In 2016, Block Island, Rhode Island, transitioned from diesel generators to five offshore wind turbines, marking the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States. On October 25, a multidisciplinary team of 50 individuals from Stony Brook University visited the installation to gain insights into wind power technology.
Stony Brook University is actively integrating wind power research across various academic disciplines as part of The New York Climate Exchange. Heather Lynch, director of Collaborative for the Earth (C4E) and professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook’s Institute for Advanced Computational Science, emphasized the educational value of such field trips. “We’ve worked to integrate offshore wind into a number of classroom activities and student events,” she stated.
Lynch led the expedition alongside Reuben Kline from the Department of Political Science and David Taylor from the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS). Lynch noted, “It’s important to get faculty and students out of the classroom and into the wild,” highlighting how firsthand experiences can influence perceptions about shoreline developments.
Linda O’Keeffe, chair of Stony Brook University’s Department of Art, aimed to capture sound recordings combining oceanic and turbine sounds. She expressed concerns about potential impacts on marine life due to underwater noise pollution. “What’s the concern for sea life? There hasn’t been a whole lot of research in relation to turbines,” she remarked.
Students like Iris Rosenhagen and Jason Jiang are exploring future career paths related to sustainable energy. Rosenhagen is interested in green urban design while Jiang considers wind power as a viable option for his mechanical engineering career.
Sharon Pochron from SoMAS is involved in climate change mitigation projects such as carbon sequestration using water ferns. She looked forward to observing a wind farm firsthand amid debates about their proximity to land.
Earlier this year, Governor Kathy Hochul announced nearly $4 million in grants for workforce development through Offshore Wind Training Institute programs at Stony Brook University and other campuses within New York State.
The visit brought together representatives from over twelve academic departments including engineering, arts, political science, ecology, and marine sciences. Lynch commented on this interdisciplinary collaboration: “Many of the people on this boat have never met with those in other departments... This is a chance to realize that artists and engineers and marine scientists can all be thinking about the same things.”
— Robert Emproto