Penn State is hosting a symposium to explore the regional challenges and opportunities of wind energy and examine the intersection of technology, industry and the environment.
“Power for the Future: The Pennsylvania Wind Energy Symposium,” will take place Nov. 17 and 18 at the Penn Star Conference Center Hotel and tackle issues relating to the Commonwealth’s role as an emerging leader in the wind energy industry in the eastern U.S.
“We, as a society and nation, have an obligation to address the intertwined problems of climate change, energy, and the economy–this is one of the imperatives of our time,” says George Lesieutre, head of aerospace engineering at Penn State. “Wind energy will be part of the solution.”
The question, according to Lesieutre , is how to increase capacity. The U.S. Department of Energy has determined it is feasible to generate 20 percent of the nation’s electricity from wind by 2030, says Lesieutre. But that will mean manufacturing capacity increase by a factor of five in the next 10 years, resulting in twenty times today’s installed capacity by 2030.
“Expansion on this scale cannot be realized with a business-as-usual approach,” says Lesieutre.
The symposium will be preceded by a tour of the Allegheny Ridge Wind Farm near Altoona on Sunday, Nov. 16. Gamesa, one of the largest wind energy companies in the world with its U.S. headquarters outside Philadelphia, developed the wind farm.
Source: George Lesieutre, Penn State
Writer: John Davidson
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