Our researchers focus on projects that advance the materials, performance, manufacturing, reliability, testing, modeling, system integration and monitoring of wind turbines. The Center for Renewable Energy is working on important research challenges to address the significant expansion of offshore wind energy deployment within the U.S.

UMass Lowell leads WindSTAR, a National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) which was established in 2014. WindSTAR is one of only 76 I/UCRCs funded by NSF, and the only one devoted to wind energy. Additionally, our researchers have secured significant funding from IACMI, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and industry collaborators to advance a wide range of wind energy projects.

• The Development of an Acoustics-based Automated Offshore Wind Turbine Blade Structural Health Monitoring System project funded by DOE led by Murat Inalpolat will enable development of the world’s first real-time blade monitoring system for wind turbines.
• There are currently 11 active research projects being completed through WindSTAR. These project focus on the variety of research areas including Composites and Blade Manufacturing, Foundations and Towers, Structural Health Monitoring, Wind Farm Modeling, Control Systems, Energy Storage and Grid Integration.
• In the NOWDRC funded Novel Structural Health Monitoring System for Offshore Wind Turbine Blades project led by Murat Inalpolat. The team will be implementing a novel acoustics-based wind turbine blade monitoring system on an off-shore wind turbine off of the Virginia coast and report back on the findings.