The Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) has awarded US$ 17 million in Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) projects to help small businesses in 13 states develop prototype technologies that could improve manufacturing energy efficiency, reduce the cost of installing clean energy projects, and generate electricity from renewable energy sources.
Wetzel Engineering, Inc. receives US$ 1.000.000 for their field-assembled component-based rotor blades project. Wetzel Engineering is developing a field-assembled modular technology to manufacture wind turbine rotor blades longer than 70 metres such that they can easily be transported by ground. Wetzel will commercialise the technology by manufacturing 83-100 metres blades for 6-10MW wind turbines for the worldwide offshore and large land-based wind industry.
