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What are the Implications of Generating 30% of our Energy from Wind?

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:07:43 +0000

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory today released a major study of the technical, operational, and economic issues facing the integration of large amounts of wind energy into the power system. The Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study (EWITS), the largest study of its kind conducted in the United States to date, evaluates the future operational and integration impacts of up to 30% wind energy penetration into the power system in the study year 2024. The study encompasses the majority of the utilities in the Eastern Interconnection. The study also includes a high-level analysis of transmission needed to deliver the wind energy to load centers and a cursory analysis of carbon pricing impacts.

The study consists of three main parts: a wind resource assessment and wind plant siting study, a transmission study, and a wind integration study. The results of the study show that:

•There are no fundamental technical barriers to the integration of 20% wind energy into the electrical system, but transmission planning and system operation policy and market development need to continue to evolve in order for these penetration levels to be achieved;

•Without transmission enhancements, substantial curtailment of wind generation would be required for all of the 20% wind penetration scenarios;

•Interconnection-wide costs for integrating large amounts of wind generation are manageable with large regional operating pools, because increasing the geographic diversity of wind power projects in a given operating pool generally makes the aggregated wind power output more predicable and less variable, while also reducing the variation in load and increasing the number of generation assets that can be committed and dispatched;

•Although the costs of aggressive expansion of the existing grid are significant, they make up a relatively small piece of the total annual power system costs in any of the scenarios studied;

•Wind generation displaces carbon-based fuels, directly reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Emissions continue to decline as more wind generation is added to the energy supply; and

•Reduced expenditures on fossil fuel costs more than pay for the increased costs of transmission in all wind scenarios.

For more information about DOE’s work on incorporating increasing amounts of wind energy into the power system while maintaining reliable grid operations, see the Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program’s Renewable Systems Interconnection page.

DOE is sponsoring a similar study that is examining the integration of both wind and solar energy into part of the Western Interconnection. The Western Wind and Solar Integration Study will evaluate issues similar to EWITS and is scheduled for completion in mid-2010.

Source: EERE

Vestas Receives Order for V90-3.0 Mwatt Turbines in Canada

admin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:04:50 +0000

Vestas has entered into an agreement with TransAlta to supply and service 18 additional units of the V90-3.0 MW wind turbine at the Kent Hills site near Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. Delivery and construction is expected in early 2010 and commissioning scheduled for completion in late 2010. The order includes a five-year service and maintenance agreement with Vestas.

The 18-turbine order is an expansion of the site that already includes 32 units of the V90-3.0 MW commissioned in 2008. Once completed, the total installed capacity of the 50 units will be 150 megawatts.

Martha Wyrsch, President of Vestas Americas had this to say;

“The V90-3.0 MW turbine is currently the largest wind turbine in commercial operation in North America. We are excited to play an important role in the development of Canada’s wind-generating capacity. We look forward to continuing the long-term working relationship with TransAlta.”

Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, TransAlta is Canada’s largest publicly-traded provider of renewable energy.

As of June 30, 2009, Vestas had supplied 828 turbines to Canadian wind power plants.

Hydrogenics Awarded Development Contract With the Canadian Space Agency

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:59:26 +0000

Hydrogenics Corporation, a leading developer and manufacturer of hydrogen generation and fuel cell products, today announced the award of a contract for the development of a next generation power system to be used for surface mobility applications on the moon. The scope of the contract includes an electrolyzer that produces both hydrogen and oxygen using solar power and a fuel cell system to be used for mobility, auxiliary, and life support systems. Hydrogenics has partnered with MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (TSX:MDA), an internationally recognized leader in information systems, having provided advanced technology solutions to the Canadian space program for over three decades; Routes AstroEngineering, a leader in space related solar power, instrumentation, and control systems; and the University of Waterloo, known for its electric drivetrain modeling and energy storage optimization expertise.

“Hydrogenics can provide a unique energy solution for next-generation space exploration, leveraging the power of hydrogen in terms of both energy density and storage capability,” said Daryl Wilson, Hydrogenics President and CEO. “As we gain market traction with commercial installations across the globe, development contracts such as this help refine and advance our technology — making hydrogen an even more attractive resource for a multitude of applications in the years to come.”

ABOUT HYDROGENICS

Hydrogenics Corporation (www.hydrogenics.com) is a globally recognized developer and provider of hydrogen generation and fuel cell products and services, serving the growing industrial and clean energy markets of today and tomorrow. Based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, Hydrogenics has operations in North America and Europe.

New testing system for more efficient fuel cell membranes from FuelCon

admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:38:25 +0000

FuelCon

The conductivity of the membrane material is a critical factor for the efficiency of the fuel cell. Therefore, the measurement of the proton conductivity provides highly valuable information for the further development of this technology.

