Funding Flows to Wind Energy

Wind energy is clean, safe, renewable, and reliable. Reliable, that is, as long as the wind is actually blowing. But what happens when the winds die down?

A new project to be conducted at Tennessee Tech University will focus on the critical issue of energy storage and management. The university's work should be an important step along the path to building consistent, reliable, renewable energy sources for everyday use.

The Tennessee Tech undertaking, funded by the Department of Energy, is just one of 28 new wind energy projects. Together, the projects are intended to help the United States meet a goal of 20 percent wind power by the year 2030 — a goal the DOE believes is reachable. Among the newly funded projects are innovative ideas for wind turbines and other hardware, and a number of concepts for integrating wind power into the existing power grid.

Tennessee Tech's project involves creation of three different types of storage units, using lithium ion batteries, ultra-capacitors, and fuel cells. Once developers come up with a design, they'll create a prototype and then test the units in the field.

Photo courtesy of StockXChange.