Joint IEEE Section and
Power Society Meeting

Solar and Alternative Energy
The Engineering Issues

Speaker: Dean Patterson Dean Patterson was born, raised, and educated in the Southern city of Adelaide, Australia. He has degrees from the University of Adelaide in Australian. In 1984, he went to the remote tropical north of Australia, to the city of Darwin, to help set up a new university. He was responsible for the 4 year undergraduate degree program, the graduate degree program, and the establishment of a research focus. He immediately got involved in building solar cars for the tri-annual races across Australia which began in 1987 so the research focus naturally ended up in the area of solar and alternative energy. He developed a high performance electric traction system for the solar vehicles and specialised his research into high performance axial flux permanent magnet machines.

In 2001, he moved to the USA to the University of South Carolina as a research professor working on the electric ship program of the US Navy and in 2004 was invited to the University of Nebraska Lincoln to help set up courses in Energy Studies.

He is the author of about 100 technical papers. He is a Fellow of both the Institution of Engineers Australia and the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He has been very active in the IEEE Power Electronics Society having recently completed a 2 year term as President of that society.His spin-off company from the Northern Territory University specializing in very high efficiency electric machines was bought in 2006 by FASCO, who were more recently acquired by Regal Beloit. He now divides his time between the company and UNL.

Event Date: Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Meeting Location: Misty's Restaurant, 200 North 11th St, Lincoln - across from Embassy Suites

Sign in & Happy Hour: 5:00 P.M.

Dinner Served: 5:30 P.M.

Presentation & Questions: 6:10 P.M.

Meal Price and Selections:

• $28 - 8oz Prime Rib
• $28 - Chicken Florentine
• $14 - Student 8oz Prime Rib
• $14 - Student Chicken Florentine

All meals include a beverage.

IEEE Student meals are half-price ($14).

This presentation is worth One (1.0) Professional Development Hour. Indicate your need for a PDH certificate during sign in at the meeting or on the sign up form below.

Sponsor: Open

Topic Overview: The subject of "alternative" or "renewable" energy is one which typically evokes emotive and political responses and these responses often have higher visibility than the engineering issues. The case is made that, following the second law of thermodynamics, no energy is renewable. An energy "budget" for our globe is presented, in terms of energy income, expenditure, and what is "in the bank." This presentation provides a science / engineering overview of possible alternative energy sources presenting information which can help determine their viability in different situations. While the presentation is primarily about sources of energy, information on the other two important aspects, storage and efficiency of use, is presented.