Ocean Wind Power: Is it the key for a rapid transition to renewable energy?

March 9, 2018 
ME Lecture Hall
1300

Max F. Platzer

Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Naval Postgraduate School

Abstract

In his lecture Dr. Platzer will argue that the time has come to develop innovative engineering solutions to reduce the global carbon dioxide emissions in order to avert irreversible climate change. He will first present the empirical evidence for global climate change and draw attention to the fact that the available global wind resources are quite sufficient to combat climate change if the winds over the oceans are exploited for power generation. He will show how large unmanned autonomously operating sailing ships can be used to convert the ocean wind power into hydrogen in order to convert the global fossil-based economy into a global hydrogen-based economy. He will conclude with an assessment of recent initiatives to combat climate change. In particular, he will draw attention to the recent call for a Global Apollo Program.

Biography

Dr. Max F. Platzer is an emeritus professor in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School and an adjunct professor of mechanical & aerospace engineering at the University of California  Davis. From 1960 to 1966 he was a member of Wernher von Braun's SATURN rocket development team at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and from 1966 to 1970 he was chief of the aeromechanics research section at the Lockheed-Georgia Research Center in Marietta, Georgia. He joined the Department of Aeronautics of the Naval Postgraduate School in 1970 and served as its chairman from 1978 to 1988 and from 2000 to 2003. Dr. Platzer received the distinguished professor medal of the Naval Postgraduate School in 1995 and the NAVAIR Compass Award for outstanding teaching in 1999.  He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Since 2006 he serves as editor of the international review journal "Progress in Aerospace Sciences".

POC

Dr. Daniel A. Nussbaum
Naval Postgraduate School 
Principal, Energy Academic Group
Monterey CA 93943
Phone: 831-656-2387
Mobile: 831-324-3228
Email: dnussbaum@nps.edu