Rm. 119,
Office Phone Number: 806 651 2296
E-mail kstarcher
I
started as an undergraduate assistant in 1976 working for Dr. Vaughn Nelson.
When AEI was formed in 1977, I was one of the student slaves. I have been here
ever since. During these 38 years, we have installed more than 85 small renewable
systems at our test sites (Nance Ranch, field tests in Borger, Tulia and Canyon
City Well fields, the Wind Test Center, north of the WTAMU campus, USDA,
Bushland, TX and the AEI-Regional Wind Test Center (at Nance Ranch)) as well as
helping industry in California sites near Palm Springs, wind farms here in
Texas and assisting with airfoil/blade design for many others.
We
were collecting wind data all over our region, and helped companies/agencies
with met tower maintenance and installation in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona,
Vermont, Kansas and Oklahoma. A past project was installing a home sized system
for the Hale County Farm and Ranch Museum for SECO. We also helped the Texas
Parks and Wildlife Department with Sheldon Lake State Park improvements and
incorporating renewables for educational purposes. Several small wind turbines
have been built at High Schools in South Texas (Laredo, McAllen/Weslaco) and
here in the Panhandle.
I have had the great
pleasure to travel to Jamaica, China (5 times), South Africa, Korea, Germany
(twice), Italy, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, France, England, Holland
(Rotterdam, Zaanse Schans,
Amsterdam) , Brazil (Manaus, Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paulo), Thailand, Japan (3
times, Tokyo, Hokkaido), Costa Rica, Chile and all over Texas and the USA.
I have learned to
program computers and data loggers, collected and analyze data for long term
projects and high speed data for short term tests, produced templates for blade
manufacturers to test new thin airfoils, coordinated student/staff schedules,
examined modal vibrations of wind turbine blades (learning
from Rich Osgood of NREL), collected the first flow visualization images
of blades from operating wind turbines (Dr. David
Eggleston taught me alot), manufactured VAWT joint fillets (Dr. Woody Stoddard taught us everything) for 34 m
vertical axis test bed, and conducted thin airfoil blade tests (with Bruce Andrews).
( ) The people in the parenthesis are the main
forces behind each project.
I have worked with
lots of people over the years, students, faculty and foreign interns. A
comprehensive 35 year look at AEI is in the works and will be ended now. Each
person that has been associated with AEI has left a little bit of new knowledge
and hopefully taken away more than they left. As Associate Director of Training
Education and Outreach at AEI, I saw that it followed the path charted this
last 1/3 century to make renewables more attractive to our world.
Our beloved AEI was
closed on Sept 30, 2015, leaving all wind related work for the UL Wind lab to
complete or handle. We had a great run as the best renewable energy
training/testing facility at a University in the world. The people we have
trained and the methods/discoveries we have seen have helped our industry
locally ( Texas #1 in wind capacity) and
internationally. Just wish we had made more money at it so the effort could
have continued.
As an instructor I
will teach and pass along anything that I have learned so that the students get
to do things their way, but with the knowledge that it can be done lots of
ways. And my way is just the best.
Anything
to do with space interests me, lots of books on moon exploration and
astronautics are in my bookshelf. The MARS lander Spirit/Opportunity is
especially interesting as I have my name on the DVD's mounted to the lander
frames, part of the Planetary Society effort. Celebrating the 50th
anniversary of US manned space flight today too (May 1960 – 2010). I have a
soft spot for minerals too, keeping a large collection of rock eggs and spheres
that I have collected from all over the world on trips.
I
have a computer near me at ALL times. I have worked with lots of systems and
the main claim to fame is that of the 5 systems in the Smithsonian display on
personal computers in
Just
purchased the ‘Race for the X Prize’
DVD, the flight of SpaceShipOne and that was so great
to watch it live when it happened in the JBK here on campus. The movie ‘The Internship’ shows SpaceShipOne hanging in Google Headquarters in Palo Alto,
CA. (SpaceShipTwo had its inaugural take off March 2010). And don’t forget the
SpaceX system orbit later that year (December 2010). And the ISS supply ships
from SpaceX as well as their attempts to land on the barge at sea. The Orion
EFT NASA test was great to watch also. Been monitoring the Solar Impulse Round
the World (RTW) flights that has to stop in Hawaii for
extended time for now.
I
get to play each day doing different jobs, teaching, electrical work,
computers, getting answers for visitors to AEI, traveling and writing, planning
future research, budgeting how to pay for it and the State PAYS me too! It is a
great place to work and Canyon is the best place in
I
share my home with my lovely wife Madeleine Tainton, an artist, teacher,
videographer, baker and cat cushion. Daughter Daisy abandoned Texas and took
over the East coast,
Laura
(Dallas), Donna (Oregon) and Nathan (Fort Worth) are all doing well from my
practice marriage and I miss them ALL terribly from time to time.
I
am a dedicated Robert A. Heinlein fan, have all his paperbacks and constantly
upgrade to hardbacks when I can find them. I am a die hard, bleed
AND
A SPECIAL WELCOME TO
HEAD COACH JAY GRUDEN !!!
Love to watch old classic movies
and anything else on my satellite dish until a good musical comes on. Current
favorites are:
MS 1995, WTAMU, Engineering Tech
BS 1980, WTSU, Physics/Computer
Science
Vaughn
Nelson and
Report for
AEI Report 2003-1, August 2003,
Alternative Energy Institute,
V. Nelson,
K. Starcher, H. Ito and P. Lockwood,
"Extreme Wind Events"
AWEA Windpower 2003,
Vaughn Nelson, Earl Gilmore and
Kenneth Starcher, INTRODUCTION TO WIND ENERGY, AEI, Report 94-2, September
1994, 39 pgs.
F.S. Stoddard, V.C. Nelson, B.C.
Andrews, and K.L. Starcher, "Atmospheric Testing of a
Special Purpose HAWT Airfoil Family,"
EWEC Conference,
2000 WTAMU Clarence Thompson Staff
Excellence Award
Board of Directors, American Wind
Energy Association (AWEA) 2002-2003
Texas Renewable Energy Industry
Association, (TREIA) -
Individual Member of the Year,
2005
Small Wind Educator of the Year,
2010
The Planetary Society
The Artemis Foundation