The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced plans to award US$ 3.15 million to 12 American component suppliers and manufacturers of smalland medium-sized wind turbines as part of the 2024 Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP). These selections will advance distributed wind turbine technology through testing and commercialisation, providing more certified technology options for clean energy deployment.
The 2024 award categories and selections are as follows:
Prototype Installation and Testing
Prototype testing is intended to confirm that wind turbine designs or improvements are ready for certification testing.
- Accelerate Wind, Birmingham, Alabama: Perform full-scale testing of their 12-kW prototype rooftop wind turbine at Windward Engineering in Utah with an award of $231,993.
- Pecos Wind Power, Somerville, Massachusetts: Perform testing of their 85-kW PW85 prototype wind turbine in Neodesha, Kansas with an award of $200,000.
Turbine Certification
These projects apply to manufacturers of small and medium wind turbines who are testing for certification to national and/or international turbine and electrical safety standards.
- NPS Solutions, Darien, Connecticut: Pursue certification of their NPS 100C-24-37 turbine with an award of $295,979.
- Sonsight Wind, Grayson, Georgia: Pursue certification of their 3.5-kW turbine with an award of $299,893.
- Uprise, San Diego, California: Pursue certification of their 10-kW deployable turbine system with an award of $300,000.
- Chava Wind, Homestead, Florida: Pursue type certification of their 21-kW vertical-axis wind turbine with an award of $366,237.
Inverter Certification
These projects address the need for inverters designed for smalland medium-scale wind turbines to be tested and certified to electrical safety standards. An inverter makes the electricity generated by a wind turbine compatible with—and connects it to—the electric grid.
- Eocycle America Corporation, Swanton, Vermont: Certify the inverter for their EOS S-16 turbine with an award of $108,550.
- EWT Americas, Bloomington, Minnesota: Certify their 1-MW inverter with an award of $198,265.
- Windurance LLC, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania: Upgrade and certify their 90-kW inverter to a 120-kW rating with an award of $199,309.
Manufacturing Process Innovation
These projects support designing, building, and validating improved wind turbine manufacturing processes to reduce costs and increase throughput.
- Bergey Windpower Company, Norman, Oklahoma: Implement advanced blade manufacturing processes to help meet growing demand and reduce costs with an award of $500,000.
Product Commercialisation and Market Development
Focused on developing markets for new products or introducing existing products into new markets, this topic area helps address barriers to commercialisation and deployment of improved distributed wind energy technologies. Projects focus on key market opportunities identified in NREL’s 2022 Distributed Wind Futures Study, including rural and agricultural markets.
- EWT Americas, Bloomington, Minnesota: Educate customers on wind turbine potential for agribusiness, and commercial and industrial operations in the windy Midwest with an award of $149,050.
- Intelligent Energy Systems, Anchorage, Alaska: Address obstacles to distributed wind investment in Alaska with an award of $150,000.
- Siva Powers America, East Amherst, New York: Address deployment obstacles in eight key states, accessing rural markets utilising both U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program and the
- IRA Energy Community Tax Credit Bonus with an award of $150,000.
