Federal Research & Development and Wind Program Funding
Congress has acted to expand research & development funding:
The economic stimulus bill (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), signed into law by President Obama on February 17th, 2009, provides $1.25 billion in undesignated funding through the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program for applied research, development, demonstration and deployment activities.
The American Wind Energy Association sent a letter to Energy Secretary Chu on March 20, 2009, to provide recommendations on how a portion of this funding can benefit the wind industry. The wind industry recommends increasing the annual funding level for wind research & development and other programs to $217 million annually. This funding level is expected to bring capital costs down by 10% and increase turbine efficiency by 15%, both of which are benchmarks identified in DOE’s 20% Wind Energy by 2030 report as necessary to reach the 20% goal.
AWEA’s Offshore Wind Working Group (OWWG) has created a document outlining the research and development needs of the offshore wind industry in the United States. The funding level mentioned above includes $108 million for Wind Turbine Technology (components, reliability and offshore applications), with $15 million annually allocated specifically for offshore wind. In light of these cost allocations, the OWWG has created cost estimates for its R&D needs under a “blue sky” scenario.
The Energy Department research and development funding levels for renewable energy have not yet been finalized. New developments will be posted here, and also at www.energy.gov/recovery. |
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