Workshop Next Generation Wind Power

The purpose of the Workshop on Next-Generation Wind Power is to provide a forum for industry, academia, and government agencies to discuss the current state of the art in wind power technology, and to identify areas of mutual collaborative research interests. An outcome of the workshop will be a white paper that identifies the major challenges facing the wind industry at the present and in the future, new research ideas that address these challenges, as well as opportunities for collaborative research. The topics to be discussed at the workshop will include turbine materials and design; blade aerodynamics and control; power conversion; grid integration; wind farms and offshore wind; reliability, diagnosis and prognosis; as well as economics and policy related to wind power. The Workshop is organized by the Center for Future Energy Systems (CFES) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with support by the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR).

8:10 – 8:20am: Workshop Objectives
Jian Sun, Director - RPI Center for Future Energy Systems
8:20 – 10:00am: Session 1 – Turbine Design, Control and Monitoring
Session Chair: Miki Amitay - RPI MANE

  • Miki Amitay (RPI), Performance Enhancement of Wind Turbine Blades Using Flow Control
  • Luciano Castillo (RPI), Wind Turbine Array and Turbulence
  • Jason Vollen (RPI), Potentials of Flow Control in the Built Environment: Building Integrated Wind
  • Dan Walczyk (RPI), An Overview of Composite Wind Turbine Blade Manufacturing
  • Tom Walter (Mechanical Solutions Inc.), Predictive Health Monitoring for Wind Turbine Generators

10:00 – 10:20am: Break
10:20am – 12:00pm: Session 2 – Power Conversion and Grid Integration
Session Chair: Joe Chow - RPI ECSE

  • Robert Delmerico & Nick Miller (GE), Enablers for the Large Scale Integration of Wind
  • David Torrey (AEC), Generator Options in Small & Medium Turbines
  • Ronghai Qu (GE), Development and Challenges of Permanent Magnet Wind Generators
  • Jian Sun (RPI), Enhancing Wind Turbine Control by Local Energy Storage
  • Mark Embrechts (RPI), Design of Capacitor Batteries for Temporary Power Storage for Windmills

12:00 – 1:00pm: Buffet Lunch
1:00 – 3:00pm: Session 3 – Economics and Policy
Session Chair: Susan Sanderson - RPI Lally School of Management and Technology

  • Kevin Jerwann (GE), Wind Challenges & Opportunities
  • John Saintcross (NYSERDA), Wind Energy: Delivering on Expectations
  • Russell Tenser (Wind Products), Methodology for Siting Small Wind Turbines Effectively
  • Rob Gibbs (PSEG), Public Policy to Support Off-Shore Wind Development
  • Bill Flanagan (GE), An Environmental Life Cycle Perspective on Wind Power
  • Eric White (AWS), Wind Projects: Challenges Beyond the Turbines
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