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

Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program

Wind Energy Technology Application

Technology Application addresses the varied applications and associated barriers to the use of wind energy systems. These barriers and opportunities are different for the different size machines, as shown in the table below.

Wind Turbine Market Segmentation
Turbine Size Range Applications Barriers
Small (<10 kW) Residential, off-grid Zoning
Intermediate (10 kW - 500 kW) Wind/diesel, industrial Zoning
Large (500 kW - 5 MW) Grid interconnect Transmission and access; operational impacts
Very Large (>5 MW) Offshore grid interconnect Cables to shore, viewshed, new regulatory

The Technology Application key activity encompasses three research activities: