NSF STC Sustainable Futures Research Overview

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Renewable Energy Solar Energy and Battery
Technology Jerry Schnoor Sustainable Systems
Class 23 March, 2009
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Outline of the Class

• Energy Introduction
• Conservation and efficiency
• Consumption
• Production (solar, wind)
• Solar Energy
• Passive, active
• Photovoltaics (PV)
• Solar power plants (PV and solar thermal)
• Battery Technology

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U.S. CO2 Emissions by Economic Sector (EIA)

• Percentage of U.S. CO2 Emissions
• Transportation all forms 32
• Industrial 29
• Commercial 18
• Residential 21
• Most of the emissions are from liquid/gaseous
  fuels such as gasoline and diesel for cars and
  trucks (transportation) and natural gas and fuel
  oil for heating buildings (40-50)
• Another huge source of emissions and the fastest
  growing sector is electricity (40 of all
  emissions) and half of that is produced from coal

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U.S. Total Energy Production by source (EIA)

• Percentage of U.S. Energy Production
• Renewables 10
• Petroleum 36
• Coal 22
• Natural Gas 24
• Nuclear 8
• Percentage of Renewables (10 total)
• Wind 2
• Solar 1
• Geothermal power 5
• Biomass (and biofuels) 43
• Hydropower 50

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Energy Alternatives for Future Sustainability

• Energy Efficiency
• Appliances, motors, insulation, lighting
• Combustion turbine combined cycle plants
• Microgeneration technology and distributed power
• Renewables
• Solar
• Wind
• Geothermal
• Biomass (wood, chp, biofuels)
• Hydropower, tidal

• Other Technologies
• Gasoline-electric hybrid technologies
• Clean coal technologies with carbon sequestration
• Nuclear power
• Hydrogen fuel cells and other fuel cells

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Solar Photovoltaic increasing rapidly Japan leads
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Wind power also increasing 100 Gwatts total in
2009
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Coal and natural gas usage are also increasing
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World oil consumption appears to be peaking
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Biofuels are increasing for security reasons to
replace liquid petroleum as transportation fuel
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Stimulus Bill is an incentive for sustainability
American Recovery Reinvestment Act of 2009

• 787 Billion Total
• 3.5 million jobs over 2 yrs
• Major infrastructure investment of 111 Billion
• Computerizing health care records
• 7 million Pell Grants for students
• 800 Making Work Pay tax credit for 129 million
  households

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American Recovery Reinvestment Act 2009 Energy,
Environment, Infrastructure

• 80 Billion in spending, loan guarantees and tax
  incentives for energy efficiency, renewable
  energy sources, efficient cars, and carbon
  capture and sequestration for coal-fired power
  plants
• 25 B energy efficiency (5 B weatherization)
• 11 B smart grid and reliability program
• Wind, biomass tax credit until 2013
• 17 B mass transit
• 2 B for advanced batteries

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Energy Conservation Efficiency is best source
of new energy

• This is the 1 source of energy where we can
  start and save
• Energy Conservation doing the same
  functionality with less energy by changing
  behavior (e.g. taking mass transit, walking,
  biking, lowering thermostats, planting trees
  south-west, etc.)
• Energy Efficiency getting the desired
  functionality with new technology (plug-in hybrid
  vehicles, auto thermostats, insulating homes, low
  flow showers, compact fluorescents, passive
  solar, solar hot-water heaters, energy efficient
  appliances, fuel cells)
• Appliances, motors, insulation, lighting (compact
  fluorescents)
• There is still much improvement to be made here,
  and it is being driven by EPA requirements on
  more energy efficient appliances, building codes,
  and voluntary programs (Energy Star) computers
  getting much more efficient battery technology
• Hybrid Gasoline/Electric engines
• Gasoline/electric hybrids are increasing rapidly
  and Plug-in Hybrids are coming soon(GM Chevy
  Volt Toyota Prius)

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GHG Reduction Strategies An enormous economic
opportunity

• Transportation (25 GHGs)
• Gas mileages 100 mi/gal
• Fuel efficient, low carbon emitting vehicles
• Gas-electric hybrids
• Plug-in hybrids
• Flex-fuel plug-in hybrids
• Fuel cell cars

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Plug-in Electric Hybrid Vehicles

• Advantages
• Use wind power at night to recharge the battery
  at a cost of
  in 200 million car batteries)
• 50-100 mpg depending on your ratio of commuting
  to long-haul See GM Volt
• Disadvantages
• More expensive cars
• Recharging stations time-to-recharge range
  lithium ion batteries

