This article is part 2 of Buying and Using Renewable Energy at Home.
Many renewable energy technologies make sense for consumers today. Prices have dropped during the past 20 years and the technologies have improved. Using renewable energy is easier than ever. Alternative fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol are becoming more widely available, and [...]
This article is part 1 of Buying and Using Renewable Energy at Home.
What is Renewable Energy?
Certain forms of energy are called “renewable” because these fuel sources are constantly replenished and will not run out. Renewable energy—like the sun and wind—is readily available through-out the United States. Renewable energy technologies take this energy and con-vert [...]
This article is part 8 of 21st Century Wind Power.
For the past two years, the wind industry has enjoyed record-breaking growth, and industry experts predict that with the extension of the PTC through 2008, the next two years will be record-breakers as well. The challenge for industry is to maintain the [...]
This article is part 6 of 21st Century Wind Power.
Southwest Windpower conducted performance optimization and blade-fatigue tests at the NWTC on its new Skystream wind turbine. The 1.8-kW turbine, developed in partnership with DOE, won the Best of What’s New Award from Popular Science Magazine and was listed as a [...]
This article is part 5 of 21st Century Wind Power.
One program R&D project that shows potential for demonstrating a significant increase in overall system performance is the 2.5-MW Liberty wind turbine developed by Clipper Windpower. Clipper completed its prototype in 2005 after only 3 years of R&D. The new machine’s innovative [...]
This article is part 7 of 21st Century Wind Power.
Large Wind Technologies
Although research efforts for the past two decades have led to dramatic reductions in the cost of wind energy, continued incremental improvements to wind turbine performance will lower system costs even further while improving system integration and enhancing technology [...]
This article is part 4 of 21st Century Wind Power.
Systems Integration
The natural variability of the wind resource can present challenges to grid system operators and planners with regard to managing regula-tion, load following, scheduling, line voltage, and reserves. While the current level of wind penetration in the [...]
This article is part 3 of 21st Century Wind Power.
In support of Advanced Energy Initiative objective to expand the use of wind energy, the Wind Energy Program is increasing its efforts to overcome near-term deployment barriers to wind by enhancing public acceptance, promoting supportive public policies, engaging key stakeholders, and addressing [...]
This article is part 2 of 21st Century Wind Power.
The DOE Wind Energy Program is one of 10 clean energy technology programs within the Department of Energy. It is managed by program staff at DOE Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and its Project Management Center (PMC) in
Golden, Colorado, [...]
This article is part 1 of 21st Century Wind Power.
Wind energy technology has come a long way over the past decade. In 1996, the average utility-scale wind turbine was almost as tall as a 12-story building and it produced enough electricity to power about 125 average American homes. At the time, [...]
