Clipper joins Minnesota wind turbine research program

August 23, 2010

Wind turbine manufacturer Clipper Windpower is to provide one of its 2.5-megawatt Liberty turbines for a research site at the University of Minnesota.

The company has joined a research consortium that will develop a turbine at the university’s UMore Park site in Rosemount, Minnesota.

The Minnesota Wind Energy Research Consortium, as it is known, has US Department of Energy funding to develop cutting-edge wind turbine technologies that could cut the cost of wind energy, and boost reliability.

The 2.5MW-C96 turbine set for UMore Park will be 426 feet high from the ground to the blade tip, and should be completed in December.

Fotis Sotiropoulos, director of Eolos, the university-based wind energy research group spearheading the project, said the research would help advance the wind industry over the next decade.

Dr Sotiropoulos said: “Within the first month, Clipper has become engaged in all aspects of our research efforts and is already making significant contributions to the direction of our program.”

Clipper

The research efforts will see several visits by the team to Clipper’s headquarters in Carpinteria, California, and its manufacturing facilities in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Clipper staff are also expected to visit the UMore Park site and the University of Minnesota as the project progresses.

Amir Mikhail, senior vice president of engineering at Clipper Windpower, Inc., said the federally-funded project was a “tremendous opportunity” to develop wind technology.

Mr Mikhail said: “As a member of the consortium’s brain trust, we will be testing new ways to increase wind turbine performance and reliability, in addition to being involved with training the next generation of engineers for the wind power industry.”