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The Biden administration is forging ahead with plans to lease federal waters — stretching nearly the entire coastline — to wind power developers. The strategy is part of an effort to cut fossil fuel emissions and is poised to influence job creation as well as the economy, while setting up tension with the fishing, oil and gas industries, landowners and even conservationists. Cornell University researchers are engaged in multiple aspects of this story, and some of their work and expertise is highlighted below:
Lara Skinner
Director, Worker Institute’s Labor Leading on Climate Initiative
Lara Skinner is the director of the Worker Institute’s Labor Leading on Climate Initiative and an expert on labor and employment issues related to sustainability, climate protection and clean energy. Skinner can comment on job creation that will emerge as a result of prioritizing wind development — both in the construction phase as well as through longer term manufacturing facilities.
Rebecca Barthelmie
Professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Rebecca Barthelmie is a professor at Cornell University’s College of Engineering whose research is focused on wind energy resources on- and offshore. In Denmark, Barthelmie ran the offshore wind energy network and was involved in the development of many offshore wind farms. Her recent studies have provided guidance on locations for offshore wind and wind’s impact on reducing emissions, and she helped develop a global wind atlas to improve turbine placement.
Sara Pryor
Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Sara Pryor is an atmospheric scientist at Cornell University’s College of Engineering whose focus is on improving our understanding of the climate and energy system. Pryor has worked with Barthelmie on the above wind studies.
Max Zhang
Professor of engineering and faculty director at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Max Zhang is a sustainable energy systems expert at Cornell University’s College of Engineering and a faculty director at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Zhang can speak to the potential for energy generation from wind compared with other renewable and clean energy sources, as well as wind power system integration.
C. Lindsay Anderson
Associate Professor in Biological and Environmental Engineering and Faculty Director for Energy with the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Lindsay Anderson is a professor in environmental engineering and interim director for The Cornell Energy Systems Institute (CESI). Anderson studies the effective integration of wind and solar resources and the acceleration to a low carbon energy future.
