Introduction to REU Students on Wind Energy Science, Engineering, and Policy

1. Introduction to REU Students on Wind Energy Science, Engineering, and Policy June 1, 2011 James McCalley (jdm@iastate.edu)

2. Overview • Need for scientific, engineering, and technological leadership in wind energy for US future • Wind energy in Iowa • Wind Energy companies • Overview of REU program schedule 2

3. • More than 50% of the people entering the wind workforce do not have the technical skills to perform the job they were hired for • 46% of all engineering jobs in the utility sector could become vacant by 2012. • Leveling of college-age population to 2025. • Explosive growth in need for science/engr skills in other sectors require energy field to compete for limited talent pool. - http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy10osti/47972.pdf The need…. & the problem… • Today’s US electric gen capacity: 1100GW • Today’s US wind: 38GW • Emissions, cost, resilience requires 300-600GW of wind by 2050. “…the level of US graduate programs is well below similar graduate programs in Europe (Denmark, Germany, etc). At this rate, the United States will be unable to provide the necessary trained talent and manufacturing expertise. Unless this trend is reversed, even with major new wind installations in the United States, most of the technology will be imported, and a significant portion of the economic gains will be foreign rather than domestic.” - DOE, “20% by 2020”, 2008. Many jobs! Trained people Jobs Few trained people! 3

4. Wind energy in US by year • Two reasons for downturn: • Economy (reduced demand, tighter lending), • cheap natural gas. 4

5. US Wind Capacity by state http://dec1106.weebly.com/google-earth.html Midwest is among richest US wind regions; Iowa is a leading state: • installed wind capacity of 3670 MW (2nd in nation) • percent electric energy production from wind of 15% (1st in nation) An interactive Iowa “energy” map... 5

6. The wind energy industry, with examples …and advocacy organizations, AWEA (www.awea.org), IWEA 6

7. The Iowa wind energy industry The proximity of Iowa to other wind-rich states has influenced many manufacturers & developers to locate here. 7

8. The Iowa Wind Energy Industry – Manufacturers, Component suppliers, maintenance/service orgs •Clipper Windpower, Cedar Rapids •Siemens Power Generation, Ft Madison •Acciona Energy, West Branch •TPI Composites, Newton •Sector 5 Technologies, Oelwein •Heartland Energy Solutions, Mt Ayr •Trinity Structural Towers, Newton •Goian North America, Ankeny •Generation Repair and Service, Story City •~200 Existing Iowa Manufacturers in Turbine Supply Chain Market share of total US wind fleet (2009) 8

9. The Iowa Wind Energy Industry – Utilities/ developers • MidAmerican Energy Company • Alliant Energy Services • NextEra • Horizon • John Deere Wind, Johnston Ownership by company (2009) 9

10. Summer Schedule 10

11. Lunch and learn • Lunch & learn • ISU research team • UG research team • Individual research projects • Archived presentations and other materials • Field trips • Social events • Final week activites 11

12. Short course 12

13. Lunch and learn On Tuesdays, we will organize “Brown-bag Lunch and Learn” to offer live interactive presentations with industry experts. These presentations will offer students an opportunity to engage with industry experts from various sectors, including the National Labs, manufacturers of wind turbines and related components, wind farm developers and operators, wind turbine construction companies, maintenance providers, weather prediction consultants, electric utilities, Independent System Operators, representatives from advocacy organizations such as the American Wind Energy Association and its local branch -- the Iowa Wind Energy Association (IWEA), and policy makers. Although we could populate these lectures with the wealth of local industry resources, we will expand the pool of possible presenters at the national and international level using Webinars. 13

14. ISU research team The student will be assigned to an ongoing ISU research team involving at least one faculty (likely their faculty mentor) and at least one graduate student. The student will participate in the scheduled weekly meetings of the research team. In addition to providing technical perspective and personal relationships, this experience will imprint an authentic and lasting image in the student’s mind of life as a graduate student in a research institution. 14

15. UG research team Each student will be assigned to a team comprised of 3-4 REU students to define a research problem related to the work of the ISU research teams. Since the UG research team members will most likely have assignments on different ISU research teams, addressing these problems will require bridging across different ongoing ISU research efforts. 15

16. Individual research project • The student and faculty mentor will define an individual research project that the student will be responsible for completing during the 10-week period. Each student’s project will synergistically contribute to the larger objectives of the UG research team, which in turn will relate to the activities of the various ISU research teams in which the UG research team members are involved. The individual research projects will expose students to the entire cycle of the scientific method (problem definition, literature search, hypothesizing, testing, analysis and conclusion, and reporting). They will also be selected to give students a sense of responsibility for their contribution to wind energy related-research. 16

17. Archived industry presentations and other materials We will develop a website offering downloadable recordings of industry presentations. These recordings will be obtained each year from annual events in which ISU is involved that include presentations by wind industry experts. The ISU Wind Energy Short Course is offered annually in October and includes 2-3 days of focused instruction related to wind industry issues of current high significance to the industry. Content offered in 2010 included tall tower technology, electric system operations with high penetrations of variable resources, and high-voltage transmission plans for moving wind power out of the Midwest. We expect to build a library of at least 50 recordings on a searchable website that our REU students can use to supplement their educational experience during the program. See http://www.eng.iastate.edu/billtest/windenergy/wind-energy-seminar.asp Written materials: http://home.engineering.iastate.edu/~jdm/wind/index.htm Other ISU Wind info: http://www.windenergy.iastate.edu/reu.asp 17

18. Wind farm development process The process of developing a wind farm project is complex and involves the following steps: wind resource assessment, economic analysis, financing, environmental studies, community outreach, land acquisition, permitting, turbine siting, wind turbine selection collection circuit design, transmission interconnection analysis, equipment supply, construction, testing and commissioning, operation and maintenance, and retirement. Each summer, we will identify an Iowa site under development, we will engage engineers performing that development, and we will assign each student to perform an in-depth exploration of one phase of the process for the identified site. The assignment will be made to most closely complement the student’s individual research project. 18

19. Field trips We will arrange 5 field trips per year. Target sites, all in Iowa, include the Story County 300MW wind farm owned by NextEra, Trinity Structural Towers, TPI Composites, MidAmerican Energy Company Control Center, ClipperWind, Acciona Turbine-Generator Assembly, Siemens Wind Blade Facility, and the NextEra Generator Repair and Service Facility. 19

20. Social events See http://www.undergradresearch.iastate.edu/enrichment.html • Mentor/Intern Picnic hosted by the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost to be held on Sunday, June 12, 2011, 3:00-6:30, Brookside Park. • We will identify some more activities for you. 20

21. Concluding week • The last week of the program will include 2 half-day workshops, with overall goals to stimulate student/faculty/industry discussions of research progress and potential, to improve future REU programs, to recruit both future REU students and future graduate students, and to disseminate information about opportunities for underrepresented groups. • Workshop 1: will include ISU faculty, graduate students, and industry partners where each REU student will provide a 20-minute presentation, disseminated by Webinar, which reports on results of their individual research project, their contribution to the team-based project, a proposed approach for their assigned phase in developing a wind farm, and how they perceive their overall work to relate to the objectives of their assigned research project. Special effort will be made to bring local industry on-campus to participate, particularly someone from the company developing the wind farm used in the wind farm development process assignment. • Workshop 2: will include high school students and teachers from Iowa where each REU team will have opportunity to reflect on what they learned together with program strengths and weaknesses. • Students will also prepare posters of their work for inclusion in a campus-wide REU event on Friday August 5. The week will conclude with breakfast with the Dean of the College of Engineering, a send-off social, and exit interviews. 21