摘要: As world interest in wind energy research and development (RandD) emerged in the mid-1970s, the path to the commercialization of wind power seemed clear, straightforward, and relatively short. In the United States, a fledgling ind... 展开 As world interest in wind energy research and development (RandD) emerged in the mid-1970s, the path to the commercialization of wind power seemed clear, straightforward, and relatively short. In the United States, a fledgling industry foresaw small, 10-kW wind machines spinning in suburban and rural backyards, providing a fully dispersed new power source that would provide low-cost electricity to thousands of Americans. The US government envisioned an equal number of large, utility-owned, multimegawatt wind turbines turning majestically in far-spaced rows across the Great American Plains to supplement existing coal-fired, oil, hydroelectric, and nuclear plants. Typically, both of these visions have proven to be inaccurate, at least so far; what we have in the United States are closely spaced rows of privately owned, intermediate-sized wind turbines (numbering more than 17,000), primarily on the coastal hills and inland plains of California. From two separate programs addressing different concerns, the SERI wind research program has emerged as the primary horizontal-axis wind turbine research center in the United States. In SERI's view, the flexible high-performance wind turbines developed by US manufacturers offer great potential for the US and world markets. This includes the potential for scaleup to the larger sizes (250 kW to 1 MW). Our principal research challenge in the next few years is to acquire the data, develop the analytical design tools, and explore the advanced component and systems concepts that will help improve the performance and reliability of these systems and help usher in a new era of wind technology to meet world energy needs. 3 figs. (ERA citation 14:005950) 收起