Despite wind energy’s enormous growth over the past decade, there is still room for improvement. Research and development (R&D) could, for example, dramatically speed up the scale at which wind energy can be installed and the rate at which energy is generated, reducing costs in the process.

One of the significant challenges regarding wind energy is finding ways to increase the efficiency of wind turbines so that they can generate more electricity from the same amount of wind. This requires research into new materials and designs for wind turbine blades, as well as improvements in the technology used to control the speed and direction of the blades. 

R&D might also improve the reliability of wind turbines, ensuring they operate more consistently and require less maintenance, especially where offshore wind turbines are concerned. This includes research into new sensors and monitoring systems, for example. Innovation might also unlock the potential of floating offshore wind, for example, which could be cheap to install, grant access to wind further out to sea, while opening the potential to move turbines around based on advantageous conditions and energy demand. Finally, R&D may also include understanding and reducing the environmental footprint of the materials used to make wind turbines, as well as the impacts they have on bird and bat populations. 

Draw 8 cards. Add any cards with Wind and/or Innovation tags to your hand. Discard the others.
You may take this action once per round.

• Rapidly scale up zero-carbon electricity generation (Systems Change Lab)

• Wind (International Energy Agency, IEA)

• The Global Wind Energy Research Collaboration 

• Personal: Support wind energy by purchasing green energy options from energy providers.

• Professional: Invest in wind energy companies as a business or organization.

• Political: Advocate for policies that encourage and fund research and development of wind energy technology.