Lectures by Dr. Willett
Kempton
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Friday, March 17, 2006
We are pleased to announce two public lectures by Dr. Willett Kempton, an anthropologist who is Associate Professor of Marine Policy and Senior Policy Scientist in Center for Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware. His talks will cover different facets of renewable energy policy options in the era of increasing threats from climate change. Both talks are open to the public and free of charge.
His first talk is entitled "Why Climate Change Leads to
Wind Power."
It will take place Thursday, March 16 at 11:05 in G002 (the lecture
hall) in the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science at
MTU.
He will discuss why climate change is a totally different problem now than three years ago. Dr. Kempton will address questions that include determining the time available for responses to climate change and how we can systematically develop a set of solutions. He sees wind power as one of the major key solutions to the threat of climate change and will discuss North American wind resource availability as well as the problems of wind turbine location, intersite correlation, transmission, and storage. One of his most recent reseaarch projects has focused on the development of wind power on the continental shelf and public opposition to wind power off Cape Cod. Dr. Kempton pioneered the usage of the anthropological methodology of cultural modelling of perceptions of water and energy policy issues and solutions.
His second talk is entitled "Wiring the Vehicle Fleet." It will be part of the Sustainable Futures Institute Brown Bag series and takes place Friday, March 17 at 12:00 in EERC 100.
This talk will raise and answer the question of what energy sources are most appropriate for this century's vehicle fleet? Petroleum, biodiesels, hydrogen, and electricity are all options with negatives and positives. Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) or a Pluggable Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV)are important options for light vehicles, but one that doesn't get discussed frequently enough is the possibility of vehicle to grid power or "V2G". Dr. Kempton will describe V2G options, as well as the possible sequence of V2G markets: from ancillary services to backup for renewable energy. He will end by linking V2G to wind power.
Dr. Kempton's research projects are listed at http://www.ocean.udel.edu/cms/wkempton/ and, if you follow the links to different projects, you'll get to pdfs of some of his papers on these topics.
His visit and talks are sponsored by the Center for Water and Society, the Social Sciences Department's Graduate Program in Environmental Policy, the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, and the Sustainable Futures Institute.
Willett is interested in meeting with MTU students and faculty working on water and energy policy issues. If you are interested in meeting with him on Thursday or Friday, please email Kathy Halvorsen (kehalvor@mtu.edu) with your availability on those dates and we will try to arrange a time for you to talk with him.