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Fuel Cell Cars are highly efficient and could be
run on gasoline, methane, methanol, or ethanol...
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Another Renewable Energy Source Iowa Wind Power

• Iowa is now 2nd in the U.S. in nameplate capacity
  wind
• Its cost competitive
• 0.05 cents/Kwh
• Iowa has 2790 MW so far, (10-15 of total)
• Green collar jobs (1000s) at wind turbine mfgs.
• Enjoys federal production tax credit
• Wind power is clean and renewable, but we need to
  
• find a method to store it

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Wind Power Advantages and Disadvantages

• Advantages
• Clean renewable energy, no GHGs
• Cost effective already with federal subsidy of
  about 0.015 per kWh
• Abundantly available (Dakotas, Texas, parts of
  Iowa, Minnesota, California, Montana, off shore)
• Winds generation profile matches well with solar
• Income for farmers, ranchers
• Can be used to make clean hydrogen via
  electrolysis
• Compressed air storage, too (possible storage
  mode)

• Disadvantages
• Intermittent source wind is not storable
  currently
• Peak power problem peak demand is often when
  wind is not blowing (July-Aug in Iowa)
• Wind is far from population centers and suffers
  from transmission losses maintenance costs
• Noise and sight pollution
• Bird mortality hitting turbine blades (less now)
• Power companies control the connect costs and
  grid
• Not adaptable to private homes or urban
  applications

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Solar Energy

• No country uses as much energy as is contained
  in the sunlight that strikes buildings each day.
  Denis Hayes
• An immense power potential world-wide (in
  Exajoules, EJ)
• Solar 3,850,000 EJ
• Wind 2,250 EJ
• Biomass 3,000 EJ
• 1o energy use 487 EJ
• Electricity use 56.7 EJ
• Applications solar hot water, off-grid
  electricity, mobile appliances, distributed
  power, small power plants
• In India, solar cells are now cheaper than
  kerosene lamps
• Japan leads in solar cell manufacturing (70,000
  homes in Japan have solar roofing)
• Disadvantages are mainly those of cost
  (0.20-0.60 per kWh) and connecting to the grid
  for distributed power systems

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Solar Energy

• Passive solar heating (positioning of building
  w.r.t. sun, mechanical blinds and overhangs, and
  energy absorbing materials to provide heating)
• Solar Photovoltaics PV (absorbing suns energy
  onto semiconductors for direct generation of
  electricity)
• Solar thermal (absorbing suns energy onto
  material for an active use)
• Solar hot water heating
• Solar cooking
• Solar power
• Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)
• Linear concentrators parabolic troughs
• Dish/engines
• Power towers
• Thermal storage

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Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Technology use
mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight
Four Types of CSP 1) Parabolic Trough Systems
2) Power Towers 3) Linear Concentrators and 4)
Linear Fresnel reflectors
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Concentrating Solar Power for electricity
production

• MicroDish is one form of solar PV Concentrating
  Technology on a CT tracker
• Focuses sunlight on a high efficiency
  multi-junction cell
• Uses Spectrolab solar cells
• Arizona Public Service in Prescott Arizona

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Solar Photovoltaics for Power Production

• Amonix concentrating photovoltaic array (CPV) is
  another type of power plant electricity
  generation Arizona Public Service
• Rectangular solar arrays standing in excess of 40
  ft high
• Each array consists of 2-5 megamodules
• Each megamodule consists of a concentrating lens
  that focuses sunlight onto a very small
  photovoltaic cell for high efficiency

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Solar Photovoltaics for Power at Utility Scale

• Arizona Public Service has a 2 MW PV facility in
  Prescott, Arizona in cooperation with Sandia
  National Laboratories
• This is a demonstration system to assess field
  performance, OM, and cost

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Renewable Energy Solar PV Homes

• Solar homes can be fitted with racks of PV cells
  on the roof
• SUNSLATES roofing tiles by Atlantis Energy with
  AstroPower PV modules (a 5 kW system with battery
  backup and linked to the local utility)
• 1,000,000 homes in California and Japan are doing
  it!

