Offshore Wind Platforms & Research (GY) (Launching Fall '24)

Harvesting energy from the wind has become a very popular way to reduce environmental impact, while also generating considerable cost savings for homes and buildings, industries and urban areas. The capacity and potential of such projects have been growing exponentially in recent decades. These installations have been on land and offshore, fixed and floating. There has been a recent development of an Offshore Wind Project around our geographic region, from Maine to the Maryland, although there are other ventures in geographic areas such as California an Alabama-Louisiana.

Offshore wind turbines are either Fixed (to the ocean floor) or Floating. Naturally, the fixed platforms are confined to the shallow waters as they are close to the littoral space. On the other hand, Floating platforms can operate in deep waters and can be farther form the coastlines that has obvious benefits in terms of beach erosion and contamination. However, because of the distances from the shore and depth of operation they offer unique technical challenges.

The purpose and of this research course is to study and examine this topic and these challenges, and to use these findings to then inform publications and policy papers. Students will also help to determine the specific goals of the team and sub-teams may work on different hands-projects, which may include: 

• Prototype Design: Designing, building, testing, and presenting a unique, wind-driven power system (aTurbine Prototype)
• Developing a Project: Researching wind resource data, transmission infrastructure, and environmental factors to create a site plan and financial analysis for a hypothetical wind farm