The US Department of Energy (DOE, Washington, DC) will support $60 million of research into cost-effective, low-speed, wind power technology. Twenty-one public-private partnerships will work to reduce the cost of wind power at low-speed sites to $0.03/kWh under a three-phase technology development project. Low speed is classified as annual average wind speeds of 20 km/h, measured at a height of 10 m. The value of the cost-shared projects will total $60 million over the next four years.
"The nation's vast wind energy resources can play a much larger role in our energy supply portfolio," stated Kyle McSlarrow of the DOE. "These industry and university partnerships will help develop next-generation wind technology, and open the door to wind power at many locations around the country that otherwise would not be cost-competitive."