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Solar PV Home and Electric Car in California
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Solar Photovoltaics Advantages and Disadvantages

• Advantages
• Clean renewable energy
• Perfect for off-grid and specialty applications
• Power production pattern fits very well with wind
  often times
• Source of hydrogen via electrolysis in
  distributed power applications
• Costs are decreasing rapidly

• Disadvantage
• High cost
• Uses materials that have relatively high,
  non-renewable environmental burdens (LCA), e.g.,
  semiconductor metals and batteries
• Solar PV is not storable except by using
  batteries or producing hydrogen

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Solar Cell Construction Materials Science

• Each solar cell consists of a semi-conducting
  surface (like silicon dioxide in thin films) to
  receive the suns photons and convert them into
  electrons of current (the photoelectron effect)
• Electronic circuits are fitted on the back of the
  cell to carry the electricity away
• The circuits can be of various designs including
  flexible plastic substrates (organic electronic
  devices)

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Green Power Switch Program

• Lovers Lane solar power plant in Bowling Green,
  Kentucky
• 36 kW system consisting of 960 solar PV panels,
  enough to meet the power demand of 4 average
  homes
• Power is fed into the Tennessee Valley Authority
  grid

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More Efficient BatteriesBasics and Advances

• Johna Leddy
• University of Iowa
• Department of Chemistry
• johna-leddy_at_uiowa.edu

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Electrochemical Power Sources Batteries ( Fuel
Cells)

• Batteries recharge required
  
• Fuel Cell fueled constantly
• Theoretical efficiency 100
• no moving parts
• Portable power

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Current and Voltage

• Batteries A circuit of electron
  and ion conductors
• Current and voltage
  generated by reactions
  at electrode
• Current (I) charge passed per time
• Charge set by electrons
• Rate of charge/s (A C/s)
• To increase current, larger electrode
• Voltage (V) net driving force (umph)
• Energy/charge (V J/C)
• Set by inherent energy of reaction
• To increase voltage, stack more cells
• Car battery, 12 V, 6 cells of 2 V each

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Power and Energy

• Power (P) rate of energy output
• Set by current and voltage (P IV)
• Instantaneous
• Watts J/s (e.g., 40 W light bulb)
• Energy power output over time
• Sums power over time
• Net energy
• kWh 3.6 MJ (e.g., 40 W for 24 h 960 W h 1
  kW h)

40 W
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Batteries Designed to Optimize..

• Power
• Energy
• Charge and discharge rates
• Rechargeability

• Cycle life
• Shelf life
• Volume (/volume, density)
• Weight (/ weight, specific)

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Alkaline Battery Market

• Primaries (single use)
• Worldwide, 4B / year
• Not very rechargeable or recyclable in U.S.

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Single Use Or Rechargeable

• Primary
• Single use (disposables)
• Chemistry not reversible
• Alkalines
• Secondary
• Multiple use (rechargeables)
• Of most interest in renewable applications
• Lead acid and laptop batteries

http//www.eveready.com/pdfs/ever_alkcylin_appman.
pdf
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Wind, Solar, and Batteries

• Load leveling (back up power supplies)
• Power storage from wind and solar sources

Various photovoltaics
Excess power to batteries
http//www.energy.iastate.edu/renewable/
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Li Batteries

• Laptop and cell phones batteries
• Weight, volume, life, chemistry
• Health Care Used in pacemakers, hearing aids,
  implanted defibrillators (0.5 M/yr), drug
  delivery devices, neurostimulators, wheelchairs
• First pacemakers 1960
• Early 1970s longevities 10 years
• The storage batteries of choice in the first
  generation of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles

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Toyota Prius Hybrid (Battery
Combustion)

• Nickel-Metal Hydride battery (NiMH in 168 cells
  yielding 202 V) is recharged continuously by
  braking and de-accelerating and electric motor
  adds to the power of the vehicle, taking some
  burden off the gasoline engine, and thus
  increasing fuel economy
• 46 mpg in net 82 kW vehicle of 3000 lb
• Total energy operating cost 3.25 / mile vs 2.94
  / mile Tahoe SUV
• Alternating current AC
• Warranty on battery 100 K miles or 8 yrs
• But Li-ion storage battery is also needed if you
  want to run as electric vehicle for short haul
• Plug-in hybrid battery concerns
• Cost, Lifetime, Replacement

http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius
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Thermodynamics of Common Batteries
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Battery Characteristics

• Voltage, energy, power, cycles, charging time
• by volume and weight

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Summary

• Energy Conservation and Efficiency are the first
  and best source of new energy because they save
  money, GHGs, and energy
• Renewable sources of energy are growing fast
  (solar and wind at 30 growth/yr) and are
  attractive in some applications
• Solar photovoltaics (PV) as collectors on
  rooftops appear to be attractive alternatives for
  distributed electricity production but their cost
  is still too high (large subsidies are required)
• Concentrating solar power plants (both PV and
  thermal solar) appear to be viable sources of
  power in sunny desert areas
• Battery technology will need to improve to help
  store wind and solar power, and to provide low
  carbon fuels for plug-in hybrids
• Improvements in the grid will also be needed to
  move distributed sources of power to the people
  who consume it

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• S U S T _ _ N _ B _ E
• F U T U _ E