Research Capabilities Directed to all Electric Engineering Teachers, from an Alternative Energy Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Víctor Hugo Ordóñez Navea

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this work was to contemplate research capabilities directed to all electric engineering teachers from an alternative energy model intro the explanation of a semiconductor in the National Training Program in Electricity. Some authors, such as. Vidal (2016, Atencio (2014 y Camilo (2012 point out to technological applications with semiconductor electrical devices. In this way; a diagnostic phase is presented, held on this field research as a descriptive type about: a how to identify the necessities of alternative energies, and b The research competences in the alternatives energies of researcher from a solar cell model, to boost and innovate the academic praxis and technologic ingenuity. Themselves was applied a survey for a group of 15 teachers in the National Program of Formation in electricity to diagnose the deficiencies in the research area of alternatives energies. The process of data analysis was carried out through descriptive statistic. Later the conclusions are presented the need to generate strategies for stimulate and propose exploration of alternatives energies to the development of research competences directed to the teachers of electrical engineering for develop the research competences in the enforcement of the teachers exercise for the electric engineering, from an alternative energy model and boost the technologic research in the renewal energies field.

Thermal energy storage apparatus, controllers and thermal energy storage control methods

Science.gov (United States)

Hammerstrom, Donald J.

2016-05-03

Thermal energy storage apparatus, controllers and thermal energy storage control methods are described. According to one aspect, a thermal energy storage apparatus controller includes processing circuitry configured to access first information which is indicative of surpluses and deficiencies of electrical energy upon an electrical power system at a plurality of moments in time, access second information which is indicative of temperature of a thermal energy storage medium at a plurality of moments in time, and use the first and second information to control an amount of electrical energy which is utilized by a heating element to heat the thermal energy storage medium at a plurality of moments in time.

Thermal energy storage for electricity-driven space heating in a day-ahead electricity market

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pensini, Alessandro

2012-01-01

Thermal Energy Storage (TES) in a space heating (SH) application was investigated. The study aimed to determine the economic benefits of introducing TES into an electricity-driven SH system under a day-ahead electricity market. The performance of the TES was assessed by comparing the cost...... of electricity in a system with a TES unit to the case where no storage is in use and the entire heat requirement is fulfilled by purchasing electricity according to the actual load. The study had two goals: 1. Determining how the size – in terms of electricity input (Pmax) and energy capacity (Emax...

Turbostar: an ICF reactor using both direct and thermal power conversion. Revision 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pitts, J.H.

1986-01-01

Combining direct and thermal power conversion results in a 52% gross plant efficiency with DT fuel and 68% with advanced DD fuel. We maximize the fraction of fusion-yield energy converted to kinetic energy in a liquid-lithium blanket, and use this energy directly with turbine generators to produce electricity. We use the remainder of the energy to produce electricity in a standard Rankine thermal power conversion cycle

Electrically conductive carbon nanofiber/paraffin wax composites for electric thermal storage

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Kun; Han Baoguo; Yu Xun

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► Carbon nanofiber (CNF)/paraffin wax composite is found to be a promising electric thermal storage material. ► The thermal storage capacity of CNF/paraffin wax composite is five times of traditional electric thermal storage material. ► CNF is shown to be an effective conductive filler for the composite. - Abstract: The research of electric thermal storage (ETS) has attracted a lot of attention recently, which converts off-peak electrical energy into thermal energy and release it later at peak hours. In this study, new electric thermal storage composites are developed by employing paraffin wax as thermal storage media and carbon nanofiber (CNF) as conductive fillers. Electric heating and thermal energy release performances of the CNF/paraffin wax composites are experimentally investigated. Experimental results show that, when the composites are heated to about 70 °C, the developed electrically conductive CNF/paraffin wax composites present a thermal storage capacity of about 280 kJ/kg, which is five times of that of traditional thermal storage medium such as ceramic bricks (54 kJ/kg). The CNF/paraffin wax composites can also effectively store the thermal energy and release the thermal energy in later hours.

Performance results of a solar greenhouse combining electrical and thermal energy production

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sonneveld, P.J.; Swinkels, G.L.A.M.; Campen, J.B.; Tuijl, van B.A.J.; Janssen, H.J.J.; Bot, G.P.A.

2010-01-01

Performance results are given of a new type of greenhouse, which combines reflection of near infrared radiation (NIR) with electrical power generation using hybrid photovoltaic cell/thermal collector modules. Besides the generation of electrical and thermal energy, the reflection of the NIR will

Investigation of Solar and Solar-Gas Thermal Energy Sources

OpenAIRE

Ivan Herec; Jan Zupa

2003-01-01

The article deals with the investigation of solar thermal sources of electrical and heat energy as well as the investigation of hybrid solar-gas thermal sources of electrical and heat energy (so called photothermal sources). Photothermal sources presented here utilize computer-controlled injection of the conversion fluid into special capillary porous substance that is adjusted to direct temperature treatment by the concentrated thermal radiation absorption.

Comparison of Direct Solar Energy to Resistance Heating for Carbothermal Reduction of Regolith

Science.gov (United States)

Muscatello, Anthony C.; Gustafson, Robert J.

2011-01-01

A comparison of two methods of delivering thermal energy to regolith for the carbo thermal reduction process has been performed. The comparison concludes that electrical resistance heating is superior to direct solar energy via solar concentrators for the following reasons: (1) the resistance heating method can process approximately 12 times as much regolith using the same amount of thermal energy as the direct solar energy method because of superior thermal insulation; (2) the resistance heating method is more adaptable to nearer-term robotic exploration precursor missions because it does not require a solar concentrator system; (3) crucible-based methods are more easily adapted to separation of iron metal and glass by-products than direct solar energy because the melt can be poured directly after processing instead of being remelted; and (4) even with projected improvements in the mass of solar concentrators, projected photovoltaic system masses are expected to be even lower.

Electricity storage - A challenge for energy transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bart, Jean-Baptiste; Nekrasov, Andre; Pastor, Emmanuel; Benefice, Emmanuel; Brincourt, Thierry; Cagnac, Albannie; Brisse, Annabelle; Jeandel, Elodie; Lefebvre, Thierry; Penneau, Jean-Francois; Radvanyi, Etienne; Delille, Gautier; Hinchliffe, Timothee; Lancel, Gilles; Loevenbruck, Philippe; Soler, Robert; Stevens, Philippe; Torcheux, Laurent

2017-01-01

After a presentation of the energetic context and of its issues, this collective publication proposes presentations of various electricity storage technologies with a distinction between direct storage, thermal storage and hydrogen storage. As far as direct storage is concerned, the following options are described: pumped energy transfer stations or PETS, compressed air energy storage or CAES, flywheels, various types of electrochemical batteries (lead, alkaline, sodium, lithium), metal air batteries, redox flow batteries, and super-capacitors. Thermal storage comprises power-to-heat and heat-to-power technologies. Hydrogen can be stored under different forms (compressed gas, liquid), in saline underground cavities, or by using water electrolysis and fuel cells. The authors propose an overview of the different services provided by energy storage to the electricity system, and discuss the main perspectives and challenges for tomorrow's storage (electric mobility, integration of renewable energies, electrification of isolated areas, scenarios of development)

Full-energy-chain analysis of greenhouse gas emissions for solar thermal electric power generation systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Norton, B.; Lawson, W.R.

1997-01-01

Technical attributes and environmental impacts of solar thermal options for centralized electricity generation are discussed. In particular, the full-energy-chain, including embodied energy and energy production, is considered in relation to greenhouse gas emission arising from solar thermal electricity generation. Central receiver, parabolic dish, parabolic trough and solar pond systems are considered. (author)

Joining and Performance of Alkali Metal Thermal-to-electric Converter (AMTEC)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Suh, Min-Soo; Lee, Wook-Hyun; Woo, Sang-Kuk [Korea Institute of Energy Research, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2017-07-15

The alkali-Metal Thermal-to-electric Converter (AMTEC) is one of the promising static energy conversion technologies for the direct conversion of thermal energy to electrical energy. The advantages over a conventional energy converter are its high theoretical conversion efficiency of 40% and power density of 500 W/kg. The working principle of an AMTEC battery is the electrochemical reaction of the sodium through an ion conducting electrolyte. Sodium ion pass through the hot side of the beta”-alumina solid electrolyte (BASE) primarily as a result of the pressure difference. This pressure difference across the BASE has a significant effect on the overall performance of the AMTEC system. In order to build the high pressure difference across the BASE, hermeticity is required for each joined components for high temperature range of 900°C. The AMTEC battery was manufactured by utilizing robust joining technology of BASE/insulator/metal flange interfaces of the system for both structural and electrical stability. The electrical potential difference between the anode and cathode sides, where the electrons emitted from sodium ionization and recombined into sodium, was characterized as the open-circuit voltage. The efforts of technological improvement were concentrated on a high-power output and conversion efficiency. This paper discusses about the joining and performance of the AMTEC systems.

Survey of solar thermal energy storage subsystems for thermal/electric applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Segaser, C. L.

1978-08-01

A survey of the current technology and estimated costs of subsystems for storing the thermal energy produced by solar collectors is presented. The systems considered were capable of producing both electricity and space conditioning for three types of loads: a single-family detached residence, an apartment complex of 100 units, and a city of 30,000 residents, containing both single-family residences and apartments. Collector temperatures will be in four ranges: (1) 100 to 250/sup 0/F (used for space heating and single-cycle air conditioners and organic Rankine low-temperature turbines); (2) 300 to 400/sup 0/F (used for dual-cycle air conditioners and low-temperature turbines); (3) 400 to 600/sup 0/F (using fluids from parabolic trough collectors to run Rankine turbines); (4) 800 to 1000/sup 0/F (using fluids from heliostats to run closed-cycle gas turbines and steam Rankine turbines). The solar thermal energy subsystems will require from 60 to 36 x 10/sup 5/ kWhr (2.05 x 10/sup 5/ to 1.23 x 10/sup 10/ Btu) of thermal storage capacity. In addition to sensible heat and latent heat storage materials, several other media were investigated as potential thermal energy storage materials, including the clathrate and semiclathrate hydrates, various metal hydrides, and heat storage based on inorganic chemical reactions.

Comparative Study of Electric Energy Storages and Thermal Energy Auxiliaries for Improving Wind Power Integration in the Cogeneration System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yanjuan Yu

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In regards to the cogeneration system in Northern China, mainly supported by combined heat and power (CHP plants, it usually offers limited operation flexibility due to the joint production of electric and thermal power. For that large-scale wind farms included in the cogeneration system, a large amount of wind energy may have to be wasted. To solve this issue, the utilization of the electric energy storages and the thermal energy auxiliaries are recommended, including pumped hydro storage (PHS, compressed air energy storage (CAES, hydrogen-based energy storage (HES, heat storage (HS, electric boilers (EB, and heat pumps (HP. This paper proposes a general evaluation method to compare the performance of these six different approaches for promoting wind power integration. In consideration of saving coal consumption, reducing CO2 emissions, and increasing investment cost, the comprehensive benefit is defined as the evaluation index. Specifically, a wind-thermal conflicting expression (WTCE is put forward to simplify the formulation of the comprehensive benefit. Further, according to the cogeneration system of the West Inner Mongolia (WIM power grid, a test system is modelled to perform the comparison of the six different approaches. The results show that introducing the electric energy storages and the thermal energy auxiliaries can both contribute to facilitating wind power integration, and the HP can provide the best comprehensive benefit.

Experimental Evaluation of Simple Thermal Storage Control Strategies in Low-Energy Solar Houses to Reduce Electricity Consumption during Grid On-Peak Periods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kyoung-Ho Lee

2015-08-01

Full Text Available There is growing interest in zero-energy and low-energy buildings, which have a net energy consumption (on an annual basis of almost zero. Because they can generate both electricity and thermal energy through the use of solar photovoltaic (PV and solar thermal collectors, and with the help of reduced building thermal demand, low-energy buildings can not only make a significant contribution to energy conservation on an annual basis, but also reduce energy consumption and peak demand. This study focused on electricity consumption during the on-peak period in a low-energy residential solar building and considers the use of a building’s thermal mass and thermal storage to reduce electricity consumption in summer and winter by modulation of temperature setpoints for heat pump and indoor thermostats in summer and additional use of a solar heating loop in winter. Experiments were performed at a low-energy solar demonstration house that has solar collectors, hot water storage, a ground-coupled heat pump, and a thermal storage tank. It was assumed that the on-peak periods were from 2 pm to 5 pm on hot summer days and from 5 pm to 8 pm on cold winter days. To evaluate the potential for utilizing the building’s thermal storage capacity in space cooling and heating, the use of simple control strategies on three test days in summer and two test days in the early spring were compared in terms of net electricity consumption and peak demand, which also considered the electricity generation from solar PV modules on the roof of the house.

Transmutor demo unit and thermal into electrical energy transformation problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matal, O.; Fiedler, J.

1999-01-01

In the three circuits layout of the transmutor the heat is transferred from the primary through the secondary circuits by a favourable heat carrier into the tertiary circuit where the thermal into electrical energy transformation in turbo-generator comes into force. Properties as well as parameters of the heat carrier in the secondary circuit affect basically both the conceptual layout of the tertiary circuit and consequently investments costs for its realization and the effectiveness of the transformation of thermal into electrical energy. For several heat carriers considered for the transmutor secondary circuit particular tertiary circuit concepts for the demonstration transmutor unit of approx. 15 W thermal power rate are analyzed, layout features and possibilities of turbogenerator selection are commented and investment costs as well as effectiveness of thermal into electrical energy transformation are estimated. Some of the results are as follows: (i) Heat carrier properties influence thermodynamics of the TDU water/steam cycle substantially. One of the dominant parameters is the melting (freezing) temperature of the heat carrier. (ii) Heat carrier properties influence investment costs of components of the TDU tertiary circuit substantially. Dominantly influenced are costs of the steam generator, steam turbine and high pressure regeneration system. (iii) If the heat carrier has to be a molten salt than a salt with a low melting temperature is recommended to be selected, for example KHF2. (iv) Eutectic alloy Pb-Bi as the heat carrier serves changes to design the TDU with efficient thermodynamics, with acceptable low investment costs of the tertiary as well as secondary circuit components and with an acceptable level of the nuclear safety

The limits to solar thermal electricity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trainer, Ted

2014-01-01

The potential and limits of solar thermal power systems depend primarily on their capacity to meet electricity demand in mid-winter, and the associated cost, storage and other implications. Evidence on output and costs is analysed. Most attention is given to central receivers. Problems of low radiation levels, embodied energy costs, variability and storage are discussed and are found to set significant difficulties for large scale solar thermal supply in less than ideal latitudes and seasons. It is concluded that for solar thermal systems to meet a large fraction of anticipated global electricity demand in winter would involve prohibitive capital costs. - Highlights: • Output and capital cost data for various solar thermal technologies is examined. • Special attention is given to performance in winter. • Attention is also given to the effect of solar intermittency. • Implications for storage are considered. • It is concluded that there are significant limits to solar thermal power

Thermal to Electric Energy Conversion for Cyclic Heat Loads

Science.gov (United States)

Whitehead, Benjamin E.

Today, we find cyclic heat loads almost everywhere. When we drive our cars, the engines heat up while we are driving and cool while parked. Processors heat while the computer is in use at the office and cool when idle at night. The sun heats the earth during the day and the earth radiates that heat into space at night. With modern technology, we have access to a number of methods to take that heat and convert it into electricity, but, before selecting one, we need to identify the parameters that inform decision making. The majority of the parameters for most systems include duty cycle, total cost, weight, size, thermal efficiency, and electrical efficiency. However, the importance of each of these will depend on the application. Size and weight take priority in a handheld device, while efficiency dominates in a power plant, and duty cycle is likely to dominate in highly demanding heat pump applications. Over the past decade, developments in semiconductor technology has led to the creation of the thermoelectric generator. With no moving parts and a nearly endlessly scalable nature, these generators present interesting opportunities for taking advantage of any source of waste heat. However, these generators are typically only capable of 5-8% efficiency from conversion of thermal to electric energy. [1]. Similarly, advancements in photovoltaic cells has led to the development of thermophotovoltaics. By heating an emitter to a temperature so it radiates light, a thermophotovoltaic cell then converts that light into electricity. By selecting materials that emit light in the optimal ranges of the appropriate photovoltaic cells, thermophotovoltaic systems can potentially exceed the current maximum of 10% efficiency. [2]. By pressurizing certain metal powders with hydrogen, hydrogen can be bound to the metal, creating a metal hydride, from which hydrogen can be later re-extracted under the correct pressure and temperature conditions. Since this hydriding reaction is

Synthesis and processing of materials for direct thermal-to-electric energy conversion and storage

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Travis

Currently, fossil fuels are the primary source of energy. Mechanical heat engines convert the chemical potential energy in fossil fuels to useful electrical energy through combustion; a relatively low efficiency process that generates carbon dioxide. This practice has led to a significant increase in carbon dioxide emissions and is contributing to climate change. However, not all heat engines are mechanical. Alternative energy generation technologies to mechanical heat engines are known, yet underutilized. Thermoelectric generators are solid-state devices originally developed by NASA to power deep space spacecraft, which can also convert heat into electricity but without any moving parts. Similar to their mechanical counterparts, any heat source, including the burning of fossil fuels, can be used. However, clean heat sources, such as concentrated solar, can alternatively be used. Since the energy sources for many of the alternative energy technologies is intermittent, including concentrated solar for thermoelectric devices, load matching is difficult or impossible and an energy storage technology is needed in addition to the energy conversion technology. This increases the overall cost and complexity of the systems since two devices are required and represents a significant barrier for mass adoption of an alternative energy technology. However, it is possible to convert heat energy to electrical energy and store excess charge for use at a later time when the demand increases, in a single device. One such of a device is a thermogalvanic generator and is the electrochemical analog of electronic thermoelectric devices. Essentially, a thermogalvanic device represents the combination of thermoelectric and galvanic systems. As such, the rich history of strategies developed by both the thermoelectric community to better the performance of thermoelectric devices and by the electrochemical community to better traditional galvanic devices (i.e. batteries) can be applied to

Advanced-fueled fusion reactors suitable for direct energy conversion. Project note: temperature-gradient enhancement of electrical fields in insulators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blum, A.S.; Mancebo, L.

1976-01-01

Direct energy converters for use on controlled fusion reactors utilize electrodes operated at elevated voltages and temperatures. The insulating elements that position these electrodes must support large voltages and under some circumstances large thermal gradients. It is shown that even modest thermal gradients can cause major alterations of the electric-field distribution within the insulating element

Direct conversion of fusion energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johansson, Markus

2003-03-01

Deuterium and tritium are expected to be used as fuel in the first fusion reactors. Energy is released as kinetic energy of ions and neutrons, when deuterium reacts with tritium. One way to convert the kinetic energy to electrical energy, is to let the ions and neutrons hit the reactor wall and convert the heat that is caused by the particle bombardment to electrical energy with ordinary thermal conversion. If the kinetic energy of the ions instead is converted directly to electrical energy, a higher efficiency of the energy conversion is possible. The majority of the fusion energy is released as kinetic energy of neutrons, when deuterium reacts with tritium. Fusion reactions such as the D-D reactions, the D- 3 He reaction and the p- 11 B reaction, where a larger part of the fusion energy becomes kinetic energy of charged particles, appears therefore more suitable for direct conversion. Since they have lower reactivity than the D-T reaction, they need a larger βB 2 0 to give sufficiently high fusion power density. Because of this, the fusion configurations spherical torus (ST) and field-reversed configuration (FRC), where high β values are possible, appear interesting. Rosenbluth and Hinton come to the conclusion that efficient direct conversion isn't possible in closed field line systems and that open geometries, which facilitate direct conversion, provide inadequate confinement for D- 3 He. It is confirmed in this study that it doesn't seem possible to achieve as high direct conversion efficiency in closed systems as in open systems. ST and FRC fusion power plants that utilize direct conversion seem however interesting. Calculations with the help of Maple indicate that the reactor parameters needed for a D-D ST and a D 3 He ST hopefully are possible to achieve. The best energy conversion option for a D-D or D 3 He ST appears to be direct electrodynamic conversion (DEC) together with ordinary thermal conversion or liquid metal MHD conversion (LMMHD). For a D

Direct conversion of fusion energy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Johansson, Markus

2003-03-01

Deuterium and tritium are expected to be used as fuel in the first fusion reactors. Energy is released as kinetic energy of ions and neutrons, when deuterium reacts with tritium. One way to convert the kinetic energy to electrical energy, is to let the ions and neutrons hit the reactor wall and convert the heat that is caused by the particle bombardment to electrical energy with ordinary thermal conversion. If the kinetic energy of the ions instead is converted directly to electrical energy, a higher efficiency of the energy conversion is possible. The majority of the fusion energy is released as kinetic energy of neutrons, when deuterium reacts with tritium. Fusion reactions such as the D-D reactions, the D-{sup 3}He reaction and the p-{sup 11}B reaction, where a larger part of the fusion energy becomes kinetic energy of charged particles, appears therefore more suitable for direct conversion. Since they have lower reactivity than the D-T reaction, they need a larger {beta}B{sup 2}{sub 0} to give sufficiently high fusion power density. Because of this, the fusion configurations spherical torus (ST) and field-reversed configuration (FRC), where high {beta} values are possible, appear interesting. Rosenbluth and Hinton come to the conclusion that efficient direct conversion isn't possible in closed field line systems and that open geometries, which facilitate direct conversion, provide inadequate confinement for D-{sup 3}He. It is confirmed in this study that it doesn't seem possible to achieve as high direct conversion efficiency in closed systems as in open systems. ST and FRC fusion power plants that utilize direct conversion seem however interesting. Calculations with the help of Maple indicate that the reactor parameters needed for a D-D ST and a D{sub 3} He ST hopefully are possible to achieve. The best energy conversion option for a D-D or D{sub 3} He ST appears to be direct electrodynamic conversion (DEC) together with ordinary thermal conversion

Technological drivers in data centers and telecom systems: Multiscale thermal, electrical, and energy management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garimella, Suresh V.; Persoons, Tim; Weibel, Justin; Yeh, Lian-Tuu

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► Thermal management approaches reviewed against energy usage of IT industry. ► Challenges of energy efficiency in large-scale electronic systems highlighted. ► Underlying drivers for progress at the business and technology levels identified. ► Thermal, electrical and energy management challenges discussed as drivers. ► Views of IT system operators, manufacturers and integrators represented. - Abstract: We identify technological drivers for tomorrow’s data centers and telecommunications systems, including thermal, electrical and energy management challenges, based on discussions at the 2nd Workshop on Thermal Management in Telecommunication Systems and Data Centers in Santa Clara, California, on April 25–26, 2012. The relevance of thermal management in electronic systems is reviewed against the background of the energy usage of the information technology (IT) industry, encompassing perspectives of different sectors of the industry. The underlying drivers for progress at the business and technology levels are identified. The technological challenges are reviewed in two main categories – immediate needs and future needs. Enabling cooling techniques that are currently under development are also discussed

Mechanical, Thermal, and Electrical Energy Storage in a Single Working Body: Electrification and Thermal Effects upon Pressure-Induced Water Intrusion-Extrusion in Nanoporous Solids.

Science.gov (United States)

Grosu, Yaroslav; Mierzwa, Michał; Eroshenko, Valentine A; Pawlus, Sebastian; Chorażewski, Mirosław; Nedelec, Jean-Marie; Grolier, Jean-Pierre E

2017-03-01

This paper presents the first experimental evidence of pronounced electrification effects upon reversible cycle of forced water intrusion-extrusion in nanoporous hydrophobic materials. Recorded generation of electricity combined with high-pressure calorimetric measurements improves the energy balance of {nanoporous solid + nonwetting liquid} systems by compensating mechanical and thermal energy hysteresis in the cycle. Revealed phenomena provide a novel way of "mechanical to electrical" and/or "thermal to electrical" energy transformation with unprecedented efficiency and additionally open a perspective to increase the efficiency of numerous energy applications based on such systems taking advantage of electricity generation during operational cycle.

Energy expansion planning by considering electrical and thermal expansion simultaneously

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abbasi, Ali Reza; Seifi, Ali Reza

2014-01-01

Highlights: • This paper focused on the expansion planning optimization of energy systems. • Employing two form of energy: the expansion of electrical and thermal energies. • The main objective is to minimize the costs. • A new Modified Honey Bee Mating Optimization (MHBMO) algorithm is applied. - Abstract: This study focused on the expansion planning optimization of energy systems employing two forms of energy: the expansion of electrical and thermal energies simultaneously. The main objective of this investigation is confirming network adequacy by adding new equipment to the network, over a given planning horizon. The main objective of the energy expansion planning (EEP) is to minimize the real energy loss, voltage deviation and the total cost of installation equipments. Since the objectives are different and incommensurable, it is difficult to solve the problem by the conventional approaches that may optimize a single objective. So, the meta-heuristic algorithm is applied to this problem. Here, Honey Bee Mating Optimization algorithm (HBMO) as a new evolutionary optimization algorithm is utilized. In order to improve the total ability of HBMO for the global search and exploration, a new modification process is suggested such a way that the algorithm will search the total search space globally. Also, regarding the uncertainties of the new complicated energy systems, in this paper for the first time, the EEP problem is investigated in a stochastic environment by the use of probabilistic load flow technique based on Point Estimate Method (PEM). In order to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, two modified test systems are used as case studies

Detailed partial load investigation of a thermal energy storage concept for solar thermal power plants with direct steam generation

Science.gov (United States)

Seitz, M.; Hübner, S.; Johnson, M.

