DOE $6.25 Million RFP for Large wind Turbines 

U.S. Department of Energy's Wind Energy Technologies Office and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory Announce $6.25 million for Aerodynamics Research on Large Wind Turbines

Wind Energy Technologies Office

January 17, 2025

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced a request for proposals (RFP) for research on Fundamental Aerodynamics for Large Wind Turbine Performance and Reliability. On behalf of WETO, NREL will award up to $6.25 million to teams from U.S.-based industry and academia to support fundamental research efforts that generate validation data for predicting large turbine aerodynamic performance, loads, and behavior of large wind turbines.

The RFP’s goal is to help the wind energy industry enhance the reliability and aerodynamic performance of large wind turbines and reduce the levelized cost of wind energy. 

The proposed RFP will provide funding to selected U.S. research and development applicants from industry and academia to be split among two topic areas:

Topic Area 1: High Reynolds Number Airfoil (the shapes used in wind turbine blades) Aerodynamics Validation Datasets 

Topic Area 2: Aerodynamic Characterization of Nonoperational Loads Phenomena 

Join a webinar on Jan. 23, 2025, for further information on the RFP. Responses are due by March 17, 2025. To learn more information on the RFP, visit NREL's webpage.