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DOE Awards $4.5 Million for Innovative Wind Power Research and Development Projects

Date: 9/5/2014

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $4.5 million for four projects to help increase deployment of innovative wind power technologies by optimizing the operation, boosting efficiency, and improving the environmental performance of wind energy systems.

  • Biodiversity Research Institute of Gorham, Maine, will receive $1.1 million to develop a stereo-optic camera system to detect and document bird and bat flight behavior in the vicinity of wind turbines.
  • Texas Tech University in Lubbock will receive $1.4 million to develop a new radar-based prototype to measure the flow of wind through wind farms, which will increase data availability and lead to improved modeling. The project complements the DOE's ongoing Atmosphere to Electrons (A2e) Initiative, which aims to improve wind plant performance by increasing understanding of how wind moves throughout wind farms.
  • The University of North Carolina at Charlotte will receive $500,000 to design and build a 30-kilowatt multistage magnetic gearbox, which will be validated for reliability, efficiency, and its potential to operate more quietly than currently available generators.
  • The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will receive $1.5 million to develop an online health monitoring system that uses the electric current signals produced by a turbine's generator to track the generator's performance and help determine when it needs to be repaired.