PLENARY: Advances in Wind Energy : Trends and Innovation

 

Prof. Abdoulla Afjeh, Ph. D.

Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

University of Toledo

 

ABSTRACT

 

Wind energy is the largest source of renewable energy today. The global cumulative installed wind power capacity exceeded 372 GW in 2014. Given the current wind projects under development and approved plans to install new capacity to produce wind energy, it is anticipated that the growth in wind energy will continue at the annual rate of 8% in the next 5 years. The growth in wind energy has been realized despite adverse factors such as the rapid decline in natural gas and oil prices in the recent past and the global economic downturn that began with the banking crisis in 2008. The growth in wind energy has occurred in both on-land and offshore wind farms, with the latter experiencing rapid growth in the last year, promising an even larger share of the wind energy market growth in the future. This paper will discuss the wind energy technology trends and advancements that have enabled the significant and sustained wind energy growth of the last ten years in addition to the cost drivers and novel development approaches that are expected to sustain this growth in the near future.

 

About the Speaker

Is  a  professor  and  chairman  of  the  Department  of  Mechanical, Industrial  and  Manufacturing  Engineering  at  The  University  of Toledo. He is also the director of the Small Turbine Engine Institute, which  he  founded  in  2005  in  the  College  of  Engineering  at  The University  of  Toledo.  He  received  his  BSME  from  Arya  Mehr University  of  Technology,  and  his  MSME  and  Ph.D.  from University of Toledo.  He is a distinguished  Fellow of the American Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers  (ASME),  Life Member  of  the  American  Institute  of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and a member of the American Society of Engineering Education  (ASEE),  the  Ohio  Society  of  Professional  Engineering  (OSPE),  Phi  Kappa  Phi,  Pi Tau Sigma, and Sigma Xi. Dr.  Afjeh’s research interests include fluid dynamics, propulsion systems, computational methods, and energy conversion systems. Dr. Afjeh has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in journals and conference proceedings.  He received the ASME International Gas Turbine Institute’s Best Paper Award (1999) and the American Helicopter Society’s Best Paper Award (2002).  He  also  was  awarded  the  Outstanding  Researcher  Award  from  both  the University of Toledo and the College of Engineering Outstanding Researcher Award.

 

Dr.  Afjeh received over $19 million in sponsored research.  Sponsors  of  his  research  include National  Aeronautics  and  Space  Administration  (NASA),  the  U.S.  Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the U.S.  Army Research Office (ARO), the U.S.  Navy,  the  U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Ohio Third Frontier Program, and industry (Rosemount Aerospace, Chrysler, Teledyne Turbine Engines, AVETeC, Lockheed Martin, and Bell Helicopter Textron).