Alternative Energy/Innovations in Wind, Solar and Tidal
Innovation in Wind
- Where in Wind innovation is happening and what is fostering it?
Wind power is a mature technology. The field of onshore wind power has slowed in development and barriers to innovation largely remain at the development stage due to complex public policy and permitting involved with constructing power plants based on wind technologies. The field of offshore is a faster growing and more innovative field than onshore wind. Developments in adjustable blade angle and composite technologies have been crucial to the development of near shore wind. Deep water wind is the most experimental area of wind. Deep water installations take advantage of powerful winds and avoid NIMBY problems but they also require sophisticated moorings which are currently being developed and tested (Walter Musial of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory speaking at the Power of the Gulf Conference June 12, 2008 in Northport, Maine). Another advantage of offshore is that it allows the turbines to be larger due to fewer transportation limits. The larger turbines are more economical. "Reliability problems and turbine shortages have discouraged early boom in development." (Musial, Walter)
The US Department of Energy splits it focus in wind energy research and development between increasing the technical viability of wind systems and increasing the use of wind power in the marketplace. [1] Viability funded research have concentrated on: large wind technology, distributed wind technology, and supporting research and testing. Marketplace funded projects have concentrated on: systems integration and technology acceptance. The US Department of Energy has had some successful results encouraging US companies to innovate using their large wind technology program. [2] GE Wind Energy worked with the US Department of Energy to test components that it developed for its 1.5-MW wind turbine. This has been one of GE Wind Energy's more successful designs. Another project that is demonstrating commercial success is the new 2.5-MW wind turbine manufactured by Clipper Windpower. Clipper Windpower participated in cooperative research and development work with the Wind Energy Program and produced a 2.5-MW wind turbine that is currently on the market. Recent work in distributed wind technology research has helped meet demand for small turbines. [3] The DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory aided testing of consumer wind products. "The strategy of the supporting research and testing effort is to use the research staffs of the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) and Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) to perform wind-technology-specific research targeted to help industry improve the performance of components and fully integrated turbine systems." [4]
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the US Department of Energy attempts to balance public and private interests in its technology transfer policies. [5] Some of NREL's wind technologies have been patented and are available for licensing. [6] When a company partners with NREL a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) is used. The agreeement protects the existing intellectual property of both parties and "allows the company to negotiate for an exclusive field-of-use license to subject inventions that arise during the CRADA's execution." [7] The alternative way to partner with NREL is to use a work-for-others (WFO) agreement. This agreement is used for request for technical help from the lab but the project does not rise to the level of joint research.
Innovation in Solar
- Where in Solar innovation is happening and what is fostering it?
Innovation in Tidal
- Where in Tidal innovation is happening and what is fostering it?
Wave energy devices are highly diverse. There are many patents in this area, fewer concepts being tested at the laboratory level, very few working prototypes, and no commercial scale projects in operation, (Malter Musial of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory speaking at the Power of the Gulf Conference June 12, 2008 in Northport, Maine)