WETO — DOE Wind Energy Technologies Office

Supports wind energy innovation by funding research for turbine performance, grid integration, and manufacturing deployment.

DOE's Wind Energy Technologies Office funds research, development, and demonstration for land-based and offshore wind, with attention to turbine design, grid integration, distributed wind, manufacturing, and materials recycling. It supports work at national labs including NREL, Argonne, Idaho, Lawrence Berkeley, and Sandia, and its mission stays centered on lowering wind costs and improving performance.

Historically the office has run annual FOAs and prizes, but the FY26 budget request was zero, so the office is operating on residual prior-year obligations and no new FOAs or prize cohorts are expected. Its programs include the WETO Wind R&D FOA Program, the FLOWIN Prize, and the Collegiate Wind Competition, and the Wind R&D line can reach $30 million.

The strongest fit is work that helps a specific wind problem move toward deployment, whether that is offshore readiness, distributed wind, grid integration, or recycling. At the current funding level, applicants should treat WETO as a legacy portfolio with limited new openings rather than a broad source of fresh competitions.