Institutional - Wind Energy: Renewable Energy and the Environment - page 231

the budget for wind for FY 2008 was $49.5 million. A major part of the funding has gone toward
development of large horizontal-axis wind turbines.
The tone or direction is set by the administration, which changes with the president. The early
direction was R&D plus demonstration projects, which was supposed to lead to commercialization.
During the Reagan years, commercialization was a bad word and private industry was supposed
to commercialize wind turbines. Federal funding was for generic R&D, such as aerodynamics,
wind characteristics, etc. Funding increased slightly during the Bush term, as the advanced technol-
ogy program was initiated. This program was to recapture part of the market acquired by foreign
wind turbines.
Under Clinton there was renewed interest in renewable energy and the direction was commer-
cialization. The Climate Change Action Plan moved DOE from focusing primarily on technology
development to playing an active role in renewable energy commercialization. This initiative was
backed up with $72 million for FY 1995 ($18 million for wind) and a total of $432 million through
the year 2000. DOE was looking primarily to wind for the emissions reductions from renewables,
since it is the most economical at this time.
Under George W. Bush, the national energy plan first focused on increased production of oil and
gas. With pressure from Congress, conservation, energy efficiency, and renewables are now part of
the package. However, an increase in fuel efficiency for the automotive industry, CAFE standards,
did not pass until the last year of the G. W. Bush presidency.
When there is money available, then every federal lab and university wants part of it, and there
is a proliferation of new institutes and consulting groups. The wind money in the early years was
divided among the following programs:

Large HAWTs ( 100 kW) NASA-Lewis

Small wind turbines (100 kW) Rocky Flats, Rockwell International

Vertical-axis wind turbines Sandia Labs

Wind characteristics Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory

Innovation wind turbines Solar Energy Research Institute

Agricultural applications U.S. Department of Agriculture

The innovative program and the agricultural program were terminated after a few years.
The Wind Energy Research Center at Rocky Flats was in charge of the small wind systems
program. The Rocky Flats location was chosen because of politics, too much publicity on environ-
mental problems at the plutonium facility. Early in the program they purchased units for testing and
then started a field evaluation program [34]. The field evaluation program was to install two units
in every state and the territories, definitely a political plus. After forty units were installed, this
program was abandoned due to costs, and the wind turbines from the small wind industry were not
ready.
The small wind machine program was transferred to the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI).
In addition, NASA-Lewis retired from the large HAWT program, transferring what was left to SERI.
The president designated SERI as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), on an equal
footing with the other national labs that had their beginnings from the development of nuclear weap-
ons, high-energy physics, or both. The expected progression was that NREL would absorb all the
other programs associated with renewable energy, although Sandia Labs continued with the VAWT
program. As always, there was and is a bit of political infighting. Today, the National Wind Technology
Center, NREL, performs R&D and administers most programs concerning wind energy.
A 1999 initiative was Wind Powering America [35], whose goals were to meet 5% of U.S. energy needs
with wind energy by 2020 (i.e., 80,000 MW installed); to double the number of states that have more than
20 MW of wind capacity to sixteen by 2005, and triple it to twenty-four by 2010; and to increase wind's
contribution to federal electricity use to 5% by 2010. Subsequently, the secretary accelerated the DOE 5%