2016-05-01

Direct steam generation enables the implementation of a higher steam temperature for parabolic trough concentrated solar power plants. This leads to much better cycle efficiencies and lower electricity generating costs. For a flexible and more economic operation of such a power plant, it is necessary to develop thermal energy storage systems for the extension of the production time of the power plant. In the case of steam as the heat transfer fluid, it is important to use a storage material that uses latent heat for the storage process. This leads to a minimum of exergy losses during the storage process. In the case of a concentrating solar power plant, superheated steam is needed during the discharging process. This steam cannot be superheated by the latent heat storage system. Therefore, a sensible molten salt storage system is used for this task. In contrast to the state-of-the-art thermal energy storages within the concentrating solar power area of application, a storage system for a direct steam generation plant consists of a latent and a sensible storage part. Thus far, no partial load behaviors of sensible and latent heat storage systems have been analyzed in detail. In this work, an optimized fin structure was developed in order to minimize the costs of the latent heat storage. A complete system simulation of the power plant process, including the solar field, power block and sensible and latent heat energy storage calculates the interaction between the solar field, the power block and the thermal energy storage system.

A thermally regenerative ammonia-based battery for efficient harvesting of low-grade thermal energy as electrical power

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Fang

2015-01-01

© 2015 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Thermal energy was shown to be efficiently converted into electrical power in a thermally regenerative ammonia-based battery (TRAB) using copper-based redox couples [Cu(NH3)4 2+/Cu and Cu(ii)/Cu]. Ammonia addition to the anolyte (2 M ammonia in a copper-nitrate electrolyte) of a single TRAB cell produced a maximum power density of 115 ± 1 W m-2 (based on projected area of a single copper mesh electrode), with an energy density of 453 W h m-3 (normalized to the total electrolyte volume, under maximum power production conditions). Adding a second cell doubled both the voltage and maximum power. Increasing the anolyte ammonia concentration to 3 M further improved the maximum power density to 136 ± 3 W m-2. Volatilization of ammonia from the spent anolyte by heating (simulating distillation), and re-addition of this ammonia to the spent catholyte chamber with subsequent operation of this chamber as the anode (to regenerate copper on the other electrode), produced a maximum power density of 60 ± 3 W m-2, with an average discharge energy efficiency of ∼29% (electrical energy captured versus chemical energy in the starting solutions). Power was restored to 126 ± 5 W m-2 through acid addition to the regenerated catholyte to decrease pH and dissolve Cu(OH)2 precipitates, suggesting that an inexpensive acid or a waste acid could be used to improve performance. These results demonstrated that TRABs using ammonia-based electrolytes and inexpensive copper electrodes can provide a practical method for efficient conversion of low-grade thermal energy into electricity.

Integrated energy and advanced thermal management system for hybrid electric vehicles

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wei, C.

2017-01-01

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) featuring a fuel source engine and an energy storage source battery play an important role in improving fuel efficiency compared with its conventional counterparts. In view of the drawbacks of the existing research neglecting the thermal aspects when it comes to

Electric Motor Thermal Management R&D. Annual Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bennion, Kevin [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2016-04-01

With the push to reduce component volumes, lower costs, and reduce weight without sacrificing performance or reliability, the challenges associated with thermal management increase for power electronics and electric motors. Thermal management for electric motors will become more important as the automotive industry continues the transition to more electrically dominant vehicle propulsion systems. The transition to more electrically dominant propulsion systems leads to higher-power duty cycles for electric drive systems. Thermal constraints place significant limitations on how electric motors ultimately perform, and as thermal management improves, there will be a direct trade-off between motor performance, efficiency, cost, and the sizing of electric motors to operate within the thermal constraints. The goal of this research project is to support broad industry demand for data, analysis methods, and experimental techniques to improve and better understand motor thermal management. Work in FY15 focused on two areas related to motor thermal management: passive thermal performance and active convective cooling. Passive thermal performance emphasized the thermal impact of materials and thermal interfaces among materials within an assembled motor. The research tasks supported the publication of test methods and data for thermal contact resistances and direction-dependent thermal conductivity within an electric motor. Active convective cooling focused on measuring convective heat-transfer coefficients using automatic transmission fluid (ATF). Data for average convective heat transfer coefficients for direct impingement of ATF jets was published. Also, experimental hardware for mapping local-scale and stator-scale convective heat transfer coefficients for ATF jet impingement were developed.

Electrical equivalent thermal network for direct contact membrane distillation modeling and analysis

KAUST Repository

Karam, Ayman M.

2016-09-19

Membrane distillation (MD) is an emerging water desalination technology that offers several advantages compared to conventional desalination methods. Although progress has been made to model the physics of the process, there are two common limitations of existing models. Firstly, many of the models are based on the steady-state analysis of the process and secondly, some of the models are based on partial differential equations, which when discretized introduce many states which are not accessible in practice. This paper presents the derivation of a novel dynamic model, based on the analogy between electrical and thermal systems, for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). An analogous electrical thermal network is constructed and its elements are parameterized such that the response of the network models the DCMD process. The proposed model captures the spatial and temporal responses of the temperature distribution along the flow direction and is able to accurately predict the distilled water flux output. To demonstrate the adequacy of the proposed model, validation with time varying and steady-state experimental data is presented. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Space electric power design study. [laser energy conversion

Science.gov (United States)

Martini, W. R.

1976-01-01

The conversion of laser energy to electrical energy is discussed. Heat engines in which the laser heats the gas inside the engine through a window as well as heat engines in which the gas is heated by a thermal energy storage reservoir which has been heated by laser radiation are both evaluated, as well as the necessary energy storage, transmission and conversion components needed for a full system. Preliminary system concepts are presented and a recommended development program is outlined. It appears possible that a free displacer Stirling engine operating directly a linear electric generator can convert 65% of the incident laser energy into electricity.

A Thermally-Regenerative Ammonia-Based Flow Battery for Electrical Energy Recovery from Waste Heat.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Xiuping; Rahimi, Mohammad; Gorski, Christopher A; Logan, Bruce

2016-04-21

Large amounts of low-grade waste heat (temperatures energy can be converted to electricity in battery systems. To improve reactor efficiency, a compact, ammonia-based flow battery (AFB) was developed and tested at different solution concentrations, flow rates, cell pairs, and circuit connections. The AFB achieved a maximum power density of 45 W m(-2) (15 kW m(-3) ) and an energy density of 1260 Wh manolyte (-3) , with a thermal energy efficiency of 0.7 % (5 % relative to the Carnot efficiency). The power and energy densities of the AFB were greater than those previously reported for thermoelectrochemical and salinity-gradient technologies, and the voltage or current could be increased using stacked cells. These results demonstrated that an ammonia-based flow battery is a promising technology to convert low-grade thermal energy to electricity. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

The thermal solar energy - September 2010

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Acket, C.

2010-01-01

The author first notices that the use of solar heat to produce electricity is much lesser known than the production of electricity by photovoltaic effect. He also notices that few efforts have been made in France to develop this technology (thermal solar energy, also called helio-thermodynamics). He evokes the Themis project and also some initiatives in Spain and in California. He recalls some data about solar heat, presents the solar concentration technique which either uses a parabolic configuration (point focus concentration) or a cylindrical and parabolic configuration (line concentration system). He briefly presents the different techniques used to transform solar heat into electricity and to store the electricity. He briefly presents different solutions which have been tested over the past years in France, Germany, Spain, California and Israel (tower and air, gas and Stirling cycle, tower and direct vapour production, cylindrical-parabolic collector). He discusses the effect of intermittency and the French context, and questions and discusses the choice between thermal and photovoltaic solar energy (advantages and drawbacks)

The conversion of the thermal energy of plasma in the SOL of tokamaks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nedospasov, A.V.; Nenova, N.V.

2008-01-01

When the plasma expands across the confining magnetic field, a part of its thermal energy is converted to electrical energy. In the SOL of tokamaks, the motion of the plasma across the field due to turbulent processes is accompanied by its departure along the open lines of the magnetic field. The conversion of thermal energy is taken into account in theoretical studies devoted to the physics of plasma in the SOL; however, this conversion is ignored in numerical models, for example, in B2-SOLPS4.0. This paper deals with thermal-to-electrical energy conversion in the SOL of tokamaks. It is demonstrated that the part of the thermal energy subjected to conversion to electrical energy forms an appreciable part of the total energy flowing in the SOL. In ITER, this fraction may be as high as 20-25%. The electrical energy generated in the SOL volume is liberated in the form of Joule heat in a relatively cold plasma in the vicinity of diverter plates or directly on these plates. (letter)

Energy integration on multi-periods and multi-usages for hybrid electric and thermal powertrains

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dimitrova, Zlatina; Maréchal, François

2015-01-01

The improvement of the efficiency of vehicle energy systems promotes an active search to find innovative solutions during the design process. This requires more accurate modeling of complex systems, which offers new ways to improve the design efficiency of energy systems. The vehicle is a highly dynamic system. The size and the efficiency of the convertors are dependent on the dynamic driving profile. In order to increase the energy efficiency, using energy integration techniques, an adapted methodology is required to choose the best points for the integrated system design. The idea is to clusterize the dynamic profile on typical multi-periods of the vehicle use. The energy system design is then optimized for these typical multi-periods. In this article a new methodology is applied on hybrid electric vehicles, in order to define the energy integrated powertrain configuration of the vehicle. The energy recovery potential of a single stage Organic Rankine Cycle for a thermal engine in combination with a hybrid electric powertrain is assessed for different drive cycles profiles and comfort situations. After the energy integration, a multi-objective optimization is applied to define the optimal design of a hybrid electric vehicle with a waste heat recovery system. - Highlights: • K-means algorithm transforms the dynamic driving profile on static multi-periods. • The clusters represent the typical powertrain use and size the heat recovery utility. • The maximal heat recovery potential on thermal powertrains is 11% for urban driving. • The maximal heat recovery potential on hybrid electric powertrains is 5%. • Engine downsizing increases heat recovery potential on hybrid electric powertrains

Modeling electric load and water consumption impacts from an integrated thermal energy and rainwater storage system for residential buildings in Texas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Upshaw, Charles R.; Rhodes, Joshua D.; Webber, Michael E.

2017-01-01

Highlights: • Hydronic integrated rainwater thermal storage (ITHERST) system concept presented. • ITHERST system modeled to assess peak electric load shifting and water savings. • Case study shows 75% peak load reduction and 9% increase in energy consumption. • Potable rainwater collection could provide ∼50–90% of water used for case study. - Abstract: The United States’ built environment is a significant direct and indirect consumer of energy and water. In Texas, and other parts of the Southern and Western US, air conditioning loads, particularly from residential buildings, contribute significantly to the peak electricity load on the grid, straining transmission. In parallel, water resources in these regions are strained by growing populations and shrinking supplies. One potential method to address both of these issues is to develop integrated thermal energy and auxiliary water (e.g. rainwater, greywater, etc.) storage and management systems that reduce peak load and freshwater consumption. This analysis focuses on a proposed integrated thermal energy and rainwater storage (ITHERST) system that is incorporated into a residential air-source chiller/heat pump with hydronic distribution. This paper describes a step-wise hourly thermodynamic model of the thermal storage system to assess on-peak performance, and a daily volume-balance model of auxiliary water collection and consumption to assess water savings potential. While the model is generalized, this analysis uses a case study of a single family home in Austin, Texas to illustrate its capabilities. The results indicate this ITHERST system could reduce on-peak air conditioning electric power demand by over 75%, with increased overall electric energy consumption of approximately 7–9%, when optimally sized. Additionally, the modeled rainwater collection reduced municipal water consumption by approximately 53–89%, depending on the system size.

Assessing energy efficiency of electric car bottom furnaces intended for thermal energization of minerals

Science.gov (United States)

Nizhegorodov, A. I.

2017-01-01

The paper deals with a new concept of electric furnaces for roasting and thermal energization of vermiculite and other minerals with vibrational transportation of a single-layer mass under constant thermal field. The paper presents performance calculation and comparative assessment of energy data for furnaces of different modifications: flame and electric furnaces with three units, furnaces with six units and ones with series-parallel connection of units, and furnaces of new concept.

Proposed Use of Zero Bias Diode Arrays as Thermal Electric Noise Rectifiers and Non-Thermal Energy Harvesters

Science.gov (United States)

Valone, Thomas F.

2009-03-01

The well known built-in voltage potential for some select semiconductor p-n junctions and various rectifying devices is proposed to be favorable for generating DC electricity at "zero bias" (with no DC bias voltage applied) in the presence of Johnson noise or 1/f noise which originates from the quantum vacuum (Koch et al., 1982). The 1982 Koch discovery that certain solid state devices exhibit measurable quantum noise has also recently been labeled a finding of dark energy in the lab (Beck and Mackey, 2004). Tunnel diodes are a class of rectifiers that are qualified and some have been credited with conducting only because of quantum fluctuations. Microwave diodes are also good choices since many are designed for zero bias operation. A completely passive, unamplified zero bias diode converter/detector for millimeter (GHz) waves was developed by HRL Labs in 2006 under a DARPA contract, utilizing a Sb-based "backward tunnel diode" (BTD). It is reported to be a "true zero-bias diode." It was developed for a "field radiometer" to "collect thermally radiated power" (in other words, 'night vision'). The diode array mounting allows a feed from horn antenna, which functions as a passive concentrating amplifier. An important clue is the "noise equivalent power" of 1.1 pW per root hertz and the "noise equivalent temperature difference" of 10° K, which indicate sensitivity to Johnson noise (Lynch, et al., 2006). There also have been other inventions such as "single electron transistors" that also have "the highest signal to noise ratio" near zero bias. Furthermore, "ultrasensitive" devices that convert radio frequencies have been invented that operate at outer space temperatures (3 degrees above zero point: 3° K). These devices are tiny nanotech devices which are suitable for assembly in parallel circuits (such as a 2-D array) to possibly produce zero point energy direct current electricity with significant power density (Brenning et al., 2006). Photovoltaic p-n junction

Hydrolysis Batteries: Generating Electrical Energy during Hydrogen Absorption.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Rui; Chen, Jun; Fu, Kai; Zheng, Xinyao; Wang, Teng; Zheng, Jie; Li, Xingguo

2018-02-19

The hydrolysis reaction of aluminum can be decoupled into a battery by pairing an Al foil with a Pd-capped yttrium dihydride (YH 2 -Pd) electrode. This hydrolysis battery generates a voltage around 0.45 V and leads to hydrogen absorption into the YH 2 layer. This represents a new hydrogen absorption mechanism featuring electrical energy generation during hydrogen absorption. The hydrolysis battery converts 8-15 % of the thermal energy of the hydrolysis reaction into usable electrical energy, leading to much higher energy efficiency compared to that of direct hydrolysis. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

The direct conversion of solar energy to electricity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-01-01

Half the world's population lives without access to electricity in the rural areas and villages of developing countries. In 1987, world population reached 5 billion and, according to World Bank projections, will increase to over 6 billion in the year 2000 and to over 8 billion in 2025. Such population growth is not uniformly distributed: developed countries have small or negative growth and account for a declining proportion of the world's population. Inasmuch as 95 per cent of the extra inhabitants added each year are in developing countries, rapid population growth in those countries raises serious questions about energy availability for basic human needs and, of course, more broadly about the environment's capacity to support that growth. The present report makes reference to one of the most comprehensively documented conservative scenarios for world energy demand in the year 2020, namely, Energy for a Sustainable World, which assumed that long-term world sustainability must entail constraints on (a) use of natural resources and (b) combustion of fossil fuels resulting in the greenhouse effect. Solar energy is abundant and could become a major source of electricity. Photovoltaics has three particular advantages. It accomplishes sunlight-to-electricity conversion entirely with solid-state electronic components, and with no moving parts required, thereby promising high equipment availability and very low operating and maintenance costs. PV also appears to have very limited environmental impact, with no emissions of the gaseous pollutants associated with fossil-fuel burning and few of the possible local problems associated with some other renewable energy technologies. Finally, the products of photovoltaic technology are modular in construction and can be built up on site in a flexible way, thus minimizing front-end financial risk and investment costs. Figs and tabs

Semi-flexible bimetal-based thermal energy harvesters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boisseau, S; Despesse, G; Monfray, S; Puscasu, O; Skotnicki, T

2013-01-01

This paper introduces a new semi-flexible device able to turn thermal gradients into electricity by using a curved bimetal coupled to an electret-based converter. In fact, a two-step conversion is carried out: (i) a curved bimetal turns the thermal gradient into a mechanical oscillation that is then (ii) converted into electricity thanks to an electrostatic converter using electrets in Teflon ® . The semi-flexible and low-cost design of these new energy converters pave the way to mass production over large areas of thermal energy harvesters. Raw output powers up to 13.46 μW per device were reached on a hot source at 60 °C with forced convection. Then, a DC-to-DC flyback converter has been sized to turn the energy harvesters’ raw output powers into a viable supply source for an electronic circuit (DC-3 V). At the end, 10 μW of directly usable output power were reached with 3 devices, which is compatible with wireless sensor network powering applications. (paper)

Electrical power system integrated thermal/electrical system simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Freeman, W.E.

1992-01-01

This paper adds thermal properties to previously developed electrical Saber templates and incorporates these templates into a functional Electrical Power Subsystem (EPS) simulation. These combined electrical and thermal templates enable the complete and realistic simulation of a vehicle EPS on-orbit. Applications include on-orbit energy balance determinations for system load changes, initial array and battery EPS sizing for new EPS development, and array and battery technology trade studies. This effort proves the versatility of the Saber simulation program in handling varied and complex simulations accurately and in a reasonable amount of computer time. 9 refs

Utilizing primary energy savings and exergy destruction to compare centralized thermal plants and cogeneration/trigeneration systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Espirito Santo, Denilson Boschiero do; Gallo, Waldyr Luiz Ribeiro

2017-01-01

Rising energy conversion processes efficiencies reduces CO_2 emissions and global warming implications. Decentralized electricity production through cogeneration/trigeneration systems can save primary energy if it operates with high efficiency. High efficiency is obtained when the system produces electricity and a substantial amount of the energy rejected by the prime mover is used to meet site thermal demands. Environmental concerns and international agreements are directing governments of different countries to incentive high efficiency solutions. Centralized thermal plants and cogeneration/trigeneration efficiency are compared through efficiency indicators using the first law of thermodynamics and the second law of thermodynamics. This paper proposes the use of the primary energy savings analysis and the exergy destruction analysis to compare decentralized power production through cogeneration/trigeneration systems and centralized thermal plants. The analysis concluded that both methods achieve the same results if the thermal efficiency indicator is used to compare the methods. The analysis also revealed that trigeneration systems with the same energy input are comparable with quite different thermal efficiency centralized thermal plants. Case 1 is comparable to a 53% thermal efficiency power plant and case 2 is comparable to a 77% thermal efficiency power plant. - Highlights: • Trigeneration and thermal plants are compared using PES and exergy destruction. • The thermal efficiency indicator is used to compare both methods. • The same equivalent thermal efficiency is achieved by both methods. • Same energy input trigeneration is similar to different thermal efficiency plants. • Evaluated trigeneration are comparable to a 53–77% thermal efficiency power plant.

Enhanced thermoelectric efficiency via orthogonal electrical and thermal conductances in phosphorene.

Science.gov (United States)

Fei, Ruixiang; Faghaninia, Alireza; Soklaski, Ryan; Yan, Jia-An; Lo, Cynthia; Yang, Li

2014-11-12

Thermoelectric devices that utilize the Seebeck effect convert heat flow into electrical energy and are highly desirable for the development of portable, solid state, passively powered electronic systems. The conversion efficiencies of such devices are quantified by the dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT), which is proportional to the ratio of a device's electrical conductance to its thermal conductance. In this paper, a recently fabricated two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor called phosphorene (monolayer black phosphorus) is assessed for its thermoelectric capabilities. First-principles and model calculations reveal not only that phosphorene possesses a spatially anisotropic electrical conductance, but that its lattice thermal conductance exhibits a pronounced spatial-anisotropy as well. The prominent electrical and thermal conducting directions are orthogonal to one another, enhancing the ratio of these conductances. As a result, ZT may reach the criterion for commercial deployment along the armchair direction of phosphorene at T = 500 K and is close to 1 even at room temperature given moderate doping (∼2 × 10(16) m(-2) or 2 × 10(12) cm(-2)). Ultimately, phosphorene hopefully stands out as an environmentally sound thermoelectric material with unprecedented qualities. Intrinsically, it is a mechanically flexible material that converts heat energy with high efficiency at low temperatures (∼300 K), one whose performance does not require any sophisticated engineering techniques.

Integration and Validation of a Thermal Energy Storage System for Electric Vehicle Cabin Heating

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Mingyu [MAHLE Behr Troy Inc.; Craig, Timothy [MAHLE Behr Troy Inc.; Wolfe, Edward [MAHLE Behr Troy Inc.; LaClair, Tim J. [ORNL; Gao, Zhiming [ORNL; Levin, Michael [Ford Motor Company; Demitroff, Danrich [Ford Motor Company; Shaikh, Furqan [Ford Motor Company

2017-03-01

It is widely recognized in the automotive industry that, in very cold climatic conditions, the driving range of an Electric Vehicle (EV) can be reduced by 50% or more. In an effort to minimize the EV range penalty, a novel thermal energy storage system has been designed to provide cabin heating in EVs and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) by using an advanced phase change material (PCM). This system is known as the Electrical PCM-based Thermal Heating System (ePATHS) [1, 2]. When the EV is connected to the electric grid to charge its traction battery, the ePATHS system is also “charged” with thermal energy. The stored heat is subsequently deployed for cabin comfort heating during driving, for example during commuting to and from work.The ePATHS system, especially the PCM heat exchanger component, has gone through substantial redesign in order to meet functionality and commercialization requirements. The final system development for EV implementation has occurred on a mid-range EV and has been evaluated for its capability to extend the driving range. Both simulated driving in a climatic tunnel and actual road testing have been carried out. The ePATHS has demonstrated its ability to supply the entire cabin heating needs for a round trip commute totaling 46 minutes, including 8 hours of parking, at an ambient temperature of -10°C.

Reflections about the cogeneration of electrical and thermal energy in conditions of Chisinau city, Republic of Moldova

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Musteata, Valentin

2004-01-01

The cogeneration of electrical and thermal energy in Chisinau city is implements on heat power plants HPP-1 and HPP - 2. The district heating, receiving thermal energy from these power plants, has a severe alternative from the autonomous heating system. The capabilities of reducing the cost of thermal energy produced by HPP-2 are analyzed and the paths of improvement of district heating are forecasted. (author)

Hierarchically interconnected porous scaffolds for phase change materials with improved thermal conductivity and efficient solar-to-electric energy conversion.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Jie; Yu, Peng; Tang, Li-Sheng; Bao, Rui-Ying; Liu, Zheng-Ying; Yang, Ming-Bo; Yang, Wei

2017-11-23

An ice-templating self-assembly strategy and a vacuum impregnation method were used to fabricate polyethylene glycol (PEG)/hierarchical porous scaffold composite phase change materials (PCMs). Hierarchically interconnected porous scaffolds of boron nitride (BN), with the aid of a small amount of graphene oxide (GO), endow the composite PCMs with high thermal conductivity, excellent shape-stability and efficient solar-to-electric energy conversion. The formation of a three-dimensional (3D) thermally conductive pathway in the composites contributes to improving the thermal conductivity up to 2.36 W m -1 K -1 at a relatively low content of BN (ca. 23 wt%). This work provides a route for thermally conductive and shape-stabilized composite PCMs used as energy storage materials.

Romania needs a strategy for thermal energy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leca Aureliu

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The energy sector in Romania consists of three sub-sectors: electricity, natural gas and heat. Among these, the sub-sector of thermal energy is in the most precarious situation because it has been neglected for a long time. This sub-sector is particularly important both due to the amount of final heat consumption (of over 50% of final energy consumption, and to the fact that it has a direct negative effect on the population, industry and services. This paper presents the main directions for developing a modern strategy of the thermal energy sub-sector, which would fit into Romania’s Energy Strategy that is still in preparation This is based on the author’s 50 years of experience in this field that includes knowledge about the processes and the equipment of thermal energy, expertise in the management and restructuring of energy companies and also knowledge of the specific legislation. It is therefore recommended, following the European regulations and practices, the promotion and upgrading of district heating systems using efficient cogeneration, using trigeneration in Romania, modernizing buildings in terms of energy use, using of renewable energy sources for heating, especially biomass, and modernizing the energy consumption of rural settlements.

