Michael J. Dvorak Research Assistant/PhD Student Civil and Environmental Engineering Atmosphere/Energy Program Stanford University Email: dvorak at stanford.edu

Welcome to the home page of Michael (Mike) Dvorak. I am working as a research assistant/PhD student for Prof. Mark Jacobson in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Stanford University. My main area of research is quantifying where and how much offshore wind energy exists in the US and the world. I am currently working on quantifying the wind energy off the Western Coast of the United States.

Contact info

Atmosphere/Energy Program - 390A
Yang & Yamasaki Environment & Energy Building - 4020
473 Via Ortega
Stanford, CA 94305-4121

Curriculum Vita

Recent Papers, Posters, and Presentations

• California offshore wind resource map and proposed Cape Mendocino wind park
• Dvorak, M.J., Jacobson, M.Z., Archer, C.L. (2007): California offshore wind resource potential. American Wind Energy Association Windpower 2007 Conference & Exhibition, Los Angeles, California, June 1-6, 2007.
  Accompanying poster (PDF)

GIS Data

• Unique GIS data.

Wind

• OffshoreWind.net - Excellent website tracking proposed project statuses in North America.
• The Wind (YouTube movie) - Quite possibly the best short movie about renewable energy... ever
• Mageen Wind Turbines - A novel wind turbine design
• SWAY - A floating offshore turbine tower support idea.

Compressed Air Energy Storage

• General Compression - A wind turbine air compression system to provide reliable wind energy to the grid.

Global Warming

• Grist's guide to dealing with global warming skeptics - An exhaustive FAQ about global warming to bring to your next family gathering.

Air Pollution

• Wood Burning Handbook (PDF) from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District - Thinking about lighting your fireplace for ambiance or heat in an urban area? Stop and get the facts about this inefficient and unhealthy source of energy.

Carbon Markets

• Carbon Capping Citizen's Guide by Peter Barnes
• Making Carbon Markets Work by David Victor and Danny Cullenward

Sustainability

• CarbonNeutral.Org - An incredibly precise carbon calculator. As of August 2007, my current carbon footprint is 23 tons CO2 equivalent per year (2.3 times the world average).
  UPDATE: On 2008-04-23 I bought 13.54 tonnes from carboncounter.org for $162.48 to offset my air travel from September 2006 through April 2008.
• California Air Resources Board carbon calculator - Incredibly cool carbon calculator although California centric. Uses $$ spent on things as a proxy to carbon emission rates. As of May 2008, after making a lifestyle change of living aboard a 33 foot sailboat, my annual carbon emissions are now down to only 9 tons CO2.
• Human Powered Housing Project - Human powered bike housing
• The Stabilization Triangle - From the Carbon Mitigation Initiative at Princeton University

Coal

• Moutaintop Removal for Coal Mining - Feeling happy right now? Watch this depressing short documentary about where your cheap electricity really comes from.

Water Heating

• Drain-Water Heat Recovery

Lighting

• Hybrid Solar Lighting - Uses fiber optic cables in conjunction with a solar rooftop concentrator to spread sunlight throughout a building. A back-up electric lighting system provides lighting when sunlight is low.

Sailing - Weather and Charts

Keelboat sailing in the San Francisco Bay is my newly found obsession. The Bay Area is one of the best places in the world for sailing!

• NOAA's Online Chart Viewer for the Pacific Coast
• NOAA's Weather Activity Planner for the South San Francisco Bay - Times that are highlighted represent when winds are between 8 and 15 knots and the temperatures are between 60 and 85 deg F; perfect sailing weather.
• NOAA's Online Tide Charts

Personal

You can find lots of travel, bike, and random other photos at MikeMath.net (temporarily down, sorry).

Linux/Unix

• LinuxCommand.org - Great resource for people learning Unix.

Misc

• Making a Quick Homepage - Stanford ITSS
• Virgil - Some corporations have taken a liking to editing their own Wikipedia page. WikiScanner allows anybody to track the IP address (with host name) and geographical location of where the edit came from. Often, as in the case of ExxonMobil and Diebold, companies made egregious edits to their own pages.

Updated: 2008-07-18