PNNL Researchers Blow the Doors Off NAWEA Conference

From posters, to presentations and participation, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) was well represented at the NAWEA / WindTech 2024 Conference in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Thirteen PNNL experts attended the conference, sponsored by the North American Wind Energy Academy (NAWEA) and Rutgers University.

• Software Engineer Shuhao Bai demonstrated the capabilities of the PNNL-managed Wind Data Hub, which help other scientists save valuable time and effort in future data analysis.  
• Earth Scientist Sha Feng presented a poster and participated in a presentation, both based on the research paper, “Amplified Threat of Tropical Cyclones to U.S. Offshore Wind Energy in a Changing Climate.” This study provides data that can help industry improve offshore wind turbine resilience through design standards and strategic site selection.
• Systems Engineer Jacob Garbe presented on “Journey Mapping Distributed Wind Deployment: Installer Perspectives.” This work uses journey maps to assess the deployment of distributed wind technologies through the perspective of installers. 
• Earth Scientist Lexie Goldberger, presented a poster, “AWAKEN Campaign Observations of Precipitation from Hub Height, Inflow, and Outflow Regions of the King Plains Wind Farm,” highlighting PNNL’s leadership in atmospheric instrumentation and ability to collect and disseminate quality data while providing worthwhile analysis. Goldberger also discussed postdoc opportunities and her experience as a staff scientist with graduate students attending the conference.

• Yicheng Huang, a postdoctoral research associate, spoke on “Impacts of wind-ocean-wave coupling on offshore wind profile.” The presentation focused on how atmosphere-ocean-wave coupled modeling can improve wind field predictions and offshore wind resource assessments.
• Economist Abigail King demonstrated WINDVALT, a valuation software tool coming soon that provides stakeholders with an easy-to-use, transparent, and consistent method for assessing the costs and benefits of distributed wind projects. King showcased the tool’s capabilities through a use case for a rural community in Alaska.
• Earth Scientist Ye Liu presented “Benchmarking Modeled Wind Field Using Multi-Source Measurements in the Southeastern United States.” The findings of this work are intended to guide improvements in wind prediction models and inform strategic planning for future field campaigns and wind energy projects in complex terrains. 
• Electrical Engineer Sayak Mukherjee discussed research to develop a supervisory controller for coordinating hybrid power plant resources using online feedback optimization. This will be vital for improving grid reliability and performance.
• Systems Engineer Kendall Parker showed the collaborator selection approach used in the Diverse and Equitable Workforce in Wind Energy Project,  aiming to develop industry-academia partnerships to build a workforce development curriculum for the distributed wind sector.
• Danielle Preziuso, PNNL’s distributed wind portfolio leader, demonstrated Distributed Wind Explorer, a PNNL-developed, web-based application that curates relevant data sources from several repositories into a single site. Preziuso also co-moderated a distributed wind-focused session and served as a poster judge. 
• Earth Scientist Lindsay Sheridan presented on PNNL’s Distributed Wind Market Report, which provides a comprehensive overview of distributed wind market and can help guide future investments and decisions by industry, utilities, federal, and state agencies and other stakeholders.
• Strategic Advisor Sonja Glavaski and Data Scientist Himanshu Sharma attended.

Notably, PNNL’s participation on distributed wind topics represented a collaborative effort by more than a dozen researchers to submit five abstracts—all of which were accepted by the conference. The team also learned that a distributed wind presentation from last year’s conference “Advances in Distributed Wind Valuation,” presented by Sarah Barrows, won a Conference Best Presentation Award for 2023.