Renewable energy and resilience mandates from Executive Order 14057 and the Air Force Climate Action Plan are aggressive and challenging for bases to meet. EO 14057 requires federal buildings to run on 100% carbon free energy by 2030, and the Climate Action Plan requires 100% carbon free electricity by 2030. While already an aggressive challenge, for the Air Force it's heightened due to the fact that the DAF often struggles to integrate typical renewable energy sources, such as solar (due to glare) and pole-mounted wind (due to flight path interference). Accelerate Wind's rooftop mounted wind turbine is able to produce on-site wind energy generation without flight path interference. It does this affordably because it is designed to take advantage of wind flows which accelerate right at the edge of the roof. The turbine is low-profile, extending only 10 feet above the edge of the building, and will not interfere with flight paths in most scenarios. It is designed to be installed in modules which are 20' long and produce 6 kW of power at 9m/s wind. A typical roof will install 10-40 modules, producing 60-240 kW of power in total. Furthermore, it is designed to be robust, easy to install, and low maintenance, and has survived 150 mph in field tests. It can be installed alongside solar on buildings, enabling more renewable energy to be installed onsite. This turbine has been designed over the last 5 years for use in the commercial building market (which is also subject to EO 15047), and has been tested on a building at Argonne National Lab. Our latest prototype is being tested on top of shipping containers which provide the same effect, in order to thoroughly test safety before installing paid pilots on buildings. This shipping container configuration also offers opportunities for a deployable turbine solution in remote environments. In these scenarios, the turbine will produce twice as much energy as solar for the same surface area as solar, and could easily be combined with other energy or storage sources to produce reliable power. In this Phase I project, Accelerate Wind will perform customer discovery within the US Air Force, exploring customers needs and opportunities for both deployable solutions in remote areas or building-mounted solutions at domestic AFBs. The goal of this research will be to determine who has the most pressing need and to obtain a customer memorandum for pilot development in Phase II, and to identify relevant stakeholders who we need to engage early in order to have a successful transition to the Air Force after Phase II. Additionally, we will work with wind prediction experts at Argonne National Lab to investigate modifying our current wind turbine design to be used on common DAF buildings or deployable structures as needs are identified. This will include buildings with sloped and domed roofs, which require changes to aerodynamic design and structural integration.
