For more than 30 years, Dr. Dennis Scanlin has taught and researched how to make renewable energy technology and create economic development that improves the world and makes it more sustainable.
“The study of Sustainable Technology has been and continues to be a very exciting field of study for me,” said Scanlin, who founded both the Sustainable Technology and Construction Technology programs at Appalachian and co-founded the university’s Sustainable Development program.
Energy education and renewable energy technology have been the major focus of his work. Particularly over the last 10 years, he has worked with renewable electricity system design and construction.
Scanlin has designed, constructed and tested many renewable energy systems – including solar ovens, food dryers, lumber kilns, water heaters, water distillers, space heating systems, green houses, and small hydro, wind, and photovoltaic systems.
Scanlin has developed and taught numerous courses and public workshops focusing on a variety of renewable energy technologies. He has directed Appalachian’s N.C. Wind Application Center that includes the operation of the Small Wind Research and Demonstration facility on Beech Mountain, the Western North Carolina Anemometer Loan Program, North Carolina Wind for Schools Program, the wind.appstate.edu web site, and a variety of outreach and technical assistance programs related to renewable energy.
In 2008, he received the Small Wind Advocate of the Year Award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Powering America program.
“The research and teaching in this area has inspired my creativity and problem-solving abilities and has allowed me to meet and get to know terrific people who are committed to finding better ways of doing things and who are helping to create a more sustainable world,” Scanlin said. “(Sustainable Technology is) truly a transformational program.”
Dr. Dennis Scanlin founded Appalachian’s Sustainable Technology program and has coordinated it for the last 32 years.
Solar food dryers based on a design by Appalachian’s Dennis Scanlin are being used worldwide. Here, two women in Afghanistan use the food dryer to dry fruit. (Photo courtesy of Robert Foster)
