BOULDER - Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter will join wind power experts from the academic, government and private sectors to kick off the inaugural symposium of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory's Center for Research and Education in Wind, or CREW, at University of Colorado at Boulder on Friday, Aug. 14.

CREW will work with private and industrial partners to advance the science of wind energy technologies and make wind power more accessible by reducing costs and increasing reliability and efficiency. CREW's founding members include leading national and international wind power manufacturers, developers, operators and consultants such as Mitsubishi, RES Americas Inc., Siemens, Vestas and WindLogics.

It also includes researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado State University, the Colorado School of Mines and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. CREW also offers its private members the research strengths of the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, both with locations in Boulder.

"Advances in technology will be meaningful only if those technologies are deployed in the marketplace," said Collaboratory Executive Director David Hiller. "CREW's private members will play key roles in helping to direct areas of research and then translating research successes into commercially viable technologies."
 
During the Aug. 14 symposium, CREW researchers, founding member companies and potential new member companies will discuss areas of interest for shared research. Breakout sessions and poster sessions will allow students, scientists and engineers to discuss areas of research in more detail. There also will be opportunities for attendees from the institutions and companies to tour some of CREW's laboratories and other facilities.

The Collaboratory currently oversees two energy research centers in addition to CREW: the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels led by CU-Boulder and the Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion, led by NREL. While CU-Boulder will serve as CREW's lead institution, research will be conducted at campuses and labs of all six CREW research institutions.

NREL's National Wind Technology Center, for example, offers a turbine-testing and certification program that includes a blade-testing facility, a dynamometer facility to measure force and strength of turbines and extensive field-testing equipment.

CREW partners also are developing a "Green Power Project," a research test bed located on the 11,000-acre Maxwell Ranch northwest of Fort Collins that currently is part of CSU's research facilities. In addition to the research effort, the Green Power Project is expected to provide more than 65 megawatts of power production capacity, enough to power CU-Boulder, CSU and CSM.

The CREW effort also includes wind energy policy research, wind energy courses at partner universities and an outreach program to Colorado landowners, ranchers and others interested in tapping the potential of wind power in the state.

Gov. Ritter will start the symposium at 8:10 a.m., followed by other elected officials and representatives of the CREW research institutions. Following opening remarks, CREW's scientific leadership will provide an overview of the research of the new center, including turbine modeling, electrical systems and grid modeling, control systems to reduce energy costs, turbine testing and certification, and environmental sensing integration and evaluation. The event is open only to invited participants.