NREL calls for proposals from US wind turbine manufacturers

Posted on 15 Jan 2025 by The Manufacturer

The United States Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) under the Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) to support the development of small- and medium-sized wind turbine technology.

The 2025 RFP includes significant program changes aimed at streamlining the process of innovative design development, optimization, testing, and certification to expand access to distributed wind turbine technology.

Managed by NREL on behalf of DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office, CIP awards cost-shared subcontracts and national laboratory technical support to US component suppliers and manufacturers of small- and medium-sized wind turbines.

Advancing these wind energy systems to commercialization is technically challenging and resource-intensive for small businesses, which often lack the capacity to develop, certify, and commercialize their technologies on their own.

“Certification and testing costs are often prohibitive for manufacturers our size,” said Chris Connor, principal engineer of NPS Solutions, which received CIP awards in 2022 and 2024 to pursue certification of its 100-kilowatt wind turbine and inverter. “The technical and financial support available through DOE’s Competitiveness Improvement Project is vital for smaller distributed wind manufacturers, like us, to ensure the safety, quality, and performance of our products.”

Learn more on the CIP webpage or the RFP webpage on sam.org.

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