The distributed wind energy industry requires rapid innovation to reduce costs and increase customer confidence, but many companies that build small and mid-sized wind turbines lack the resources to develop, certify, and commercialize next-generation technology.
Managed by NREL on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office, CIP awards cost-shared subcontracts and technical support to manufacturers of small and medium-sized wind turbines. Designed to make distributed wind energy technologies more cost-competitive and reliable, these awards help manufacturers of wind turbines less than 1 megawatt in capacity to:
- Optimize their designs
- Develop advanced manufacturing processes
- Perform turbine and component testing and certification
- Accelerate pathways for commercialization.
The goals of CIP are to make wind energy cost-competitive with other distributed generation technologies and increase the number of wind turbine designs tested and certified to national standards.
Applications will be accepted through April 1, 2022, at 2 p.m. Mountain Time.
All efforts funded under this project shall be performed by a U.S. company located within the United States or its territories. A U.S. company is defined as a business incorporated or formed as a legal entity in the United States.
The turbine selected by the Subcontractor must already exist as a product, a complete design or as a preliminary design as appropriate for the scope of the topic area. The company must be ready to take the turbine design through the tasks set forth in the topic area task description in the Statement of Work. If the proposed project is for the development of a component by the component manufacturer who is not the turbine manufacturer, the proposal must be linked to an existing turbine. All turbine or component designs meeting the qualifications set forth here are eligible for consideration in this effort.