IGERT Fellow Carson Pete and his advisor Jon McGowan attended the 2014 Offshore Energy & Storage Symposium in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, on July 11 and 12, 2014.
Carson presented a paper entitled “Evaluating the Underwater Compressed Air Energy Storage Potential in the Gulf of Maine”. Professor McGowan gave the keynote speech on the global growth of offshore wind.
Carson had the following to say about his participation in the conference:
“This experience was invaluable to my research and training as I was able to meet and network with leaders and developers in the emerging, highly specialized field of offshore energy storage, many of whom were from Europe, giving me an opportunity to meet with specialists face-to face, which would be nearly impossible in any other circumstance. By presenting my current research, I was able to gather invaluable feedback that I will integrate into future research. This conference also allowed me to work in a cross-disciplinary manner with IGERT fellow Walter Jaslanek from the Environmental Conservation, who helped me to integrate geospatial analysis software into my project, thus enhancing the work and quality of my research. The paper that was submitted to the conference will also be refined and submitted to the Journal of Wind Engineering.
This experience has allowed me to become up to date with current developments and research at other universities that are working on similar topics. One particular presentation from the University of Virginia showed a new isothermal compression technique that I was unaware of, yet has the potential for integration with offshore wind applications, and I will be investigating this further to determine if it is applicable to my research. I was able to establish a new collaboration of networks with others in academia and with developers working on offshore energy storage. One in particular, Seamus Garvey, professor of dynamics and director of the Rolls-Royce UTC in gas turbine transmission systems from the University of Nottingham, has shown an interest in being added to my dissertation advisory committee.”