With the “TrueXessory-PCM Proton Conductivity Measurement“ market launch FuelCon provides a testing system for the development of more efficient fuel cell membranes. The new product allows highly reproducible in-plane measurements of the proton conductivity of PEM and DMFC membranes under defined humidification and temperatures up to 200°C. Designed as a tabletop system, complex hardware like a complete test station including gas supply is not required.

Besides the determination of the high frequency resistance (HFR) the TrueXessory-PCM allows the performance of complete impedance spectra. The innovative in-plane sample holder consists of a 4-electrode measuring head designed for membranes with a typical geometry of 1.5 cm x 4.0 cm.

For the accurately adjustment of the humidification, the PCM is equipped with an integrated water reservoir and heating cartridges, which are controlled by a coupled heat controller. Operated by FuelCon’s software FuelWork, unattended and fully automated test runs with extensive data acquisition can be performed.

Fiber Optic Nano Technology Allows for Solar Generators that are Foldable, Concealed and Mobile

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:47:23 +0000

Using zinc oxide nanostructures grown on optical fibers and coated with dye-sensitized solar cell materials, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new type of three-dimensional photovoltaic system. The approach could allow PV systems to be hidden from view and located away from traditional locations such as rooftops.

“Using this technology, we can make photovoltaic generators that are foldable, concealed and mobile,” said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in the Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering. “Optical fiber could conduct sunlight into a building’s walls where the nanostructures would convert it to electricity. This is truly a three dimensional solar cell.”

Details of the research were published in the early view of the journal Angewandte Chemie International on October 22. The work was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the KAUST Global Research Partnership and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Dye-sensitized solar cells use a photochemical system to generate electricity. They are inexpensive to manufacture, flexible and mechanically robust, but their tradeoff for lower cost is conversion efficiency lower than that of silicon-based cells. But using nanostructure arrays to increase the surface area available to convert light could help reduce the efficiency disadvantage, while giving architects and designers new options for incorporating PV into buildings, vehicles and even military equipment.

Fabrication of the new Georgia Tech PV system begins with optical fiber of the type used by the telecommunications industry to transport data. First, the researchers remove the cladding layer, then apply a conductive coating to the surface of the fiber before seeding the surface with zinc oxide. Next, they use established solution-based techniques to grow aligned zinc oxide nanowires around the fiber much like the bristles of a bottle brush. The nanowires are then coated with the dye-sensitized materials that convert light to electricity.

Sunlight entering the optical fiber passes into the nanowires, where it interacts with the dye molecules to produce electrical current. A liquid electrolyte between the nanowires collects the electrical charges. The result is a hybrid nanowire/optical fiber system that can be up to six times as efficient as planar zinc oxide cells with the same surface area.

“In each reflection within the fiber, the light has the opportunity to interact with the nanostructures that are coated with the dye molecules,” Wang explained. “You have multiple light reflections within the fiber, and multiple reflections within the nanostructures. These interactions increase the likelihood that the light will interact with the dye molecules, and that increases the efficiency.”

Wang and his research team have reached an efficiency of 3.3 percent and hope to reach 7 to 8 percent after surface modification. While lower than silicon solar cells, this efficiency would be useful for practical energy harvesting.

By providing a larger area for gathering light, the technique would maximize the amount of energy produced from strong sunlight, as well as generate respectable power levels even in weak light. The amount of light entering the optical fiber could be increased by using lenses to focus the incoming light, and the fiber-based solar cell has a very high saturation intensity, Wang said.

Wang believes this new structure will offer architects and product designers an alternative PV format for incorporating into other applications.

“This will really provide some new options for photovoltaic systems,” Wang said. “We could eliminate the aesthetic issues of PV arrays on building. We can also envision PV systems for providing energy to parked vehicles, and for charging mobile military equipment where traditional arrays aren’t practical or you wouldn’t want to use them.”

Wang and his research team, which includes Benjamin Weintraub and Yaguang Wei, have produced generators on optical fiber up to 20 centimeters in length. “The longer the better,” said Wang, “because longer the light can travel along the fiber, the more bounces it will make and more it will be absorbed.”

Traditional quartz optical fiber has been used so far, but Wang would like to use less expensive polymer fiber to reduce the cost. He is also considering other improvements, such as a better method for collecting the charges and a titanium oxide surface coating that could further boost efficiency.

Though it could be used for large PV systems, Wang doesn’t expect his solar cells to replace silicon devices any time soon. But he does believe they will broaden the potential applications for photovoltaic energy.

“This is a different way to gather power from the sun,” Wang said. “To meet our energy needs, we need all the approaches we can get.”

Source: Georgia Institute of Technology

Energy Recovery Systems for Existing Transportation Activities – Good Thinking!

