In December 2012, the U.S. Department of Energy announced investments in seven offshore wind projects including the GoWind project which will be led by the Texas A&M Energy Institute's Wind Energy Center. GoWind includes multiple university and industry partners. This is the third installment in a series about those partners and how their unique technologies, knowledge and abilities will contribute to the ultimate success of the GoWind project.

The Texas A&M Energy Institute's Wind Energy Center (WEC) will lead the Texas' Offshore Wind Farm Innovation team as part of the Gulf Offshore Wind (GoWind) Project, which will be the most innovative wind farm built to date and will generate power at peak demand and a high capacity factor. WEC's local team includes the Texas A&M departments of Aerospace Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Petroleum Engineering.

Texas A&M's role in the project will include performing applied research in blade structure and design for hurricane conditions, developing advanced wind farm control algorithms, support resource, environmental and geotechnical survey and analyses, and developing comparative economic models. 

The Wind Energy Center was established by the Texas A&M Board of Regents in March 2010 to be a research and technology development, demonstration, commercialization, and deployment entity, as well as a creator of new technologies, intellectual property, and commercialization.

A particular focus of WEC is research that relates to the technical barriers to advanced wind power systems commercialization, such as advanced materials that allow lighter, stronger, bigger, and taller wind structures that optimize wind in a way that exploits the full potential of the available wind energy at specific sites, either on or off shore, in Texas and the nation.

Having access to elite researchers and world-class facilities such as the Oran W. Nicks Low Speed Wind Tunnel and the Offshore Technology Center (just to name a few), gives the Wind Energy Center a definite advantage when negotiating with potential partners. WEC stays up-to-date with all of the latest developments and innovations in wind energy and facilitates the formation of research teams to meet the needs of clients in the public and private sector.

The Wind Energy Center is part of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), a member of The Texas A&M University System.

The Texas A&M Energy Institute has again received funding from ConocoPhillips to provide graduate fellowships in recognition of outstanding research in energy. The broad objectives of the fellowships are to reward excellence in energy research, promote future research that is important to our energy future, and encourage students to pursue careers in energy.

The fellowships are open to any graduate student engaged in energy research in any part of Texas A&M University and enrolled at the College Station, Galveston, or Qatar campuses. The Texas A&M Energy Institute will award up to eight $5,000 fellowships for a one-year term beginning on September 1, 2013. The deadline for application submission is June 7, 2013.

For more information, contact the Energy Institute at 979-458-1685.  

Energy & Resource Committee Report

April 12, 2013

The Potential Gas Committee (PGC) this week released the results of its latest assessment of America's natural gas reserves, estimating the United States' total recoverable resource base at 2,384 trillion cubic feet. This is the highest resource evaluation in the 48-year history of the Potential Gas Committee, a group of experts based at the Colorado School of Mines who conduct this assessment on a biennial basis. This year's estimates rose a stunning 22.1 percent since 2010.

PGC's estimates confirm that America's natural gas boom will continue as private-sector innovation and new drilling technologies are unlocking valuable American resources that were once considered off-limits. Dr. John B. Curtis, Professor of Geology and Geological Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines and Director of its Potential Gas Agency, stated, "Our knowledge of the geological endowment of technically recoverable gas continues to improve with each assessment.

Furthermore, new and advanced exploration, well drilling, completion and stimulation technologies are allowing us increasingly better delineation of and access to domestic gas resources-especially 'unconventional' gas-which, not all that long ago, were considered impractical or uneconomical to pursue."

This assessment comes on the heels of a new report by the Congressional Research Service, which revealed America's shale gas boom was occurring in spite of the administration's policies, not because of them. The report showed that since 2007, natural gas production on federal lands fell by 33 percent while production on state and private lands grew by 40 percent.

"This report is encouraging news as we seek to increase America's energy self-sufficiency. But for the U.S. to take full advantage of these vast natural gas reserves, it is imperative that the administration reduce its regulatory red tape and stop blocking important production opportunities on federal lands," said Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO). "The natural gas boom is creating jobs across the country and many more wells remain to be drilled. Let's make sure we create a regulatory environment that will allow this vital American industry to continue to thrive." 

Student attendees then participated in a panel discussion featuring speakers from Cheniere Energy, Southwestern Energy, and Cokinos Energy. After a few scripted questions, the panel was opened to a 30-minute Q&A session. Once the panel discussion concluded, the event wrapped up with a networking reception with live music for all attendees.

With a generous donation of $40,000 from ConocoPhillips, the Energy Institute awarded eight fellowships to support outstanding graduate students doing energy research. Over 40 applicants from 16 departments were nominated for this competitive award. The award recipients are known as "Energy Institute Fellows."

Each month, a Fellow will be featured in the highlights section of News Briefs.  This month's featured Fellow is Tony Rocha-Valadez, a PhD student in the Department of Chemical Engineering.

Tony's research project is entitled "Sustained Casing Pressure Modeling and Well Integrity." For a brief abstract of Tony's research, click here.  

To see the complete listing of EI Fellows, visit our web site at http://energy.tamu.edu.