Wind Power

How Much Do You Know About Wind Turbines?

Wind turbines are imperative in our search for renewable energy as we aim to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. How much do you know about wind turbines? Find out with this quiz.

How Much Do You Know About Power Semiconductors?

Without power semiconductors there would be no solar power, wind power, EVs, automated factories, computers, or smart phones, to name a few. Take this quiz to see how much you know about them.

Power Line Test Bed Energizes Technologies for Increasing Grid Capacity

As population growth and extreme temperatures strain the United States power grid, utilities and equipment manufacturers are looking for ways to increase the amount of...

Ocean Platform Motion Control

NASA engineers have developed a new approach to mitigating unwanted motion in floating structures. Ideally suited to applications including offshore wind energy platforms and barges, the innovation uses water ballast as a motion damping fluid.

Detection Technology Can Help Minimize Wind Turbine Interactions with Birds and Bats

The data collected from cameras and vibration sensors continue to inform next steps in research. The goal is to make this technology commercially available for land-based and offshore wind turbines to ensure a harmonic relationship between wind energy and surrounding wildlife. Read on to learn more.

Medium-Voltage Converters Can Replace Grid Transformers

To electrify everything from vehicles to heating systems to stovetops, the U.S. grid must expand by about 57% and get more flexible, too. Solar and wind energy are the renewables most...

Harnessing Wind and Solar Power Via Neural Networks

The team hopes this project can better position renewable energy as the primary source of electricity in the industry sector. The project aims to enable researchers and renewable energy installation companies to determine the optimal number of solar panels and wind turbines needed to prevent over or under production.

Invertible Neural Network Tool Helps Optimize Airfoil Design

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are building computational tools using artificial intelligence (AI) that can help optimize airfoil design for wind...

Ocean Platform Motion Control

NASA engineers have developed a new approach to mitigating unwanted motion in floating structures. Ideally suited to applications including offshore wind energy platforms and barges, the innovation uses water ballast as a motion damping fluid.

How Much Do You Know About Wind Energy?

Wind energy is a big part of the mix of renewable energy sources. It brings to mind images of fields of giant windmills, but not a lot of detailed understanding. How good is your knowledge about our wind energy? Take this quiz to check it out.

Small Power Modules, Building Blocks of The Electric Grid

The U.S. electric grid is more than just power plants and transmission lines — it’s a web of connections among millions of small components, working together to allow you to...

New Battery Aims to Integrate Renewables for Grid Resiliency

A new battery design could help ease integration of renewable energy into the nation’s electrical grid at lower cost, using Earth-abundant metals, according to a study just...

New Compound Withstands Extreme Heat and Electricity for Next-Generation Energy Storage

Flexible polymers made with a new generation of the Nobel-winning “click chemistry” reaction find use in capacitors and other applications.

Organic Redox Flow Battery

Redox flow batteries are stationary batteries in which the energy is located in the electrolyte, outside of the cell itself, as in a fuel cell.

A Motorless Sailplane to Explore Mars’ Atmosphere

The UA team aims to design a motorless sailplane that can soar over the Martian surface for days at a time, using only wind for propulsion.

Q&A: Reinventing Offshore Wind Turbines

Dr. Brandon Ennis, Sandia National Laboratories’ offshore wind technical lead, had a radically new idea for offshore wind turbines: instead of a tall unwieldy tower, with blades at the top, he imagined a towerless turbine with blades pulled taut like a bow.

Model Predicts Seasonal Variability of Solar and Wind Power

Researchers at Columbia University, supported in part by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, conducted a study that modeled the seasonal variability of solar and...

Powertrain System Improves Wind, Water Turbine Efficiency and Environmental Impact

Purdue University engineers have designed a low-speed, high-torque powertrain system to reduce the operation costs, maintenance costs, and environmental...

Developing Lightweight Glass for Efficient Cars and Wind Turbines

All solid materials, including glass, have a property called elastic stiffness — also known as elastic modulus. It's a measure of how much force per unit area is needed to make...

Microgrids are a Key to Grid Resiliency

The aging energy grid is being pushed to the breaking point. Power outages from extreme weather alone cost anywhere from $2 billion to $77 billion per year. And some isolated communities still rely on...

Compact Medium-Voltage Converters Enable Advanced Grid Architectures and Operations

As we trend toward more renewables and distributed energy resources (DERs), the design of the electric distribution system itself imposes physical...

2021 Create the Future Design Contest: Sustainable Technologies/Future Energy Category Winner — Multifunctional Bionanocomposite Fruit Coatings

The invention could capture the potential of the edible packaging market.

Better Batteries for Grid-Scale Energy Storage

Molten sodium batteries have been used for many years to store energy from renewable sources, such as solar panels and wind turbines. However, commercially available molten sodium-sulfur...

More Efficient Electricity Distribution Thanks to New Insulation Material

If we are to transition to a world powered by renewable energy, efficient long-distance transport of electricity is essential, since the supply — renewable energy...

Fiber-Metal Laminate Manufacturing Technique

Synthesis of fiber-metal laminates is performed using RF plasma spray deposition.

Tension Element Damping (TED) with Hydraulics for Large Displacements

Applications include wind turbines, solar arrays, commercial space mobile launchers, and industrial process stacks and equipment.

Material Moves Wind Turbine Blades Toward Recyclability

The material can be recycled, making renewable energy more sustainable while lowering costs in the process.

Q&A: Oil and Gas Wells for Energy Storage

USC researchers found a way to use idle oil and gas wells for energy storage.