International Workshop on Wind Energy Development
March 22 - 24, 2010
This workshop was a collaborative effort among Virginia Tech, Wichita State University, and Cairo University, Egypt. It brought together stakeholders from the wind industry, non-government organizations, government agencies, and universities from various countries. Approximately 40 experts are invited from North America, Egypt and the Region who can identify and discuss research & development (R&D) needs to facilitate sustainable wind energy development.
The workshop focused on two key R&D issues related to wind energy. These issues were: (i) wind turbine design & operation issues; as well as (ii) wind turbine and grid integration issues. Of equal importance were the policy, economic, education, training and awareness aspects in the context of wind energy projects.
The expected outcomes of this workshop included a set of recommendations that identifies necessary building blocks for facilitating the deployment of large-scale wind energy projects. Furthermore, it was expected that the presentations and discussions at the workshop would lead to the identification of opportunities for collaborative research among diverse stakeholder groups both in West Asia and the United States which, in turn, contribute to facilitating wind energy development solutions in many parts of the world with a diverse wind, atmospheric and environmental conditions.
The financial and material support provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation, Egypt’s Science & Technology Development Fund, as well as the office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) were invaluable in making this workshop possible. And the Advanced Research Institute of Virginia Tech is very pleased to receive wide support from many organizations nationally and internationally in hosting this workshop.