U.S. Department of Energy Collegiate Wind Competition organizers have announced the judges for the 2016 competition, which will take place May 24-25 at the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) WINDPOWER conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

“The competition relies on the expertise of these distinguished professionals, who bring a variety of skills and knowledge to their role as judges,” said Elise DeGeorge, competition operations manager. “We are so pleased to welcome these 10 judges as members of the Collegiate Wind Competition organizing team, and we know they will be inspired by the enthusiasm and potential of these competitors.”

At the Collegiate Wind Competition 2016, the 12 student teams will compete in four contests—business plan, technical design, deployment strategy, and turbine testing—and a separate bonus challenge. Judge panels assign points to products that determine each team's score and standing.

Business Plan Judges

Business Plan judges are professionals with expertise in venture capital, business development, and small wind marketing. They review each team’s business plan to ensure that it is concise, engaging, and focuses on all aspects of product development up to the point when the turbine is ready to ship.

Alicia Barton

Alicia Barton serves as chief of operations for the Global Utility Business Unit at SunEdison—the world’s largest renewable energy development company. Previously, she served as the chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. In 2015, Alicia was named one of the Boston Business Journal’s top business leaders under the age of 40 in its annual “40 Under 40” rankings.

 
Andy Kruse

For nearly 30 years, Andy Kruse has been involved in international marketing, sales development of certification standards, and public policy. As a co-founder of Southwest Windpower, a clean technology start-up, Andy was able to build an internationally recognized brand within the clean energy industry. Later, he joined Endurance Wind Power and established one of the first small wind leasing programs in the United States. In 2009, AWEA awarded him Small Wind, Person of the Year.

Robert Poore

Robert Poore has more than 35 years of experience in the wind energy industry in business operations, strategic planning, domestic and international project feasibility analysis, resource assessment, and technical and economic due diligence. Robert’s experience also includes strategic advising to Fortune 500 organizations and serving as a member of the AWEA Board of Directors and program chair for several AWEA-sponsored conferences.

Technical Design Judges

Technical Design professionals have expertise in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and small turbine manufacturing. They review each team’s technical design to ensure that it provides adequate detail of the baseline and operating properties of the turbine and its subsystems, including loading requirements, operational limits, control algorithms, and software.

Drew Eisenberg

Drew Eisenberg, design and innovation engineer, at Siemens Wind Power focuses on the design of wind turbine blade aerodynamics. He has also worked on turbine loads, controllers, leading-edge erosion, and business case development of new technologies. He is an expert at power curve creation and validation and develops tools for determining wind turbine platform configurations and cost modeling.

 
Gerard Schepers

Gerard Schepers currently serves as the senior researcher and project manager at the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands as well as a professor of wind energy at the Noordelijke Hogeschool Leeuwarden University of Applied Sciences. His topics of expertise include rotor aerodynamics, wind farm aerodynamics, aeroelasticity, aero-acoustics, wind tunnel testing, wind turbine blade design, and cost optimization. Since 2012, Gerard has also been involved with organizing a small wind turbine contest for student teams on an annual basis.

Mike Bergey

Co-founder, president, and chief executive officer of Bergey Windpower Co., Mike Bergey is a mechanical engineer and an internationally recognized expert in the fields of small wind systems, distributed generation, and green telecommunications. He holds one patent, has authored more than 70 technical papers and articles in the field, and has provided testimony to the United States Congress.

Deployment Strategy Judges

These professionals have expertise in wind site evaluation and selection, permitting, project life cycle, stakeholder outreach, installation, maintenance, and off-grid, developing country, aid agency, and non-profit applications. They review each team’s description of the relative wind resource required for unit operation (turbine and load) and how this resource overlaps with the target market.

Patrick Gilman

Patrick Gilman serves as a manager for market acceleration and deployment activities in the U.S. Department of Energy's Wind and Water Power Technologies Office. In this role, he leads R&D investments, interagency activities, and other efforts aimed at overcoming siting, permitting, and other non-technology barriers to the development of land-based and offshore wind, hydropower, and marine and hydrokinetic energy technologies in the United States.

 
Charles Newcomb

Charles Newcomb is the director of technical strategy for Endurance Wind Power, where he developed the company’s process for energy estimation and strives to find the balance of affordability and accuracy for desktop studies of distributed wind projects. Charles has also served as vice president of the Small Wind Certification Council Board of Directors, managing director for Entegrity Wind Systems, and chief technology officer for NexGen Energy Partners. Charles Newcomb will also support the bonus challenge as a judge.

 
Rachel McManus

Rachel McManus is a clean energy entrepreneur with a passion for improving energy access in Haiti. She is the executive director of EarthSpark International and the president of Enèji Pwòp S.A. During her 5 years in Haiti, she oversaw the expansion of Enèji Pwòp, increasing sales of clean energy retail products by 400% in her first year. After successfully commissioning Haiti’s first pre-pay, town-sized, solarized smart microgrid in June 2015, EarthSpark is preparing to roll out 80 grids by the end of 2020.

Robyn McGuckin

Robyn McGuckin is the vice president of International Operations at Global Communities, an international non-profit focused on community-led development worldwide. Throughout her career, she has helped organizations around the world develop and advance their strategies and programs in the areas of clean energy, climate, and international development.

 

Bonus Challenge Judges

These professionals have expertise in installation, maintenance, stakeholder outreach, and off-grid as well as developing country, aid agency, and non-profit applications. Prior to the wind tunnel test, judges view each team's video or other presentation of their load in operation. During the wind tunnel test, bonus challenge judges will focus on the display of the loading system. The winning load system will offer the most creative, functional, informative, and elegant representation and display of the power being generated by the turbine in the wind tunnel, while also properly acting as the load on the turbine. In addition to Charles Newcomb—a deployment strategy judge—and an NREL organizer judging the bonus challenge, one other judge will join in to determine the winner of the bonus challenge:

Remy Pangle

Remy Pangle is the associate director of the Center for Wind Energy (CWE) at James Madison University and also the education and outreach coordinator for the center.  She is responsible for staff and project management as well as developing courses, curriculum, and maintaining the classroom kit lending library. This work is done in coordination with the Virginia Wind for School Program where CWE assists Virginia public schools in developing small wind and solar projects on their campus.