Event Title
The Future’s So Breezy, I Gotta Wear a Wind Breaker*
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Location
Biology Building, Room 101
Start Date
24-10-2019 6:00 PM
End Date
24-10-2019 7:00 PM
Description
Wind energy has become the fastest growing renewable energy source in response to global climate change and energy security. Wind energy was seriously considered during the energy crises of the 1970s, started growing from favorable legislation, and has finally matured with large corporations entering the field. Prominent research projects initiated in the late 70s and early 80s were replaced by robust, smaller-scale machines of the California wind boom. Slow, steady progress towards higher efficiency and lower cost has fueled incredible growth in number and size of machines. Continued growth will require further cost reductions in the technology, expansion of the electric grid, and effective energy storage. The presenter will highlight points in his career in wind energy along with research work conducted at Pacific.
*See: Timbuk 3.
The Future’s So Breezy, I Gotta Wear a Wind Breaker*
Biology Building, Room 101
Wind energy has become the fastest growing renewable energy source in response to global climate change and energy security. Wind energy was seriously considered during the energy crises of the 1970s, started growing from favorable legislation, and has finally matured with large corporations entering the field. Prominent research projects initiated in the late 70s and early 80s were replaced by robust, smaller-scale machines of the California wind boom. Slow, steady progress towards higher efficiency and lower cost has fueled incredible growth in number and size of machines. Continued growth will require further cost reductions in the technology, expansion of the electric grid, and effective energy storage. The presenter will highlight points in his career in wind energy along with research work conducted at Pacific.
*See: Timbuk 3.
Speaker Bio
Scott Larwood is an Associate Professor of mechanical engineering. His first wind energy experience was working on the Boeing MOD-2 for PG&E in 1986. He later worked for Kenetech Windpower in the Altamont and abroad. He then moved on to work for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado. He later went back to industry to work for the ill-fated Enron Wind Energy, which was absorbed by General Electric. Frustrated with the corporate environment, he returned to school to obtain his doctorate from UC Davis. Later he followed his wife to Stockton (where she works in agriculture) and started teaching part-time at UOP. That job later grew into a tenure-track position, with research work in wind energy.