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Program Assessment
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Program
View Assessment Details
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Wind Energy
This program aims to reduce the cost and increase the use of wind energy. It funds research, demonstration and deployment activities carried out by national laboratories, private companies, and state and industry partners. It also provides technical assistance to State and local governments.
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Rating
What This Rating Means |
PERFORMING
Moderately Effective
In general, a program rated Moderately Effective has set ambitious goals and is well-managed. Moderately Effective programs likely need to improve their efficiency or address other problems in the programs' design or management in order to achieve better results.
- The program contributed to the commercialization of wind power technology in high wind-speed areas. In 2000, the National Research Council found that the program's work with industry, combined with substantial Federal and state renewable energy subsidies, led to the U.S. lead in technology development. The program now focuses on deploying and developing wind technology for low wind-speed areas.
- The program has met most of its technical targets for cost of wind energy and is making progress toward its targets for outreach activities. The program has missed recent targets to promote wind power. However, assessing effectiveness of outreach is difficult because many factors, such as tax credits and Federal and state policies, influence the amount of commercial development of wind power.
- This program and other applied research and development programs at the Department of Energy are working to improve their estimates of potential program benefits and use that information to guide budget decisions. The program has made significant progress, but estimates are not yet comparable between programs.
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Improvement Plan
About Improvement Plans |
We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:
- Increasing focus on improving performance of outreach activities that promote commercial development of wind power, and considering new measures to assess performance.
- Developing guidance that specifies a consistent framework for analyzing the costs and benefits of research and development investments, and using this information to guide budget decisions.
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