Symposium Addresses State/National Wind Energy Initiatives and Issues

HARRISONBURG - Methods for teaching energy education, the benefits of 20 percent wind energy by 2030, potential for developing offshore wind farms and utilities' commitments to wind development in Virginia are among topics that will be discussed Wednesday, June 18 and Thursday, June 19, at a wind energy symposium at James Madison University. 

Registration for the conference, sponsored by the Virginia Wind Energy Collaborative at JMU, is closed, but journalists are welcome to cover the workshops and other sessions. 

Wednesday's events include a welcome from JMU President Linwood Rose and a keynote address from Tom Tuffey, director of the PennFuture Center for Energy, Enterprise and the Environment in Philadelphia. 

Tuffey has been actively involved in more than two dozen mergers, acquisitions and many organization startups. He has served on many boards of directors in both the private and public interest sectors. 

He was the executive director of the Sustainable Energy Fund, a $20 million non-profit private finance company focused on central Pennsylvania. He was also an executive committee member of the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA), the trade association of the 17 state clean energy funds, with resources of $4 billion. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Energy Advisory Council and an adviser to the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority. 

More information about the symposium, including the schedule, is available at the symposium Web site.