulative gigatons of CO2 by 2030 and 825 million metric tons in 2030 and every year thereafter. Let’s all hope they can deliver on this bold and courageous alternative energy plan.