New Jersey’s Governor Phil Murphy has established clean energy as “vital for our future from both an economic development and environmental sustainability perspective.” The Murphy Administration has set forth the New Jersey Energy Master Plan, which will put the state onto a path towards 100% clean energy by 2050. Offshore wind has the potential to supply substantial amounts of clean energy to meet the State’s and the Nation’s power needs while creating jobs and addressing the climate crisis. Furthermore, offshore wind power plants can provide reliable and increasingly affordable renewable power near coastal energy load centers where there is a scarcity of sites for terrestrial large-scale renewable energy development.
Southern Jersey is the center of the regional wind plan, with a wind port under construction nearby in Salem County, and the first ocean wind farm opening off of Atlantic City. Rowan University (the college of engineering, and the ECE and ME departments) is already engaged in supporting activities, creating new educational and research opportunities, in collaboration with NJEDA, industry companies, as well as other institutions. Short- and medium-term workforce needs have been identified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NERL) with the offshore wind industry alone expected to provide approximately 7,000 new jobs in Southern New Jersey by 2028.
Recognizing the emerging industry needs, and there is no such a program in any institution of New Jersey, as well as to further advance Rowan’s leading role in such initiatives, the Electrical and Computer Engineering, in collaboration with Mechanical Engineering, will be offering a Certificate of Graduate Study (COGS) in wind energy, consisting of four courses (12 credit hours). This COGS is designed to provide a breadth and depth to students who want to specialize in wind energy systems and prepare them for a career in the wind energy industry. Students taking this COGS will first take two required courses. One from ECE and one from ME, which introduce fundamental knowledge related to wind energy. Then the students will have flexibility to choose two additional electives from a wide elective bank from both ECE and ME. A unique aspect of this COGS is that it will develop graduates with a technical foundation in both electrical and mechanical side of the wind energy systems. Through this four-class sequence, students will be able to articulate the core concepts of wind energy, as well as different technical aspects associated with the operation of single turbines, and the entire wind farm. The completion of this COGS will provide students with the necessary skill sets to start a career in wind energy industry or continue their education through graduate programs.
