During the two-year project period, the consortium members have developed control algorithms for enhancing the reliability of wind turbine components. The consortium members have developed advanced operation and planning tools for accommodating the high penetration of variable wind energy. The consortium members have developed extensive education and research programs for educating the stakeholders on critical issues related to the wind energy research and development. In summary, The Consortium procured one utility-grade wind unit and two small wind units. Specifically, the Consortium procured a 1.5MW GE wind unit by working with the world leading wind energy developer, Invenergy, which is headquartered in Chicago, in September 2010. The Consortium also installed advanced instrumentation on the turbine and performed relevant turbine reliability studies. The site for the wind unit is Invenergy's Grand Ridge wind farmin Illinois. The Consortium, by working with Viryd Technologies, installed an 8kW Viryd wind unit (the Lab Unit) at an engineering lab at IIT in September 2010 and an 8kW Viryd wind unit (the Field Unit) at the Stuart Field on IIT's main campus in July 2011, and performed relevant turbine reliability studies. The operation of the Field Unit is also monitored by the Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) in the nearby Stuart Building. The Consortium commemorated the installations at the July 20, 2011 ribbon-cutting ceremony. The Consortium's researches on turbine reliability included (1) Predictive Analytics to Improve Wind Turbine Reliability
(2) Improve Wind Turbine Power Output and Reduce Dynamic Stress Loading Through Advanced Wind Sensing Technology
(3) Use High Magnetic Density Turbine Generator as Non-rare Earth Power Dense Alternative
(4) Survivable Operation of Three Phase AC Drives in Wind Generator Systems
(5) Localization of Wind Turbine Noise Sources Using a Compact Microphone Array
(6) Wind Turbine Acoustics - Numerical Studies
and (7) Performance of Wind Turbines in Rainy Conditions. The Consortium's researches on wind integration included (1) Analysis of 2030 Large-Scale Wind Energy Integration in the Eastern Interconnection
(2) Large-scale Analysis of 2018 Wind Energy Integration in the Eastern U.S. Interconnection
(3) Integration of Non-dispatchable Resources in Electricity Markets
(4) Integration of Wind Unit with Microgrid. The Consortium's education and outreach activities on wind energy included (1) Wind Energy Training Facility Development
(2) Wind Energy Course Development
(3) Wind Energy Outreach.