The 2025 RFP includes significant program changes aimed at streamlining the process of innovative design development, optimization, testing, and certification to expand access to distributed wind turbine technology.
Managed by NREL on behalf of DOE's Wind Energy Technologies Office, CIP awards cost-shared subcontracts and national laboratory technical support to US component suppliers and manufacturers of small- and medium-sized wind turbines.
Advancing these wind energy systems to commercialization is technically challenging and resource-intensive for small businesses, which often lack the capacity to develop, certify, and commercialize their technologies on their own.
“Certification and testing costs are often prohibitive for manufacturers our size,” said Chris Connor, principal engineer of NPS Solutions, which received CIP awards in 2022 and 2024 to pursue certification of its 100-kilowatt wind turbine and inverter. “The technical and financial support available through DOE's Competitiveness Improvement Project is vital for smaller distributed wind manufacturers, like us, to ensure the safety, quality, and performance of our products.”
The CIP 2025 RFP considers the current needs of the US distributed wind energy market by prioritizing award topics that:
“CIP has helped small businesses across the United States develop new and innovative distributed wind energy technology, increasing public access to a wide range of small- and medium-scale wind turbine designs tested and certified to national performance and safety standards,” said Brent Summerville , NREL CIP lead. “In addition, CIP projects have helped make distributed wind energy technology more cost-competitive and improved its interoperability with other distributed energy resources.”
In response to industry input, NREL will incorporate optional concept papers into the 2025 RFP, providing applicants the opportunity to present their project ideas and receive feedback from NREL CIP staff prior to submitting full proposals.
Further, to help optimize the technology development process, a 2025 applicant will be able to propose follow-on efforts in one phased multi-topic-area proposal that can include up to three topic areas. For example, an applicant may propose a Phase 1 effort to manufacture a prototype under the Prototype Manufacture topic area, followed by a second phase falling within the Prototype Installation and Testing topic area, and then a Phase 3 effort within the Small Turbine Certification and/or Listing topic area.
Successful awardees will complete their Phase 1 activities followed by a go/no-go stage during which the decision to advance to the next phase will be evaluated based on Phase 1 performance. If a “go” decision is made, Phase 2 efforts will be renegotiated.
Finally, maximum award amounts have been increased for five of the ten 2025 topic areas to offset the rising costs of turbine manufacturing, testing, and inverter listing and to accommodate high costs associated with medium-scale wind turbine development.
The 2025 CIP RFP invites proposals that focus on the following 10 topic areas:
The 2025 CIP RFP includes cost-share requirements, and proposals must provide evidence of technical readiness, incorporation in the United States, strong team skills and capabilities, and project budget justification. Work funded under this effort is expected to take place in the United States and/or U.S. territories unless otherwise justified.
To view the CIP RFP and read more information about CIP, including examples of past awards and information presented in a December 2024 webinar, visit the CIP project website. Learn more about NREL's distributed wind energy research, and subscribe to NREL's wind energy newsletter for more news like this.
