Wind energy makes up eight percent of the nation’s electricity mix, making it the largest source of renewable power generation in the United States. This energy source enables many states to meet their renewable energy goals. 

But implementing wind energy comes with challenges. As wind becomes a larger fraction of the energy mix, cost-effective integration with the electricity grid requires accurate wind power forecasts hours to a day ahead. This is a challenge particularly in hilly and mountainous terrain, where the best weather forecast models still often have significant wind errors. Without accurate forecasting, wind farm operators run the risk of not being able to deliver as promised. Or they could produce more power than the grid can accept, affecting utility customers and revenue. Finally, wildlife and the surrounding environment run the risk of harm if the siting locations and associated wildlife patterns are not well understood. 

Wind energy research at PNNL is managed by DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO). PNNL partners with WETO to meet its twofold mission: enable the innovations needed to advance the nation’s wind energy systems, and address wind energy market and deployment barriers, including siting and environmental impacts for offshore and land-based wind power. 

To meet this mission, PNNL’s research focuses on five key areas: 

• Wind resource characterization: Improving our understanding of wind resources to reduce project uncertainty, advance forecasting, and reduce costs 

• Environmental monitoring and wind-wildlife impacts: Increasing our understanding of wind-wildlife interactions and developing monitoring technologies to mitigate environmental risk 

• Wind systems integration: Enabling cost-effective, reliable, and resilient energy system operation with increasing levels of wind energy 

• Data management: Collecting, storing, curating, cataloging, preserving, and disseminating results generated by wind energy research 

• Distributed wind: Enabling wind technology as an affordable, accessible, and compatible distributed energy resource option 

In examples of field research, PNNL deployed research buoys off the shores of New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts, California, and Hawaii to evaluate offshore wind behavior and variability and to collect data for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to evaluate potential wind energy sites. Another field study, conducted in the Columbia River gorge, improved forecasts in areas of complex terrain, where wind circulation and flow make predictability especially challenging. PNNL researchers also developed new technology to enable three-dimensional tracking of bats and birds near wind turbines, and PNNL energy analysts author benchmarking and annual market reports that are considered go-to resources by the wind industry. 

These examples illustrate the unique combination of PNNL expertise in atmospheric sciences, including complex terrain dynamics and marine meteorology; instrument systems; distributed wind market analysis; environmental sampling, including remote sensing; and computational sciences, including data management systems. PNNL’s specialized Marine and Coastal Research Laboratory, with extensive equipment and tools, supports research for both land-based and offshore development. 

Through continuing advances from the wind research community, the nation will, decade by decade, increasingly enjoy access to low-cost renewable energy.