Skip to main content

PNNL

  • About
  • News & Media
  • Careers
  • Events
  • Research
    • Scientific Discovery
      • Biology
        • Chemical Biology
        • Computational Biology
        • Ecosystem Science
        • Human Health
          • Cancer Biology
          • Exposure Science & Pathogen Biology
        • Integrative Omics
          • Advanced Metabolomics
          • Chemical Biology
          • Mass Spectrometry-Based Measurement Technologies
          • Spatial and Single-Cell Proteomics
          • Structural Biology
        • Microbiome Science
          • Biofuels & Bioproducts
          • Human Microbiome
          • Soil Microbiome
          • Synthetic Biology
        • Predictive Phenomics
      • Chemistry
        • Computational Chemistry
        • Chemical Separations
        • Chemical Physics
        • Catalysis
      • Earth & Coastal Sciences
        • Global Change
        • Atmospheric Science
          • Atmospheric Aerosols
          • Human-Earth System Interactions
          • Modeling Earth Systems
        • Coastal Science
        • Ecosystem Science
        • Subsurface Science
        • Terrestrial Aquatics
      • Materials Sciences
        • Materials in Extreme Environments
        • Precision Materials by Design
        • Science of Interfaces
        • Solid Phase Processing
          • Cold Spray
          • Friction Stir Welding & Processing
          • ShAPE
      • Nuclear & Particle Physics
        • Dark Matter
        • Flavor Physics
        • Fusion Energy Science
        • Neutrino Physics
      • Quantum Information Sciences
    • Energy Resiliency
      • Electric Grid Modernization
        • Emergency Response
        • Grid Analytics
          • AGM Program
          • Tools and Capabilities
        • Grid Architecture
        • Grid Cybersecurity
        • Grid Energy Storage
        • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
          • Earth System Modeling
          • Energy System Modeling
        • Transmission
        • Distribution
      • Energy Efficiency
        • Appliance and Equipment Standards
        • Building Energy Codes
        • Building Technologies
          • Advanced Building Controls
          • Advanced Lighting
          • Building-Grid Integration
        • Building and Grid Modeling
        • Commercial Buildings
        • Federal Buildings
          • Federal Performance Optimization
          • Resilience and Security
        • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
        • Residential Buildings
          • Building America Solution Center
          • Energy Efficient Technology Integration
          • Home Energy Score
        • Energy Efficient Technology Integration
      • Energy Storage
        • Electrochemical Energy Storage
        • Flexible Loads and Generation
        • Grid Integration, Controls, and Architecture
        • Regulation, Policy, and Valuation
        • Science Supporting Energy Storage
        • Chemical Energy Storage
      • Environmental Management
        • Waste Processing
        • Radiation Measurement
        • Environmental Remediation
      • Fossil Energy
        • Subsurface Energy Systems
        • Carbon Management
          • Carbon Capture
          • Carbon Storage
          • Carbon Utilization
        • Advanced Hydrocarbon Conversion
      • Nuclear Energy
        • Fuel Cycle Research
        • Advanced Reactors
        • Reactor Operations
        • Reactor Licensing
      • Renewable Energy
        • Solar Energy
        • Wind Energy
          • Wind Resource Characterization
          • Wildlife and Wind
          • Community Values and Ocean Co-Use
          • Wind Systems Integration
          • Wind Data Management
          • Distributed Wind
            • Rural and Agricultural Income & Savings from Renewable Energy
            • Distributed Wind Market Report
            • Strategize, Engage, Network, Deploy Distributed Wind
            • On-Site Wind for Rural Loads
            • Photo Search
            • Reference Materials
        • Marine Energy
          • Environmental Monitoring for Marine Energy
          • Marine Biofouling and Corrosion
          • Marine Energy Resource Characterization
          • Testing for Marine Energy
          • The Blue Economy
        • Hydropower
          • Environmental Performance of Hydropower
          • Hydropower Cybersecurity and Digitalization
          • Hydropower and the Electric Grid
          • Materials Science for Hydropower
          • Pumped Storage Hydropower
          • Water + Hydropower Planning
        • Grid Integration of Renewable Energy
        • Geothermal Energy
      • Transportation
        • Bioenergy Technologies
          • Algal Biofuels
          • Aviation Biofuels
          • Waste-to-Energy and Products
        • Hydrogen & Fuel Cells
        • Vehicle Technologies
          • Emission Control
          • Energy-Efficient Mobility Systems
          • Lightweight Materials
          • Vehicle Electrification
          • Vehicle Grid Integration
    • National Security
      • Chemical & Biothreat Signatures
        • Contraband Detection
        • Pathogen Science & Detection
        • Explosives Detection
        • Threat-Agnostic Biodefense
      • Cybersecurity
        • Discovery and Insight
        • Proactive Defense
        • Trusted Systems
      • Nuclear Material Science
      • Nuclear Nonproliferation
        • Radiological & Nuclear Detection
        • Nuclear Forensics
        • Ultra-Sensitive Nuclear Measurements
        • Nuclear Explosion Monitoring
        • Global Nuclear & Radiological Security
      • Stakeholder Engagement
        • Disaster Recovery
        • Global Collaborations
        • Legislative and Regulatory Analysis
        • Technical Training
      • Systems Integration & Deployment
        • Additive Manufacturing
        • Deployed Technologies
        • Rapid Prototyping
        • Systems Engineering
      • Threat Analysis
        • Advanced Wireless Security
          • 5G Security
          • RF Signal Detection & Exploitation
        • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
        • Internet of Things
        • Maritime Security
        • Millimeter Wave
        • Mission Risk and Resilience
    • Data Science & Computing
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Graph and Data Analytics
      • Software Engineering
      • Computational Mathematics & Statistics
      • Future Computing Technologies
        • Adaptive Autonomous Systems
      • Visual Analytics
    • Lab Objectives
    • Publications & Reports
    • Featured Research
  • People
    • Inventors
    • Lab Leadership
    • Lab Fellows
    • Staff Accomplishments
  • Partner with PNNL
    • Education
      • Undergraduate Students
      • Graduate Students
      • Post-graduate Students
      • University Faculty
      • University Partnerships
      • K-12 Educators and Students
      • STEM Education
        • STEM Workforce Development
        • STEM Outreach
        • Meet the Team
      • Internships
    • Community
      • Regional Impact
      • Philanthropy
      • Volunteering
    • Industry
      • Available Technologies
      • Industry
      • Industry Partnerships
      • Licensing & Technology Transfer
      • Entrepreneurial Leave
      • Visual Intellectual Property Search (VIPS)
  • Facilities & Centers
    • All Facilities
      • Atmospheric Radiation Measurement User Facility
      • Electricity Infrastructure Operations Center
      • Energy Sciences Center
      • Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory
      • Grid Storage Launchpad
      • Institute for Integrated Catalysis
      • Interdiction Technology and Integration Laboratory
      • PNNL Portland Research Center
      • PNNL Seattle Research Center
      • PNNL-Sequim (Marine and Coastal Research)
      • Radiochemical Processing Laboratory
      • Shallow Underground Laboratory

Breadcrumb

  1. Research
  2. Energy Resiliency
  3. Renewable Energy
  4. Wind Energy
  5. Distributed Wind

Distributed Wind

Enabling wind energy for on-site 
and local power generation

  • Wind Resource Characterization
  • Wildlife and Wind
  • Community Values and Ocean Co-Use
  • Wind Systems Integration
  • Wind Data Management
  • Distributed Wind
    • Rural and Agricultural Income & Savings from Renewable Energy
    • Distributed Wind Market Report
    • Strategize, Engage, Network, Deploy Distributed Wind
    • On-Site Wind for Rural Loads
    • Photo Search
    • Reference Materials
  • News & Updates
  • Attend a Distributed Wind Event
  • Publications

Publications News Events Gallery

Capability Overview

Distributed wind turbines in a field.
See examples of distributed wind energy projects in PNNL's Distributed Wind Photo Gallery. (Photo by Lindsay Sheridan | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

Wind turbines used as distributed energy resources—also called distributed wind—produce electricity that is consumed on-site or locally, as opposed to large, centralized wind farms that generate bulk electricity for distant end users. 

Distributed wind is critical to meeting a cleaner, more equitable energy future. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s (PNNL) distributed wind research is funded by the Department of Energy’s Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO), which supports the goal of advancing wind energy technology to contribute maximum societal, economic, and power system benefits. PNNL’s team of distributed wind researchers spans a range of disciplines—Earth system sciences, socio-technical systems, economics, power systems engineering, geospatial science, and energy equity and justice—to conduct critical, interdisciplinary research that advances wind technologies as distributed energy resources. 