A novel polygeneration system integrating photovoltaic/thermal collectors, solar assisted heat pump, adsorption chiller and electrical energy storage: Dynamic and energy-economic analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Calise, Francesco; Figaj, Rafal Damian; Vanoli, Laura

2017-01-01

Highlights: • Space heating/cooling, domestic hot water and electrical energy are provided by the system. • Two different users are investigated: fitness center and office. • The influence of the battery system on system economic performance is scarce. • Net metering contract is more profitable compared to simplified purchase/resale arrangement one. - Abstract: In this paper a dynamic simulation model and a thermo-economic analysis of a novel polygeneration system are presented. The system includes photovoltaic/thermal collectors coupled with a solar-assisted heat pump, an adsorption chiller and an electrical energy storage. The modelled plant supplies electrical energy, space heating and cooling and domestic hot water. The produced solar thermal energy is used during the winter to supply the heat pump evaporator, providing the required space heating. In summer, solar thermal energy is used to drive an adsorption chiller providing the required space cooling. All year long, solar thermal energy in excess, with respect to the space heating and cooling demand, is used to produce domestic hot water. The produced electrical energy is self-consumed by both user and system auxiliary equipment and/or supplied to the grid. The system model includes a detailed electrical energy model for user storage and exchange with the grid along with a detailed building model. This study is a continuation of previous works recently presented by the authors. In particular, the present paper focuses on the real electrical demands of several types of users and on the analysis of the comfort of building users. Differently from the works previously published by the authors, the present work bases the calculations on measured electrical demands of real users (fitness center and offices). The system performance is analyzed with two different electricity supply contracts: net metering and simplified purchase/resale arrangement. Daily, weekly and yearly results are presented. Finally, a

Combined simulation of energy and thermal management for an electric vehicle

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mohrmann, Bjoern; Jeck, Peter [Institut fuer Kraftfahrzeuge Aachen (Germany); Simon, Carsten [fortiss GmbH, Muenchen (Germany); Ungermann, Jochen [Audi AG, Ingolstadt (Germany)

2012-11-01

The project eperformance, which is funded by the BMBF, is conducted by project partners from RWTH Aachen, Audi, Bosch Engineering and fortiss GmbH, in order to demonstrate the concept of an electric vehicle on the basis of a holistic development approach. To support this, several simulation platforms come into use, i.e. CFD Simulation for cooling concepts, electromagnetic simulations for electric machine design, physical simulation of cooling circuits as well as vehicle mechanics and controller design. To develop an energy efficient vehicle management, some of these simulation domains have to be combined, to simulate interdependencies between for example usage of high-voltage batteries, their thermal response and the impact for controller strategies. Within the project it was decided to use the Tool TISC (TLK Inter Software Connector) to combine as well a physical model, based on Modelica/Dymola to simulate thermal behaviours of components with a longitudinal vehicle model and a controller model, both based in MATLAB/Simulink. Advantages of such a coupled simulation are the re-usability of existing models in both tools with their tool-specific benefits as well as the possibility to cluster the models on different computers. The article will explain how the combined simulation is set up and parameterized, and will show two use cases: the thermal management of the two independent battery systems of the demonstrator vehicle and the torque distribution on the three electric machines in the vehicle, depending on the drive situation and the thermal state of the machines. (orig)

Solar thermal electricity generation

Science.gov (United States)

Gasemagha, Khairy Ramadan

1993-01-01

This report presents the results of modeling the thermal performance and economic feasibility of large (utility scale) and small solar thermal power plants for electricity generation. A number of solar concepts for power systems applications have been investigated. Each concept has been analyzed over a range of plant power ratings from 1 MW(sub e) to 300 MW(sub e) and over a range of capacity factors from a no-storage case (capacity factor of about 0.25 to 0.30) up to intermediate load capacity factors in the range of 0.46 to 0.60. The solar plant's economic viability is investigated by examining the effect of various parameters on the plant costs (both capital and O & M) and the levelized energy costs (LEC). The cost components are reported in six categories: collectors, energy transport, energy storage, energy conversion, balance of plant, and indirect/contingency costs. Concentrator and receiver costs are included in the collector category. Thermal and electric energy transport costs are included in the energy transport category. Costs for the thermal or electric storage are included in the energy storage category; energy conversion costs are included in the energy conversion category. The balance of plant cost category comprises the structures, land, service facilities, power conditioning, instrumentation and controls, and spare part costs. The indirect/contingency category consists of the indirect construction and the contingency costs. The concepts included in the study are (1) molten salt cavity central receiver with salt storage (PFCR/R-C-Salt); (2) molten salt external central receiver with salt storage (PFCR/R-E-Salt); (3) sodium external central receiver with sodium storage (PFCR/RE-Na); (4) sodium external central receiver with salt storage (PFCR/R-E-Na/Salt); (5) water/steam external central receiver with oil/rock storage (PFCR/R-E-W/S); (6) parabolic dish with stirling engine conversion and lead acid battery storage (PFDR/SLAB); (7) parabolic dish

Thermodynamic analysis of pumped thermal electricity storage

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

White, Alexander; Parks, Geoff; Markides, Christos N.

2013-01-01

The increasing use of renewable energy technologies for electricity generation, many of which have an unpredictably intermittent nature, will inevitably lead to a greater need for electricity storage. Although there are many existing and emerging storage technologies, most have limitations in terms of geographical constraints, high capital cost or low cycle life, and few are of sufficient scale (in terms of both power and storage capacity) for integration at the transmission and distribution levels. This paper is concerned with a relatively new concept which will be referred to here as Pumped Thermal Electricity Storage (PTES), and which may be able to make a significant contribution towards future storage needs. During charge, PTES makes use of a high temperature ratio heat pump to convert electrical energy into thermal energy which is stored as ‘sensible heat’ in two thermal reservoirs, one hot and one cold. When required, the thermal energy is then converted back to electricity by effectively running the heat pump backwards as a heat engine. The paper focuses on thermodynamic aspects of PTES, including energy and power density, and the various sources of irreversibility and their impact on round-trip efficiency. It is shown that, for given compression and expansion efficiencies, the cycle performance is controlled chiefly by the ratio between the highest and lowest temperatures in each reservoir rather than by the cycle pressure ratio. The sensitivity of round-trip efficiency to various loss parameters has been analysed and indicates particular susceptibility to compression and expansion irreversibility

Proposal for a directive for the promotion of electricity based on renewable energy sources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-04-01

The amended ''Directives concerning common rules for the internal markets in electricity and natural gas'', adopted in June 2003, organizes the future framework of electricity and gas, making all European consumers eligible, from 2004 onwards and at the latest by 2007 for the domestic sector, as well as integrating some components related to general interest services. Energie-Cites gives in this document its opinion and its expectations concerning this proposal for a directive for the promotion of electricity based on renewable energy sources. (A.L.B.)

Anisotropic electrical, thermal and magnetic properties of Al{sub 13}Ru{sub 4} decagonal quasicrystalline approximant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wencka, Magdalena [Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan (Poland). Inst. of Molecular Physics; Vrtnik, Stanislav; Kozelj, Primoz; Dolinsek, Janez [Ljubljana Univ. (Slovenia). Faculty of Mathematics and Physics; Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana (Slovenia); Jaglicic, Zvonko [Ljubljana Univ. (Slovenia). Inst. of Mathematics, Physics and Mechanics; Gille, Peter [Muenchen Univ. (Germany). Crystallography Section

2017-09-01

We present measurements of the anisotropic electrical and thermal transport coefficients (the electrical resistivity, the thermoelectric power, the thermal conductivity), the magnetization and the specific heat of the Al{sub 13}Ru{sub 4} monoclinic approximant to the decagonal quasicrystal, in comparison to the isostructural Al{sub 13}Fe{sub 4}. The electrical and thermal transport parameters of Al{sub 13}Ru{sub 4} were found to exhibit significant anisotropy, qualitatively similar to that found previously in the Al{sub 13}Fe{sub 4} (P. Popcevic, et al., Phys. Rev. B 2010, 81, 184203). The crystallographic b direction, corresponding to the stacking direction of the (a,c) atomic planes, is the most conducting direction for the electricity and heat. The thermopower is strongly anisotropic with a complicated temperature dependence, exhibiting maxima, minima, crossovers and sign change. The electronic density of states (DOS) at the Fermi energy is reduced to 35% of the DOS of Al metal. The magnetic susceptibility is diamagnetic and the diamagnetism is by a factor of 2 stronger for the magnetic field along the stacking b direction.

Ice thermal storage air conditioning system for electric load leveling; Denryoku heijunka to hyochikunetsu system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shigenaga, Y. [Daikin Industries Ltd., Osaka (Japan)

1998-08-15

Thermal storage air conditioning system is the one to use energy stored into thermal storing materials by using night electric power and to operate effective air conditioning. Therefore, as load can be treated by the stored energy, volume of the apparatus can be reduced. And, by reduction of the consumed power at day time, it can contribute to leveling of electric power demand. In general, there are two types in the thermal storage method: one is a method to store as thermal energy, and the other is that to store as chemical energy. For conditions required for the storing materials, important elements on their actual uses are not only physical properties such as large thermal storage per unit and easy thermal in- and out-puts, but also safety, long-term reliability, and easy receiving and economics containing future. The ice thermal storage air conditioning system is classified at the viewpoint of type of ice, kind of thermal storing medium, melting method on using cooling and heating, kinds of thermal medium on cooling and heating. 3 refs., 5 figs., 2 tabs.

Recycled Thermal Energy from High Power Light Emitting Diode Light Source.

Science.gov (United States)

Ji, Jae-Hoon; Jo, GaeHun; Ha, Jae-Geun; Koo, Sang-Mo; Kamiko, Masao; Hong, JunHee; Koh, Jung-Hyuk

2018-09-01

In this research, the recycled electrical energy from wasted thermal energy in high power Light Emitting Diode (LED) system will be investigated. The luminous efficiency of lights has been improved in recent years by employing the high power LED system, therefore energy efficiency was improved compared with that of typical lighting sources. To increase energy efficiency of high power LED system further, wasted thermal energy should be re-considered. Therefore, wasted thermal energy was collected and re-used them as electrical energy. The increased electrical efficiency of high power LED devices was accomplished by considering the recycled heat energy, which is wasted thermal energy from the LED. In this work, increased electrical efficiency will be considered and investigated by employing the high power LED system, which has high thermal loss during the operating time. For this research, well designed thermoelement with heat radiation system was employed to enhance the collecting thermal energy from the LED system, and then convert it as recycled electrical energy.

Direct utilization of geothermal energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lund, J. W.

2010-01-01

The worldwide application of geothermal energy for direct utilization is reviewed. This paper is based on the world update for direct-use presented at the World Geothermal Congress 2010 in Bali, Indonesia (WGC2010) which also includes material presented at three world geothermal congresses in Italy, Japan and Turkey (WGC95, WGC2000 and WGC2005). This report is based on country update papers prepared for WGC2010 and data from other sources. Final update papers were received from 70 countries of which 66 reported some direct utilization of geothermal energy for WGC2010. Twelve additional countries were added to the list based on other sources of information. The 78 countries having direct utilization of geothermal energy, is a significant increase from the 72 reported in 2005, the 58 reported in 2000, and the 28 reported in 1995. An estimate of the installed thermal power for direct utilization at the end of 2009, reported from WGC2010 is 48,493 MW th , almost a 72 % increased over the 2005 data, growing at a compound rate of 11.4% annually with a capacity factor of 0.28. The thermal energy used is 423,830 TJ/year (117,740 GWh/yr), about a 55% increase over 2005, growing at a compound rate of 9.2% annually. The distribution of thermal energy used by category is approximately 47.2% for ground-source heat pumps, 25.8% for bathing and swimming (including balneology), 14.9% for space heating (of which 85% is for district heating), 5.5% for greenhouses and open ground heating, 2.8% for industrial process heating, 2.7% for aquaculture pond and raceway heating, 0.4% for agricultural drying, 0.5% for snow melting and cooling, and 0.2% for other uses. Energy savings amounted to 250 million barrels (38 million tonnes) of equivalent oil annually, preventing 33 million tonnes of carbon and 107 million tonnes of CO 2 being released to the atmosphere which includes savings in geothermal heat pump cooling (compared to using fuel oil to generate electricity). (author)

Direct Utilization of Geothermal Energy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John W. Lund

2010-08-01

Full Text Available The worldwide application of geothermal energy for direct utilization is reviewed. This paper is based on the world update for direct-use presented at the World Geothermal Congress 2010 in Bali, Indonesia (WGC2010 [1] which also includes material presented at three world geothermal congresses in Italy, Japan and Turkey (WGC95, WGC2000 and WGC2005. This report is based on country update papers prepared for WGC2010 and data from other sources. Final update papers were received from 70 countries of which 66 reported some direct utilization of geothermal energy for WGC2010. Twelve additional countries were added to the list based on other sources of information. The 78 countries having direct utilization of geothermal energy, is a significant increase from the 72 reported in 2005, the 58 reported in 2000, and the 28 reported in 1995. An estimate of the installed thermal power for direct utilization at the end of 2009, reported from WGC2010 is 48,493 MWt, almost a 72 % increased over the 2005 data, growing at a compound rate of 11.4% annually with a capacity factor of 0.28. The thermal energy used is 423,830 TJ/year (117,740 GWh/yr, about a 55% increase over 2005, growing at a compound rate of 9.2% annually. The distribution of thermal energy used by category is approximately 47.2% for ground-source heat pumps, 25.8% for bathing and swimming (including balneology, 14.9% for space heating (of which 85% is for district heating, 5.5% for greenhouses and open ground heating, 2.8% for industrial process heating, 2.7% for aquaculture pond and raceway heating, 0.4% for agricultural drying, 0.5% for snow melting and cooling, and 0.2% for other uses. Energy savings amounted to 250 million barrels (38 million tonnes of equivalent oil annually, preventing 33 million tonnes of carbon and 107 million tonnes of CO2 being release to the atmosphere which includes savings in geothermal heat pump cooling (compared to using fuel oil to generate electricity.

Solar thermal electric power generation - an attractive option for Pakistan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khan, N.A

1999-01-01

Solar Thermal Energy is being successfully used for production of electricity in few developed countries for more than 10 years. In solar Electric Generating Systems high temperature is generated by concentrating solar energy on black absorber pipe in evacuated glass tubes. This heat is absorbed and transported with the help of high temperature oil in to highly insulated heat exchanger storage tanks. They are subsequently used to produce steam that generates power through steam turbines as in standard thermal power plants. Various components involved in Solar thermal field have been developed at the Solar Systems Laboratory of College of EME, NUST Rawalpindi. It is considered as a cost effective alternate for power generation. The research has been partially sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology under its Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) in (1996-1998). Parabolic mirror design, fabrication, polishing, installation, solar tracking, absorber pipe, glass tubes, steam generation al have been developed. This paper will cover the details of indigenous technological break through made in this direction. (author)

Feasibility study of Thermal Electric Generator Configurations as Renewable Energy Sources

Science.gov (United States)

Akmal Johar, Muhammad; Yahaya, Zulkarnain; Faizan Marwah, Omar Mohd; Jamaludin, Wan Akashah Wan; Najib Ribuan, Mohamed

2017-10-01

Thermoelectric Generator is a solid state device that able to convert thermal energy into electrical energy via temperature differences. The technology is based on Seebeck effect that was discovered in year 1821, however till now there is no real application to exploit this capability in mass scale. This research will report the performance analysis of TEG module in controlled environment of lab scale model. National Instrument equipment and Labview software has been choosen and developed to measure the TEG module in various configurations. Based on the experiment result, an additional passive cooling effort has produced a better ΔT by 7°C. The optimal electrical loading of single TEG is recorded at 200Ω. As for circuit connections, series connection has shown superior power output when compared to parallel connection or single TEG. A series connection of two TEGs has produced power output of 416.82μW when compared to other type connections that only produced around 100μW.

Electrical Thermal Network for Direct Contact Membrane Distillation Modeling and Analysis

KAUST Repository

Karam, Ayman M.

2015-02-04

Membrane distillation is an emerging water distillation technology that offers several advantages compared to conventional water desalination processes. Although progress has been made to model and understand the physics of the process, many studies are based on steady-state assumptions or are computationally not appropriate for real time control. This paper presents the derivation of a novel dynamical model, based on analogy between electrical and thermal systems, for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). The proposed model captures the dynamics of temperature distribution and distilled water flux. To demonstrate the adequacy of the proposed model, validation with transient and steady-state experimental data is presented.

Biodiesel and electrical energy to overall development; Biodiesel e energia eletrica para o desenvolvimento social

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Andrade, Maisa Medeiros Pacheco de [Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Natal, RN (Brazil)

2008-07-01

The energy is everything around you. Everything that is matter haves energy, organic or not. The energy can manifest itself in many forms. The most common forms are the kinetic, nuclear, thermal, hydro, solar, wind and electric energies. They can be subdivided in secondary and primary energies. The primary energies are those forms of energy that are directly in nature and not suffered any processing, such as wind energy. While the secondary are those that have suffered interference of man and is already present in the way will be used for him. However, in this work the electric energy will have a greater focus, due to its importance in daily life of civilization current. The electricity is seen, actually, as essential to social development, enabling the improvement of the living conditions of poor people. Through access to electric energy, such people could benefit from better conditions of health, education, work, leisure, information, security, finally, may considerably improve their condition of life. To promote universal access to energy, the federal government implemented some public policies, including the National Programme of Biodiesel, vital to the promotion of social development of the country. (author)

Study of the electrical and thermal performances of photovoltaic thermal collector-compound parabolic concentrated

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahed Hameed Jaaz

2018-06-01

Full Text Available The importance of utilizing the solar energy as a very suitable source among multi-source approaches to replace the conventional energy is on the rise in the last four decades. The invention of the photovoltaic module (PV could be the corner stone in this process. However, the limited amount of energy obtained from PV was and still the main challenge of full utilization of the solar energy. In this paper, the use of the compound parabolic concentrator (CPC along with the thermal photovoltaic module (PVT where the cooling process of the CPC is conducted using a novel technique of water jet impingement has applied experimentally and physically tested. The test includes the effect of water jet impingement on the total power, electrical efficiency, thermal efficiency, and total efficiency on CPC-PVT system. The cooling process at the maximum irradiation by water jet impingement resulted in improving the electrical efficiency by 7%, total output power by 31% and the thermal efficiency by 81%. These results outperform the recent highest results recorded by the most recent work. Keywords: Photovoltaic thermal collectors, Electrical performance, Thermal performance, Compound parabolic concentrator, Jet impingement

Electrical energy in France in 2009

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-12-01

The figures presented on this document account for the electricity flows recorded in Metropolitan France, including Corsica. Contents: national consumption; physical exchanges with foreign countries; electrical energy balance in France in 2009; net generation; noteworthy data for the year 2009 (daily maximum values of national consumption, thermal generation, hydro-electric generation, wind generation and balance of physical exchanges); electricity market: cross-borders contractual exchanges, balance responsible entities (Energy amount exchanged between balance responsible entities through the block exchange notifications), balancing mechanism (global amount of energy activated upwards and downwards), daily market coupling; power facilities: generating facilities in France (Nuclear, Fossil fuel thermal, Hydro-electric, Wind and Other renewable energy sources), transmission lines owned by RTE (circuit length in operation), transmission - transformers owned by RTE (installed capacity in operation); main transmission facilities commissioned during the year 2009 (substations connected to the RTE network and new or refurbished circuits)

Magnetically insulated fission electric cells for direct energy conversion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Slutz, S.A.; Seidel, D.B.; Lipinski, R.J.; Rochau, G.E.; Brown, L.C.

2003-01-01

The principles of fission electric cells are reviewed. A detailed Monte Carlo model of the efficiency of a fission electric cell is presented and a theory of magnetically insulated fission electric cells (MIFECs) is developed. It is shown that the low operating voltages observed in previous MIFEC experiments were due to nonoptimal magnetic field profiles. Improved magnetic field profiles are presented. It is further shown that the large electric field present in a MIFEC limits the structure of the cathode and can lead to a displacement instability of the cathode toward the anode. This instability places constraints on the number of cells that can be strung together without some external cathode support. The large electric field stress also leads to electrical surface breakdown of the cathode. It is shown that this leads to the formation of a virtual cathode resulting in geometry constraints for spherical cells. Finally it is shown that the requirements of magnetic insulation and high efficiency leads to very low average density of the fissile material. Thus a reactor using fission electric cells for efficient direct energy conversion will be large and require a very large number of cells. This could be mitigated somewhat by the use of exotic fuels

Solar Air Heaters with Thermal Heat Storages

OpenAIRE

Saxena, Abhishek; Goel, Varun

2013-01-01

Solar energy can be converted into different forms of energy, either to thermal energy or to electrical energy. Solar energy is converted directly into electrical power by photovoltaic modules, while solar collector converts solar energy into thermal energy. Solar collector works by absorbing the direct solar radiation and converting it into thermal energy, which can be stored in the form of sensible heat or latent heat or a combination of sensible and latent heats. A theoretical study has be...

Generation and Use of Thermal Energy in the U.S. Industrial Sector and Opportunities to Reduce its Carbon Emissions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McMillan, Colin A. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States). Strategic Energy Analysis Center; Boardman, Richard [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); McKellar, Michael [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Sabharwall, Piyush [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Ruth, Mark [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Bragg-Sitton, Shannon [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

2016-11-01

The industrial sector was the third-largest source of direct U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2014 behind electricity generation and transportation and accounted for roughly 20% of total emissions (EPA 2016). The Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that total U.S. energy consumption will grow to about 108 exajoules (1 EJ = 10¹⁸ J) or 102 quads (1 quad = 10¹⁵ British thermal units) in 2025, with nearly all of the growth coming from the industrial sector (DOE 2015b). Energy consumption in the industrial sector is forecast to increase to 39.5 EJ (37.4 quads)—a 22% increase, exceeding 36% of total energy consumption in the United States. Therefore, it is imperative that industrial GHG emissions be considered in any strategy intent on achieving deep decarbonization of the energy sector as a whole. It is important to note that unlike the transportation sector and electrical grid, energy use by industry often involves direct conversion of primary energy sources to thermal and electrical energy at the point of consumption. About 52% of U.S. industrial direct GHG emissions are the result of fuel combustion (EPA 2016) to produce hot gases and steam for process heating, process reactions, and process evaporation, concentration, and drying. The heterogeneity and variations in scale of U.S. industry and the complexity of modern industrial firms’ global supply chains are among the sector’s unique challenges to minimizing its GHG emissions. A combination of varied strategies—such as energy efficiency, material efficiency, and switching to low-carbon fuels—can help reduce absolute industrial GHG emissions. This report provides a complement to process-efficiency improvement to consider how clean energy delivery and use by industry could reduce GHG emissions. Specifically, it considers the possibility of replacing fossil-fuel combustion in industry with nuclear (specifically small modular reactors [SMRs]), solar thermal (referred to

Electric energy utilization and conservation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tripathy, S.C.

1991-01-01

Various aspects of electric energy utilization and conservation are discussed. First chapter reviews thermodynamic aspects of energy conservation. Subsequent chapters describe possibilities and methods of energy conservation in thermal power plants, airconditioning and ventilation systems, electric lighting systems, electric heating systems in industries, and railway electrification. Chapter 8 describes various modes of energy storage and compares their economies. The next chapter discusses various facets of energy economics and the last chapter discusses the practical aspects of energy conservation in different industries and power utilities. (M.G.B.). 100 refs

Renewable energy distributed power system with photovoltaic/ thermal and bio gas power generators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haider, M.U.; Rehman, S.U.

2011-01-01

The energy shortage and environmental pollution is becoming an important problem in these days. Hence it is very much important to use renewable power technologies to get rid of these problems. The important renewable energy sources are Bio-Energy, Wind Energy, Hydrogen Energy, Tide Energy, Terrestrial Heat Energy, Solar Energy, Thermal Energy and so on. Pakistan is rich in all these aspects particularly in Solar and Thermal Energies. In major areas of Pakistan like in South Punjab, Sind and Baluchistan the weather condition are very friendly for these types of Renewable Energies. In these areas Solar Energy can be utilized by solar panels in conjunction with thermal panels. The Photovoltaic cells are used to convert Solar Energy directly to Electrical Energy and thermal panels can be uses to convert solar energy into heat energy and this heat energy will be used to drive some turbine to get Electrical Energy. The Solar Energy can be absorbed more efficiently by any given area of Solar Panel if these two technologies can be combined in such a way that they can work together. The first part of this paper shows that how these technologies can be combined. Furthermore it is known to all that photovoltaic/thermal panels depend entirely on weather conditions. So in order to maintain constant power a biogas generator is used in conjunction with these. (author)

Career Directions--Renewable Energy Systems Integrator

Science.gov (United States)

Fleeman, Stephen R.

