DOE’s WETO commissions the National Rotor Testbed

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Energy Technologies Office is in the process of officially commissioning the National Rotor Testbed, an open-source wind turbine for wake control research designed by Sandia National Laboratories’ (Sandia) Wind Energy program. The NRT was 95% commissioned in 2021, and work is expected to be complete by the end of 2021.

The National Rotor Testbed (NRT) is an open-source wind turbine used to study wind turbine wakes. The testbed solves this challenge by providing all design documentation to facilitate CFD code validation and collaboration among DOE laboratory researchers and academic research partners.

“The NRT wake control demonstration will enable a better understanding of how wind power plant operators can lower the LCOE using the tested wake control approaches, depending on different wind and electricity market conditions,” said Christopher Kelley, rotor wake lead for Sandia.

Read more about the NRT in the WETO Fall R&D Newsletter.