Conference Theme:
Wind Energy: Powering America Forward

On this page:

Business, Policy and Technical Topics

Scientific Topics

*Please note that more details will be added to the descriptions in the next week.*

Business, Policy and Technical Topics

Finance

Abstracts are invited that deal with the latest developments and challenges in financing issues.  In particular, abstracts are desired that focus on ways debt, equity markets have changed significantly in light of the economic downturn, as well as new approaches to wind project financing that may develop to handle larger volumes of funding and efficiently utilize incentives as the US wind market expands the cost of wind energy remains competitive.

Legal

Abstracts are invited that deal with the latest developments in legal issues. This category examines important legal topics in the development and commercialization of wind projects. These experts will discuss siting, state tax, transmission and power purchase agreement trends, with practical examples of how these issues affect wind projects and their development.

Community Wind
Abstracts are invited on new initiatives and business models to support the growth of community wind projects, including success stories behind existing community wind and obstacles to further growth.

Emerging Applications
Abstracts should address emerging applications of wind energy and technologies that can assist in integrating more wind into the generation mix, including the anticipated introduction and availability of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, advances in battery technologies, as well as energy storage and applications of hybrid systems and wind-hydro applications and the impacts on the electric grid and wind industry of such applications and technology.

Grid Interconnection of Wind Power Facilities

Abstracts on interconnection requirements, RTO/ISO issues, interconnection queue reforms, voltage ride through, reactive power, grid harmonics, communications interfaces, and remote control are welcome.

International Wind Energy Development
Abstracts will discuss policy and market drivers and best practices in solving wind energy development and integration challenges along with current and future projections in the leading and emerging international markets are appropriate. Also welcomed are abstracts for or aimed at U.S developers and manufacturers exporting their capabilities abroad.

Project Development
Abstracts are invited on current project development and commercial challenges and innovative solutions to those challenges.  Examples include, land acquisition, transmission capacity analysis, energy and environmental attribute marketing, cost savings and other challenges and solutions to project development. (Abstracts dealing with siting issues, including permitting and wildlife, should be submitted under the "Siting and Wildlife Issues" category.)

Offshore Wind Energy 

Abstracts are invited concerning project development case studies, regulatory policies, commercial and financial practices, wind and wave models, loading analyses, design and construction challenges, modeling, turbine and platform innovations, O&M and optimization studies.

Performance and Reliability

Abstracts accepted on all aspects of planning, operation and maintenance. Abstracts could explore techniques for improving reliability and/or turbine performance and operating processes that lower operating costs. Other potential topics include power performance testing and new technologies that measure power quality, structural loads, vibration, and noise, etc.

Policy, Federal and State
Abstracts examining various existing or proposed policies at the state or federal level that help encourage development of the wind industry are appropriate. Abstracts covering specifics such as state RES laws, climate change, procurement, tax abatements, economic development or on the next generation of state laws to support wind.

Siting, Permitting and Wildlife
Abstracts are invited on permitting, wildlife surveys and concerns, community outreach, and similar topics.  Project developers and consultants should share challenges and solutions to pre-construction, construction and operating project issues.

Small Wind Systems

Abstracts are invited for topics on small wind energy systems, including incentives, policies and regulations, and other strategies for building the market, as well as barriers to overcome such as permitting, interconnection, financing, and technology cost targets. All abstracts related to wind turbines 100kW and below should be submitted under this category.

Supply Chain Challenges and Solutions
Abstracts dealing with any systems and strategies that comprise the wind energy supply chain are welcome. Topics can include jobs, training, education, manufacturing transportation, logistics, and distribution issues.

Transmission Issues

Abstracts are invited that are aimed at solving transmission issues in order to support continued wind project growth in the U.S. Topics may include transmission delivery, curtailment issues, ancillary services, nodal pricing, PPA pricing risk,  market design , and issues that deal with the building of new transmission and allowing more of the grid to be utilized by wind projects.

Utility Issues
Abstracts are invited on new issues and challenge presented as utilities take a larger role in U.S. wind projects and the impact of that role on the growth of the U.S. market. Topics may include discussion of impediments ( whether financial, political, accounting, technical or otherwise) discouraging utilities from participating more fully in the wind industry, policies and practices to overcome such impediments and cause more utilities to buy more wind energy, own more wind projects and support more wind development, and case studies of business models featuring utilities participation in the wind business ( whether through build-own- transfer, PPAs, options to own wind projects, or otherwise).

Wind Integration

Abstracts may report on wind integration studies, large scale wind penetration, transmission services, system balancing, ancillary services, energy market structure, dispatch priority for renewables, forecasting and allowing more of the grid to be utilized by wind projects. Papers showing real-world implementation of these concepts are of particular interest.

Worker Health and Safety

Abstracts should focus on effective and innovative strategies that ensure workers' safety and environmental compliance.  Topics may include regulatory compliance, safety hazards, control of work, codes of conduct, risk assessment and liability, crane safety, etc.

Resource Assessment
Abstracts addressing developments and concerns in the field of wind resource and energy assessment today. Advances in measurement techniques, wind flow modeling, deep array wake modeling (onshore), wind turbine/plant availability losses, curtailment losses and effects of atmospheric stability on turbine performance are of particular interest.

Wind Turbine Technology: Turbine Components & Subsystems

Abstracts should focus on large scale turbine components and subsystems. Topics can include drivetrain, blade, pitch system, yaw drive, electrical controls, blade design, composite materials, manufacturing processes, tower/structures and other subsystems and participation in the turbine supply chain.

Wind Turbine Technology: Structures, Dynamics, Loads, and Control

Advances in structures, structural dynamics, and aeroelastic analytical tools for wind turbines, wake effects, turbine optimization, load-mitigation controls, and IEC loads case analysis.

Scientific Topics

Performance and Reliability
Abstracts accepted on all aspects of planning, operation and maintenance. Abstracts could explore techniques for improving reliability and/or turbine performance and operating processes that lower operating costs.  Other potential topics include power performance testing and new technologies that measure power quality, structural loads, vibration, noise etc.  

Wind Forecasting
Abstracts presenting wind forecast technologies, ISO scheduling with forecasting, and wind farm participation in electricity markets are appropriate.

Wind Integration

Abstracts may report on wind integration studies, large scale wind penetration, transmission services, system balancing, ancillary services, energy market structure, dispatch priority for renewables, forecasting and allowing more of the grid to be utilized by wind projects. Papers showing real-world implementation of these concepts are of particular interest. 

Resource Assessment
Abstracts addressing developments and concerns in the field of wind resource and energy assessment today. Advances in measurement techniques, wind flow modeling, deep array wake modeling (onshore), wind turbine/plant availability losses, curtailment losses and effects of atmospheric stability on turbine performance are of particular interest.

Wind Turbine Technology: Structures, Dynamics, Loads, and Control
Abstracts should focus on large scale turbine components and subsystems. Topics can include drivetrain, blade, pitch system, yaw drive, electrical controls, blade design, composite materials, manufacturing processes, tower/structures and other subsystems.

Offshore Wind Energy Abstracts are invited concerning project development case studies, regulatory policies, commercial and financial practices, wind and wave models, loading analyses, design and construction challenges, modeling, turbine and platform innovations, O&M and optimization studies.