Vestas partnership yields DOE grant for wind energy curriculum
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Giri Venkataramanan (left) and Tom Jahns in the wind tunnel. The tunnel will be a key testing facility for wind-energy projects.
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new wind energy curriculum will be developed by several UW-Madison engineering and atmospheric and oceanic sciences faculty and staff thanks to a nearly $400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Principal investigators include Associate Professors Giri Venkataramanan and Bernie Lesieutre, Professor Tom Jahns, and Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Assistant Professor Ankur Desai.
The curriculum will include a series of undergraduate and graduate-level courses offered on campus and online that center on wind energy and power engineering. Four power engineering courses will be available, including Wind Turbine Electric Generators and Controls, Power Electronic Converters for Wind Turbines, Electric Utility Wind Power Integration and Small Wind Turbine Design.
Students who take these courses and complete an internship at a utility or energy-related company will be eligible for a new certificate program in wind energy. Several wind-energy policy and economics electives will be offered through other departments on campus. A periodic seminar series addressing wind energy integration and an annual professional conference from the Wisconsin Public Utility Institute will also be developed from the DOE grant.
The DOE grant is due in part to the support of Vestas, the world’s leading producer of wind power technology, which recently entered into a strategic partnership with the College of Engineering that promises to propel wind energy research, provide student learning opportunities and give the company a long-term presence in Madison.
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"Wind energy is a growing source of new power generation in the world and the technology has even greater untapped potential,” says Jahns, who directs the Wisconsin Power Electronics Research Center and helped establish the partnership. “By teaming with an industry leader like Vestas, our research environment will thrive and Wisconsin will see expanded opportunities in wind energy and other renewable energy options.”
Under the partnership, Vestas will provide funding support beginning this year to as many as 10 graduate and undergraduate students working on wind technology projects. The company also plans to provide visiting scholars to campus and start a small research and development facility on the engineering campus.
The plans grow significantly more ambitious over time, ultimately leading to the formation of a multidisciplinary center for advanced wind power technology. Another stage of the partnership will support named professorships or endowed chairs with expanded focus on wind-energy research and education. One named professorship will focus on developing new curriculum materials to support the emerging energy and sustainability fields.
“The Vestas partnership is an exciting addition to the range of energy research and education at the college,” says College of Engineering Dean Paul Peercy. “Once we solve energy storage issues, wind power potentially could supply as much as 20 percent of the nation’s energy needs by 2030. Our students will be highly motivated to participate in this growth industry.”
According to the DOE, recently funded wind-energy projects will begin to address market and deployment challenges identified in the 2008 report, “20 Percent Wind Energy by 2030.” Increasing wind energy generation will be a critical factor in achieving the Obama administration’s goals for clean energy, while also supporting new green jobs.
To read more about the Vestas partnership, visit: www.engr.wisc.edu/news/headlines/2009/Apr01.html.