2012-01-01

Renewable energy systems are beginning to appear everywhere. Solar modules are creating "blue roofs" that convert the energy from the sun into household electricity. Solar thermal systems on roofs can generate hot water. Wind turbines catch breezes to provide even more electricity. Recommendations for saving energy, specifying systems for…

Characteristics Study of Photovoltaic Thermal System with Emphasis on Energy Efficiency

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yong Chuah Yee

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Solar energy is typically collected through photovoltaic (PV to generate electricity or through thermal collectors as heat energy, they are generally utilised separately. This project is done with the purpose of integrating the two systems to improve the energy efficiency. The idea of this photovoltaic-thermal (PVT setup design is to simultaneously cool the PV panel so it can operate at a lower temperature thus higher electrical efficiency and also store the thermal energy. The experimental data shows that the PVT setup increased the electrical efficiency of the standard PV setup from 1.64% to 2.15%. The integration of the thermal collector also allowed 37.25% of solar energy to be stored as thermal energy. The standard PV setup harnessed only 1.64% of the solar energy, whereas the PVT setup achieved 39.4%. Different flowrates were tested to determine its effects on the PVT setup’s electrical and thermal efficiency. The various flowrate does not significantly impact the electrical efficiency since it did not significantly impact the cooling of the panel. The various flowrates resulted in fluctuating thermal efficiencies, the relation between the two is inconclusive in this project.

Coordinated Operation of the Electricity and Natural Gas Systems with Bi-directional Energy Conversion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zeng, Qing; Zhang, Baohua; Fang, Jiakun

2017-01-01

A coordinated operation of the natural gas and electricity network with bi-directional energy conversion is expected to accommodate high penetration levels of renewables. This work focuses on the unified optimal operation of the integrated natural gas and electricity system considering the network...

Energy savings and increased electric vehicle range through improved battery thermal management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, Joshua; Hinterberger, Michael; Schneider, Christoph; Koehler, Juergen

2016-01-01

Lithium-ion cells are temperature sensitive: operation outside the optimal operating range causes premature aging and correspondingly reduces vehicle range and battery system lifetime. In order to meet consumer demands for electric and hybrid-electric vehicle performance, especially in adverse climates, a battery thermal management system (BTMS) is often required. This work presents a novel experimental method for analyzing BTMS using three sample cooling plate concepts. For each concept, the input parameters (ambient temperature, coolant temperature and coolant flow rate) are varied and the resulting effect on the average temperature and temperature distribution across and between cells is compared. Additionally, the pressure loss along the coolant path is utilized as an indicator of energy efficiency. Using the presented methodology, various cooling plate layouts optimized for production alternative techniques are compared to the state of the art. It is shown that these production-optimized cooling plates provide sufficient thermal performance with the additional benefit of mechanical integration within the battery and/or vehicle system. It is also shown that the coolant flow influences battery cell thermal behavior more than the solid material and that pressure drop is more sensitive to geometrical changes in the cooling plate than temperature changes at the module.

Integrated Vehicle Thermal Management - Combining Fluid Loops in Electric Drive Vehicles (Presentation)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rugh, J. P.

2013-07-01

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles have increased vehicle thermal management complexity, using separate coolant loop for advanced power electronics and electric motors. Additional thermal components result in higher costs. Multiple cooling loops lead to reduced range due to increased weight. Energy is required to meet thermal requirements. This presentation for the 2013 Annual Merit Review discusses integrated vehicle thermal management by combining fluid loops in electric drive vehicles.

Hot Thermal Storage in a Variable Power, Renewable Energy System

Science.gov (United States)

2014-06-01

where cost effective, increase the utilization of distributed electric power generation through wind, solar, geothermal , and biomass renewable...characteristics and may not necessarily be available in all cases. Types of direct heat energy systems include solar thermal, waste heat, and geothermal ...of super capacitor energy storage system in microgrid,” in International Conference on Sustainable Power Generation and Supply, Janjing, China

Wind energy status in renewable electrical energy production in Turkey

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaygusuz, Kamil

2010-01-01

Main electrical energy sources of Turkey are thermal and hydraulic. Most of the thermal sources are derived from natural gas. Turkey imports natural gas; therefore, decreasing usage of natural gas is very important for both economical and environmental aspects. Because of disadvantages of fossil fuels, renewable energy sources are getting importance for sustainable energy development and environmental protection. Among the renewable sources, Turkey has very high wind energy potential. The estimated wind power capacity of Turkey is about 83,000 MW while only 10,000 MW of it seems to be economically feasible to use. Start 2009, the total installed wind power capacity of Turkey was only 4.3% of its total economical wind power potential (433 MW). However, the strong development of wind energy in Turkey is expected to continue in the coming years. In this study, Turkey's installed electric power capacity, electric energy production is investigated and also Turkey current wind energy status is examined. (author)

Optimization of thermal insulation to achieve energy savings in low energy house (refurbishment)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bojić, Milorad; Miletić, Marko; Bojić, Ljubiša

2014-01-01

Highlights: • For buildings that require heating, a thickness of their thermal insulation is optimized. • The objective was to improve energy efficiency of the building. • The optimization is performed by using EnergyPlus and Hooke–Jeeves method. • The embodied energy of thermal insulation and the entire life cycle of the house are taken into account. - Abstract: Due to the current environmental situation, saving energy and reducing CO 2 emission have become the leading drive in modern research. For buildings that require heating, one of the solutions is to optimize a thickness of their thermal insulation and thus improve energy efficiency and reduce energy needs. In this paper, for a small residential house in Serbia, an optimization in the thickness of its thermal insulation layer is investigated by using EnergyPlus software and Hooke–Jeeves direct search method. The embodied energy of thermal insulation is taken into account. The optimization is done for the entire life cycle of thermal insulation. The results show the optimal thickness of thermal insulation that yields the minimum primary energy consumption

Electric energy storage - Overview of technologies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boye, Henri

2013-01-01

Energy storage is a challenging and costly process, as electricity can only be stored by conversion into other forms of energy (e.g. potential, thermal, chemical or magnetic energy). The grids must be precisely balanced in real time and it must be made sure that the cost of electricity is the lowest possible. Storage of electricity has many advantages, in centralized mass storages used for the management of the transmission network, or in decentralized storages of smaller dimensions. This article presents an overview of the storage technologies: mechanical storage in hydroelectric and pumped storage power stations, compressed air energy storage (CAES), flywheels accumulating kinetic energy, electrochemical batteries with various technologies, traditional lead acid batteries, lithium ion, sodium sulfur (NaS) and others, including vehicle to grid, sensible heat thermal storage, superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES), super-capacitors, conversion into hydrogen... The different technologies are compared in terms of cost and level of maturity. The development of intermittent renewable energies will result in a growing need for mechanisms to regulate energy flow and innovative energy storage solutions seem well positioned to develop. (author)

An energy management system for a directly-driven electric scooter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Yee-Pien; Liu, Jieng-Jang; Hu, Tsung-Hsien

2011-01-01

An energy management system with an electronic gearshift and regenerative braking is presented to improve the gross efficiency and driving range of an electric scooter, driven directly by a four-phase axial-flux DC brushless wheel motor. The integration of stator windings, batteries, ultracapacitors, and a digital controller constitutes an energy management system, which features smooth electronic gear shifting and regenerative braking. The gross efficiency of the experimental scooter is improved in the drivable range by 20% with respect to that without regenerative braking. The battery-to-wheel efficiency was also above 70% for both low- and high-speed gears.

An energy management system for a directly-driven electric scooter

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yang, Yee-Pien, E-mail: ypyang@ntu.edu.t [Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Roosevelt Road, Section 4, Taipei, Taiwan (China); Liu, Jieng-Jang, E-mail: jjliu@ntu.edu.t [Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Roosevelt Road, Section 4, Taipei, Taiwan (China); Hu, Tsung-Hsien, E-mail: elvishu@artc.org.t [Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Roosevelt Road, Section 4, Taipei, Taiwan (China)

2011-01-15

An energy management system with an electronic gearshift and regenerative braking is presented to improve the gross efficiency and driving range of an electric scooter, driven directly by a four-phase axial-flux DC brushless wheel motor. The integration of stator windings, batteries, ultracapacitors, and a digital controller constitutes an energy management system, which features smooth electronic gear shifting and regenerative braking. The gross efficiency of the experimental scooter is improved in the drivable range by 20% with respect to that without regenerative braking. The battery-to-wheel efficiency was also above 70% for both low- and high-speed gears.

An energy management system for a directly-driven electric scooter

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yee-Pien Yang; Jieng-Jang Liu; Tsung-Hsien Hu [Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Roosevelt Road, Section 4, Taipei (China)

2011-01-15

An energy management system with an electronic gearshift and regenerative braking is presented to improve the gross efficiency and driving range of an electric scooter, driven directly by a four-phase axial-flux DC brushless wheel motor. The integration of stator windings, batteries, ultracapacitors, and a digital controller constitutes an energy management system, which features smooth electronic gear shifting and regenerative braking. The gross efficiency of the experimental scooter is improved in the drivable range by 20% with respect to that without regenerative braking. The battery-to-wheel efficiency was also above 70% for both low- and high-speed gears. (author)

Alternatives to electrical cogeneration: The direct application of steam engines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Phillips, W.C.

1993-01-01

Although small to medium sized industrial facilities are aware of electrical cogeneration, often they are too small for it to be economically justifiable. The direct application of steam turbine power to equipment formerly powered by electric motors, can allow them to use steam capacity to reduce electrical demand and consumption, bypassing cogeneration. Cogeneration converts the heat energy of steam into circular mechanical motion and then converts the circular mechanical motion into electricity. Each conversion entails a loss of energy due to friction and other conversion losses. A substantial amount of the generated electricity is then converted back into circular motion with electric motors, again incurring energy losses. Directly applying the mechanical motion of turbines eliminates both the motion-to-electricity (generator) and the electricity-to-motion (motor) conversion losses. Excess steam capacity during the summer is not unusual for facilities that use steam to provide winter heating. Similarly, most of these facilities experience a large electrical demand peak during the cooling season due to the electricity needed to operate centrifugal chillers. Steam capacity via a turbine to power the chillers can allow the boilers to operate at a higher loading while reducing electrical consumption and demand precisely those periods when demand reduction is most needed. In facilities where the steam generating capacity is sufficient, air compressors provide an appropriate year-round application for turbine power. This paper is the result of an on-going project by the Energy Division, State of North Carolina, Department of Economic and Community Development, in conjunction with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The objective of this project is to educate the operating engineers and managers of small to medium sized manufacturing facilities on the technical application and economic justification of steam turbine power

Direct energy conversion system for D-3He fusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tomita, Y.; Shu, L.Y.; Momota, H.

1993-11-01

A novel and highly efficient direct energy conversion system is proposed for utilizing D- 3 He fueled fusion. In order to convert kinetic energy of ions, we applied a pair of direct energy conversion systems each of which has a cusp-type DEC and a traveling wave DEC (TWDEC). In a cusp-type DEC, electrons are separated from the escaping ions at the first line-cusp and the energy of thermal ion components is converted at the second cusp DEC. The fusion protons go through the cusp-type DEC and arrive at the TWDEC, which principle is similar to 'LINAC.' The energy of fusion protons is recovered to electricity with an efficiency of more than 70%. These DECs bring about the high efficient fusion plant. (author)

Fabrication and characterization of stearic acid/polyaniline composite with electrical conductivity as phase change materials for thermal energy storage

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Yi; Ji, Hui; Shi, Huan; Zhang, Ting; Xia, TianDong

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Stearic acid/polyaniline composite PCM with electrical conductivity was fabricated. • Stearic acid acted as thermal energy storage media and doping acid. • Latent heats of SA/PANI are as high as the same type composites. • Improved electrical conductivity of capsules is 0.7042 S cm −1 . - Abstract: This paper presents the experimental investigation on the thermal properties and electrical conductivity of the new microencapsulated phase change material by entrapping of stearic acid (SA) into PANI (polyaniline) shell through self-assembly method. Experimental results reveal that PANI nuclei grew on the surface of SA, and then copied its original morphological structure and finally exhibited peony flower-like morphology. The two components have good compatibility and have no chemical reaction both in the process of fabrication and subsequent use, while hydrogen bondings between the imino groups and carboxyl groups exist. The maximum mass fraction of stearic acid loaded in SA/PANI is determined as high as 62.1 wt% without seepage of melted SA from capsules. Due to the secondary doping with carboxyl group, the composite phase change material embedded with SA exhibits improved electrical conductivity from 0.3968 S cm −1 to 0.7042 S cm −1 when compared to PANI. The phase change temperatures and latent heats of SA/PANI are measured to be 55.6 °C and 113.02 J/g for melting and, 50.8 °C and 112.58 J/g for freezing, respectively. TG analysis test revealed that the prepared SA/PANI composite PCM has high thermal durability in working temperature range. Moreover, the results of DSC, FT-IR, TG, conductivity investigation and thermal cycling test are all show that the thermal reliability and electrical conductivity of the SA/APNI have imperceptible changes. In total, the additional electrical conductivity, high heat storage potential and good thermal reliability and stability facilitated SA/PANI to be considered as a viable candidate for thermal

Improving Thermal and Electrical Efficiency in Photovoltaic Thermal Systems for Sustainable Cooling System Integration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Alobaid

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Research into photovoltaic thermal systems is important in solar technologies as photovoltaic thermal systems are designed to produce both electrical and thermal energy, this can lead to improved performance of the overall system. The performance of photovoltaic thermal systems is based on several factors that include photovoltaic thermal materials, design, ambient temperature, inlet and outlet fluid temperature and photovoltaic cell temperature. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of photovoltaic thermal outlet water temperatures and solar cell temperature on both electrical and thermal efficiency for different range of inlet water temperature. To achieve this, a mathematical model of a photovoltaic thermal system was developed to calculate the anticipated system performance. The factors that affect the efficiency of photovoltaic thermal collectors were discussed and the outlet fluid temperature from the photovoltaic thermal is investigated in order to reach the highest overall efficiency for the solar cooling system. An average thermal and electrical efficiency of 65% and 13.7%, respectively, was achieved and the photovoltaic thermal mathematical model was validated with experimental data from literature.

Microbial fuel cells for direct electrical energy recovery from urban wastewaters.

Science.gov (United States)

Capodaglio, A G; Molognoni, D; Dallago, E; Liberale, A; Cella, R; Longoni, P; Pantaleoni, L

2013-01-01

Application of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) to wastewater treatment for direct recovery of electric energy appears to provide a potentially attractive alternative to traditional treatment processes, in an optic of costs reduction, and tapping of sustainable energy sources that characterizes current trends in technology. This work focuses on a laboratory-scale, air-cathode, and single-chamber MFC, with internal volume of 6.9 L, operating in batch mode. The MFC was fed with different types of substrates. This study evaluates the MFC behaviour, in terms of organic matter removal efficiency, which reached 86% (on average) with a hydraulic retention time of 150 hours. The MFC produced an average power density of 13.2 mW/m(3), with a Coulombic efficiency ranging from 0.8 to 1.9%. The amount of data collected allowed an accurate analysis of the repeatability of MFC electrochemical behaviour, with regards to both COD removal kinetics and electric energy production.

2004 energy balances and electricity profiles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-02-01

The Energy Balances and Electricity Profiles 2004 is the thirteenth issue in an internationally series of comparable energy data for selected developing countries. The data are arranged to show energy production, trade, conversion and consumption for each fuel used in the country. This publication is a source of overall consumption statistics of energy commodities in all sectors. Special electricity profiles for an additional group of countries are published to cover, exclusively, detailed information on production, trade and consumption of electricity, net installed capacity and thermal power plant input for selected developing countries

Electrostatic direct energy converter performance and cost scaling laws

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoffman, M.A.

1977-08-01

This study is concerned with electrostatic type direct energy converters for direct recovery of a large fraction of the plasma ion energy from fusion reactors. Simplified equations are presented for each of the important loss mechanisms in both single-stage direct converters and multistage ''Venetian Blind'' type direct converters. These equations can be used to estimate the efficiency and electric power output of the direct converter subsystem. Scaling relations for the cost of each major component in the direct converter subsystem are also given; these include the vacuum tank, direct converter modules, the DC power conditioning equipment, cryogenic vacuum pumping system and the thermal bottoming plant. The performance and cost scaling laws have been developed primarily for use in overall fusion power plant systems codes. However, to illustrate their utility, cost-effectiveness studies of two specific reference direct converter designs are presented in terms of the specific capital costs (i.e., the capital cost per unit electric power produced) for the Direct Converter Subsystem alone. Some examples of design improvements which can significantly reduce the specific capital costs of the Direct Converter Subsystem are also given

Solar thermal electric power information user study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Belew, W.W.; Wood, B.L.; Marle, T.L.; Reinhardt, C.L.

1981-02-01

The results of a series of telephone interviews with groups of users of information on solar thermal electric power are described. These results, part of a larger study on many different solar technologies, identify types of information each group needed and the best ways to get information to each group. The report is 1 of 10 discussing study results. The overall study provides baseline data about information needs in the solar community. An earlier study identified the information user groups in the solar community and the priority (to accelerate solar energy commercialization) of getting information to each group. In the current study only high-priority groups were examined. Results from five solar thermal electric power groups of respondents are analyzed: DOE-Funded Researchers, Non-DOE-Funded Researchers, Representatives of Utilities, Electric Power Engineers, and Educators. The data will be used as input to the determination of information products and services the Solar Energy Research Institute, the Solar Energy Information Data Bank Network, and the entire information outreach community should be preparing and disseminating.

Multi-Fluid Geo-Energy Systems for Bulk and Thermal Energy Storage and Dispatchable Renewable and Low-Carbon Electricity

Science.gov (United States)

Buscheck, T. A.; Randolph, J.; Saar, M. O.; Hao, Y.; Sun, Y.; Bielicki, J. M.

2014-12-01

Integrating renewable energy sources into electricity grids requires advances in bulk and thermal energy storage technologies, which are currently expensive and have limited capacity. We present an approach that uses the huge fluid and thermal storage capacity of the subsurface to harvest, store, and dispatch energy from subsurface (geothermal) and surface (solar, nuclear, fossil) thermal resources. CO2 captured from fossil-energy systems and N2 separated from air are injected into permeable formations to store pressure, generate artesian flow of brine, and provide additional working fluids. These enable efficient fluid recirculation, heat extraction, and power conversion, while adding operational flexibility. Our approach can also store and dispatch thermal energy, which can be used to levelize concentrating solar power and mitigate variability of wind and solar power. This may allow low-carbon, base-load power to operate at full capacity, with the stored excess energy being available to addresss diurnal and seasonal mismatches between supply and demand. Concentric rings of horizontal injection and production wells are used to create a hydraulic divide to store pressure, CO2, N2, and thermal energy. Such storage can take excess power from the grid and excess thermal energy, and dispatch that energy when it is demanded. The system is pressurized and/or heated when power supply exceeds demand and depressurized when demand exceeds supply. Supercritical CO2 and N2 function as cushion gases to provide enormous pressure-storage capacity. Injecting CO2 and N2 displaces large quantities of brine, reducing the use of fresh water. Geologic CO2 storage is a crucial option for reducing CO2 emissions, but valuable uses for CO2 are needed to justify capture costs. The initial "charging" of our system requires permanently isolating large volumes of CO2 from the atmosphere and thus creates a market for its disposal. Our approach is designed for locations where a permeable

Volumetric solar thermal receiver principles and technological approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sagie, D.; Gruntman, S.; Taragan, E.; Danino, M.; Weiss, S.; Mimon, Y.

1996-01-01

Solar energy has received much interest in recent years, being a clean free of pollution or other environmental dotage), and inexhaustible energy source. It is also considered safer than some other non conventional energy sources (like nuclear energy). The interest in solar energy is motivated mainly by the growing awareness of the environmental problems associated with the use of . conventional keels. However, solar energy may become a serious alternative only if it can be used efficiently in major energy consuming industries (like the chemical industry), or be used for electricity generation. Those facilities are nowadays solely depend on fossil fuels as the prime source of energy . The solar energy, reaches file Earth as radiation, can be utilized either by direct quantum conversion using photo-voltaic solar cells, or by converting the radiation into thermal energy, to be used directly for heating, or to feed a thermal to electric converting cycle. Alter three decades of huge spending on the development of photo-voltaic systems those devices are commercially competitive only on very small energy scale, while solar thermal commercial applications are evident. The prominent examples are the domestic heating water receivers (direct thermal), and LUZ International electricity generation plants which are currently operated on a commercial basis, supplying 80 MWe per plant. Direct thermal exploitation of solar energy is naturally more efficient than converting to electricity but is limited to specific applications and locations especially since thermal storage at high temperature is not commercially viable. Efficient electricity production at competitive price is clearly the biggest opportunity for solar energy. (authors)

Thermal energy storage for solar power generation - State of the art

Science.gov (United States)

Shukla, K. N.

1981-12-01

High temperature storage for applications in solar-thermal electric systems is considered. Noting that thermal storage is in either the form of latent, sensible or chemically stored heat, sensible heat storage is stressed as the most developed of the thermal storage technologies, spanning direct heating of a storage medium from 120-1250 C. Current methods involve solids, packed beds, fluidized beds, liquids, hot water, organic liquids, and inorganic liquids and molten salts. Latent heat storage comprises phase-change materials that move from solid to liquid with addition of heat and liquid to solid with the removal of heat. Metals or inorganic salts are candidates, and the energy balances are outlined. Finally, chemical heat storage is examined, showing possible high energy densities through catalytic, thermal dissociation reactions.

Possibilities for retrofitting of the existing thermal electric power plants using solar power technologies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matjanov, Erkinjon K.; Abduganieva, Farogat A.; Aminov, Zarif Z.

2012-01-01

Full text: Total installed electric power output of the existing thermal electric power plants in Uzbekistan is reaches 12 GW. Thermal electric power plants, working on organic fuel, produce around 88 % of the electricity in the country. The emission coefficient of CO 2 gases is 620 gram/kwph. Average electric efficiency of the thermal electric power plants is 32.1 %. The mentioned above data certifies, that the existing thermal electric power plants of Uzbekistan are physically and morally aged and they need to be retrofitted. Retrofitting of the existing thermal electric power plants can be done by several ways such as via including gas turbine toppings, by using solar technologies, etc. Solar thermal power is a relatively new technology which has already shown its enormous promise. With few environmental impacts and a massive resource, it offers a comparable opportunity to the sunniest Uzbekistan. Solar thermal power uses direct sunlight, so it must be sited in regions with high direct solar radiation. In many regions, one square km of land is enough to generate as much as 100-120 GWh of electricity per year using the solar thermal technology. This is equivalent to the annual production of a 50 MW conventional coal or gas-fired mid-load power plant. Solar thermal power plants can be designed for solar-only or for hybrid operation. Producing electricity from the energy in the sun's rays is a straightforward process: direct solar radiation can be concentrated and collected by a range of Concentrating Solar Power technologies to provide medium- to high temperature heat. This heat is then used to operate a conventional power cycle, for example through a steam turbine or a Stirling engine. Solar heat collected during the day can also be stored in liquid or solid media such as molten salts, ceramics, concrete or, in the future, phase-changing salt mixtures. At night, it can be extracted from the storage medium thereby continuing turbine operation. Currently, the

Innovative direct energy conversion systems using electronic adiabatic processes of electron fluid in solid conductors: new plants of electrical power and hydrogen gas resources without environmental pollutions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kondoh, Y.; Kondo, M.; Shimoda, K.; Takahashi, T.

