Bergey WindPower Proven Performance The National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) is part of NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory), one of US-DOE's national laboratories. the NWTC, with a staff of 80 and an annual budget of $20 million, is America's lead research organization and facility for wind turbine research. It is located outside Boulder, Colorado in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
While the NWTC has only a modest annual average wind speed (4.5 m/s or 10 mph), it is a very good place to test the robustness of a wind system because it regularly gets wind storms with winds in excess of 54 m/s (120 mph). Dozens of commercial and prototype wind turbines have been damaged or destroyed by these fierce winds while undergoing testing at the Rocky Flats site of the NWTC.