Semi-commercial wind turbine innovations will allow for cost-effective wind energy in additional areas of the United States
While the United States has excellent wind resources in most parts of the country, some locations are less windy and, as a result, have not seen much wind energy development. Harnessing wind energy in a cost-effective manner has long been a challenge in these areas. But new technologies could make it possible to capture winds blowing higher above the ground across much of the United States.
In a recent study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, researchers found that technological innovations that make their way into commercial markets today and in the coming years could unleash 80% more economically viable wind energy potential within the contiguous United States. This could go a long way toward helping the country achieve its clean energy goals.
Much of this potential wind energy occurs in areas of the United States where there are little or no existing wind farms, such as the Southeast, the Gulf Coast, and parts of the East Coast. These areas are close to centers of electricity demand, which may reduce the need for new means of transportation to deploy wind energy at the scale required to meet renewable energy goals.
“These results show an unexpected opportunity for using wind energy more widely in areas where transmission infrastructure already exists or where additional transmission can be built relatively cost-effectively,” said Owen Roberts, an NREL analyst and member of the study, which was funded by the center. US Department of Energy's Office of Wind Energy Technologies.
Expanding wind power to these areas could provide additional benefits.
“Deploying wind energy in these areas would reduce the need for governments and utilities to import energy from remote areas to serve local demand and would enable local jobs and local economic growth from land rent and tax revenues,” Roberts said.
A recent study by the National Wind Energy Laboratory found that technological innovations could unleash 80% additional economically viable wind energy capacity by 2025. Innovations in wind technology—such as on-site manufacturing, taller towers, taller blades, and wake steering—could allow With the wind. Power plants (yellow circles on maps) will be deployed in new areas of the United States (shaded areas in the second map) compared to areas viable with current technology (shaded areas in the first map). Graphic by Travis Williams, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), using the US Geological Survey's US Wind Turbine Database
Technological advances make this possible
Wind energy technology innovations studied by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory could reduce the cost of energy in almost all locations in the contiguous United States and enable increased access to clean wind energy.
These innovations include:
- Longer blades. Significantly longer blades increase energy capture per turbine. Innovations in blades, such as splitting them, can make them easier to transport, reducing turbine installation costs.
- Taller towers. Stronger winds are found at higher central elevations, beyond the reach of today's typical turbines. An increase in height of 17 meters on average provides the additional clearance needed for the longer blades to reach those high-altitude winds.
- Low power wind turbines. These turbines have a larger rotor volume compared to the generator volume. When larger rotors capture more wind, they transfer more power to the generator and increase the availability of wind energy.
- Advanced tower manufacturing. New manufacturing techniques – such as spiral welding and 3D printing – make it possible to build wind turbine towers on site, reducing costs and avoiding transportation constraints.
- Climbing cranes. As wind turbine heights increase, cranes that enable more efficient installation of turbines and replacement of key components (including gearboxes, generators and blades) can reduce costs compared to conventional cranes (such as crawler or mobile cranes). This is due to high rental costs as well as disassembly, reassembly and transportation of conventional cranes between turbine sites.
- Wake guidance. Using controls that tilt or turn the direction the wind turbine faces and vary the speed of the generator, plant operators can redirect (or direct) individual turbines to avoid affecting turbines located downstream. This could enable existing utilities to achieve annual energy production gains of between 1% and 2%.
“Instead of just continuing to build wind turbines in already developed areas of the country, this study shows that we can expand wind energy to areas of the country where we have historically not seen it,” said NREL researcher Travis Williams, who participated in the study. In the study. “Innovations, especially low-grade energy and high-rise towers, combined with modest cost reductions, can significantly increase the potential for wind energy in the United States.”
Work is still needed to take advantage of this potential
The results of the study were published in a technical report entitled Exploring the near-term impact of innovations on the technical potential of ground-based wind energy, reveals an opportunity for the United States to use wind energy more broadly when meeting renewable energy goals. To realize the full potential of these technological advances, more work remains.
For example, policymakers can play a critical role in reducing other barriers, such as increasing public knowledge or experience with wind energy, utilities' experience with integrating wind energy (which may not be a fixed supply), workforce capabilities, and developers' experience with Areas with new wind energy markets.
“We're talking about bringing new industry and new technology to parts of the United States that have rarely seen wind energy,” Roberts said. “The more we can demonstrate the potential, the more people will understand the opportunity – creating more paths to achieving our national energy goals.”
Learn more about Ground-based wind energy research conducted by NREL. And be sure to subscribe NREL's Wind Energy Newsletter For more news like this.
