In June 2007 The University of Houston won a Department of Energy, nation-wide contest to build one of two, national, facilities to test next generation wind turbine blades. UH will receive $2M from DOE to design, construct and operate a research facility capable of testing wind turbine blades up to 100 meters in length. We currently expect that the facility will be located on the Gulf Coast in Ingleside, Texas on land which was generously donated by BP in April 2009.
The contract, known as a Competitive Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) was formally signed between the University of Houston (UH) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in May 2008. Since that time and given that the amount of federal funding available under the CRADA is limited, UH has been working hard to build political support for this initiative at a State and Federal level, to ensure the buy-in of industry and to formalize the network of academic institutions that will be involved in this project. The bulk of this work has been done through the Wind Alliance.
With much of this preparatory work complete and with the Wind Alliance structure formalized, UH is now engaged in a comprehensive technical assessment of the facility to ensure that the design meets the needs of industry, that the testing functions for which the facility is designed can be carried out at minimal cost and that the facility meets all requisite technical specifications. This site optimization is an iterative process and we are working with various parties, mainly through the Wind Alliance to achieve this in an optimal fashion.
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