Values and Perceptions of Place, Offshore Wind Energy and the Environment along the Eastern Seaboard

Wind projects provide a valuable opportunity to understand how individuals make sense of changes to their communities and to the surrounding landscape.  The presentation will consider this question based on the results of a 2013 mail survey of individuals residing in shore communities of Lewes, Delaware and Atlantic City, New Jersey along three dimensions:  (1) existing community-based, on-land wind projects; (2) proposed small-scale, near-shore offshore demonstration wind projects; and (3) transmission of offshore wind power to shore, where such developments perhaps most directly intersect with the lives of community members.

Professor Firestone is the Director of the Center for Carbon-free Power Integration (CCPI) at the University of Delaware (UD), which fosters interdisciplinary and collaborative scientific research; engages decision makers, industry and civil society and acts as an “honest broker” among them; and enhances the education of the present generation of students with the goal of facilitating the transition to power generation using carbon-free geophysical flows.  The Wind Power Program, initiated in 2003, is a major focal area of the  (CCPI) and conducts research, education, and outreach on wind power, with emphasis on coastal and offshore wind.

Date: 
Thursday, February 4, 2016 - 4:00pm
Location: 
Holdsworth Rm. 211
Year: 
2016
Semester: