Atkinson Talk to Probe Feasibility of Offshore Wind Farms

Will wind farms be developed off the Virginia coast? Larry Atkinson, an Old Dominion University oceanographer, will lead a seminar that explores this question at the university's Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography on Monday, April 11.

The presentation, "Offshore Wind Energy - What Is Going On and Is There Any Science and Engineering to Be Done?," will be at 3:30 p.m. in Room 3200 of Innovation Research Park Building I. The seminar and a reception with refreshments that begins at 3 p.m. are free and open to the public.

Atkinson is ODU's Samuel and Fay Slover Professor of Oceanography. His interest in harnessing offshore winds to produce electricity stems from his research in the coastal ocean and his work on behalf of the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium, which produced a 67-page report last year promoting wind turbine projects off the coast of Virginia.

The report, which reflected 30 months of fact-finding and analysis by researchers affiliated with Virginia universities and industries, identified sufficient potential for offshore winds to provide 10 percent of Virginia's annual electricity demand in high-wind zones 12 miles or more off the coast - beyond the visual horizon - on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).