2001-07-01

It is shown that using a novel recycling process of the environmental thermal energy, innovative permanent auto-working direct energy converter systems (PA-DEC systems) from the environmental thermal to electrical and/or chemical potential (TE/CP) energies, abbreviated as PA-TE/CP-DEC systems, can be used for new auto-working electrical power plants and the plants of the compressible and conveyable hydrogen gas resources at various regions in the whole world, with contributions to the world peace and the economical development in the south part of the world. It is shown that the same physical mechanism by free electrons and electrical potential determined by temperature in conductors, which include semiconductors, leads to the Peltier effect and the Seebeck one. It is experimentally clarified that the long distance separation between two π type elements of the heat absorption (HAS) and the production one (HPS) of the Peltier effect circuit system or between the higher temperature side (HTS) and the lower one (LTS) of the Seebeck effect circuit one does not change in the whole for the both effects. By using present systems, we do not need to use petrified fuels such as coals, oils, and natural gases in order to decrease the greenhouse effect by the CO 2 surrounding the earth. Furthermore, we do not need plats of nuclear fissions that left radiating wastes, i.e., with no environmental pollutions. The PA-TE/CP-DEC systems can be applicable for several km scale systems to the micro ones, such as the plants of the electrical power, the compact transportable hydrogen gas resources, a large heat energy container, which can be settled at far place from thermal energy absorbing area, the refrigerators, the air conditioners, home electrical apparatuses, and further the computer elements. It is shown that the simplest PA-TE/CP-DEC system can be established by using only the Seebeck effect components and the resolving water ones. It is clarified that the externally applied

Energy Systems With Renewable Hydrogen Compared to Direct Use of Renewable Energy in Austria

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gerfried Jungmeier; Kurt Konighofer; Josef Spitzer; R Haas; A Ajanovic

2006-01-01

The current Austrian energy system has a renewable energy share of 20% - 11% hydropower and 9 % biomass - of total primary energy consumption. Whereas a possible future introduction of renewable hydrogen must be seen in the context of current energy policies in Austria e.g. increase of energy efficiency and use of renewable energy, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of the research project is a life cycle based comparison of energy systems with renewable hydrogen from hydropower, wind, photovoltaic and biomass compared to the direct use of renewable energy for combined heat and power applications and transportation services. In particular this paper focuses on the main question, if renewable energy should be used directly or indirectly via renewable hydrogen. The assessment is based on a life cycle approach to analyse the energy efficiency, the material demand, the greenhouse gas emissions and economic aspects e.g. energy costs and some qualitative aspects e.g. energy service. The overall comparison of the considered energy systems for transportation service and combined heat and electricity application shows, that renewable hydrogen might be beneficial mainly for transportation services, if the electric vehicle will not be further developed to a feasibly wide-spread application for transportation service in future. For combined heat and electricity production there is no advantage of renewable hydrogen versus the direct use of renewable energy. Conclusions for Austria are therefore: 1) renewable hydrogen is an interesting energy carrier and might play an important role in a future sustainable Austrian energy system; 2) renewable hydrogen applications look most promising in the transportation sector; 3) renewable hydrogen applications will be of low importance for combined heat and electricity applications, as existing technologies for direct use of renewable energy for heat and electricity are well developed and very efficient; 4) In a future '100

Effect of energy-regenerative braking on electric vehicle battery thermal management and control method based on simulation investigation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, Jingying; Qin, Datong; Peng, Zhiyuan

2015-01-01

Highlights: • A two-degree-of-freedom lumped thermal model is developed for battery. • The battery thermal model is integrated with vehicle driving model. • Real-time battery thermal responses is obtained. • Active control of current by regenerative braking ratio adjustment is proposed. • More energy is recovered with smaller battery temperature rise. - Abstract: Battery thermal management is important for the safety and reliability of electric vehicle. Based on the parameters obtained from battery hybrid pulse power characterization test, a two-degree-of-freedom lumped thermal model is established. The battery model is then integrated with vehicle driving model to simulate real-time battery thermal responses. An active control method is proposed to reduce heat generation due to regenerative braking. The proposed control method not only subjects to the braking safety regulation, but also adjusts the regenerative braking ratio through a fuzzy controller. By comparing with other regenerative braking scenarios, the effectiveness of the proposed strategy has been validated. According to the results, the proposed control strategy suppresses battery temperature rise by modifying the charge current due to regenerative braking. The overlarge components of current are filtered out whereas the small ones are magnified. Therefore, with smaller battery temperature rise, more energy is recovered. Compared to the traditional passive heat dissipating, the proposed active methodology is feasible and provides a novel solution for electric vehicle battery thermal management.

More Efficient Solar Thermal-Energy Receiver

Science.gov (United States)

Dustin, M. O.

1987-01-01

Thermal stresses and reradiation reduced. Improved design for solar thermal-energy receiver overcomes three major deficiencies of solar dynamic receivers described in literature. Concentrator and receiver part of solar-thermal-energy system. Receiver divided into radiation section and storage section. Concentrated solar radiation falls on boiling ends of heat pipes, which transmit heat to thermal-energy-storage medium. Receiver used in number of applications to produce thermal energy directly for use or to store thermal energy for subsequent use in heat engine.

Fundamental kinetics and innovative applications of nonequilibrium atomic vibration in thermal energy transport and conversion

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Seungha

All energy conversion inefficiencies begin with emission of resonant atomic motions, e.g., vibrations, and are declared as waste heat once these motions thermalize to equilibrium. The nonequilibrium energy occupancy of the vibrational modes can be targeted as a harvestable, low entropy energy source for direct conversion to electric energy. Since the lifetime of these resonant vibrations is short, special nanostructures are required with the appropriate tuning of the kinetics. These in turn require multiscale, multiphysics treatments. Atomic vibration is described with quasiparticle phonon in solid, and the optical phonon emission is dominant relaxation channel in semiconductors. These optical modes become over-occupied when their emission rate becomes larger than their decay rate, thus hindering energy relaxation and transport in devices. Effective removal of these phonons by drifting electrons is investigated by manipulating the electron distribution to have higher population in the low-energy states, thus allowing favorable phonon absorption. This is done through introduction, design and analysis of a heterobarrier conducting current, where the band gap is controlled by alloying, thus creating a spatial variation which is abrupt followed by a linear gradient (to ensure directed current). Self-consistent ensemble Monte Carlo simulations based on interaction kinetics between electron and phonon show that up to 19% of the phonon energy is converted to electric potential with an optimized GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs barrier structure over a range of current and electron densities, and this system is also verified through statistical entropy analysis. This direct energy conversion improves the device performance with lower operation temperature and enhances overall energy conversion efficiency. Through this study, the paradigm for harvesting the resonant atomic vibration is proposed, reversing the general role of phonon as only causing electric potential drop. Fundamentals

Thermal Management of Power Electronics and Electric Motors for Electric-Drive Vehicles (Presentation)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Narumanchi, S.

2014-09-01

This presentation is an overview of the power electronics and electric motor thermal management and reliability activities at NREL. The focus is on activities funded by the Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Office Advanced Power Electronics and Electric Motors Program.

Thermodynamic analysis of direct expansion configurations for electricity production by LNG cold energy recovery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Franco, Alessandro; Casarosa, Claudio

2015-01-01

In the present paper, after a brief review of the perspectives of the various schemes proposed for electricity generation from the regasification of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), a detailed analysis of two particular direct expansion solutions is proposed. The purpose is to identify the upper level of the energy that can be recovered with the aim of electricity production, using configurations with direct expansion. The analysis developed resorting to a simplified thermodynamic model, shows that using a direct expansion configurations with multistage turbine, values of power production typical of optimized ORC plant configurations (120 kJ for each kg of natural gas that flows through the plant) can be obtained. The development of a direct expansion plant with multistage turbine and internal heat recovery systems could permit to approach the production of more than 160 kJ for each kg of flowing liquefied natural gas. Considering values of the mass flow rate typical of LNG gas stations (e.g. 70 kg/s); this corresponds to an output power ranging between 8.3 MW and 11.4 MW. - Highlights: • Recovery of the cold energy contained in Liquefied Natural Gas. • Thermodynamic analysis of systems for electricity generation in regasification. • Direct expansion solutions with multistage expansion. • Comparison of direct expansion solutions with conventional ORC systems. • Power output in conditions typical of existing LNG regasification terminals

Energy Storage Thermal Safety | Transportation Research | NREL

Science.gov (United States)

reaction/thermal runaway, internal short circuit, and electrical/chemical/thermal network models are used contributions to the U.S. Department of Energy's Computer-Aided Engineering of Batteries (CAEBAT) project Li-ion battery geometries. Chemical components in Li-ion batteries become thermally unstable when

Thermal energy at the nanoscale

CERN Document Server

Fisher, Timothy S

2014-01-01

These lecture notes provide a detailed treatment of the thermal energy storage and transport by conduction in natural and fabricated structures. Thermal energy in two carriers, i.e. phonons and electrons -- are explored from first principles. For solid-state transport, a common Landauer framework is used for heat flow. Issues including the quantum of thermal conductance, ballistic interface resistance, and carrier scattering are elucidated. Bulk material properties, such as thermal and electrical conductivity, are derived from particle transport theories, and the effects of spatial confinement on these properties are established. Readership: Students and professionals in physics and engineering.

Hybrid energy harvesting using active thermal backplane

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Hyun-Wook; Lee, Dong-Gun

2016-04-01

In this study, we demonstrate the concept of a new hybrid energy harvesting system by combing solar cells with magneto-thermoelectric generator (MTG, i.e., thermal energy harvesting). The silicon solar cell can easily reach high temperature under normal operating conditions. Thus the heated solar cell becomes rapidly less efficient as the temperature of solar cell rises. To increase the efficiency of the solar cell, air or water-based cooling system is used. To surpass conventional cooling devices requiring additional power as well as large working space for air/water collectors, we develop a new technology of pairing an active thermal backplane (ATB) to solar cell. The ATB design is based on MTG technology utilizing the physics of the 2nd order phase transition of active ferromagnetic materials. The MTG is cost-effective conversion of thermal energy to electrical energy and is fundamentally different from Seebeck TEG devices. The ATB (MTG) is in addition to being an energy conversion system, a very good conveyor of heat through both conduction and convection. Therefore, the ATB can provide dual-mode for the proposed hybrid energy harvesting. One is active convective and conductive cooling for heated solar cell. Another is active thermal energy harvesting from heat of solar cell. These novel hybrid energy harvesting device have potentially simultaneous energy conversion capability of solar and thermal energy into electricity. The results presented can be used for better understanding of hybrid energy harvesting system that can be integrated into commercial applications.

Energy audit: thermal power, combined cycle, and cogeneration plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abbi, Yash Pal

2012-07-01

The availability of fossil fuels required for power plants is reducing and their costs increasing rapidly. This gives rise to increase in the cost of generation of electricity. But electricity regulators have to control the price of electricity so that consumers are not stressed with high costs. In addition, environmental considerations are forcing power plants to reduce CO2 emissions. Under these circumstances, power plants are constantly under pressure to improve the efficiency of operating plants, and to reduce fuel consumption. In order to progress in this direction, it is important that power plants regularly audit their energy use in terms of the operating plant heat rate and auxiliary power consumption. The author attempts to refresh the fundamentals of the science and engineering of thermal power plants, establish its link with the real power plant performance data through case studies, and further develop techno-economics of the energy efficiency improvement measures. This book will rekindle interest in energy audits and analysis of the data for designing and implementation of energy conservation measures on a continuous basis.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in energy/electricity projects in the economies in transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brendow, K.

1995-01-01

Registered foreign direct investments (FDI) in energy/ electricity projects in central and eastern Europe and the CIS are weak and disappointing compared with expectations and business opportunities. In addition, energy FDI is highly concentrated in oil and gas exploration/extraction. FDI opportunities in electricity generation, transmission and distribution while being explored, have not been implemented, mostly for legislation restriction reasons towards foreign participation. The major issue appears to be the extent of privatization of this politically and socially sensitive industry. Progress are made in Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. A significant breakthrough depends on political stability, economic recovery and progress in privatization. 2 figs

Dispersed solar thermal generation employing parabolic dish-electric transport with field modulated generator systems

Science.gov (United States)

Ramakumar, R.; Bahrami, K.

1981-01-01

This paper discusses the application of field modulated generator systems (FMGS) to dispersed solar-thermal-electric generation from a parabolic dish field with electric transport. Each solar generation unit is rated at 15 kWe and the power generated by an array of such units is electrically collected for insertion into an existing utility grid. Such an approach appears to be most suitable when the heat engine rotational speeds are high (greater than 6000 r/min) and, in particular, if they are operated in the variable speed mode and if utility-grade a.c. is required for direct insertion into the grid without an intermediate electric energy storage and reconversion system. Predictions of overall efficiencies based on conservative efficiency figures for the FMGS are in the range of 25 per cent and should be encouraging to those involved in the development of cost-effective dispersed solar thermal power systems.

High to ultra-high power electrical energy storage.

Science.gov (United States)

Sherrill, Stefanie A; Banerjee, Parag; Rubloff, Gary W; Lee, Sang Bok

2011-12-14

High power electrical energy storage systems are becoming critical devices for advanced energy storage technology. This is true in part due to their high rate capabilities and moderate energy densities which allow them to capture power efficiently from evanescent, renewable energy sources. High power systems include both electrochemical capacitors and electrostatic capacitors. These devices have fast charging and discharging rates, supplying energy within seconds or less. Recent research has focused on increasing power and energy density of the devices using advanced materials and novel architectural design. An increase in understanding of structure-property relationships in nanomaterials and interfaces and the ability to control nanostructures precisely has led to an immense improvement in the performance characteristics of these devices. In this review, we discuss the recent advances for both electrochemical and electrostatic capacitors as high power electrical energy storage systems, and propose directions and challenges for the future. We asses the opportunities in nanostructure-based high power electrical energy storage devices and include electrochemical and electrostatic capacitors for their potential to open the door to a new regime of power energy.

Microscale solid-state thermal diodes enabling ambient temperature thermal circuits for energy applications

KAUST Repository

Wang, Song

2017-05-10

Thermal diodes, or devices that transport thermal energy asymmetrically, analogous to electrical diodes, hold promise for thermal energy harvesting and conservation, as well as for phononics or information processing. The junction of a phase change material and phase invariant material can form a thermal diode; however, there are limited constituent materials available for a given target temperature, particularly near ambient. In this work, we demonstrate that a micro and nanoporous polystyrene foam can house a paraffin-based phase change material, fused to PMMA, to produce mechanically robust, solid-state thermal diodes capable of ambient operation with Young\\'s moduli larger than 11.5 MPa and 55.2 MPa above and below the melting transition point, respectively. Moreover, the composites show significant changes in thermal conductivity above and below the melting point of the constituent paraffin and rectification that is well-described by our previous theory and the Maxwell–Eucken model. Maximum thermal rectifications range from 1.18 to 1.34. We show that such devices perform reliably enough to operate in thermal diode bridges, dynamic thermal circuits capable of transforming oscillating temperature inputs into single polarity temperature differences – analogous to an electrical diode bridge with widespread implications for transient thermal energy harvesting and conservation. Overall, our approach yields mechanically robust, solid-state thermal diodes capable of engineering design from a mathematical model of phase change and thermal transport, with implications for energy harvesting.

Kinetic parameters, collision rates, energy exchanges and transport coefficients of non-thermal electrons in premixed flames at sub-breakdown electric field strengths

KAUST Repository

Bisetti, Fabrizio

2014-01-02

The effects of an electric field on the collision rates, energy exchanges and transport properties of electrons in premixed flames are investigated via solutions to the Boltzmann kinetic equation. The case of high electric field strength, which results in high-energy, non-thermal electrons, is analysed in detail at sub-breakdown conditions. The rates of inelastic collisions and the energy exchange between electrons and neutrals in the reaction zone of the flame are characterised quantitatively. The analysis includes attachment, ionisation, impact dissociation, and vibrational and electronic excitation processes. Our results suggest that Townsend breakdown occurs for E/N = 140 Td. Vibrational excitation is the dominant process up to breakdown, despite important rates of electronic excitation of CO, CO2 and N2 as well as impact dissociation of O2 being apparent from 50 Td onwards. Ohmic heating in the reaction zone is found to be negligible (less than 2% of peak heat release rate) up to breakdown field strengths for realistic electron densities equal to 1010 cm-3. The observed trends are largely independent of equivalence ratio. In the non-thermal regime, electron transport coefficients are insensitive to mixture composition and approximately constant across the flame, but are highly dependent on the electric field strength. In the thermal limit, kinetic parameters and transport coefficients vary substantially across the flame due to the spatially inhomogeneous concentration of water vapour. A practical approach for identifying the plasma regime (thermal versus non-thermal) in studies of electric field effects on flames is proposed. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage for Seasonal Thermal Energy Balance

Science.gov (United States)

Rostampour, Vahab; Bloemendal, Martin; Keviczky, Tamas

2017-04-01

Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) systems allow storing large quantities of thermal energy in subsurface aquifers enabling significant energy savings and greenhouse gas reductions. This is achieved by injection and extraction of water into and from saturated underground aquifers, simultaneously. An ATES system consists of two wells and operates in a seasonal mode. One well is used for the storage of cold water, the other one for the storage of heat. In warm seasons, cold water is extracted from the cold well to provide cooling to a building. The temperature of the extracted cold water increases as it passes through the building climate control systems and then gets simultaneously, injected back into the warm well. This procedure is reversed during cold seasons where the flow direction is reversed such that the warmer water is extracted from the warm well to provide heating to a building. From the perspective of building climate comfort systems, an ATES system is considered as a seasonal storage system that can be a heat source or sink, or as a storage for thermal energy. This leads to an interesting and challenging optimal control problem of the building climate comfort system that can be used to develop a seasonal-based energy management strategy. In [1] we develop a control-oriented model to predict thermal energy balance in a building climate control system integrated with ATES. Such a model however cannot cope with off-nominal but realistic situations such as when the wells are completely depleted, or the start-up phase of newly installed wells, etc., leading to direct usage of aquifer ambient temperature. Building upon our previous work in [1], we here extend the mathematical model for ATES system to handle the above mentioned more realistic situations. Using our improved models, one can more precisely predict system behavior and apply optimal control strategies to manage the building climate comfort along with energy savings and greenhouse gas reductions

Steady-state analysis of the integrated natural gas and electric power system with bi-directional energy conversion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zeng, Qing; Fang, Jiakun; Li, Jinghua

2016-01-01

Nowadays, the electric power system and natural gas network are becoming increasingly coupled and interdependent. A harmonized integration of natural gas and electricity network with bi-directional energy conversion is expected to accommodate high penetration levels of renewables in terms of system...... flexibility. This work focuses on the steady-state analysis of the integrated natural gas and electric power system with bi-directional energy conversion. A unified energy flow formulation is developed to describe the nodal balance and branch flow in both systems and it is solved with the Newton......–Raphson method. Both the unification of units and the per-unit system are proposed to simplify the system description and to enhance the computation efficiency. The applicability of the proposed method is demonstrated by analyzing an IEEE-9 test system integrated with a 7-node natural gas network. Later, time...

Study of the electrical and thermal performances of photovoltaic thermal collector-compound parabolic concentrated

Science.gov (United States)

Jaaz, Ahed Hameed; Sopian, Kamaruzzaman; Gaaz, Tayser Sumer

2018-06-01

The importance of utilizing the solar energy as a very suitable source among multi-source approaches to replace the conventional energy is on the rise in the last four decades. The invention of the photovoltaic module (PV) could be the corner stone in this process. However, the limited amount of energy obtained from PV was and still the main challenge of full utilization of the solar energy. In this paper, the use of the compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) along with the thermal photovoltaic module (PVT) where the cooling process of the CPC is conducted using a novel technique of water jet impingement has applied experimentally and physically tested. The test includes the effect of water jet impingement on the total power, electrical efficiency, thermal efficiency, and total efficiency on CPC-PVT system. The cooling process at the maximum irradiation by water jet impingement resulted in improving the electrical efficiency by 7%, total output power by 31% and the thermal efficiency by 81%. These results outperform the recent highest results recorded by the most recent work.

Energy Efficiency Enhancement of Photovoltaics by Phase Change Materials through Thermal Energy Recovery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmad Hasan

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Photovoltaic (PV panels convert a certain amount of incident solar radiation into electricity, while the rest is converted to heat, leading to a temperature rise in the PV. This elevated temperature deteriorates the power output and induces structural degradation, resulting in reduced PV lifespan. One potential solution entails PV thermal management employing active and passive means. The traditional passive means are found to be largely ineffective, while active means are considered to be energy intensive. A passive thermal management system using phase change materials (PCMs can effectively limit PV temperature rises. The PCM-based approach however is cost inefficient unless the stored thermal energy is recovered effectively. The current article investigates a way to utilize the thermal energy stored in the PCM behind the PV for domestic water heating applications. The system is evaluated in the winter conditions of UAE to deliver heat during water heating demand periods. The proposed system achieved a ~1.3% increase in PV electrical conversion efficiency, along with the recovery of ~41% of the thermal energy compared to the incident solar radiation.

Optimal joint scheduling of electrical and thermal appliances in a smart home environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shirazi, Elham; Zakariazadeh, Alireza; Jadid, Shahram

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Thermal appliances are scheduled based on desired temperature and energy prices. • A discomfort index has been introduced within the home energy scheduling model. • Appliances are scheduled based on activity probability and desired options. • Starting probability depends on the social random factor and consumption behavior. - Abstract: With the development of home area network, residents have the opportunity to schedule their power usage in the home by themselves aiming at reducing electricity expenses. Moreover, as renewable energy sources are deployed in home, a home energy management system needs to consider both energy consumption and generation simultaneously to minimize the energy cost. In this paper, a smart home energy management model has been presented in which electrical and thermal appliances are jointly scheduled. The proposed method aims at minimizing the electricity cost of a residential customer by scheduling various type of appliances considering the residents consumption behavior, seasonal probability, social random factor, discomfort index and appliances starting probability functions. In this model, the home central controller receives the electricity price information, environmental factors data as well as the resident desired options in order to optimally schedule appliances including electrical and thermal. The scheduling approach is tested on a typical home including variety of home appliances, a small wind turbine, photovoltaic panel, combined heat and power unit, boiler and electrical and thermal storages over a 24-h period. The results show that the scheduling of different appliances can be reached simultaneously by using the proposed formulation. Moreover, simulation results evidenced that the proposed home energy management model exhibits a lower cost and, therefore, is more economical.

The development of a volumetric solar thermal receiver: an overview

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sagie, D.

1996-01-01

Solar energy has received much interest in recent years, being a clean (free of pollution or other environmental damage) and inexhaustible energy source. It is also considered safer than some other non conventional energy sources (like nuclear energy). The interest in solar energy is motivated mainly by the growing awareness of the environmental problems associated with the use of conventional fuels. However, solar energy may become a serious alternative only if it can be used efficiently in major energy consuming industries (like the chemical industry), or be used for electricity generation. Those facilities are nowadays solely dependent on fossil fuels as the prime source of energy. The solar energy, reaching the earth in the form of radiation, can be utilized either by direct quantum conversion using photo-voltaic solar cells, or by converting the radiation into thermal energy, to be used directly for heating, or to feed a thermal to electric converting cycle. After three decades of huge spending on the development of photo-voltaic systems those devices are commercially competitive only on a very small energy scale, while solar thermal commercial applications are more attractive. Prominent examples are the domestic heating water receivers (direct thermal), and LUZ International electricity generation plants which are currently operated on a commercial basis, supplying 80 MWe per plant. Direct thermal exploitation of solar energy is naturally more efficient than converting to electricity, but is limited to specific applications and locations especially since thermal storage at high temperature is not commercially viable. Efficient electricity production at a competitive price is clearly the biggest opportunity for solar energy . (author)

Stochastic optimization of energy hub operation with consideration of thermal energy market and demand response

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vahid-Pakdel, M.J.; Nojavan, Sayyad; Mohammadi-ivatloo, B.; Zare, Kazem

2017-01-01

Highlights: • Studying heating market impact on energy hub operation considering price uncertainty. • Investigating impact of implementation of heat demand response on hub operation. • Presenting stochastic method to consider wind generation and prices uncertainties. - Abstract: Multi carrier energy systems or energy hubs has provided more flexibility for energy management systems. On the other hand, due to mutual impact of different energy carriers in energy hubs, energy management studies become more challengeable. The initial patterns of energy demands from grids point of view can be modified by optimal scheduling of energy hubs. In this work, optimal operation of multi carrier energy system has been studied in the presence of wind farm, electrical and thermal storage systems, electrical and thermal demand response programs, electricity market and thermal energy market. Stochastic programming is implemented for modeling the system uncertainties such as demands, market prices and wind speed. It is shown that adding new source of heat energy for providing demand of consumers with market mechanism changes the optimal operation point of multi carrier energy system. Presented mixed integer linear formulation for the problem has been solved by executing CPLEX solver of GAMS optimization software. Simulation results shows that hub’s operation cost reduces up to 4.8% by enabling the option of using thermal energy market for meeting heat demand.

Solar electric power generation photovoltaic energy systems

CERN Document Server

Krauter, Stefan CW

2007-01-01

Solar electricity is a viable, environmentally sustainable alternative to the world's energy supplies. In support, this work examines the various technical parameters of photovoltaic systems. It analyzes the study of performance and yield (including optical, thermal, and electrical parameters and interfaces).

Thermal energy storage for smart grid applications

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Hallaj, Said; Khateeb, Siddique; Aljehani, Ahmed; Pintar, Mike

2018-01-01

Energy consumption for commercial building cooling accounts for 15% of all commercial building's electricity usage [1]. Electric utility companies charge their customers time of use consumption charges (/kWh) and additionally demand usage charges (/kW) to limit peak energy consumption and offset their high operating costs. Thus, there is an economic incentive to reduce both the electricity consumption charges and demand charges by developing new energy efficient technologies. Thermal energy storage (TES) systems using a phase change material (PCM) is one such technology that can reduce demand charges and shift the demand from on-peak to off-peak rates. Ice and chilled water have been used in thermal storage systems for many decades, but they have certain limitations, which include a phase change temperature of 0 degrees Celsius and relatively low thermal conductivity in comparison to other materials, which limit their applications as a storage medium. To overcome these limitations, a novel phase change composite (PCC) TES material was developed that has much higher thermal conductivity that significantly improves the charge / discharge rate and a customizable phase change temperature to allow for better integration with HVAC systems. Compared to ice storage, the PCC TES system is capable of very high heat transfer rate and has lower system and operational costs. Economic analysis was performed to compare the PCC TES system with ice system and favorable economics was proven. A 4.5 kWh PCC TES prototype system was also designed for testing and validation purpose.

