The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) under the Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) to support commercialisation and market expansion of small and medium wind turbine technology.
Managed by NREL on behalf of DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office, CIP awards cost-shared subcontracts and national laboratory technical support to U.S. component suppliers and manufacturers of small- and medium-sized wind turbines. The 2024 CIP RFP invites proposals that focus on six topic areas. They are:
- Prototype Installation and Testing, for projects validating prototype wind turbines to determine their commercial readiness
- Small Turbine Certification and/or Listing, for projects helping small (150 kilowatts or less) wind turbines achieve certification and turbine assembly or components achieve listing to applicable electrical safety standards
- Type Certification and Listing, for projects helping turbines up to 1 megawatt seek type certification and turbine assembly or components achieve listing to applicable electrical safety standards
- (New) Inverter Listing, for projects addressing the need for inverters built specifically for wind turbines up to 1 megawatt and that have achieved listing to national safety standards
- Manufacturing Process Innovation, for projects supporting designing, building, and validating improved manufacturing processes for wind turbine production, leading to reduced energy costs
- Product Commercialisation and Market Development, for projects addressing cost barriers to commercialisation and large-scale development.
Proposals will be accepted through 2 p.m. MT on March 27, 2024.
