Regional Resource Centers
November 2015
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The Department of Energy’s Wind Program performs engagement and
outreach through WINDExchange
WINDExchange is the DOE Wind
Program’s platform for disseminating
credible information about wind energy.
Outreach activities are focused on:
• Enabling well-informed decisions
about the appropriate deployment of
wind energy
• Disseminating applicable information
to priority stakeholders
• Cultivating networks of regional
partners to help support the effective
transfer of information
• Receiving input on current wind
deployment issues
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Getting the right information to those who need it, when they need it
WINDExchange Tools and Resources:
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Wind resource and installed capacity maps
Siting information
Economic studies
Educational materials
Guidebooks and technical assistance
Database of wind ordinances
Podcasts and webinars
Newsletters
Drivers Behind Regional-level Engagement and Outreach:
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Deployment opportunities, concerns, and information needs vary
across the country.
Evolving context for wind energy deployment requires adjustments to
engagement and communication approach.
Partnerships among regional organizations have a unique and critical
role to play in meeting information needs.
RRC strategies ultimately lead to more and better wind energy
Ensuring that key stakeholders have access to and are able to utilize up-to-date, factual
information about wind energy allows local decision makers to overcome challenges more quickly
and easily, leading to increased installed capacity at a lower cost.
This process is approached through a chain of closely tracked stakeholder engagement leading to
consideration resulting in the acceptance of wind energy as a viable option to address locally
defined needs.
Wind’s Percentage of U.S. Electric Generation
Reduced Deployment Time
Rate of Wind Deployments
Public
Preference
Number of Wind Deployments
Public
Adoption
Stakeholder Acceptance
Stakeholder
Consideration
Stakeholder Engagement
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DOE Regional Resource Centers
In 2014, the DOE Wind Program announced six Regional Resource Centers to focus on
outreach and engagement through localized assessment of issues and key stakeholders.
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Regional Resource Centers are a network of partners
Track and
measure impact
Effectively
engage diverse
stakeholder
groups
Provide forums for
constructive
dialogue and peerto-peer engagement
Generate
increasing
cost share
over 3 years
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Disseminate targeted
and customized
technical information
about appropriate
wind deployment
RRCs allow expanded local stakeholder collaboration
Regional organization allows for a localized assessment of issues and engagement with key
stakeholders. RRCs:
• Directly engage within states on regional wind deployment issues.
• Lead or enable local initiatives, strategic programs, projects, and/or campaigns to address
deployment-related considerations and support the goal of substantial market transformation.
• Provide technical expertise and tools, ensuring informed decision-making.
• Conduct regional outreach on key challenges by hosting meetings, trainings, and other direct
outreach.
Stakeholders Reached through RRC Initiative
• Form working groups on
Community
Educational Institutions
Federal Government
Other Government
relevant regional issues and
• Experts
• Universities
• Federal Agencies
• Non-Elected
• Groups
• Community Colleges
• Decision Makers
Government
create specific messaging for
• Advisory
• Primary Education
• Elected Officials
Officials
states.
• Advocacy
• Secondary Education
• Policy Makers
• Public Utility
• Affiliates
Commissioners
• Provide science-based
• Boards
Industry
State Government
• Decision Makers
information, accessible to
• Committees
• Developers
• State Agencies
• Staff
•
Consumers
•
Manufacturers
•
Decision
Makers
• Tribal
regulators and decision makers.
• Councils
• Supply Chain
• Elected Officials
• Inform national priorities based
• Interveners
• Trade Groups
• Governor Staff
Utilities
•
NGOs
•
Merchant
Energy
•
Policy
Makers
• Isolated Power
on local issues and regional
• NonSuppliers
Systems Operators
priorities.
Government
Local Government
• Power Authorities
• Partner
Media
• County
• Municipal Utilities
• Provide a pathway for Program
Network
• Reporters
Commissioners
• Cooperative Utilities
material to reach local
• Working Group
• Bloggers
• Municipalities
• Decision Makers
• Leaders
• Decision Makers
• Staff
stakeholders and decision
Public
• Elected Officials
makers.
• Engaged Citizens
Other stakeholders
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• Interested Citizens
• General
that are not defined by
these categories
Regional Resource Centers provide wind energy data
Regional Resource Centers (RRCs) provide information about various sizes of wind
energy turbines and systems as well as buying wind energy from low-cost markets
outside of its region:
• Utility-scale
• Community-owned
• Distributed
• Offshore
Data are based on various factors within the region; e.g., wind resource, energy
options, electricity costs, supply chain, existing infrastructure and industries, utility
governance, technology, transmission, policy, and public considerations.
