Iowa State team named finalist in national wind energy competition

AMES — An Iowa State University student group was selected as one of 13 teams to move on and compete in phase 2 of the 2023 Collegiate Wind Competition held by the United States Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Teams are being challenged to design and build a prototype wind turbine for an offshore wind farm.

The annual competition aims to prepare college students for jobs in the wind energy workforce through real-world wind energy technology, project development, and outreach experience.

The Iowa State team includes several students from the Cedar Rapids area who are passionate about renewable energy. They are finalizing their design for the wind turbine prototype, building it and testing it for their hypothetical offshore wind farm. They will present their project to a panel this spring.

Isaac Twedt-Ball, 21, a senior at Iowa State studying mechanical engineering and one of the students on this project, said offshore wind farms are fairly new. The first offshore wind farm in the United States was built in 2016 off the coast of Rhode Island.

Part of the project is finding a way to build an anchoring mechanism that can endure 55 mile per hour winds. Their prototype includes 20 centimeters of sand and 10 centimeters of water, said Twedt-Ball, who graduated from Washington High School in Cedar Rapids in 2019.

The Collegiate Wind Competition focuses on challenges associated with fixed-bottom offshore wind energy projects and calls on teams to create:

Nathan Morton, 20, a junior at Iowa State studying mechanical engineering who is also a member of the project, said he’s always thinking of ways to improve and implement clean, renewable energy.

When Morton was in middle school, he recalls his eighth grade earth science teacher telling the class, “We’ll hit a tipping point by 2030” when some environmental changes could become irreversible. Morton graduated from Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School in 2020.

“I plan on being around by 2030,” Morton said. “I understand not everyone has the practical training to combat climate change, but as an engineer, it’s something I can have direct involvement in.”

Adding offshore wind turbines is an important step toward making “true and meaningful steps toward clean energy,” Morton said.

Drew Jensen, 21, a junior at Iowa State studying electrical engineering, who also graduated from Kennedy in 2020, said the project deepened his interest in renewable energy.

“I fully and thoroughly believe climate change is the biggest issue we will face in the next 10 to 20 years,” Jensen said.

The Biden administration has set its sights on 100 percent clean electricity by 2035 and a net-zero-carbon-emissions economy by 2050. Wind energy — now the largest source of renewable power in the United States — can help meet those goals. The growing wind energy industry will need a robust workforce to fill a wide range of roles.

The competition gives college students the opportunity to build the skills and connections that will help them find jobs in the wind and renewable energy industries.

The Iowa State team is advised by Sri Sritharan, assistant dean for research and Wilkinson Chair in the College of Engineering at Iowa State; Anson Marston distinguished professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, and Anne Kimber, director of Iowa State’s Electric Power Research Center.

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