Challenges and Solutions  

Distributed wind installations can range from a less-than-1-kW off-grid wind turbine at a remote cabin or oil platform, to a 15-kW wind turbine at a home or farm, to several multimegawatt wind turbines at a university campus or manufacturing facility, or connected to the distribution system of a local utility. 

With installations in all 50 states, distributed wind energy actively helps individuals, businesses, and communities across the country in: 

  • Offsetting retail power costs 
  • Securing long-term power cost certainty 
  • Supporting grid operations 
  • Meeting decarbonization goals 
  • Electrifying remote locations and assets not connected to a centralized grid. 

Significant opportunity for distributed wind deployment remains untapped, however. To support streamlined adoption of distributed wind energy technologies, PNNL conducts a range of research in market analysis, strategic and technical engagement, wind resource assessments, workforce development, and valuation.

Projects and Programs

PNNL conducts a range of research in market analysis, strategic and technical engagement, wind resource assessments, workforce development, and valuation. Below are overviews of key PNNL distributed wind projects and programs, along with links to additional info.

Rural and Agricultural Income & Savings from Renewable Energy

RAISE is a joint USDA/DOE initiative o help rural small businesses, farmers, and electric cooperatives cut costs and increase income using smaller-scale renewable energy projects and underutilized technologies, such as distributed wind. PNNL leads the lab-based contributions to RAISE, managing and coordinating research, analysis, and outreach.

( Learn more )

Distributed Wind Market Report

PNNL has produced the annual Distributed Wind Market Report since 2012. This report provides a comprehensive overview of the distributed wind market and can help guide future investments and decisions by industry, utilities, federal and state agencies, and other interested parties.

( Learn more )

Strategize, Engage, Network, Deploy Distributed Wind

Led by PNNL in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Strategize, Engage, Network, Deploy Distributed Wind (SEND) project uses strategic and technical stakeholder engagement to address key deployment issues to increase distributed wind deployment.

( Learn more )

Tools Assessing Performance

Tools Assessing Performance (TAP) is a multi-laboratory project led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and supported by PNNL, Argonne National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Together, the TAP project team aims to reduce uncertainty in distributed wind production estimates through improved mesoscale wind resource datasets, bias characterization and correction, and obstacle detection and incorporation into flow models.

( Learn more )

On-Site Wind for Rural Loads

The On-Site Wind for Rural Load Centers project focuses on evaluating rural energy needs and providing tools and resources for communities considering distributed wind in microgrids, distribution networks, and hybrid systems. Led by Idaho National Laboratory, PNNL leverages valuation frameworks developed under the Microgrid, Infrastructure Resilience, and Advanced Controls Launchpad and RADWIND projects to quantify the value of distributed wind and its equity impacts for potential end users.

( Learn more )

Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership

Under the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership, PNNL provides technical assistance to remote, island, and islanded communities that are shifting to cleaner and more resilient energy systems. PNNL’s distributed wind research team contributes resource assessments for these communities.

( Learn more )

FEMP Distributed Energy and Energy Procurement Program

PNNL supports federal wind energy procurement through the Distributed Energy and Energy Procurement Program. Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) technical resources are catered to United States federal agencies with a number of on-demand, web-based trainings that are available to anyone interested in learning about the fundamentals of distributed wind.

( See FEMP's course catalog )

Stay in the Know 

Complete and submit the form below to subscribe to our Distributed Wind mailing list:

Related Divisions

Electricity Infrastructure and Buildings Division
Earth Systems Science Division
Atmospheric, Climate, and Earth Sciences Division

Contacts

Alicia M. Mahon, PhD, PMP
Wind Energy Program Manager, Operational Systems Engineering Group Leader
alicia.mahon@pnnl.gov
509-375-6943
Danielle Preziuso
Socio-Technical Systems Engineer and Distributed Wind Portfolio Lead
danielle.preziuso@pnnl.gov
(509) 372-6085

PNNL

  • Get in Touch
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Doing Business
    • Environmental Reports
    • Security & Privacy
    • Vulnerability Disclosure Policy
  • Research
    • Scientific Discovery
    • Energy Resiliency
    • National Security
Subscribe to PNNL News
Department of Energy Logo Battelle Logo
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is managed and operated by Battelle for the Department of Energy
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • X (formerly Twitter)
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn