Pierre: As someone who has friends who work at this and other “national labs”, it is a relatively low-paying job compared to private-sector positions, that attracts people who are generally competent or trainable, but not necessarily inspired.
The positions are “go along to get along” oriented, not so much cutting-edge do-or-die efforts. A position at these labs is seen as “safe” - a “steady job” where if you just don’t do anything too wrong you have job security, kind of like becoming a cop or a teacher.
I do not know much about Fort Felker, specifically, but my impression over the years regarding NREL has been that nobody there ever designed or built a real wind turbine. Nobody in their “small-wind” department, for example, started out designing or building small turbines, then gave it up for a government position. They can test what other people build, but do not try much new stuff themselves.
At first I was perplexed that NREL was not at the cutting edge of wind energy research and development, but I learned they were more of a clearinghouse for talent and inspiration, than a source of it. They have a valid role, but this is a free-market economy, and the real innovations usually emanate from the private sector. Nevertheless they are nice people and they do know their stuff for sure.
I had never heard of Fort Felker before he showed up at Stanford for the second(?) world AWE conference in, what 2010(?). Everybody was like “Whoa, look who is noticing us!” Of course the downside was they probably realized they could not go on without reliable significant power production forever - now they were in the big leagues, to some extent, or at least have to acknowledge reality over sheer fantasy.
But likely as not, Fort’s real talent was administrating, strategizing in a business sense, and just keeping things running at a high level, more than innovating specifically. A talented bureaucrat more than a radical innovator.
When Makani hired him away from NREL I was kind of concerned that they were screwing up NREL for no good reason, taking a talented guy away from a position where he was doing some good, to a position where he would probably be wasting his time. Then again, I never heard anyone concerned because he left. I guess he may have been easily and quickly replaced, but who knows?.
Regarding him specifically, I’m not sure whether Makani utilized whatever talents he had to the best effect, since they seemed to already have their direction laid out. I imagined him telling them they didn’t know what they were doing and to give it up, actually. But he was probably so entrenched in the status quo that he was unlikely to really think outside that box. I think he went on to a higher “management” position at Google. Haven’t heard about anything specific he had accomplished in wind energy before or since, although just because I am not aware of it does not mean it didn’t happen.
My best friend since I was a little kid recently left NIST for a job with a private company, after a couple of decades at the government lab. He is much happier, and being paid much better. Originally glad to have such a “solid” job, he eventually yearned for more excitement and better pay.