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:45:26 +0000

There is a very innovative company that I have been following that is utilizing a physical characteristic known as the Piezo electric effect. Simply put the piezo effect refers to the ability of certian materials to produce an electic current when an external force is applied to it . Innowattech is utilizing this effect to engineer energy generation or more aptly named “energy recovery systems” from existing transportation activities. The Innowattech system generates electricity via an infrastructure of piezoelectric generators and electronic storage systems.

A typical asphalt road can be described as a visco-elasto-plastic material, with the elasticity being its dominant material characteristics. When vehicles pass, the road’s elasticity yields a vertical motion of the asphalt due to loading and unloading.

Generators are embedded 3-4 cm beneath the top surface of the road during construction or re-pavement of roads. Piezoelectric ceramics are used under compressive stress where piezoelectric charge coefficient, d33, as a function of uniaxial stress in the poled direction. Embedding the piezoelectric generators under the upper asphalt layer enables the decrease of the wasted potential energy. This amount of potential energy is stored in the piezoelectric generators and used to produce electricity which then is accumulated in the storage system.

According to the company the system works optimally when the traffic of cars and trucks is at least 600 vehicles per hour. Here is how it works.

When a vehicle passes over a road, the road deflects vertically due to the weight of the vehicle. Then it has to overcome this loss of energy by increasing its velocity, yielding the MPG (miles per gallon) which characterizes the individual vehicle.

When piezoelectric generators are embedded under the asphalt, the total vertical deflection of the road is decreased due to the higher Young’s modulus of the generator. Without harvesting energy, this difference could have improve the MPG of the vehicle, however in our case part of the difference is used to produce electric energy, thus leaving (in the worst case) the MPG without change.

The company has several energy recovery concepts that they are working on such as

pedestrian
railroads
highways
airport runways.

New Working Paper from Carnegie Mellon on Implications of Paying Property Owners for Sequestration of CO2

admin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 19:30:14 +0000

This working paper is available from Carnegie Melon Electricity Industry Center. Link provided at bottom post.

Abstract:Geologic sequestration (GS) of carbon dioxide (CO2) is contingent upon securing the legal right to use deep subsurface pore space. Under the assumption that compensation is required to use pore space for GS, we examine the cost of acquiring rights to sequester 160-million metric tons of CO2 (the 30-year emissions output for an 800 megawatt power plant at 90% capture efficiency) using a probabilistic model to simulate the temporal-spatial distribution of subsurface CO2 plumes in several brine-filled sandstones in Pennsylvania and Ohio. For comparison, the Frio Sandstone in the Texas Gulf Coast and the Mt. Simon Sandstone in Illinois were also analyzed. The predicted CO2 plume distributions have a median range of 3,700 km2 to 9,600 km2 for the Ohio and Pennsylvania sandstones compared to 320 km2 and 300 km2 for the thicker Frio and Mt. Simon Sandstones. We model the cost to use pore space in Pennsylvania and Ohio and, alternatively, the cost of piping CO2 from Pennsylvania and Ohio to the Mt. Simon or Frio Sandstones. The results suggest that pore space acquisition costs could be significant, and that using thin local formations for sequestration may be more expensive than piping CO2 to thicker formations at distant sites.

AUTHOR: R. Lee Gresham, Jay Apt, M. Granger Morgan, Sean T. McCoy

http://www.cmu.edu/electricity

New Gadget for Attic Vents – Saves Energy in Winter

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:38:50 +0000

DALLAS, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ — Turbine Attic Ventilators, those metal roof vents that spin in the wind, have a problem. They suck warmth from the home in winter, wasting a lot of energy every year. The furnace must run longer to replace the lost heat. Some homeowners cover their turbine ventilators in winter with a plastic bag. This saves energy but is much too risky. Today, The Turbine Boss(TM) makes new and old turbine ventilators become energy efficient. It automatically stops the turbine heat loss in winter. Just install it and forget it.

The Turbine Boss(TM) controls the turbine’s airflow. It easily fits inside the turbine’s cylinder. Its louvers automatically rotate from ‘open’ to ‘closed’ (like a venetian blind) when the outdoor temperature gets cold. This reduces the turbine suction in winter by 80%. As the season changes, the louvers open again in warm weather to exhaust the scorching attic heat. It’s completely automatic.

The Thermostatic Controller component causes the louvers to OPEN at 80 degrees F in summer and CLOSE at 40 degrees F in winter. This patented, automatic damper system is maintenance-free and molded of durable impact polymer. Using a screwdriver, it installs in minutes. The homeowner goes on the roof once to install it, and never has to go there again.

See Turbine Boss Video:

Take the Refrigerator Challenge

Customers want assurance that The Turbine Boss(TM) really closes during cold weather. So inventor Mr. Tom Clark says, “Take the Refrigerator Challenge before installing.”

