The National Wind Resource Center (NWRC) will have one site managed by Texas Tech University. This site will be located on land owned by Texas Tech, consisting of more than 5,800 acres and located directly adjacent to the Pantex plant. This is an ideal site for the center due to the proven abundance of wind resources in the vicinity of this location.

The NWRC and campus will be established in conjunction with the wind farm installation. The wind farm will be made available for research projects by the partners in this project and their collaborators. This aspect of the project addresses a national need for access to an operating wind farm to provide operations research, turbine-to-turbine wake interaction investigations, and the need to provide a demonstration platform for new turbine technology accelerating acceptance and adoption by the commercial sector

The NWRC will be designed as a campus to conduct multi-disciplinary research projects with a focus on wind and other low carbon sources of energy. Projects could include, but would not be limited to:

• Analysis of the destructive effects of turbulence on the major structural components of utility-scale wind turbines. This work is expected to result in major revisions to wind turbine design codes now in use with attendant increases in turbine reliability and reduced cost of energy.
• Development of new and innovative storage technologies integrated with wind power and tested for performance, reliability and effectiveness.
• Research and development of best practices and new solutions for grid integration, communication with generators down the line, and utilization of new transmission resources.
• Wind powered water desalination designed to address critical regional water scarcity and quality issues.
• Improved wind resource forecasting and expansion of the current mesonet, which currently has more than 50 stations, to complete development throughout the corridor.