The agreement has core provisions that run through 2013 and options for two additional years of collaboration, with full testing to begin this month.

The agreement calls for Gamesa to work with the NREL on three programs: developing new components and rotors for the U.S. wind-turbine market; researching and testing the performance of new wind-turbine control systems; and developing methods for predicting the behavior of offshore wind turbines to speed development of wind farms in U.S. coastal waters.

The tests will be conducted using a G97 Class IIIA 2 megawatt test wind turbines that Gamesa has installed at the NREL’s National Wind Technology Center near Boulder, CO. That model wind turbine is designed for low-wind sites, which Gamesa expects will comprise more than half the locations of wind turbines built on land in the future.