Water Power
Hydropower continues to serve as an important source of renewable energy. SAFL has a long legacy of hydropower research, with SAFL's original director, Lorenz Straub, serving to test and inform the design of hydroelectric projects around the globe. Today, SAFL hydropower research looks to not only inform more environmentally friendly hydropower practices, including both traditional dam designs and the testing and incorporation of hydrokinetic turbines, but also has worked on assessing the impacts of dam removal projects.
Affiliated Faculty
Roger Arndt
Michele Guala
John Gulliver
Lian Shen
SAFL Researchers
Matthew Lueker
Jeffrey Marr
Read about SAFL research projects with this topic (filter "Hydropower Projects" if needed):
Wind Turbine Generated Sound
Posted
As the wind energy sector grows, environmental impacts and public perception become increasingly important. One common public concern about wind energy farms is wind turbine-generated noise.A major component of this project project was to provide technically defensible data characterizing wind turbine-generated noise and the human response to wind turbine-generated noise.
Development of tower and foundation assessment tools for utility-scale wind turbines
Posted
Wind turbine operators must asses turbine foundation structural health after extreme weather events, or before repower projects. SAFL engineers worked with Barr Engineering to design an inexpensive, noninvasive, and portable system for assessing wind turbine foundation health.
Detection and Perception of Sound by Eagles and Surrogate Raptors
Posted
Could acoustic deterrents be used to prevent eagle and raptor collisions with wind turbines? Researchers from a wide range of backgrounds and institutions worked together on this project to begin acoustic deterrent research for the Department of Energy. This project mapped the hearing range of raptors, collected and categorized eagle calls and vocalizations, and evaluated bald eagle response to various synthetic and natural sounds.