U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Wind Program

Budget

The fiscal year 2013 budget for the Wind Program is $87.9 million. On this page, you can learn more about the Program's budget for this fiscal year as well as previous fiscal years.

Budget History

This chart illustrates the budget for wind power activities in previous fiscal years.

Graph illustrating the wind power budget history from 1975 to 2010. It starts in 1975 with approximately $58 million in funding, then plunges to $15 million in 1976. It slowly climbs over the next few years until it reaches $60 million in 1980 and $61 million in 1981. It then steadily declines to $54 million in 1981, hovers just short of $30 million between 1982 and 1986, and finally reaches its lowest point at $9 million from 1988, where it remains until it begins to increase in 1991. It climbs to $49 million in 1995, then averages approximately $32 million until 2001, where it hovers around $40 million until 2007. The budget was $79 million in 2010 and 2011, $93.5 million in 2012, and $87.9 million in 2013. There is a budget request of $144 million for fiscal year 2014.

Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Request Priority Activities

For information on the Wind Power Program's $144 million Fiscal Year 2014 budget request to Congress, please see the full budget request on the DOE Chief Financial Officers' website. The Wind Program request can be found in Volume 3 on page EE-132. Priority activity areas include:

  • Promote Offshore Wind: Development and demonstration of offshore wind systems, speeding deployment of the first U.S. offshore wind projects, and refinement of technologies by domestic wind technology manufacturing.
  • Wind Plant Optimization R&D: High performance, computing-based R&D program for complex wind plant aerodynamics and wind plant operational optimization that will allow project developers to improve overall wind plant capacity factors and plant interactions with the transmission grid system.
  • Manufacturing R&D: R&D program focused on high‐impact innovation in wind component manufacturing to dramatically reduce the cost of wind power technology and increase U.S. manufacturing competitiveness in the wind power industry.
  • Grid Integration: Conducting wind-grid integration and transmissions studies and developing wind energy forecasting tools for grid operators.
  • Streamline Siting, Permitting, and Certification: Conducting wildlife impact analyses, assessment of radar mitigation solutions, and investing in testing facilities at the national laboratories for academic and industry use.