Dr. Robert Thresher

Job Title: 
Director
Organization: 
National Wind Technology Center
Conversation: 
No Longer Tilting at Windmills

Dr. Bob Thresher is the Director of the National Wind Technology Center
in Golden, Colorado, which is a division of the U.S. Department of
Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). He earned a
tenured professorship in Mechanical Engineering at Oregon State
University where he taught courses in Applied Mechanics, and initiated
pioneering researcher in the mechanics of Wind Energy Systems during
the 1970’s and early 80’s. He joined NREL in 1984 and has provided
leadership for the growth of NREL’s wind program from $5MM/year at its
inception, to its current level of about $30MM/year. He has published
extensively and is recognized internationally as one of the leading
experts in research, development and commercialization of wind
technologies. He also serves as a member of the Advisory Panel on Ocean
Energy Technologies for the Electric Power Research Institute.