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HA! We ARE in GREAT HANDS

I see BLDW putting out some of the most CUTTING EDGE and EFFICENT wind renewable systems

$BLDW Working with UT...good for them/us/the world
UT is definitely a leader in that field.

Public-private partnerships, like the nation’s first municipal green building program and first technology incubator for clean energy startups (both in Austin), have created national examples. Texas universities house leading researchers in key energy technologies for the future. And the state’s business sector is home to the world’s largest traditional energy companies, likely to play a major role in any transition to new forms of energy.

About their Engineers/research direction

Power of the Plains

Just as Texas was blessed with natural resources in oil and gas, another natural bounty–the wind of the Southern Plains–has placed the state at the forefront of renewable energy.

According to the American Wind Energy Association, Texas has more than three times the installed wind power capacity of any other U.S. state. And Texas continues to add capacity at a breakneck pace, installing more wind power in 2008 than any country except China and the U.S.


Dr. Surya Santoso is a wind power expert in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

If Texas were a country, notes the association, it would rank sixth in the world in installed wind power, just behind Germany. Texas’ recent growth in wind is the main reason the U.S. just passed Germany as the country generating the most energy from renewable sources.

West Texas has considerable room to expand wind power, a necessity if the U.S. expects to approach some of the more ambitious goals put forth by wind advocates, such as achieving 20 percent of the nation’s power generation from wind by 2030.

Whether or not this lofty goal can ever be reached, the good news, reports Webber, is that Texas has ample room to expand wind power–offshore. While the coastal areas of other U.S. states extend three miles offshore, Texas (and Florida along the Gulf of Mexico) extends three marine leagues offshore, or about nine miles, under its original terms of statehood. So in addition to having a lot of wind in the Gulf, Texas has exceptional room to place turbines. Offshore wind farms could generate power during the peak energy days of summer, when the West Texas winds breezes tend to die down.

Research on wind power takes place in several departments at the Cockrell School of Engineering. One important resource is the Laboratory for Advanced Studies in Electric Power and Integration of Renewable Energy Systems under the leadership of Surya Santoso, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Santoso works on making wind farms more efficient at generating electricity. As an offshoot of that research, he develops models that simulate wind farms and wind power plants so researchers can predict their performance in the field. The model development is funded by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the Department of Energy.

Students from around the world come to the university to work in Santoso’s group, yet many alumni are finding post-graduate employment right in Texas–a natural result, given the size of the state’s wind market. These alumni could become a valuable commodity. Just as, in the 20th century, Texas exported scientific and engineering expertise to petroleum markets around the world, the state could soon be training and exporting scientific and engineering expertise for wind energy.

Santoso believes Texas will continue to be a major force in wind power for a long time to come, but to solidify its position, the state should continue to invest in research. He would like to see greater investment in energy generation methods to make power from renewable sources less intermittent, “and hence more reliable and economic.” New technologies, such as mass storage capacities for intermittent energy resources, are critical areas for research and development. And Santoso would like to see policy and regulation that incentivizes further use of renewable energy.

“These research initiatives will in the end have huge beneficial societal impacts in emissions, energy security and trade deficit reduction,” says Santoso.