1) Put one in the refrigerator.

2) Wait 30 minutes.

3) The louvers are closed!

After removing from the refrigerator, the louvers gradually reopen again. “Homeowners save energy when turbine suction is restricted in winter,” stated Clark.

Built to last, the Thermostatic Controller comes with a 25-Year FREE replacement guarantee. The Turbine Boss(TM) is manufactured in Dallas. To purchase, visit HomeDepot.com and see “Turbine Boss.”

•Installs in minutes

•Costs $30

•Fully guaranteed

•Ships direct via UPS

University of Calgary scientists find successful way to reduce bat deaths at wind turbines

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:31:50 +0000

Scientists at the University of Calgary have found a way to reduce bat deaths from wind turbines by up to 60 percent without significantly reducing the energy generated from the wind farm. The research, recently published in the Journal of Wildlife Management, demonstrates that slowing turbine blades to near motionless in low-wind periods significantly reduces bat mortality.

“Biologically, this makes sense as bats are more likely to fly when wind speeds are relatively low. When it’s really windy, which is when the turbines are reaping the most energy, bats don’t like to fly. There is a potential for biology and economics to mesh nicely,” says U of C biology professor Robert Barclay who co-authored the paper with PhD student Erin Baerwald of the U of C as well as with Jason Edworthy and Matt Holder of TransAlta Corporation.

Last year, a groundbreaking Barclay-Baerwald study shed new light about the reasons for bat deaths under wind turbines in the Pincher Creek area. Researchers found that the majority of migratory bats in this southern Alberta location were killed because a sudden drop of air pressure near the blades caused injuries to the bats’ lungs known as barotrauma.

Big brown bat.The next step was to find a way to mitigate the deaths. TransAlta, Canada’s largest publicly traded provider of renewable energy initiated a follow-up study at the same site to determine what could be done.

“Wind power has come of age, so further minimizing the impact of wind farms on the surrounding ecology is always important to our industry,” says Jason Edworthy, director of Community Relations for TransAlta. “Working with the university during the course of this four-year study has given TransAlta the opportunity to test real world strategies that benefit affected bat populations and make economic sense.”

Most bats killed at wind energy facilities across North America are migratory tree bats, including hoary and silver-haired bats, that are killed during autumn migration. These bats are migrating from Canada and the Northern U.S. to the southern U.S. or Mexico.

“Given that more bat fatalities occur in low wind speeds and the relative ease of manipulating operation of turbines, we examined whether reducing the amount that turbine rotors turn in low wind speeds would reduce bat fatalities,” says Baerwald.

Over the one-month experiment total revenue lost from the 15 turbines was estimated between $3,000 and $4,000.

TransAlta has already applied the low wind mitigation strategy to the 38 turbines identified in the study area. “The findings from the study area are promising and this new mode of operation is now in place and will be applied to new wind farms,” says Edworthy

Source: University of Calgary

Fermilab to Receive Additional $60.2 Million in Recovery Act Funding for High Energy Physics

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:25:41 +0000

Fermilab

Funds are part of more than $327 million in new Recovery Act funding to be disbursed by Department of Energy’s Office of Science

Batavia, Ill. – In the latest installment of funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory will receive an additional $60.2 million to support research toward next generation particle accelerators and preliminary design for a future neutrino experiment.

The new funds are part of more than $327 million announced by Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesday from funding allocated under the Recovery Act to DOE’s Office of Science. Of these funds, $220 million will go toward scientific research, instrumentation and laboratory infrastructure projects at DOE national laboratories .

“The new initiatives will help the U.S. maintain its scientific leadership and economic competitiveness while creating new jobs,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “The projects provide vital funding and new tools for research aimed at strengthening America’s energy security and tackling some of science’s toughest challenges.”

Taking the stimulus funds announced earlier this year into account, the Recovery Act provides more than $100 million in funding to Fermilab.

Fermilab is investing the funds in critical scientific infrastructure to strengthen the nation’s global scientific leadership as well as to provide immediate economic relief to local communities. Out of the additional $60.2 million, the laboratory will devote $52.7 million to research on next-generation accelerators using superconducting radio frequency technology. This technology provides a highly efficient way to accelerate beams of particles with potential applications in medicine, energy and material science. Fermilab will use the remaining $7.5 million for preliminary design for a future neutrino experiment.

With this final round of projects, the Obama Administration has now approved projects covering the full $1.6 billion that the DOE Office of Science received from Congress under the Recovery Act.

“The Recovery Act funding will put our neighbors and fellow Americans to work,” said Fermilab Director Pier Oddone. “We are investing the funds in local firms and other U.S. companies who will be our partners in strengthening the nation’s scientific leadership.”