Wind Energy News
Stay up to date on the latest wind energy research and development news at the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Dec. 3, 2024
Meet Suzanne MacDonald, a hockey mom, clean energy advocate, and stakeholder engagement expert at NREL who blends a passion for community-driven solutions with a love for the game.
Nov. 26, 2024
NREL has issued a Competitiveness Improvement Project notice of intent in advance of a 2025 funding solicitation. The project supports manufacturers of distributed wind energy technology, such as Eocycle.
Nov. 21, 2024
A new NREL study examines the visual impacts of wind turbines on a national scale.
Nov. 7, 2024
Do you have ideas about how to build Tribal capacity to engage in offshore wind energy decision-making? We want to hear from you!
Oct. 24, 2024
Paula Pérez is an engineer by training, but to this NREL researcher, engineering is about people.
Oct. 14, 2024
This summer, NREL postdocs and early-career staff participated in multiple events around the globe, including in Italy, Indonesia, Singapore, and stateside in Golden, Colorado.
Oct. 10, 2024
Kelly Huang, a previous National Renewable Energy Laboratory Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) Program intern, landed a career in academics.
Sept. 30, 2024
Jeremy Stefek is working to understand the needs of the growing wind energy industry, raise awareness of wind energy career opportunities, and develop training programs that ensure a skilled workforce is ready to meet future demands.
Aug. 22, 2024
Researchers at NREL see a realistic path forward to the manufacture of bio-derivable wind blades that can be chemically recycled and the components reused, ending the practice of old blades winding up in landfills at the end of their useful life.
Aug. 22, 2024
NREL's National Wind Technology Center hosted 36 interns for the summer. The Leading Edge caught up with six of those interns to learn about their work, achievements, and hopes for the future.
Aug. 21, 2024
Annual NREL-authored report outlines last year's advancements in the offshore wind energy industry, including major milestones that signal positive growth.
July 29, 2024
An extensive study on one of NREL's research wind turbines offers keys insights into the benefits and challenges of downwind operations.
July 26, 2024
At the TORQUE Conference in Florence, Italy, this May, NREL wind researchers took to the stage to share their impactful research and learn from others.
July 19, 2024
When Cory Frontin is not developing simulation methods for wind and renewable energy, he likes to do "typical outdoorsy Colorado things," like rock climbing.
July 18, 2024
A new crop of Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) award selections will benefit farmers and small rural businesses by focusing on how to remove market barriers to distributed wind turbine deployment in agricultural settings.
July 11, 2024
Using electricity generated by offshore wind turbines as one pathway to split water to produce clean hydrogen may make economic sense, particularly along the U.S. Atlantic Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, according to researchers at NREL.
June 24, 2024
An interest in juggling paved the way for Jason Jonkman's offshore wind research and allowed him to become one of NREL's 2024 Distinguished Researchers.
June 20, 2024
From research to life in the Antarctica research stations, diesel fuel provides almost all of the necessary power. The fuel is shipped to Antarctica and either flown or trucked to the South Pole, an expensive proposition that could be greatly reduced using wind and solar.
June 18, 2024
Lanaia Carveth transitioned from a career as a consultant in the construction industry doing environmental planning, permitting, regulatory compliance, and project management to her current role as a project manager at NREL's National Wind Technology Center.
June 12, 2024
Shifting our perception of extreme weather could support planning a reliable future grid.
May 22, 2024
Jason Roadman's interest in wind turbines began during his daily commute past the NREL Flatirons Campus. This curiosity, coupled with a desire to use his aerospace engineering skills to make a positive impact, led him to a career at NREL.
May 15, 2024
The U.S. Department of Energy just announced the five teams who took home $450,000 each in Phase Two of the FLoating Offshore Wind ReadINess (FLOWIN) Prize.
May 7, 2024
The wind industry could benefit from the use of artificial intelligence to design and deploy wind plants, according to an article in Nature Energy written by researchers at NREL.
May 2, 2024
Researchers at NREL have successfully leveraged robotic assistance in the manufacture of wind turbine blades, allowing for the potential to improve the consistency of the product.
April 22, 2024
Armed with a Ph.D. in bat studies, NREL's lead environmental scientist Cris Hein helps bats—and other wildlife—share the skies with wind turbines.
April 18, 2024
A new report identifies that educational training programs, like the U.S. Department of Energy Collegiate Wind Competition, which provides participating students with real-world wind energy experience, could help meet the growing demand for trained wind energy workers.
April 17, 2024
Offshore wind makes sense for decarbonizing energy production and building energy security and independence when it comes to ocean renewable energy production in Alaska’s Outer Continental Shelf.
March 25, 2024
NREL researchers contributed to a thorough analysis and action plan to guide the United States on the most effective ways to bring Atlantic offshore wind energy to communities on the East Coast.
March 25, 2024
Wind energy's growth must be planned with careful consideration of atmospheric physics, turbine design, and grid resilience, as well as environmental and social impacts.
March 21, 2024
The new, easy-to-use Wind Resource Database offers public access to more than a petabyte of detailed wind resource data in the United States and other countries.
March 18, 2024
As a child immersed in the science of NASA, Amy Robertson was bound to end up an engineer—an aerospace engineer, to be exact. At NREL, she has traded in her love of the cosmos for the delightfully challenging dynamics of floating offshore wind energy.
March 7, 2024
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has launched the new National Distributed Wind Network and complementary Distributed Wind Energy Resource Hub.
March 4, 2024
Over the past year, NREL and industry partner Nextracker teamed up to advance the reliability of photovoltaic (PV) tracker technologies during severe weather events.
Feb. 29, 2024
The REopt team at NREL has significantly enhanced the publicly available REopt web tool and its underlying open-source code, providing more powerful capabilities.
Feb. 26, 2024
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory has issued a request for proposals under the Competitiveness Improvement Project to support commercialization and market expansion of small and medium wind turbine technology.
Feb. 21, 2024
Participants in a workshop organized by NREL agree on the importance of mitigating degradation rates for the continuing rollout of clean technologies.
Feb. 19, 2024
Angel McCoy started her career as a meteorologist, which put her on the path that led to her current role at NREL supporting the regulatory process for offshore wind energy in the United States.
Jan. 22, 2024
As a kid, Genevieve Starke dreamt of becoming a con artist. Naturally, the little girl from Pennsylvania decided to pivot her dream to a field where rule-following was a little more appreciated. She picked engineering.
Jan. 18, 2024
DOE announced the Phase 1 winners of the Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize. This $5.1 million, two-phase competition aims to boost a sustainable U.S. recycling industry for two high-impact categories of wind turbine materials: fiber-reinforced composites and rare earth elements.
Jan. 18, 2024
NREL recently bid farewell to a 100-kilowatt distributed wind turbine prototype on NREL's Flatirons Campus. The turbine's removal signals the beginning of new, expanded distributed wind research capabilities for the laboratory.