A Simplified Top-Oil Temperature Model for Transformers Based on the Pathway of Energy Transfer Concept and the Thermal-Electrical Analogy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Hakirin Roslan

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an alternative approach to determine the simplified top-oil temperature (TOT based on the pathway of energy transfer and thermal-electrical analogy concepts. The main contribution of this study is the redefinition of the nonlinear thermal resistance based on these concepts. An alternative approximation of convection coefficient, h, based on heat transfer theory was proposed which eliminated the requirement of viscosity. In addition, the lumped capacitance method was applied to the thermal-electrical analogy to derive the TOT thermal equivalent equation in differential form. The TOT thermal model was evaluated based on the measured TOT of seven transformers with either oil natural air natural (ONAN or oil natural air forced (ONAF cooling modes obtained from temperature rise tests. In addition, the performance of the TOT thermal model was tested on step-loading of a transformer with an ONAF cooling mode obtained from previous studies. A comparison between the TOT thermal model and the existing TOT Thermal-Electrical, Exponential (IEC 60076-7, and Clause 7 (IEEE C57.91-1995 models was also carried out. It was found that the measured TOT of seven transformers are well represented by the TOT thermal model where the highest maximum and root mean square (RMS errors are 6.66 °C and 2.76 °C, respectively. Based on the maximum and RMS errors, the TOT thermal model performs better than Exponential and Clause 7 models and it is comparable with the Thermal-Electrical 1 (TE1 and Thermal-Electrical 2 (TE2 models. The same pattern is found for the TOT thermal model under step-loading where the maximum and RMS errors are 5.77 °C and 2.02 °C.

Thermal energy harvesting for application at MEMS scale

CERN Document Server

Percy, Steven; McGarry, Scott; Post, Alex; Moore, Tim; Cavanagh, Kate

2014-01-01

This book discusses the history of thermal heat generators and focuses on the potential for these processes using micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) technology for this application. The main focus is on the capture of waste thermal energy for example from industrial processes, transport systems or the human body to generate useable electrical power.  A wide range of technologies is discussed, including external combustion heat cycles at MEMS ( Brayton, Stirling and Rankine), Thermoacoustic, Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs), Multiferroics, Thermionics, Pyroelectric, Seebeck, Alkali Metal Thermal, Hydride Heat Engine, Johnson Thermo Electrochemical Converters, and the Johnson Electric Heat Pipe.

Feasibility study of a self-remediation system for mine drainage using its thermal energy

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, Chamteut; Cheong, Youngwook; Yim, Giljae; Ji, Sangwoo

2016-04-01

Mine drainage is defined as the water which is discharged to the ground surface through shafts and/or cracks formed by mining activities. Typically, mine drainage features high concentration of acidity and metals since it passes through the underground. Therefore, for the purpose of protecting the surrounding natural environment, mine drainage should be remediated before being discharged to nature. Mine drainage, due to its nature of being retained underground, shows constant temperature which is independent from the temperature of the atmosphere above ground. This condition allows mine drainage to become a promising renewable energy source since energy can be recovered from water with constant temperature. In this research, a self-remediation system is proposed which remediates the mine drainage through electrochemical reactions powered by the thermal energy of mine drainage. High energy efficiency is able to be achieved by shortening the distance between the energy source and consumption, and therefore, this system has a strong advantage to be actualized. A feasibility study for the system was conducted in this research where the thermal energy of mine drainage over time and depth was calculated as energy supply and the required electrical energy for remediating the mine drainage was measured as energy consumption. While the technology of converting thermal energy directly into electrical energy is yet to be developed, energy balance analysis results showed that the proposed self-remediation system is theoretically possible.

Electrical energy in France in 2008

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-12-01

The figures presented on this document account for the electricity flows recorded in Metropolitan France, including Corsica. Contents: national consumption; physical exchanges with foreign countries; electrical energy balance in France in 2008; net generation; noteworthy data for the year 2008 (daily maximum values of National consumption, Hydroelectric generation and non-Hydroelectric generation, Balance of physical exchanges); electricity market: cross-border contractual exchanges, balance responsible entities (Energy amount exchanged between balance responsible entities through the block exchange notifications), balancing mechanism (Global amount of energy activated upwards and downwards); power facilities: generating facilities in France (Nuclear, Fossil fuel thermal, Hydro-electric, Wind and Other renewable energy sources), transmission lines (circuit length in operation), transmission - transformers (installed capacity in operation); main transmission facilities commissioned during the year 2008 (substations connected to the RTE network and new or refurbished circuits)

Optimal stochastic short-term thermal and electrical operation of fuel cell/photovoltaic/battery/grid hybrid energy system in the presence of demand response program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Majidi, Majid; Nojavan, Sayyad; Zare, Kazem

2017-01-01

Highlights: • On-grid photovoltaic/battery/fuel cell system is considered as hybrid system. • Thermal and electrical operation of hybrid energy system is studied. • Hybrid energy system is used to reduce dependency on upstream grid for load serving. • Demand response program is proposed to manage the electrical load. • Demand response program is proposed to reduce hybrid energy system’s operation cost. - Abstract: In this paper, cost-efficient operation problem of photovoltaic/battery/fuel cell hybrid energy system has been evaluated in the presence of demand response program. Each load curve has off-peak, mid and peak time periods in which the energy prices are different. Demand response program transfers some amount of load from peak periods to other periods to flatten the load curve and minimize total cost. So, the main goal is to meet the energy demand and propose a cost-efficient approach to minimize system’s total cost including system’s electrical cost and thermal cost and the revenue from exporting power to the upstream grid. A battery has been utilized as an electrical energy storage system and a heat storage tank is used as a thermal energy storage system to save energy in off-peak and mid-peak hours and then supply load in peak hours which leads to reduction of cost. The proposed cost-efficient operation problem of photovoltaic/battery/fuel cell hybrid energy system is modeled by a mixed-integer linear program and solved by General algebraic modeling system optimization software under CPLEX solver. Two case studies are investigated to show the effects of demand response program on reduction of total cost.

On the possibility of generation of cold and additional electric energy at thermal power stations

Science.gov (United States)

Klimenko, A. V.; Agababov, V. S.; Borisova, P. N.

2017-06-01

A layout of a cogeneration plant for centralized supply of the users with electricity and cold (ECCG plant) is presented. The basic components of the plant are an expander-generator unit (EGU) and a vapor-compression thermotransformer (VCTT). At the natural-gas-pressure-reducing stations, viz., gas-distribution stations and gas-control units, the plant is connected in parallel to a throttler and replaces the latter completely or partially. The plant operates using only the energy of the natural gas flow without burning the gas; therefore, it can be classified as a fuelless installation. The authors compare the thermodynamic efficiencies of a centralized cold supply system based on the proposed plant integrated into the thermal power station scheme and a decentralized cold supply system in which the cold is generated by electrically driven vapor-compression thermotransformers installed on the user's premises. To perform comparative analysis, the exergy efficiency was taken as the criterion since in one of the systems under investigation the electricity and the cold are generated, which are energies of different kinds. It is shown that the thermodynamic efficiency of the power supply using the proposed plant proves to be higher within the entire range of the parameters under consideration. The article presents the results of investigating the impact of the gas heating temperature upstream from the expander on the electric power of the plant, its total cooling capacity, and the cooling capacities of the heat exchangers installed downstream from the EGU and the evaporator of the VCTT. The results of calculations are discussed that show that the cold generated at the gas-control unit of a powerful thermal power station can be used for the centralized supply of the cold to the ventilation and conditioning systems of both the buildings of the power station and the neighboring dwelling houses, schools, and public facilities during the summer season.

Integrated Electrical and Thermal Grid Facility - Testing of Future Microgrid Technologies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sundar Raj Thangavelu

2015-09-01

Full Text Available This paper describes the Experimental Power Grid Centre (EPGC microgrid test facility, which was developed to enable research, development and testing for a wide range of distributed generation and microgrid technologies. The EPGC microgrid facility comprises a integrated electrical and thermal grid with a flexible and configurable architecture, and includes various distributed energy resources and emulators, such as generators, renewable, energy storage technologies and programmable load banks. The integrated thermal grid provides an opportunity to harness waste heat produced by the generators for combined heat, power and cooling applications, and support research in optimization of combined electrical-thermal systems. Several case studies are presented to demonstrate the testing of different control and operation strategies for storage systems in grid-connected and islanded microgrids. One of the case studies also demonstrates an integrated thermal grid to convert waste heat to useful energy, which thus far resulted in a higher combined energy efficiency. Experiment results confirm that the facility enables testing and evaluation of grid technologies and practical problems that may not be apparent in a computer simulated environment.

Thermal and electrical energy management in a PEMFC stack - An analytical approach

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pandiyan, S.; Jayakumar, K.; Rajalakshmi, N.; Dhathathreyan, K.S. [Centre for Fuel Cell Technology, ARC International (ARCI), 120, Mambakkam Main Road, Medavakkam, Chennai 601 302 (India)

2008-02-15

An analytical method has been developed to differentiate the electrical and thermal resistance of the PEM fuel cell assembly in the fuel cell operating conditions. The usefulness of this method lies in the determination of the electrical resistance based on the polarization curve and the thermal resistance from the mass balance. This method also paves way for the evaluation of cogeneration from a PEMFC power plant. Based on this approach, the increase in current and resistance due to unit change in temperature at a particular current density has been evaluated. It was observed that the internal resistance of the cell is dependent on the electrode fabrication process, which also play a major role in the thermal management of the fuel cell stack. (author)

Thermal energy storage in granular deposits

Science.gov (United States)

Ratuszny, Paweł

2017-10-01

Energy storage technology is crucial for the development of the use of renewable energy sources. This is a substantial constraint, however it can, to some extent, be solved by storing energy in its various forms: electrical, mechanical, chemical and thermal. This article presents the results of research in thermal properties of granular deposits. Correlation between temperature changes in the stores over a period of time and their physical properties has been studied. The results of the research have practical application in designing thermal stores based on bulk materials and ground deposits. Furthermore, the research results are significant for regeneration of the lower ground sources for heat pumps and provide data for designing ground heat exchangers for ventilation systems.

Bone mineral as an electrical energy reservoir.

Science.gov (United States)

Nakamura, Miho; Hiratai, Rumi; Yamashita, Kimihiro

2012-05-01

Mechanical stress in bone induces an electrical potential generated by piezoelectricity arising from displacement of collagen fibrils. Where and for how long the potential is stored in bone; however, are still poorly understood. We investigated the electrical properties of collagen fibrils and apatite minerals and found that bone, when polarized electrically by applying an external voltage, depolarizes by two mechanisms. Plots of thermally stimulated depolarization current show two significant peaks: one at 100°C, attributed to collagen fibrils because decalcified bone exhibits depolarization peak at 100°C, and the other at 500°C, attributed to apatite minerals because calcined bone exhibits depolarization peak at 500°C and has activation energy similar to that for synthesized apatite. The crystallographic c-axis orientation of calcined bone depends on the direction in which the bone is cut, either transverse or longitudinal, and strongly affects the polarization efficacy. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A Review of Previous Research in Direct Energy Conversion Fission Reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

DUONG, HENRY; POLANSKY, GARY F.; SANDERS, THOMAS L.; SIEGEL, MALCOLM D.

1999-01-01

From the earliest days of power reactor development, direct energy conversion was an obvious choice to produce high efficiency electric power generation. Directly capturing the energy of the fission fragments produced during nuclear fission avoids the intermediate conversion to thermal energy and the efficiency limitations of classical thermodynamics. Efficiencies of more than 80% are possible, independent of operational temperature. Direct energy conversion fission reactors would possess a number of unique characteristics that would make them very attractive for commercial power generation. These reactors would be modular in design with integral power conversion and operate at low pressures and temperatures. They would operate at high efficiency and produce power well suited for long distance transmission. They would feature large safety margins and passively safe design. Ideally suited to production by advanced manufacturing techniques, direct energy conversion fission reactors could be produced more economically than conventional reactor designs. The history of direct energy conversion can be considered as dating back to 1913 when Moseleyl demonstrated that charged particle emission could be used to buildup a voltage. Soon after the successful operation of a nuclear reactor, E.P. Wigner suggested the use of fission fragments for direct energy conversion. Over a decade after Wigner's suggestion, the first theoretical treatment of the conversion of fission fragment kinetic energy into electrical potential appeared in the literature. Over the ten years that followed, a number of researchers investigated various aspects of fission fragment direct energy conversion. Experiments were performed that validated the basic physics of the concept, but a variety of technical challenges limited the efficiencies that were achieved. Most research in direct energy conversion ceased in the US by the late 1960s. Sporadic interest in the concept appears in the literature until this

Decentralized energy management strategy based on predictive controllers for a medium voltage direct current photovoltaic electric vehicle charging station

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Torreglosa, Juan P.; García-Triviño, Pablo; Fernández-Ramirez, Luis M.; Jurado, Francisco

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Electric vehicle charging station supplied by photovoltaic, batteries and grid connection is analyzed. • The bus voltage is the key parameter for controlling the system by decentralized approach. • Decentralized control approach facilities the enlargement of the system. • Photovoltaic and battery systems are controlled by model predictive controllers. • Response by model predictive controllers improves that by PI controllers. - Abstract: The use of distributed charging stations based on renewable energy sources for electric vehicles has increased in recent years. Combining photovoltaic solar energy and batteries as energy storage system, directly tied into a medium voltage direct current bus, and with the grid support, results to be an interesting option for improving the operation and efficiency of electric vehicle charging stations. In this paper, an electric vehicle charging station supplied by photovoltaic solar panels, batteries and with grid connection is analysed and evaluated. A decentralized energy management system is developed for regulating the energy flow among the photovoltaic system, the battery and the grid in order to achieve the efficient charging of electric vehicles. The medium voltage direct current bus voltage is the key parameter for controlling the system. The battery is controlled by a model predictive controller in order to keep the bus voltage at its reference value. Depending on the state-of-charge of the battery and the bus voltage, the photovoltaic system can work at maximum power point tracking mode or at bus voltage sustaining mode, or even the grid support can be needed. The results demonstrate the proper operation and energy management of the electric vehicle charging station under study.

Thermal Management and Reliability of Power Electronics and Electric Machines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Narumanchi, Sreekant

2016-06-13

Increasing the number of electric-drive vehicles (EDVs) on America's roads has been identified as a strategy with near-term potential for dramatically decreasing the nation's dependence on oil - by the U.S. Department of Energy, the federal cross-agency EV-Everywhere Challenge, and the automotive industry. Mass-market deployment will rely on meeting aggressive technical targets, including improved efficiency and reduced size, weight, and cost. Many of these advances will depend on optimization of thermal management. Effective thermal management is critical to improving the performance and ensuring the reliability of EDVs. Efficient heat removal makes higher power densities and lower operating temperatures possible, and in turn enables cost and size reductions. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), along with DOE and industry partners is working to develop cost-effective thermal management solutions to increase device and component power densities. In this presentation, the activities in recent years related to thermal management and reliability of automotive power electronics and electric machines are presented.

Energy Management Systems to Reduce Electrical Energy Consumption

OpenAIRE

Oriti, Giovanna

2015-01-01

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY An energy management system comprises an electrical energy storage element such as a battery, renewable electrical energy sources such as solar and wind, a digital signal processing controller and a solid state power converter to interface the elements together. This hardware demonstration in the lab at the Naval Postgraduate School will focus on solid state power conversion methods to improve the reliability and efficiency of electrical energy consumption by Navy facilit...

Design and Testing of a Thermal Storage System for Electric Vehicle Cabin Heating

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Mingyu [MAHLE Behr Troy Inc.; WolfeIV, Edward [MAHLE Behr Troy Inc.; Craig, Timothy [MAHLE Behr Troy Inc.; LaClair, Tim J [ORNL; Gao, Zhiming [ORNL; Abdelaziz, Omar [ORNL

2016-01-01

Without the waste heat available from the engine of a conventional automobile, electric vehicles (EVs) must provide heat to the cabin for climate control using energy stored in the vehicle. In current EV designs, this energy is typically provided by the traction battery. In very cold climatic conditions, the power required to heat the EV cabin can be of a similar magnitude to that required for propulsion of the vehicle. As a result, the driving range of an EV can be reduced very significantly during winter months, which limits consumer acceptance of EVs and results in increased battery costs to achieve a minimum range while ensuring comfort to the EV driver. To minimize the range penalty associated with EV cabin heating, a novel climate control system that includes thermal energy storage has been designed for use in EVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). The system uses the stored latent heat of an advanced phase change material (PCM) to provide cabin heating. The PCM is melted while the EV is connected to the electric grid for charging of the electric battery, and the stored energy is subsequently transferred to the cabin during driving. To minimize thermal losses when the EV is parked for extended periods, the PCM is encased in a high performance insulation system. The electrical PCM-Assisted Thermal Heating System (ePATHS) was designed to provide enough thermal energy to heat the EV s cabin for approximately 46 minutes, covering the entire daily commute of a typical driver in the U.S.

Development of a direct push based in-situ thermal conductivity measurement system

Science.gov (United States)

Chirla, Marian Andrei; Vienken, Thomas; Dietrich, Peter; Bumberger, Jan

2016-04-01

push based approaches, called Thermal Conductivity Profiler (TCP), that operates based on the principles of a hollow cylindrical geometry heat source. To determinate thermal conductivity in situ, the transient temperature at the middle of the probe and electrical power dissipation is measured. At the same time, this work presents laboratory results obtained when this novel hollow cylindrical probe system was tested on different materials for calibration. By using the hollow cylindrical probe, the thermal conductivity results have an error of less than 2.5% error for solid samples (Teflon, Agar jelly, and Nylatron). These findings are useful to achieve a proper thermal energy balance in the shallow subsurface by using direct push technology and TCP. By providing information of layers with high thermal conductivity, suitable for thermal storage capability, can be used determine borehole heat exchanger design and, therefore, determine geothermal heat pump architecture.

The importance of nuclear energy for the expansion of Brazil's electricity grid

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santos, Ricardo Luis Pereira dos; Rosa, Luiz Pinguelli; Arouca, Maurício Cardoso; Ribeiro, Alan Emanuel Duailibe

2013-01-01

This article analyzes the thermal energy options available in the country to support the expansion of Brazil's electricity grid capacity. The country's electricity mix consists primarily of renewable sources of energy and this configuration will be maintained throughout the 21st century. However, grid expansion can no longer benefit from hydroelectric power plants with large reservoirs leading to a greater participation of thermal power plants. Among the thermal sources available in the country, nuclear power has important comparative advantages. Recognizing these benefits, the Brazilian government has established that expanding electricity grid capacity will amount to up to 8000 MW through nuclear energy by 2030. The use of nuclear technology for electricity generation has historically been a controversial issue worldwide and some countries have decided to review their nuclear programs in the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident. This article shows that increasing the participation of nuclear energy in Brazil's electricity grid will provide important benefits for the country by ensuring energy security, keeping Brazil's electricity mix as one of the cleanest in the world, securing electricity grid reliability and safety and reducing operating costs. - Highlights: • The expansion of the power capacity is essential to support the economic growth. • The increase through hydropower cannot benefit from storage reservoirs. • It will be necessary to increase the capacity thermal power. • Nuclear power has significant comparative advantages in Brazil. • Brazil has institutional base, uranium reserves and nuclear technology

Thermal Energy Corporation Combined Heat and Power Project

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Turner, E. Bruce [Thermal Energy Corporation, Houston, TX (United States); Brown, Tim [Thermal Energy Corporation, Houston, TX (United States); Mardiat, Ed [Burns and McDonnell Engineering Company, Inc., Kansas City, MI (United States)

2011-12-31

To meet the planned heating and cooling load growth at the Texas Medical Center (TMC), Thermal Energy Corporation (TECO) implemented Phase 1 of a Master Plan to install an additional 32,000 tons of chilled water capacity, a 75,000 ton-hour (8.8 million gallon) Thermal Energy Storage (TES) tank, and a 48 MW Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system. The Department of Energy selected TMC for a $10 million grant award as part of the Financial Assistance Funding Opportunity Announcement, U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology, Recovery Act: Deployment of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Systems, District Energy Systems, Waste Energy Recovery Systems, and Efficiency Industrial Equipment Funding Opportunity Number: DE-FOA-0000044 to support the installation of a new 48 MW CHP system at the TMC located just outside downtown Houston. As the largest medical center in the world, TMC is home to many of the nation's best hospitals, physicians, researchers, educational institutions, and health care providers. TMC provides care to approximately six million patients each year, and medical instruction to over 71,000 students. A medical center the size of TMC has enormous electricity and thermal energy demands to help it carry out its mission. Reliable, high-quality steam and chilled water are of utmost importance to the operations of its many facilities. For example, advanced medical equipment, laboratories, laundry facilities, space heating and cooling all rely on the generation of heat and power. As result of this project TECO provides this mission critical heating and cooling to TMC utilizing a system that is both energy-efficient and reliable since it provides the capability to run on power independent of the already strained regional electric grid. This allows the medical center to focus on its primary mission providing top quality medical care and instruction without worrying about excessive energy costs or the loss of heating and cooling due to the risk of power

Forecasting and decision-making in electricity markets with focus on wind energy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jónsson, Tryggvi

This thesis deals with analysis, forecasting and decision making in liberalised electricity markets. Particular focus is on wind power, its interaction with the market and the daily decision making of wind power generators. Among recently emerged renewable energy generation technologies, wind power...... derivation of practically applicable tools for decision making highly relevant. The main characteristics of wind power differ fundamentally from those of conventional thermal power. Its effective generation capacity varies over time and is directly dependent on the weather. This dependency makes future...... has become the global leader in terms of installed capacity and advancement. This makes wind power an ideal candidate to analyse the impact of growing renewable energy generation capacity on the electricity markets. Furthermore, its present status of a significant supplier of electricity makes...

Taxes for energy products, electricity and CO2. Consequences of the revision of the Energy Taxation Directive for the Netherlands

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blom, M.J.; Schroten, A.; Geurts, F.

2011-07-01

Taxes on energy products, electricity and CO2 are compared for a number of EU countries (Germany, Belgium, Denmark, United Kingdom, France, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands) with special focus on the fiscal, economic and environmental impacts of the revision of the European Energy Directive for the Netherlands. [nl

Phase-Change Thermal Energy Storage

Science.gov (United States)

1989-11-01

The goal of this program is to advance the engineering and scientific understanding of solar thermal technology and to establish the technology base from which private industry can develop solar thermal power production options for introduction into the competitive energy market. Solar thermal technology concentrates the solar flux using tracking mirrors or lenses onto a receiver where the solar energy is absorbed as heat and converted into electricity or incorporated into products as process heat. The two primary solar thermal technologies, central receivers and distributed receivers, employ various point and line-focus optics to concentrate sunlight. Current central receiver systems use fields of heliostats (two-axes tracking mirrors) to focus the sun's radiant energy onto a single, tower-mounted receiver. Point focus concentrators up to 17 meters in diameter track the sun in two axes and use parabolic dish mirrors or Fresnel lenses to focus radiant energy onto a receiver. Troughs and bowls are line-focus tracking reflectors that concentrate sunlight onto receiver tubes along their focal lines. Concentrating collector modules can be used alone or in a multimodule system. The concentrated radiant energy absorbed by the solar thermal receiver is transported to the conversion process by a circulating working fluid. Receiver temperatures range from 100 C in low-temperature troughs to over 1500 C in dish and central receiver systems.

Flexible operation of thermal plants with integrated energy storage technologies

Science.gov (United States)

Koytsoumpa, Efthymia Ioanna; Bergins, Christian; Kakaras, Emmanouil

2017-08-01

The energy system in the EU requires today as well as towards 2030 to 2050 significant amounts of thermal power plants in combination with the continuously increasing share of Renewables Energy Sources (RES) to assure the grid stability and to secure electricity supply as well as to provide heat. The operation of the conventional fleet should be harmonised with the fluctuating renewable energy sources and their intermittent electricity production. Flexible thermal plants should be able to reach their lowest minimum load capabilities while keeping the efficiency drop moderate as well as to increase their ramp up and down rates. A novel approach for integrating energy storage as an evolutionary measure to overcome many of the challenges, which arise from increasing RES and balancing with thermal power is presented. Energy storage technologies such as Power to Fuel, Liquid Air Energy Storage and Batteries are investigated in conjunction with flexible power plants.

