WIND TO ENERGY SEC CHU: GIVE

[To] The Honorable Dr. Steven Chu, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy
Gregory Wetstone, March 2, 2009 (American Wind Energy Association)

SUMMARY
Gregory Wetstone, Senior Director for Governmental and Public Affairs with the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), wrote to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu to request (1) funding for wind research and (2) operational changes at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) to support wind research.

AWEA believes a healthy slice of the recently approved federal funding, specifically a portion of the $1.25 billion in discretionary spending allotted to the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), should go to the Department’s Wind Program.

The Department of Energy (DOE) Wind Program presently gets about $50 million yearly in federal money. In 1980, the high point of funding for the program, it got $63 million. AWEA wants $201 million per year. Such investment, AWEA contends, would pay for the kind of R&D that would create a whole new generation of wind technology.

AWEA would like to see changes at NREL to make certain the money gets spent wisely. At the $201 million per year level of investment, AWEA anticipates wind power’s capital costs could be brought down 10% and turbine efficiency could be increased by 15%.

It's time to turn this curve around. (click to enlarge)

The wind industry’s Action Plan to Achieve 20% Wind Energy by 2030, formulated by 80 stakeholders, reported that $217 million spent yearly for wind energy research, development, and deployment, combined with industry and state contributions, is necessary to achieve wind’s goal of providing 20% of U.S. electricity generation by 2030.

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COMMENTARY
In early 2008, DOE released 20% Wind Energy by 2030 which found it feasible that by 2030 wind could provide 20% of U.S. power. The study identified benchmarks the wind industry would need to reach to accomplish such a goal. The spending and operational changes AWEA is requesting are in pursuit of those benchmarks.

The objectives include (1) mitigating interferences with radar that some turbines cause sometimes, (2) improving the reliability of turbine drive trains, making it possible for turbines to efficiently generate energy in a wider range of wind and weather conditions, (3) building better facilities to test drive trains and blades, (4) developing knowledge of system and transmission integration, and (5) learning how to make the most efficient smaller-scale turbines for homes and businesses.

When wind was well-funded, NREL put together a great R&D team. In the absence of adequate funding, especially during the last 8 years, the NREL wind team was disrupted and disassembled. Adequate funding will reverse that irrecoverable loss and set NREL, one of the country’s research and development treasures, on a renewed course toward great achievement.

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Operationally, AWEA wants to see NREL work with the other national labs on technology development programs and applied research projects. AWEA also believes DOE can support NREL’s renewal by (1) overseeing the Wind Program, (2) administering funding and (3) distributing grants.

The grant program is reportedly (1) poorly announced and, therefore, restrictive to applicants, (2) too small in the size of the grants to fund important projects, (3) lacking in technical oversight, and (4) too inflexible. The result, AWEA says, is that projects begin slowly, can’t make course corrections based on knowledge obtained as the projects unfold, and - hampered by bureacratic snafus - go forward haltingly.

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A model exists at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) toward which DOE could move NREL. NETL’s programs are longer term and are given feedback, guidance and oversight from national lab scientists. As a result, NETL breakthroughs get deployed sooner and boost marketplace performance.

The fundamental purpose behind AWEA's suggestions is to facilitate support of the wind industry by the scientists at NREL and the other national labs. Improvements will drive technology growth in ways the marketplace, because it must always attend to short-term returns on investment, cannot.

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QUOTES
- From the Wetstone/AWEA letter to Sec. Chu: “The DOE Wind Program receives about $50 million annually, a level that is well below the record $63 million appropriated in fiscal year (FY) 1980. Greater funding for wind energy research, development, and deployment would foster a robust, ongoing program in the technology and science of wind systems that will spawn wind power systems of the future.”
- From the Wetstone/AWEA letter to Sec. Chu: “DOE and AWEA recently developed an Action Plan to meet 20% of all U.S. electricity demand with wind energy by 2030. To achieve the goals of that plan and remove some of the identified choke points, the wind industry is seeking to ramp up the current DOE Wind Program annual budget from $50 million to $201 million. We believe this level of funding will bring capital costs down 10% and increase turbine efficiency by 15%, which are two benchmarks identified in the DOE’s 20% Wind Energy by 2030 report as being necessary to reach the 20% goal.”