Innovate Texas Foundation and The National Institute for Renewable Energy Announce Major Renewable Energy R&D Expansions

DOE, Industry Funding and Wind Farm Operations Advance Wind and Energy Initiatives

AUSTIN, TEXAS – September 21, 2010 – The National Institute for Renewable Energy (NIRE), a non-profit, public/private collaboration, which was fostered by the Innovate Texas Foundation, announces major wind turbine development and research projects in Texas. NIRE, Texas Tech University (TTU), industrial and research partners will soon power up the first of several planned renewable energy test and production facilities to help resolve key issues facing the wind power and broader clean energy industries.

The first wind turbines will be placed at Reese Technology Center in Lubbock, Texas. Work is now underway on the large-scale wind turbine platform planned for completion later this year. The installation will serve to aid in certification and further development of new technologies from several multinational corporations in the wind and renewable energy sectors.

TTU and the National Wind Resource Center (NWRC), a non-profit research center supported by many of the nation’s leading research universities, will have research access. NWRC is initially focused on solutions to the three main challenges faced nationally in the wind power industry: enhancing the performance and reliability of wind power, decreasing the cost of wind power and addressing power storage issues.

South Plains Electric Co-Op in coordination with Golden Spread Electric will purchase the power generated at the wind farm. The collaboration with industry partners is expected to support several hundred full-time engineering, production and technical support jobs in Texas.

“There are several new turbine technologies we plan to deploy at the Reese Technology Center,” said David L. Miller, chairman of the NIRE Board of Directors. “We are evaluating additional sites for a scalable energy storage solution and anticipate multiple installations in the future. By integrating state, federal and commercial investment, we are working to further energy independence for the U.S. and to provide solutions to the global renewable energy community.”

Building upon the momentum of current and planned renewable energy projects associated with NIRE, last week U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a $5.2 million competitive grant award from the U.S. Department of Energy, with TTU faculty as the lead academic investigators with a number of collaborating academic and industrial partners. The grant is aimed at advancing wind energy forecasting and mid-size wind turbine research.

The DOE award follows recent awards supporting wind energy research and development including an $8.4 million award from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF), $11 million from industry collaborators and more than $5 million from NIRE affiliates to support wind turbine prototype R&D and certification. The cross industry collaboration and the robust research and development opportunities coming out of this project have garnered national attention. Within two months of receiving the TETF award, TTU and NIRE renewable energy projects have received an additional $18 million from private and federal sources.

“Innovate Texas Foundation congratulates NIRE on its rapid growth and its expanding role as a resource for governmental and private sector research,” said David Nance, chairman of Innovate Texas Foundation. “NIRE is advancing ahead of schedule in its mission to develop collaborations among commercial, academic and governmental partners. We are delighted that Texans across the state are being employed and trained as the sustainable energy workforce of the future.”

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About the U.S. DOE Research Collaborative:
TTU is the lead organization on one of three mid-size wind turbine development projects receiving DOE awards, which are designed to boost the speed and scale of mid-size wind turbine technology development and deployment. Carter Wind and General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies are collaborators with TTU faculty acting as the lead investigator. The project has a total budget of more than $10 million and aims to adapt a turbine featuring two blades with plans to compete on cost with fossil fuel power generation. Carter Wind Energy, located in Wichita Falls, Texas, is an advanced wind turbine technology company that is focused on the mid-size wind turbine market. General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies brings to the collaboration its significant know-how in large engineered systems. SATCOM Technologies will provide manufacturing engineering, production tooling and manufacturing support at its Kilgore, Texas facility.

The second DOE project will focus on short-term wind forecasting, which will accelerate the use of wind power in electricity transmission networks by allowing utilities and grid operators to more accurately forecast when and where electricity will be generated from wind power. AWS Truepower leads the short-term wind-forecasting project. John Schroeder, director of Texas Tech’s Wind Science and Engineering Research Center, is the lead investigator on the plan, which targets a region of high wind energy use in Texas. The project will assess utility system benefits with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages an electric power system with the largest amount of wind power capacity in the United States. The Truepower project team also includes North Carolina State University, the University of Oklahoma, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and consultants MESO Inc., and ICF International.

Innovate Texas Foundation:
Innovate Texas Foundation serves as a catalyst for collaboration and transactions among the state’s academic institutions, businesses, investors and government enabling them to engage with the global economy more efficiently and effectively. By connecting the wealth of knowledge in Texas with the entrepreneurial and financial resources of the globalized economy, Innovate Texas Foundation helps foster a culture in the state that encourages innovation and workforce initiatives to create the high-value jobs that will form the backbone of our future economy. Learn more by visiting our site www.innovatetexas.org and on our blog http://www.innovatetexas.org/texknowledge.

About NIRE:
NIRE, www.thenire.org, is a not-for-profit, public-private collaboration committed to resolving the key scientific issues facing the renewable energy industry and to: build and operate renewable energy R&D facilities; operate an industry-wide renewable energy consortium and provide research and technology development services to industry partners in collaboration with universities and national laboratories. More Information about the National Institute for Renewable Energy at: www.thenire.org.
Contact: David L. Miller, Chair, The National Institute for Renewable Energy “NIRE” 806-742-4105, david.l.miller@thenire.org

For more information on the DOE’s work in this area, see the Wind & Water Power Program webpage.