The performance of residential micro-cogeneration coupled with thermal and electrical storage

Science.gov (United States)

Kopf, John

Over 80% of residential secondary energy consumption in Canada and Ontario is used for space and water heating. The peak electricity demands resulting from residential energy consumption increase the reliance on fossil-fuel generation stations. Distributed energy resources can help to decrease the reliance on central generation stations. Presently, distributed energy resources such as solar photovoltaic, wind and bio-mass generation are subsidized in Ontario. Micro-cogeneration is an emerging technology that can be implemented as a distributed energy resource within residential or commercial buildings. Micro-cogeneration has the potential to reduce a building's energy consumption by simultaneously generating thermal and electrical power on-site. The coupling of a micro-cogeneration device with electrical storage can improve the system's ability to reduce peak electricity demands. The performance potential of micro-cogeneration devices has yet to be fully realized. This research addresses the performance of a residential micro-cogeneration device and it's ability to meet peak occupant electrical loads when coupled with electrical storage. An integrated building energy model was developed of a residential micro-cogeneration system: the house, the micro-cogeneration device, all balance of plant and space heating components, a thermal storage device, an electrical storage device, as well as the occupant electrical and hot water demands. This model simulated the performance of a micro-cogeneration device coupled to an electrical storage system within a Canadian household. A customized controller was created in ESP-r to examine the impact of various system control strategies. The economic performance of the system was assessed from the perspective of a local energy distribution company and an end-user under hypothetical electricity export purchase price scenarios. It was found that with certain control strategies the micro-cogeneration system was able to improve the

Scenarios for solar thermal energy applications in Brazil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martins, F.R.; Abreu, S.L.; Pereira, E.B.

2012-01-01

The Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment (SWERA) database is used to prepare and discuss scenarios for solar thermal applications in Brazil. The paper discusses low temperature applications (small and large scale water heating) and solar power plants for electricity production (concentrated solar power plants and solar chimney plants) in Brazil. The results demonstrate the feasibility of large-scale application of solar energy for water heating and electricity generation in Brazil. Payback periods for water heating systems are typically below 4 years if they were used to replace residential electric showerheads in low-income families. Large-scale water heating systems also present high feasibility and many commercial companies are adopting this technology to reduce operational costs. The best sites to set up CSP plants are in the Brazilian semi-arid region where the annual energy achieves 2.2 MW h/m 2 and averages of daily solar irradiation are larger than 5.0 kW h/m 2 /day. The western area of Brazilian Northeastern region meets all technical requirements to exploit solar thermal energy for electricity generation based on solar chimney technology. Highlights: ► Scenarios for solar thermal applications are presented. ► Payback is typically below 4 years for small scale water heating systems. ► Large-scale water heating systems also present high feasibility. ► The Brazilian semi-arid region is the best sites for CSP and chimney tower plants.

Energy and Environment Guide to Action - Chapter 7: Electric Utility Policies

Science.gov (United States)

Focuses on the authorites that state legislatures have granted to PUCs to regulate electricity and reliability, as these authorities directly affect utilities' and customers' investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and CHP.

Direct conversion of fusion energy into the electric one in the 'Dragon' magnetic confinement system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Glagolev, V.M.; Timofeev, A.V.

1993-01-01

It is shown that recuperator in which the thermal energy of particles is transformed into electric oue under drift in crossed fields is naturally coupled with dragontype magnetic confinement system, so the recuperation process can be initiated in the dragon magnetic field. A number of questions occuring under analysis of recuperator-dragon system is considered, including the dynamics of particle transfer to the recuperator, the share of particles entering the recuperator, the effect of rotational transform and the recuperation efficiency

Metal hydride-based thermal energy storage systems

Science.gov (United States)

Vajo, John J.; Fang, Zhigang

2017-10-03

The invention provides a thermal energy storage system comprising a metal-containing first material with a thermal energy storage density of about 1300 kJ/kg to about 2200 kJ/kg based on hydrogenation; a metal-containing second material with a thermal energy storage density of about 200 kJ/kg to about 1000 kJ/kg based on hydrogenation; and a hydrogen conduit for reversibly transporting hydrogen between the first material and the second material. At a temperature of 20.degree. C. and in 1 hour, at least 90% of the metal is converted to the hydride. At a temperature of 0.degree. C. and in 1 hour, at least 90% of the metal hydride is converted to the metal and hydrogen. The disclosed metal hydride materials have a combination of thermodynamic energy storage densities and kinetic power capabilities that previously have not been demonstrated. This performance enables practical use of thermal energy storage systems for electric vehicle heating and cooling.

Prospects for solar thermal electricity generation - an introduction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

DeLaquil, P.

1991-01-01

The future potential for solar thermal electric power plants is quite significant. The size of the renewable energy resource base for the United States of America alone is almost 500 times its current primary energy consumption. Unfortunately, the levels of current utilization are quite small. Why have these technologies not made a larger contribution to today's market? The answer is that significant barriers still exist. (orig.)

Thermal Management and Reliability of Power Electronics and Electric Machines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Narumanchi, Sreekant

2016-08-03

Increasing the number of electric-drive vehicles (EDVs) on America's roads has been identified as a strategy with near-term potential for dramatically decreasing the nation's dependence on oil -- by the U.S. Department of Energy, the federal cross-agency EV-Everywhere Challenge, and the automotive industry. Mass-market deployment will rely on meeting aggressive technical targets, including improved efficiency and reduced size, weight, and cost. Many of these advances will depend on optimization of thermal management. Effective thermal management is critical to improving the performance and ensuring the reliability of EDVs. Efficient heat removal makes higher power densities and lower operating temperatures possible, and in turn enables cost and size reductions. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), along with DOE and industry partners is working to develop cost-effective thermal management solutions to increase device and component power densities. In this presentation, the activities in recent years related to thermal management and reliability of automotive power electronics and electric machines will be presented.

Directed-energy process technology efforts

Science.gov (United States)

Alexander, P.

1985-01-01

A summary of directed-energy process technology for solar cells was presented. This technology is defined as directing energy or mass to specific areas on solar cells to produce a desired effect in contrast to exposing a cell to a thermal or mass flow environment. Some of these second generation processing techniques are: ion implantation; microwave-enhanced chemical vapor deposition; rapid thermal processing; and the use of lasers for cutting, assisting in metallization, assisting in deposition, and drive-in of liquid dopants. Advantages of directed energy techniques are: surface heating resulting in the bulk of the cell material being cooler and unchanged; better process control yields; better junction profiles, junction depths, and metal sintering; lower energy consumption during processing and smaller factory space requirements. These advantages should result in higher-efficiency cells at lower costs. The results of the numerous contracted efforts were presented as well as the application potentials of these new technologies.

Modeling, hybridization, and optimal charging of electrical energy storage systems

Science.gov (United States)

Parvini, Yasha

The rising rate of global energy demand alongside the dwindling fossil fuel resources has motivated research for alternative and sustainable solutions. Within this area of research, electrical energy storage systems are pivotal in applications including electrified vehicles, renewable power generation, and electronic devices. The approach of this dissertation is to elucidate the bottlenecks of integrating supercapacitors and batteries in energy systems and propose solutions by the means of modeling, control, and experimental techniques. In the first step, the supercapacitor cell is modeled in order to gain fundamental understanding of its electrical and thermal dynamics. The dependence of electrical parameters on state of charge (SOC), current direction and magnitude (20-200 A), and temperatures ranging from -40°C to 60°C was embedded in this computationally efficient model. The coupled electro-thermal model was parameterized using specifically designed temporal experiments and then validated by the application of real world duty cycles. Driving range is one of the major challenges of electric vehicles compared to combustion vehicles. In order to shed light on the benefits of hybridizing a lead-acid driven electric vehicle via supercapacitors, a model was parameterized for the lead-acid battery and combined with the model already developed for the supercapacitor, to build the hybrid battery-supercapacitor model. A hardware in the loop (HIL) setup consisting of a custom built DC/DC converter, micro-controller (muC) to implement the power management strategy, 12V lead-acid battery, and a 16.2V supercapacitor module was built to perform the validation experiments. Charging electrical energy storage systems in an efficient and quick manner, motivated to solve an optimal control problem with the objective of maximizing the charging efficiency for supercapacitors, lead-acid, and lithium ion batteries. Pontryagins minimum principle was used to solve the problems

An Integrated and Optimal Joint Scheduling of Energy Resources to Feed Electrical, Thermal and Potable Water Demands in Remote Area

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Ghaffarpour

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The continuous spread of distributed energy resources (DERs such as combined heating and power (CHP, diesel generators, boilers and renewable energy sources provide an effective solution to energy related problems to serve the power and heat demands with minimum cost. Moreover, the DERs may play a significant role for supplying power and heat in rural areas, where grid electricity is not available. Also, some dry areas may face water scarcity and salinity problems. So, one important solution is the use of DERs to drive desalination units in order to solve water scarcity and salinity problems. In this study, the optimal scheduling of DERs and reverse osmosis (RO desalination unit that feed the required electric, thermal and potable water demands are determined. The present paper describes the operation constraints and cost function of components of the system in detail. Operation constraints of generation units as well as feasible region of operation CHP in dual dependency characteristic are taken into account. To confirm the performance of the proposed model the approach is tested on a realistic remote area over a 24-h period. The results show that the economical scheduling of DERs and desalination units can be obtained using proposed methodology by implementing the proposed formulation.

A review on battery thermal management in electric vehicle application

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Guodong; Cao, Lei; Bi, Guanglong

2017-11-01

The global issues of energy crisis and air pollution have offered a great opportunity to develop electric vehicles. However, so far, cycle life of power battery, environment adaptability, driving range and charging time seems far to compare with the level of traditional vehicles with internal combustion engine. Effective battery thermal management (BTM) is absolutely essential to relieve this situation. This paper reviews the existing literature from two levels that are cell level and battery module level. For single battery, specific attention is paid to three important processes which are heat generation, heat transport, and heat dissipation. For large format cell, multi-scale multi-dimensional coupled models have been developed. This will facilitate the investigation on factors, such as local irreversible heat generation, thermal resistance, current distribution, etc., that account for intrinsic temperature gradients existing in cell. For battery module based on air and liquid cooling, series, series-parallel and parallel cooling configurations are discussed. Liquid cooling strategies, especially direct liquid cooling strategies, are reviewed and they may advance the battery thermal management system to a new generation.

Ocean thermal gradient as a generator of electricity. OTEC power plant

Science.gov (United States)

Enrique, Luna-Gomez Victor; Angel, Alatorre-Mendieta Miguel

2016-04-01

The OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) is a power plant that uses the thermal gradient of the sea water between the surface and a depth of about 700 meters. It works by supplying the heat to a steam machine, for evaporation, with sea water from the surface and cold, to condense the steam, with deep sea water. The energy generated by the power plant OTEC can be transferred to the electric power grid, another use is to desalinate seawater. During the twentieth century in some countries experimental power plants to produce electricity or obtaining drinking water they were installed. On the Mexico's coast itself this thermal gradient, as it is located in tropical seas it occurs, so it has possibilities of installing OTEC power plant type. In this paper one type OTEC power plant operation is represented in most of its components.

Climate impact and energy efficiency from electricity generation through anaerobic digestion or direct combustion of short rotation coppice willow

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ericsson, Niclas; Nordberg, Åke; Sundberg, Cecilia; Ahlgren, Serina; Hansson, Per-Anders

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Using LCA, CHP from willow use in biogas was compared with direct combustion. • Direct combustion was ninefold more energy-efficient. • Biogas had a much greater cooling effect on global mean surface temperature. • The effects of soil carbon changes on temperature over time differed. • Biogas had long-term temperature effects, direct combustion short-term effects. - Abstract: Short rotation coppice willow is an energy crop used in Sweden to produce electricity and heat in combined heat and power plants. Recent laboratory-scale experiments have shown that SRC willow can also be used for biogas production in anaerobic digestion processes. Here, life cycle assessment is used to compare the climate impact and energy efficiency of electricity and heat generated by these measures. All energy inputs and greenhouse gas emissions, including soil organic carbon fluxes were included in the life cycle assessment. The climate impact was determined using time-dependent life cycle assessment methodology. Both systems showed a positive net energy balance, but the direct combustion system delivered ninefold more energy than the biogas system. Both systems had a cooling effect on the global mean surface temperature change. The cooling impact per hectare from the biogas system was ninefold higher due to the carbon returned to soil with the digestate. Compensating the lower energy production of the biogas system with external energy sources had a large impact on the result, effectively determining whether the biogas scenario had a net warming or cooling contribution to the global mean temperature change per kWh of electricity. In all cases, the contribution to global warming was lowered by the inclusion of willow in the energy system. The use of time-dependent climate impact methodology shows that extended use of short rotation coppice willow can contribute to counteract global warming

High temperature thermal conductivity measurements of UO2 by Direct Electrical Heating. Final report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bassett, B.

1980-10-01

High temperature properties of reactor type UO 2 pellets were measured using a Direct Electrical Heating (DEH) Facility. Modifications to the experimental apparatus have been made so that successful and reproducible DEH runs may be carried out while protecting the pellets from oxidation at high temperature. X-ray diffraction measurements on the UO 2 pellets have been made before and after runs to assure that sample oxidation has not occurred. A computer code has been developed that will model the experiment using equations that describe physical properties of the material. This code allows these equations to be checked by comparing the model results to collected data. The thermal conductivity equation for UO 2 proposed by Weilbacher has been used for this analysis. By adjusting the empirical parameters in Weilbacher's equation, experimental data can be matched by the code. From the several runs analyzed, the resulting thermal conductivity equation is lambda = 1/4.79 + 0.0247T/ + 1.06 x 10 -3 exp[-1.62/kT/] - 4410. exp[-3.71/kT/] where lambda is in w/cm K, k is the Boltzman constant, and T is the temperature in Kelvin

Electro-thermal analysis and integration issues of lithium ion battery for electric vehicles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saw, L.H.; Ye, Y.; Tay, A.A.O.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • We modeled the electrical and thermal behavior of the Li-ion battery. • We validated the simulation results with experimental studies. • We compared the thermal performance of different size of cylindrical cells. • We investigated the integration issues of cylindrical cells into battery pack. - Abstract: Electrical and thermal characteristics of lithium-ion battery packs in electric vehicles in different operating conditions are important in order to design the battery pack thermal management system. In this work, electrical and thermal behaviors of different size of LiFePO 4 cylindrical cells are investigated under various operating conditions. The simulation results show good agreement with the experimental data under various operating modes. Due to the large thermal resistance of layered active material in a Li-ion cell, the temperature difference in the radial direction is significantly correlated with a diameter of cell and I t -rates. Compared with natural convection, strong forced convection will reduce the temperature uniformity in the cell and accelerate the thermal aging rate. Lastly, integration issues of the cells into a battery pack are discussed from mechanical, electrical, thermal, control and monitoring, manufacturing and maintenance aspects. These issues could impact the performance, cost, driving range and life cycle of the battery pack in electric vehicles

Barriers to electric energy efficiency in Ghana

Science.gov (United States)

Berko, Joseph Kofi, Jr.

implementation strategy will have to address the different decision-makers' concerns and viewpoints. These include the need for national policies to promote electric energy efficiency and institutional development to provide support, guidance and direction to an energy efficiency effort. It also proposes structural changes within the industry to reduce government influence by creating an independent regulatory board. Finally, it proposes the adoption of integrated resource planning strategies and changes in the supply-side dominated culture within the electric utilities.

Measurements on a solar greenhouse combining cooling and electrical energy production

NARCIS (Netherlands)

B. van Tuijl; Piet Sonneveld; H. Janssen; J. van Campen; G. Bot; Gert-Jan Swinkels

2010-01-01

Performance results are given of a new type of greenhouse, which combines reflection of near infrared radiation (NIR) with electrical power generation using hybrid photovoltaic cell/thermal collector modules. Besides the generation of electrical and thermal energy, the reflection of the NIR will

Thermal and Electrical Characterization of a Semi-Transparent Dye-Sensitized Photovoltaic Module under Real Operating Conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristina Cornaro

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Dye-sensitized solar cell technology is having an important role in renewable energy research due to its features and low-cost manufacturing processes. Devices based on this technology appear very well suited for integration into glazing systems due to their characteristics of transparency, color tuning and manufacturing directly on glass substrates. Field data of thermal and electrical characteristics of dye-sensitized solar modules (DSM are important since they can be used as input of building simulation models for the evaluation of their energy saving potential when integrated into buildings. However, still few studies in the literature provide this information. The study presented here aims to contribute to fill this lack providing a thermal and electrical characterization of a DSM in real operating conditions using a method developed in house. This method uses experimental data coming from test boxes exposed outdoor and dynamic simulation to provide thermal transmittance (U-value and solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC of a DSM prototype. The device exhibits a U-value of 3.6 W/m2·K, confirmed by an additional measurement carried on in the lab using a heat flux meter, and a SHGC of 0.2, value compliant with literature results. Electrical characterization shows an increase of module power with respect to temperature resulting DSM being suitable for integration in building facades.

Electrically and Thermally Conducting Nanocomposites for Electronic Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daryl Santos

2010-02-01

Full Text Available Nanocomposites made up of polymer matrices and carbon nanotubes are a class of advanced materials with great application potential in electronics packaging. Nanocomposites with carbon nanotubes as fillers have been designed with the aim of exploiting the high thermal, electrical and mechanical properties characteristic of carbon nanotubes. Heat dissipation in electronic devices requires interface materials with high thermal conductivity. Here, current developments and challenges in the application of nanotubes as fillers in polymer matrices are explored. The blending together of nanotubes and polymers result in what are known as nanocomposites. Among the most pressing current issues related to nanocomposite fabrication are (i dispersion of carbon nanotubes in the polymer host, (ii carbon nanotube-polymer interaction and the nature of the interface, and (iii alignment of carbon nanotubes in a polymer matrix. These issues are believed to be directly related to the electrical and thermal performance of nanocomposites. The recent progress in the fabrication of nanocomposites with carbon nanotubes as fillers and their potential application in electronics packaging as thermal interface materials is also reported.

The role of electric grids in the European energy policy. Grids development is necessary to supply cleaner and securer electric power

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Merlin, A.

2009-01-01

The world is actually entering a new energy era where CO 2 emissions must be reduced. Consequently, the European Union policy includes three goals: a) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fossil energy consumption; b) to improve the security of energy supply; c) to improve interconnection between regions. In this context, electrical grids play a strategic role. While the overall energy consumption in Europe will decrease, the electricity demand will increase by more than 1% per year. A large part of this increase will be covered by renewable energy sources, especially wind energy. In 2020 the total wind power installed in Europe should be ∼1000 GW, leading to a mean power production of 200-250 GW. This makes necessary an adaptation of electrical grids in order to be able to integrate into the system large power sources of intermittent character, and also to improve the solidarity of the different countries. The interconnection of the grids must be improved in order to balance electricity supply and demand. For the transport of electricity over large distances, developments will take place in three different areas; a) high voltage alternative current for most of the grids; b) high voltage direct current where it is necessary to overpass obstacles (mountains, sounds); c) gaseous insulation technology for underground transport. Local (mostly low voltage) grids must also be adapted: so far, they only carry electricity in one direction, to the customers. With the distributed power production, electricity transport in the reverse direction must also be considered

Joint energy demand and thermal comfort optimization in photovoltaic-equipped interconnected microgrids

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baldi, Simone; Karagevrekis, Athanasios; Michailidis, Iakovos T.; Kosmatopoulos, Elias B.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Energy efficient operation of photovoltaic-equipped interconnected microgrids. • Optimized energy demand for a block of heterogeneous buildings with different sizes. • Multiobjective optimization: matching demand and supply taking into account thermal comfort. • Intelligent control mechanism for heating, ventilating, and air conditioning units. • Optimization of energy consumption and thermal comfort at the aggregate microgrid level. - Abstract: Electrical smart microgrids equipped with small-scale renewable-energy generation systems are emerging progressively as an alternative or an enhancement to the central electrical grid: due to the intermittent nature of the renewable energy sources, appropriate algorithms are required to integrate these two typologies of grids and, in particular, to perform efficiently dynamic energy demand and distributed generation management, while guaranteeing satisfactory thermal comfort for the occupants. This paper presents a novel control algorithm for joint energy demand and thermal comfort optimization in photovoltaic-equipped interconnected microgrids. Energy demand shaping is achieved via an intelligent control mechanism for heating, ventilating, and air conditioning units. The intelligent control mechanism takes into account the available solar energy, the building dynamics and the thermal comfort of the buildings’ occupants. The control design is accomplished in a simulation-based fashion using an energy simulation model, developed in EnergyPlus, of an interconnected microgrid. Rather than focusing only on how each building behaves individually, the optimization algorithm employs a central controller that allows interaction among the buildings of the microgrid. The control objective is to optimize the aggregate microgrid performance. Simulation results demonstrate that the optimization algorithm efficiently integrates the microgrid with the photovoltaic system that provides free electric energy: in

Simulation and energy analysis of distributed electric heating system

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Bo; Han, Shenchao; Yang, Yanchun; Liu, Mingyuan

2018-02-01

Distributed electric heating system assistssolar heating systemby using air-source heat pump. Air-source heat pump as auxiliary heat sourcecan make up the defects of the conventional solar thermal system can provide a 24 - hour high - efficiency work. It has certain practical value and practical significance to reduce emissions and promote building energy efficiency. Using Polysun software the system is simulated and compared with ordinary electric boiler heating system. The simulation results show that upon energy request, 5844.5kW energy is saved and 3135kg carbon - dioxide emissions are reduced and5844.5 kWhfuel and energy consumption is decreased with distributed electric heating system. Theeffect of conserving energy and reducing emissions using distributed electric heating systemis very obvious.

Thermal power and heat energy of cloud-to-ground lightning process

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Xuejuan; Yuan, Ping; Xue, Simin [Key Laboratory of Atomic and Molecular Physics and Functional Materials of Gansu Province, College of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070 (China); Cen, Jianyong [School of Physics and Information Engineering, Shanxi Normal University, Linfen 041004 (China)

2016-07-15

A cloud-to-ground lightning flash with nine return strokes has been recorded using a high speed slitless spectrograph and a system composed of a fast antenna and a slow antenna. Based on the spectral data and the synchronous electric field changes that were caused by the lightning, the electrical conductivity, the channel radii, the resistance per unit length, the peak current, the thermal power at the instant of peak current, and the heat energy per unit length during the first 5 μs in the discharge channel have all been calculated. The results indicate that the channel radii have linear relationships with the peak current. The thermal power at the peak current time increases with increasing resistance, but exponential decays with the square of the peak current.

77 FR 31341 - Application To Export Electric Energy; DC Energy, LLC

Science.gov (United States)

2012-05-25

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY [OE Docket No. EA-327-A] Application To Export Electric Energy; DC Energy.... SUMMARY: DC Energy, LLC (DC Energy) has applied to renew its authority to transmit electric energy from..., the Department of Energy (DOE) issued Order No. EA-327 authorizing DC Energy to transmit electric...

Thermal performance of a linear Fresnel reflector solar concentrator PV/T energy systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gomaa, Mohamed R. [State Engineering University of Armenia (Armenia)], E-Mail: Dmoh_elbehary@yahoo.com

2011-07-01

This is a report on an investigation of photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) collectors. Solar energy conversion efficiency was increased by taking advantage of PV/T collectors and low solar concentration technologies, combined into a PV/T system operated at elevated temperature. The main novelty is the coupling of a linear Fresnel mirror reflecting concentrator with a channel PV/T collector. Concentrator PV/T collectors can function at temperatures over 100 degrees celsius, and thus thermal energy can be made to drive processes such as refrigeration, desalination and steam production. Solar system analytical thermal performance gives efficiency values over 60%. Combined electric and thermal (CET) efficiency is high. A combined electric and heat power for the linear fresnel reflector approach that employs high performance CPV technology to produce both electricity and thermal energy at low to medium temperatures is presented. A well-functioning PV/T system can be designed and constructed with low concentration and a total efficiency of nearly 80% can be attained.

The green electricity market model. Proposal for an optional, cost-neutral direct marketing model for supplying electricity customers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heinemann, Ronald

2014-01-01

One of the main goals of the Renewable Energy Law (EEG) is the market integration of renewable energy resources. For this purpose it has introduced compulsory direct marketing on the basis of a moving market premium. At the same time the green electricity privilege, a regulation which made it possible for customers to be supplied with electricity from EEG plants, has been abolished without substitution with effect from 1 August 2014. This means that, aside from other direct marketing channels, which will not be economically viable save for in a few exceptional cases, it will no longer be possible in future to sell electricity from EEG plants to electricity customers under the designation ''electricity from renewable energy''. The reason for this is that electricity sold under the market premium model can no longer justifiably be said to originate from renewable energy. As a consequence, almost all green electricity products sold in Germany carry a foreign green electricity certificate.

