Hosts Elyse Debarros and Dane Robinson interview Colorado Energy Office Director, Will Toor! Listen in to learn more about Colorado's progress towards reaching some ambitious climate goals!

Hosts Elyse Debarros and Aria Mundy interview Austin Spafford about his path to a career in wind energy working for Siemens Gamesa and his insights on the future of wind energy.

Hosts Elyse Debarros and Dane Robinson discuss how wind energy impacts bird populations and how to make wind turbines more bird friendly.

Links

• Research into the effect of black blade in wind turbine - Vattenfall
• Do wind turbines kill birds? | MIT Climate Portal
• Wind farm will need to shut down five months a year to protect parrots (cnbc.com)
• Wind Risk Assessment Map (abcbirds.org)
• Wind Turbine Bird Mortality: How Many Birds Do Turbines Kill? (energymonitor.ai)

Listen in as Elyse Debarros and Dane Robinson discuss the myth that renewable energy caused the 2021 ERCOT Blackout in Texas because wind turbines can't generate power in cold weather. We also how ice impacts wind turbines and the technologies that allow wind turbines to operate in extreme cold weather environments.

References:

• Examination of the Extreme Cold Weather Event Affecting the Power System in Texas - February 2021 (nrel.gov)
• GEA35089 Cold Weather Solutions Brochure
• State-of-the-art of wind energy in cold climates (vtt.fi)
• Is it true that wind turbines don’t work in the winter? | MIT Climate Portal

Thanks to Colorado State Senator Chris Hansen for joining Megan Finnigan and Julia Gentile for episode 2 of the podcast! Listen in to learn more about the overlap between engineering and politics and energy policy.

Intro episode to the podcast. Meet hosts Dane Robinson and Elyse Debarros as we share some wind news, history and bust the myth that wind energy in too inconsistent to be a significant energy source.

Episode Links:

Referenced News Articles https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/10/03/solar-panels-wind-turbines-nimby/ https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-announces-nations-largest-ever-state-investment-renewable-energy-moving https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/listings/wind-news

Wind Energy Statistics https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/wind-market-reports-2022-edition#:~:text=Report%3A%202022%20Edition-,Land%2DBased%20Wind%20Market%20Report,represents%20%2420%20billion%20of%20investment. https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/how-much-power-1-gigawatt https://windeurope.org/intelligence-platform/product/wind-energy-in-europe-2022-statistics-and-the-outlook-for-2023-2027/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/950342/china-accumulated-installed-wind-power-capacity/#:~:text=As%20of%202021%2C%20China%20had,generation%20capacity%20growth%20in%20China. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/renewable-energy-intermittency-explained-challenges-solutions-and-opportunities/ https://www.morganlewis.com/pubs/2023/03/the-rise-of-energy-storage https://www.iea.org/energy-system/electricity/grid-scale-storage#tracking

Meet last year's Wind Farm subteam of the CU Wind Team competing in the Department of Energy's Collegiate Wind Competition! Lauren Mullen (Wind Farm Lead), Luis Munoz (Wind Farm Environmental Lead), Chris Holladay (Wind Farm Engineer), Regan Barton (Permitting Lead), Ryan Tasto (Wind Farm Layout Engineer), and Ryan Stoltz (Wind Farm Community Outreach Lead) discuss what they have learned about offshore wind farm development, what they have contributed to the project, and what they see for the future of offshore wind.

Meet last year's Turbine subteam of the CU Wind Team competing in the Department of Energy's Collegiate Wind Competition! Jeremiah Pare (Project Manager), Ryan Tasto (CAD Engineer), Ryan Stoltz (Manufacturing Engineer), and Amanda Shields (Test Engineer) discuss what they have learned about wind turbine design, what they have contributed to the project, and what they see for the future of offshore wind.