The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Denmark’s Risø National Laboratory, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), signed an agreement to cooperate on improving wind energy technologies.

The two national research institutions will explore ways to work together to design more efficient wind turbines and wind energy systems under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by NREL Director Dan Arvizu and Risø Managing Director Jorgen Kjems. The MOU calls for collaborations in areas such as meteorology, aerodynamics, wind turbine structures and materials, control systems, and electrical grid integration.

“Formal cooperation between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Risø National Laboratory on technology development and deployment is an example of the kind of international effort that is needed to bring the world affordable, clean energy and to effectively lower greenhouse emissions at rate commensurate with the challenge,” said Alexander Karsner, U.S. assistant secretary of Energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the signing ceremony in Roskilde, Denmark.

NREL is beginning to focus on both off-shore wind and better utility integration in the United States. The Danish laboratory has years of experience in the challenges of developing off-shore wind farms and in putting large amounts of wind-generated electricity on the utility grid. World-class research in wind turbine design and efficiency are hallmarks of both laboratories.

“Collaboration among scientists and engineers is of paramount importance,” Arvizu said. “Better solutions often appear when a problem is approached from several different angles.”

The MOU also encourages the laboratories to collaborate in all other areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency technology that are of mutual interest.  EC