RRCs make it easier for stakeholders and decision-makers to decide whether
responsible and appropriate wind project development is right for their communities:
• They produce relevant, actionable, and fact-based information
• They deliver that information in useful forms to those who need it when they
need it.
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About Regional Resource Center implementation
Focus on Long-Term Sustainability
Competitively selected contracts
with expanding cost share
requirements and business plan
development
Strategic Implementation
Each RRC developed Stakeholder
Engagement Plans with annual
updates that define key
stakeholders and market
challenges, strategies to address
the challenges, and defined metrics
to demonstrate progress
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Moving beyond Demonstrating
Work – to Demonstrating Results
Multi-year metric development
leading to demonstrated
acceptance of wind energy as a
viable energy option. We are
reaching decision-makers and
other key stakeholders and can
demonstrate our positive impact
The Six Regional Resource Centers:
Sample Activities
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Midwest Wind Energy Center (MWEC)
From August 21–September 1, 2014, Windustry presented the Wind Energy Center at the Minnesota
State Fair for the ninth consecutive year. The Wind Energy Center is a popular, museum-quality display
within the Fair’s Eco Experience. Over the course of the 12-day State Fair, approximately 350,000
people visited the Eco Experience.
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Wind turbine blade displayed
vertically near the entrance to the
Eco Experience building at the
Minnesota State Fair in 2014
Replica base of a wind turbine that would produce between
250 and 750 kilowatts. The inside of this object has a mounted
screen for displaying educational videos
Midwest Wind Energy Center (MWEC)
USDA Rural Energy for America Program (REAP)
Funding Opportunities and How to Apply Webinar
February 12, 2015
MWEC played a substantial role in spreading the
word about this USDA program and regularly
answers questions and provides information and
resources to the public about REAP.
Follow-on National Association of Farm
Broadcasters interview
The MWEC website dedicates a page to the
health impacts of wind turbines.
MWEC also wrote or contributed information to
mass media articles with circulation rates of
more than 500,000 readers.
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Northeast Wind Resource Center
One of the three organizations leading the
Northeast Wind Resource Center, Maine
Ocean and Wind Energy Initiative , copurchased wind power for the annual
Skowhegan State Fair, which attracts 60,000
people over 10 days.
The Offshore Wind Hub
ensures stakeholders have
access to credible
information about wind
energy deployment, in the
Northeast and the United
States.
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The Northeast Wind
Resource Center website
Information Resource
Library is supported by
the Working Group.
Four Corners Wind Resource Center
The Four Corners Wind
Resource Center:
• Conducted a Regional Needs
Assessment Survey
• Targeted three stakeholder
groups:
• Utilities
• State, local, and tribal
decision-makers and
staff
• Interested members of
the public.
• Worked to inform decisionmakers
• Ensured that wind
development is
appropriately evaluated in
regulatory proceedings and
permitting processes
• Wrote or contributed
information to mass media
articles with circulation rates
of more than 500,000
14 readers.
Webinars
• Building Utility-Scale Wind
32 attendees, covered
lessons learned in the
permitting of utility-scale wind
projects and the
development of
ordinances and regulations for
governing project
development
• State of the Wind Industry
Featured the latest in turbine
technology.
Four Corners Wind Resource Center
website, reports, and case studies
Northwest Wind Resource and Action Center
Renewable Northwest was the lead negotiator and
organizer of Bonneville Power Association's FY 201617 rate case settlement, which included support
from all utilities in the Northwest and several
California entities as well. The settlement
implemented or advanced several of the Northwest
Wind Resource and Action Center's key issues.
The Northwest Wind Resource and Action Center
published a number of communications materials
that have been distributed to utilities, government
agencies, and industry stakeholders and received
positive feedback. The Small Wind Consumer’s
Guide Checklist received promotion from the
National Association of Farm Broadcasters.
Energy imbalance market video,
fact sheet, and FAQs
Distributed/community
wind case study examples
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Northwest Wind Resource and
Action Center website
Small Wind Consumer’s Guide
Southeast Wind Energy Resource Center
The Southeast Wind Energy Resource Center:
• Targeted utilities; federal, state, and local decision-makers; the
wind industry; and its affiliate network
• Worked to inform policy-makers of wind industry jobs and
assets in their jurisdictions
• Facilitated a program to deploy measurement devices in the
Southeast
• Worked with Georgia Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols
to host a “Lunch and Learn” on wind energy.
North Carolina Energy Briefing
March 26, 2015, the Southeastern Wind Coalition and Consumer
Energy Alliance hosted 20 attendees from state agencies, the state
legislature, environmental organizations, and industry to address
offshore wind and offshore oil and gas.
