New simulation tools and data collection capabilities now available for wind power research are creating a lot of excitement and significant advances in the wind energy industry. For example, DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) tripled previous estimates of U.S. wind power potential by using advanced wind mapping and validation techniques. New wind development areas were also identified where the wind resource was previously considered unsuitable.

OSTI’s Energy Citations Database makes available a conference paper “State of the Art in Floating Wind Turbine Design Tools” that reviews simulation codes available to the offshore wind industry to potentially use deep water resources. Multi-megawatt wind turbines, complete with extensive sets of instrumentation, are now available to DOE and their partners to sustain wind technology development. Next-generation modeling tools are being used to assess individual turbine performance (see photo) as well as turbine-to-turbine interactions. And, Building State-of-the-Art Wind Technology Testing Facilities describes the capability to test blades up to 90 meters in length. Read more about the exciting wind power research in the OSTI Collections.