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EWC Seminar by David Farnham: Climate-related risks and opportunities for 21st century energy systems.

September 24, 2021 @ 12:50 pm - 1:40 pm

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Environmental, Water Resources, and Coastal Engineering Seminar Series

Virtual seminar link: https://ncsu.zoom.us/j/92010077484?pwd=aFlOQmp5dHVKMmNnK0w0Qi9hREJWdz09

Abstract: Weather and climate conditions impact energy infrastructure operations in numerous and critical ways. For example, heating and cooling energy demands are dependent on temperatures, and the productivity of wind and solar generation farms are subject to surface wind and cloud cover conditions. Transitioning to a low-carbon energy system
and relying more on wind and solar power generation is likely to increase our energy system’s dependence on weather conditions. This potential increased exposure to variable weather conditions presents a new set of challenges and opportunities for energy system planners and operators to design adaptive, reliable, and resilient systems. In this talk I will highlight work that quantifies weather- and climate-related risks and opportunities for an evolving energy system. I will also present a statistical modeling tool for grid planning to understand the risks of undersupply in wind and solar generation scenarios and an applied modeling effort to provide a rough estimate of the economic cost effectiveness of a globally interconnected wind and solar powered electricity grid.

Biography: David Farnham combines earth science, data science, and systems analysis to (1) identify vulnerabilities of our water and energy infrastructure to climate variability and climate change, (2) quantify climate hazards to these critical infrastructure systems, and (3) conduct research that supports efforts to design and operate adaptive and resilient
engineered water and energy systems that limit exposure to climate risks and make use of the opportunities presented by nature. David is a postdoctoral research fellow at Carnegie Science and the Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University working with Dr. Ken Caldeira. David is an engineer and applied scientist who investigates climate risk to critical water and energy infrastructure. David holds a PhD from the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University where he studied under the advisement of Dr. Upmanu Lall.

Details

Date:
September 24, 2021
Time:
12:50 pm - 1:40 pm
Event Categories:
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Venue

Raleigh, NC United States + Google Map