The National Renewable Energy Laboratory outside Denver will get $193 million in federal stimulus funding for research and improvements.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Wednesday NREL will get $93 million for wind-energy research and $100 million for construction and upgrades.
Chu toured the lab with Gov. Bill Ritter.
President Barack Obama has emphasized renewable energy and energy efficiency as ways to improve the economy, protect the environment and increase national security by reducing reliance on foreign energy.
"Wind energy will be one of the most important contributors to meeting President Obama's target of generating 10 percent of our electricity from renewable sources by 2012," Chu said.
NREL, in Golden, is the nation's primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency.
The research money includes $45 million to research and test drive train systems for wind turbines, $14 million to encourage private industry development of lighter, more advanced materials for wind turbine components, $24 million to development of up to three partnerships between universities and industry to focus on critical technological improvements for wind energy, and $10 million for testing and evaluation of wind technology at the Energy Department's Wind Technology Center in Colorado.
The money for construction and improvements includes $68 million for an energy-efficient research support office building, $19.2 million for solar, geothermal fuel cells to reduce NREL's power consumption from utilities and $13.5 million for upgrades to NREL's biorefinery research facility.
Chu's visit to NREL was his first as energy secretary. He is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and former director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in Berkeley, Calif.
The Energy Department is managing $39 billion in grants, tax breaks and loan guarantees under the stimulus package, with much of it going to renewable energy and conservation programs.
