Wind and Wave Scientists, engineers and geographers at ODU will
help decide whether coastal Virginia's abundant supply of wind
and wave energy should be tapped to generate electricity. Wind
turbines are producing electricity throughout the world today.
The so-called "wind farm" clusters of modern windmills sometimes
are developed in near-shore or offshore marine sites, which
present special challenges. Virginians will want assurances that
a coastal wind farm will be reliable and will not have adverse
environmental impacts. State officials must look to experts such
as ODU faculty members for answers. Questions about bird
migration routes, weather patterns, seabed geology and ways to
anchor turbine towers are among the many that researchers must
address. ODU, which has program strengths in fluid dynamics,
electrical and computer engineering and modeling and analysis,
also can contribute expertise in turbine blade design and in
modeling to predict wind power generation and strategies for
integration of wind powe