K-12 Workshops
Clemson University, one of the eight
organizations leading the Southeast
Wind Energy Resource Center, hosts
students at its Energy Innovation
Center facilities to learn about cuttingedge wind energy research and
participate in the College of
Engineering and Science creative design
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challenge workshops.
New wind potential capacity
maps broaden the wind energy
frontier
Students participate
in an Emagine!
Workshop at
Clemson
Islanded Grid Resource Center
The Islanded Grid Resource Center experienced significant progress reaching consensus among diverse stakeholders in
the Alaska Railbelt to establish an Independent System Operator for a transmission system that is now owned and
operated by the state and six often-competing utilities. The RRC made excellent progress informing the state
legislature about the benefits for renewable energy that will flow from a non-discriminatory, universal transmission
tariff an Independent System Operator would be charged with creating.
The RRC organized two workshop/educational events - one in Maine
focused on the Northeast market and the second in Alaska focused on
Alaskan and international markets. Both meetings were very successful
in bringing together targeted stakeholders, with more than 300 total
participants.
Island Energy Conference in Maine
Portland and Peaks Island, Maine, November 7-8
Island leaders and energy experts discussed common energy challenges
and learned more about resources to address these challenges.
Islanded Grid Wind Power Conference
Anchorage, Alaska, March 4-6
The conference was an opportunity for experts from national labs
and universities to meet with wind farm operators from Alaska and
other regions to discuss ways to improve remote systems.
Sessions topics:
• Energy storage and control systems for integrating wind power
into electrical grids
• The human capacity needs for operating and maintaining
systems in remote areas
• Financing and maximizing diesel performance.
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Participants included technical experts,
equipment suppliers, and grid operators
from Australia, Belgium, Canada,
Germany, Holland, Russia, and the United
States.
RRC Tracking: Measuring the Success of RRCs
to Move Stakeholders Toward Acceptance
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Demonstrated success in engaging and moving stakeholders
12,600 stakeholders moved along the process
from Engagement toward Acceptance
22,000
key stakeholders
Engagement
• 11,500 stakeholders (individuals or
groups) formally reached.
• 420 stakeholders presented RRC
information.
• 130 information-sharing opportunities
(events, forums, webinars, etc.)
Consideration
• 250 government and/or utility information
resources now include wind energy as an
option.
• 95 non-government information resources
or policy statements now include wind
energy as an option.
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Nearly 1.2 million
total stakeholders
12,600
stakeholders
moved
Acceptance
• 60 policies or plans contain RRC
information.
• 95 representatives from influential
stakeholder groups presented wind
information.
Community and local groups play primary role in engagement
To gain stakeholder commitment to utilize RRC resources, RRCs acquired a high proportion of technical
experts, interveners, their advisory boards, affiliate networks, and non-government leaders.
RRCs accomplished information sharing opportunities targets by:
• Creating opportunities such as conferences, webinars, and meetings where influential stakeholders
could interact with others.
• Collaborative development of communication products and other resources, producing materials
stakeholders could reference and use to fulfill outreach commitments.
Interaction types used for creating
information sharing opportunities
Community
Stakeholder distribution across engagement metrics
Event
Meeting
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RRCs achieve expanded consideration of wind deployment
Wind energy was included as an energy option in nearly 350 new information resources
and policy statements where it was previously lacking. Some examples include:
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Added language supporting wind to energy policies and plans.
Expanded policy platforms from solar-only to include distributed wind.
Provided information on incentives, policies, ordinances to counties.
Ensured competitive bidding for RFPs to include wind as an option.
Made recommendations to a state legislative committee.
Contributed to state department discussions.
Utility
Industry
Percentage of Stakeholders Reached for Consideration
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RRCs focused on utility and industry
stakeholders such as developers,
manufacturers, and supply chain.
RRCs primarily reached consideration with
stakeholders through:
• Meetings
• Expert testimony
• Conversations
Stakeholder acceptance has high potential impact
RRC acceptance efforts increased access to accurate wind energy information and
expanded the influence of the RRC Initiative, including:
• RRC content was included in 62 plans or policies.
• RRCs gained commitment from 98 influential stakeholders to write, present, or
speak about the benefits and impacts of wind energy.
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Government
RRCs achieved inclusion of RRC content
in policies and plans primarily through
government and utility stakeholders.
Utility
Percentage of Stakeholders Reached for Acceptance
RRCs primarily used meetings,
conversations, and expert testimony to
help stakeholders reach acceptance.
The RRCs are an effective national network of dedicated experts
who understand wind technology and their regions. They help to
ensure that wind energy is appropriately deployed to reach the
United States wind power generation potential.
Thank you.
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