Preparing tomorrow's grid: RTE at the service of regions to support energy transition. Regional electric assessments - Stakes and key data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2014-06-01

This document gathers a first one which presents the regional electric assessments and 21 regional reports. The presentation document briefly outlines the interdependency of regions, the diversity of regional situation in terms of electricity production and consumption, needs and ways to develop energy saving in order to reduce sensitivity to temperature, the evolution, objectives and contrasted results of the development of renewable energies, the investments and projects by RTE to develop and improve the grid. Regional reports propose maps and graphs and a synthesis of the evolution of electricity consumption, of the evolution of electricity consumption by industries, of the evolution of peak consumptions, of the evolution of consumption coverage by regional production, of the origin of electricity production (renewable thermal, photovoltaic, thermal fossil, hydraulic, nuclear), of the evolution of the various productions (renewable, hydraulic, thermal fossil, nuclear), of the evolution of the share of renewable energies, of the development of photovoltaic and wind installed power. They also present projects and investments, and propose maps of France indicating the level of consumption, the evolution of consumption between 2006 and 2013, the production/consumption rate of the different French regions and the energy exchanges between regions

Energy and Environment Guide to Action - Chapter 7.0: Electric Utility Policies

Science.gov (United States)

Focuses on the authorites that state legislatures have granted to PUCs to regulate electricity and reliability, as these authorities directly affect utilities' and customers' investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and CHP.

76 FR 69712 - Application To Export Electric Energy; BP Energy Company

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-09

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY [OE Docket No. EA-315-A] Application To Export Electric Energy; BP Energy.... SUMMARY: BP Energy Company (BP Energy) has applied to renew its authority to transmit electric energy from... BP Energy to transmit electric energy from the United States to Canada as a power marketer for a five...

Electric Motor Thermal Management

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bennion, Kevin S [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2017-09-01

Thermal management enables more efficient and cost-effective motors. This Annual Merit Review presentation describes the technical accomplishments and progress in electric motor thermal management R&D over the last year. This project supports a broad industry demand for data, analysis methods, and experimental techniques to improve and better understand motor thermal management.

Efficient conversion of solar energy to biomass and electricity.

Science.gov (United States)

Parlevliet, David; Moheimani, Navid Reza

2014-01-01

The Earth receives around 1000 W.m(-2) of power from the Sun and only a fraction of this light energy is able to be converted to biomass (chemical energy) via the process of photosynthesis. Out of all photosynthetic organisms, microalgae, due to their fast growth rates and their ability to grow on non-arable land using saline water, have been identified as potential source of raw material for chemical energy production. Electrical energy can also be produced from this same solar resource via the use of photovoltaic modules. In this work we propose a novel method of combining both of these energy production processes to make full utilisation of the solar spectrum and increase the productivity of light-limited microalgae systems. These two methods of energy production would appear to compete for use of the same energy resource (sunlight) to produce either chemical or electrical energy. However, some groups of microalgae (i.e. Chlorophyta) only require the blue and red portions of the spectrum whereas photovoltaic devices can absorb strongly over the full range of visible light. This suggests that a combination of the two energy production systems would allow for a full utilization of the solar spectrum allowing both the production of chemical and electrical energy from the one facility making efficient use of available land and solar energy. In this work we propose to introduce a filter above the algae culture to modify the spectrum of light received by the algae and redirect parts of the spectrum to generate electricity. The electrical energy generated by this approach can then be directed to running ancillary systems or producing extra illumination for the growth of microalgae. We have modelled an approach whereby the productivity of light-limited microalgae systems can be improved by at least 4% through using an LED array to increase the total amount of illumination on the microalgae culture.

Experimental investigation on thermal management of electric vehicle battery with heat pipe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rao Zhonghao; Wang Shuangfeng; Wu Maochun; Lin Zirong; Li Fuhuo

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► The thermal management system of electric vehicle battery with heat pipes was designed. ► Temperature rise is a key factor for the design of power battery thermal management system. ► Temperature distribution is inevitable to reference for better design of heat pipes used for heat dissipation. ► Heat pipes are effective for power batteries thermal management within electric vehicles. - Abstract: In order to increase the cycle time of power batteries and decrease the overall cost of electric vehicles, the thermal management system equipped with heat pipes was designed according to the heat generated character of power batteries. The experimental result showed that the maximum temperature could be controlled below 50 °C when the heat generation rate was lower than 50 W. Coupled with the desired temperature difference, the heat generation rate should not exceed 30 W. The maximum temperature and temperature difference are kept within desired rang under unsteady operating conditions and cycle testing conditions. Applying heat pipes based power batteries thermal management is an effective method for energy saving in electric vehicles.

Microbial surface displayed enzymes based biofuel cell utilizing degradation products of lignocellulosic biomass for direct electrical energy.

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Shuqin; Hou, Chuantao; Liang, Bo; Feng, Ruirui; Liu, Aihua

2015-09-01

In this work, a bacterial surface displaying enzyme based two-compartment biofuel cell for the direct electrical energy conversion from degradation products of lignocellulosic biomass is reported. Considering that the main degradation products of the lignocellulose are glucose and xylose, xylose dehydrogenase (XDH) displayed bacteria (XDH-bacteria) and glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) displayed bacteria (GDH-bacteria) were used as anode catalysts in anode chamber with methylene blue as electron transfer mediator. While the cathode chamber was constructed with laccase/multi-walled-carbon nanotube/glassy-carbon-electrode. XDH-bacteria exhibited 1.75 times higher catalytic efficiency than GDH-bacteria. This assembled enzymatic fuel cell exhibited a high open-circuit potential of 0.80 V, acceptable stability and energy conversion efficiency. Moreover, the maximum power density of the cell could reach 53 μW cm(-2) when fueled with degradation products of corn stalk. Thus, this finding holds great potential to directly convert degradation products of biomass into electrical energy. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Developing a Cost Model and Methodology to Estimate Capital Costs for Thermal Energy Storage

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Glatzmaier, G.

2011-12-01

This report provides an update on the previous cost model for thermal energy storage (TES) systems. The update allows NREL to estimate the costs of such systems that are compatible with the higher operating temperatures associated with advanced power cycles. The goal of the Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technology Program is to develop solar technologies that can make a significant contribution to the United States domestic energy supply. The recent DOE SunShot Initiative sets a very aggressive cost goal to reach a Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of 6 cents/kWh by 2020 with no incentives or credits for all solar-to-electricity technologies.1 As this goal is reached, the share of utility power generation that is provided by renewable energy sources is expected to increase dramatically. Because Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) is currently the only renewable technology that is capable of integrating cost-effective energy storage, it is positioned to play a key role in providing renewable, dispatchable power to utilities as the share of power generation from renewable sources increases. Because of this role, future CSP plants will likely have as much as 15 hours of Thermal Energy Storage (TES) included in their design and operation. As such, the cost and performance of the TES system is critical to meeting the SunShot goal for solar technologies. The cost of electricity from a CSP plant depends strongly on its overall efficiency, which is a product of two components - the collection and conversion efficiencies. The collection efficiency determines the portion of incident solar energy that is captured as high-temperature thermal energy. The conversion efficiency determines the portion of thermal energy that is converted to electricity. The operating temperature at which the overall efficiency reaches its maximum depends on many factors, including material properties of the CSP plant components. Increasing the operating temperature of the power generation

Prediction of energy balance and utilization for solar electric cars

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, K.; Guo, L. M.; Wang, Y. K.; Zafar, M. T.

2017-11-01

Solar irradiation and ambient temperature are characterized by region, season and time-domain, which directly affects the performance of solar energy based car system. In this paper, the model of solar electric cars used was based in Xi’an. Firstly, the meteorological data are modelled to simulate the change of solar irradiation and ambient temperature, and then the temperature change of solar cell is calculated using the thermal equilibrium relation. The above work is based on the driving resistance and solar cell power generation model, which is simulated under the varying radiation conditions in a day. The daily power generation and solar electric car cruise mileage can be predicted by calculating solar cell efficiency and power. The above theoretical approach and research results can be used in the future for solar electric car program design and optimization for the future developments.

Electrical energy use in different heating systems for early weaned piglets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sarubbi, J. [Federal Univ. of Santa Maria, Palmeira das Missoes, RS (Brazil). Dept. of Animal Science; Campinas State Univ., Sao Paulo (Brazil). College of Agricultural Engineering; Rossi, L.A.; Moura, D.J.; Oliveira, R.A.; David, E. [Campinas State Univ., Sao Paulo (Brazil). College of Agricultural Engineering

2010-07-01

This study compared the electrical energy use and thermal comfort conditions associated with 3 heating technologies used in piglet farms. Heating systems for piglets in nursery and farrowing can be improved to conserve energy without affecting the welfare of the animals. The evaluation was conducted at a commercial farm in a subtropical climate area of Brazil. Each treatment involved 150 weaned piglets at 21 days-old. The systems were designed to keep the piglets at 28 to 30 degrees C for 14 days. Suspended electrical resistors, heated floors and convection heating were the 3 heating technologies examined during this study which evaluated the electrical energy consumption, maximum power demand requirements and dry-bulb temperature. The study also assessed the specific consumption in terms of kWh/kg of live produced body mass as well as the efficiency of heating system in terms of degrees C per cubic metre of air. In terms of electrical energy use, the best heating system was the heated floor. However, the electrical resistance heating system was the best in terms of thermal comfort.

Studies of Electrical and Thermal Conductivities of Sheared Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube with Isotactic Polypropylene Polymer Composites

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Parvathalu Kalakonda

2015-01-01

at higher temperature due to isotropic electrical and thermal contact in both directions. Oriented MWCNT/iPP nanocomposites exhibit higher electrical and thermal conductivities, attributed primarily by orientation of nanotubes due to the shearing fabrication process.

76 FR 69713 - Application To Export Electric Energy; BP Energy Company

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-09

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY [OE Docket No. EA-314-A] Application To Export Electric Energy; BP Energy.... SUMMARY: BP Energy Company (BP Energy) has applied to renew its authority to transmit electric energy from... electric energy from the United States to Mexico as a power marketer for a five-year term using existing...

78 FR 64207 - Application To Export Electric Energy; TEC Energy Inc.

Science.gov (United States)

2013-10-28

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY [OE Docket No. EA-388] Application To Export Electric Energy; TEC Energy Inc.... SUMMARY: TEC Energy Inc. (TEC) has applied for authority to transmit electric energy from the United... received an application from TEC for authority to transmit electric energy from the United States to Canada...

Transition Region Emission and the Energy Input to Thermal Plasma in Solar Flares

Science.gov (United States)

Holman, Gordon D.; Holman, Gordon D.; Dennis, Brian R.; Haga, Leah; Raymond, John C.; Panasyuk, Alexander

2005-01-01

Understanding the energetics of solar flares depends on obtaining reliable determinations of the energy input to flare plasma. X-ray observations of the thermal bremsstrahlung from hot flare plasma provide temperatures and emission measures which, along with estimates of the plasma volume, allow the energy content of this hot plasma to be computed. However, if thermal energy losses are significant or if significant energy goes directly into cooler plasma, this is only a lower limit on the total energy injected into thermal plasma during the flare. We use SOHO UVCS observations of O VI flare emission scattered by coronal O VI ions to deduce the flare emission at transition region temperatures between 100,000 K and 1 MK for the 2002 July 23 and other flares. We find that the radiated energy at these temperatures significantly increases the deduced energy input to the thermal plasma, but by an amount that is less than the uncertainty in the computed energies. Comparisons of computed thermal and nonthermal electron energies deduced from RHESSI, GOES, and UVCS are shown.

An Integrated Approach to Water-Energy Nexus in Shale-Gas Production

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fadhil Y. Al-Aboosi

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Shale gas production is associated with significant usage of fresh water and discharge of wastewater. Consequently, there is a necessity to create proper management strategies for water resources in shale gas production and to integrate conventional energy sources (e.g., shale gas with renewables (e.g., solar energy. The objective of this study is to develop a design framework for integrating water and energy systems including multiple energy sources, the cogeneration process and desalination technologies in treating wastewater and providing fresh water for shale gas production. Solar energy is included to provide thermal power directly to a multi-effect distillation plant (MED exclusively (to be more feasible economically or indirect supply through a thermal energy storage system. Thus, MED is driven by direct or indirect solar energy and excess or direct cogeneration process heat. The proposed thermal energy storage along with the fossil fuel boiler will allow for the dual-purpose system to operate at steady-state by managing the dynamic variability of solar energy. Additionally, electric production is considered to supply a reverse osmosis plant (RO without connecting to the local electric grid. A multi-period mixed integer nonlinear program (MINLP is developed and applied to discretize the operation period to track the diurnal fluctuations of solar energy. The solution of the optimization program determines the optimal mix of solar energy, thermal storage and fossil fuel to attain the maximum annual profit of the entire system. A case study is solved for water treatment and energy management for Eagle Ford Basin in Texas.

76 FR 3882 - Application To Export Electric Energy; Intercom Energy, Inc.

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-21

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY [OE Docket No. EA-289-B] Application To Export Electric Energy; Intercom... application. SUMMARY: Intercom Energy, Inc. (Intercom) has applied to renew its authority to transmit electric... of Energy (DOE) issued Order No. EA-289, which authorized Intercom to transmit electric energy from...

The effects of regional insolation differences upon advanced solar thermal electric power plant performance and energy costs

Science.gov (United States)

Latta, A. F.; Bowyer, J. M.; Fujita, T.

1979-01-01

This paper presents the performance and cost of four 10-MWe advanced solar thermal electric power plants sited in various regions of the continental United States. Each region has different insolation characteristics which result in varying collector field areas, plant performance, capital costs, and energy costs. The paraboloidal dish, central receiver, cylindrical parabolic trough, and compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) comprise the advanced concepts studied. This paper contains a discussion of the regional insolation data base, a description of the solar systems' performances and costs, and a presentation of a range for the forecast cost of conventional electricity by region and nationally over the next several decades.

Metal hydrides based high energy density thermal battery

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fang, Zhigang Zak; Zhou, Chengshang; Fan, Peng; Udell, Kent S.; Bowman, Robert C.; Vajo, John J.; Purewal, Justin J.; Kekelia, Bidzina

2015-01-01

Highlights: • The principle of the thermal battery using advanced metal hydrides was demonstrated. • The thermal battery used MgH 2 and TiMnV as a working pair. • High energy density can be achieved by the use of MgH 2 to store thermal energy. - Abstract: A concept of thermal battery based on advanced metal hydrides was studied for heating and cooling of cabins in electric vehicles. The system utilized a pair of thermodynamically matched metal hydrides as energy storage media. The pair of hydrides that was identified and developed was: (1) catalyzed MgH 2 as the high temperature hydride material, due to its high energy density and enhanced kinetics; and (2) TiV 0.62 Mn 1.5 alloy as the matching low temperature hydride. Further, a proof-of-concept prototype was built and tested, demonstrating the potential of the system as HVAC for transportation vehicles

The potential of nuclear energy to generate clean electric power in Brazil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stecher, Luiza C.; Sabundjian, Gaiane; Menzel, Francine; Giarola, Rodrigo S.; Coelho, Talita S.

2013-01-01

The generation of electricity in Brazil is concentrated in hydroelectric generation, renewable and clean source, but that does not satisfy all the demand and leads to necessity of a supplementary thermal sources portion. Considering the predictions of increase in demand for electricity in the next years, it becomes necessary to insert new sources to complement the production taking into account both the volume being produced and the needs of environmental preservation. Thus, nuclear power can be considered a potential supplementary source for electricity generation in Brazil as well as the country has large reserves of fissile material, the generation emits no greenhouse gases, the country has technological mastery of the fuel cycle and it enables the production of large volumes of clean energy. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the potential of nuclear energy in electricity production in Brazil cleanly and safely, ensuring the supplies necessary to maintain the country's economic growth and the increased demand sustainable. For this, will be made an analysis of economic and social indicators of the characteristics of our energy matrix and the availability of our sources, as well as a description of the nuclear source and arguments that justify a higher share of nuclear energy in the matrix of the country. Then, after these analysis, will notice that the generation of electricity from nuclear source has all the conditions to supplement safely and clean supply of electricity in Brazil. (author)

Coordinated Operation of the Electricity and Natural Gas Systems with Bi-directional Energy Conversion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zeng, Qing; Zhang, Baohua; Fang, Jiakun

2017-01-01

A coordinated operation of the natural gas and electricity network with bi-directional energy conversion is expected to accommodate high penetration levels of renewables. This work focuses on the unified optimal operation of the integrated natural gas and electricity system considering the network...... constraints in both systems. An iterative method is proposed to deal with the nonlinearity in the proposed model. The models of the natural gas and power system are linearized in every iterative step. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach. Applicability of the proposed method...... is tested in the sample case. Finally, the effect of Power to Gas (P2G) on the daily economic dispatch is also investigated....

Progress in electrical energy storage system:A critical review

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Haisheng Chen; Thang Ngoc Cong; Wei Yang; Chunqing Tan; Yongliang Li; Yulong Ding

2009-01-01

Electrical energy storage technologies for stationary applications are reviewed.Particular attention is paid to pumped hydroelectric storage,compressed air energy storage,battery,flow battery,fuel cell,solar fuel,superconducting magnetic energy storage, flywheel, capacitor/supercapacitor,and thermal energy torage.Comparison is made among these technologies in terms of technical characteris-tics,applications and deployment status.

Extending nuclear energy to non-electrical applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ingersoll, D.; Houghton, Z. [NuScale Power, LLC, Corvallis, Oregon (United States); Bromm, R. [Fluor Corp., Greenville, SC (United States); Desportes, C. [Aquatech International, Canonsburg, PA (United States); McKellar, M.; Boardman, R. [Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

2014-07-01

Electricity represents less than half of all energy consumed in the United States and globally. Although a few commercial nuclear power plants world-wide provide energy to non-electrical applications such as district heating and water desalination, nuclear energy has been largely relegated to base-load electricity production. A new generation of smaller-sized nuclear power plants offers significant promise for extending nuclear energy to many non-electrical applications. The NuScale small modular reactor design is especially well suited for these nontraditional customers due to its small unit size, very robust reactor protection features and a highly flexible and scalable plant design. A series of technical and economic evaluation studies have been conducted to assess the practicality of using a NuScale plant to provide electricity and heat to a variety of non-electrical applications, including water desalination, oil refining, and hydrogen production. The studies serve to highlight the unique design features of the NuScale plant for these applications and provide encouraging conclusions regarding the technical and economic viability of extending clean nuclear energy to a broad range of non-electrical energy consumers. (author)

EXTENDING NUCLEAR ENERGY TO NON-ELECTRICAL APPLICATIONS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

R. Boardman; M. McKellar; D. Ingersoll; Z. Houghton; , R. Bromm; C. Desportes

2014-09-01

Electricity represents less than half of all energy consumed in the United States and globally. Although a few commercial nuclear power plants world-wide provide energy to non-electrical applications such as district heating and water desalination, nuclear energy has been largely relegated to base-load electricity production. A new generation of smaller-sized nuclear power plants offers significant promise for extending nuclear energy to many non-electrical applications. The NuScale small modular reactor design is especially well suited for these non-traditional customers due to its small unit size, very robust reactor protection features and a highly flexible and scalable plant design. A series of technical and economic evaluation studies have been conducted to assess the practicality of using a NuScale plant to provide electricity and heat to a variety of non-electrical applications, including water desalination, oil refining, and hydrogen production. The studies serve to highlight the unique design features of the NuScale plant for these applications and provide encouraging conclusions regarding the technical and economic viability of extending clean nuclear energy to a broad range of non-electrical energy consumers.

Electricity storage using a thermal storage scheme

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

White, Alexander, E-mail: ajw36@cam.ac.uk [Hopkinson Laboratory, Cambridge University Engineering Department, Trumpington Street, Cambridge. CB2 1PZ (United Kingdom)

2015-01-22

The increasing use of renewable energy technologies for electricity generation, many of which have an unpredictably intermittent nature, will inevitably lead to a greater demand for large-scale electricity storage schemes. For example, the expanding fraction of electricity produced by wind turbines will require either backup or storage capacity to cover extended periods of wind lull. This paper describes a recently proposed storage scheme, referred to here as Pumped Thermal Storage (PTS), and which is based on “sensible heat” storage in large thermal reservoirs. During the charging phase, the system effectively operates as a high temperature-ratio heat pump, extracting heat from a cold reservoir and delivering heat to a hot one. In the discharge phase the processes are reversed and it operates as a heat engine. The round-trip efficiency is limited only by process irreversibilities (as opposed to Second Law limitations on the coefficient of performance and the thermal efficiency of the heat pump and heat engine respectively). PTS is currently being developed in both France and England. In both cases, the schemes operate on the Joule-Brayton (gas turbine) cycle, using argon as the working fluid. However, the French scheme proposes the use of turbomachinery for compression and expansion, whereas for that being developed in England reciprocating devices are proposed. The current paper focuses on the impact of the various process irreversibilities on the thermodynamic round-trip efficiency of the scheme. Consideration is given to compression and expansion losses and pressure losses (in pipe-work, valves and thermal reservoirs); heat transfer related irreversibility in the thermal reservoirs is discussed but not included in the analysis. Results are presented demonstrating how the various loss parameters and operating conditions influence the overall performance.

Thermal, Electrical and Mechanical Response to a Quench in Nb3Sn Superconducting Coils

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ferracin, F.; Caspi, S.; Chiesa, L.; Gourlay, S.A.; Hafalia, R.R.; Imbasciati, L.; Lietzke, A.F.; Sabbi, G.; Scanlan, R.M.

2003-01-01

During a quench, significant temperatures can arise as a magnet's stored energy is dissipated in the normal zone. Temperature gradients during this process give rise to localized strains within the coil. Reactive forces in the magnet structure balance the electromagnetic and thermal forces and maintain on equilibrium. In this paper we present a complete 3D finite element analysis of a racetrack coil. Specifically, the analysis focuses on thermal, electrical and mechanical conditions in a 10 T Nb 3 Sn coil built and tested as part of LBNL's Subscale Magnet Program. The study attempts to simulate time history of the temperature and voltage rise during quench propagation. The transient thermal stress after the quench is then evaluated and discussed

Feasibility of Colliding-beam fast-fission reactor via 238U80++238 U80+ --> 4 FF + 5n + 430 MeV beam with suppressed plutonium and direct conversion of fission fragment (FF) energy into electricity and/or Rocket propellant with high specific impulse

Science.gov (United States)

Maglich, Bogdan; Hester, Tim; Calsec Collaboration

2015-10-01

Uranium-uranium colliding beam experiment1, used fully ionized 238U92+ at energy 100GeV --> accelerated through 3 MV accelerator, will collide beam 240 MeV --> 4 FF + 5n + 430 MeV. Using a simple model1 fission σf ~ 100 b. Suppression of Pu by a factor of 106 will be achieved because NO thermal neutron fission can take place; only fast, 1-3 MeV, where σabs is negligible. Direct conversion of 95% of 430 MeV produced is carried by electrically charged FFs which are magnetically funneled for direct conversion of energy of FFs via electrostatic decelerators4,11. 90% of 930 MeV is electrically recoverable. Depending on the assumptions, we project electric _ power density production of 20 to 200 MWe m-3, equivalent to Thermal 1.3 - 13 GWthm-3. If one-half of unburned U is used for propulsion while rest powers system, heavy FF ion mass provides specific impulse Isp = 106 sec., 103 times higher than current rocket engines.

Probe branes thermalization in external electric and magnetic fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ali-Akbari, M.; Ebrahim, H.; Rezaei, Z.

2014-01-01

We study thermalization on rotating probe branes in AdS 5 ×S 5 background in the presence of constant external electric and magnetic fields. In the AdS/CFT framework this corresponds to thermalization in the flavour sector in field theory. The horizon appears on the worldvolume of the probe brane due to its rotation in one of the sphere directions. For both electric and magnetic fields the behaviour of the temperature is independent of the probe brane dimension. We also study the open string metric and the fluctuations of the probe brane in such a set-up. We show that the temperatures obtained from open string metric and observed by the fluctuations are larger than the one calculated from the induced metric

Metal hydrides based high energy density thermal battery

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fang, Zhigang Zak, E-mail: zak.fang@utah.edu [Department of Metallurgical Engineering, The University of Utah, 135 South 1460 East, Room 412, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0114 (United States); Zhou, Chengshang; Fan, Peng [Department of Metallurgical Engineering, The University of Utah, 135 South 1460 East, Room 412, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0114 (United States); Udell, Kent S. [Department of Metallurgical Engineering, The University of Utah, 50 S. Central Campus Dr., Room 2110, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0114 (United States); Bowman, Robert C. [Department of Metallurgical Engineering, The University of Utah, 135 South 1460 East, Room 412, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0114 (United States); Vajo, John J.; Purewal, Justin J. [HRL Laboratories, LLC, 3011 Malibu Canyon Road, Malibu, CA 90265 (United States); Kekelia, Bidzina [Department of Metallurgical Engineering, The University of Utah, 50 S. Central Campus Dr., Room 2110, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0114 (United States)

2015-10-05

Highlights: • The principle of the thermal battery using advanced metal hydrides was demonstrated. • The thermal battery used MgH{sub 2} and TiMnV as a working pair. • High energy density can be achieved by the use of MgH{sub 2} to store thermal energy. - Abstract: A concept of thermal battery based on advanced metal hydrides was studied for heating and cooling of cabins in electric vehicles. The system utilized a pair of thermodynamically matched metal hydrides as energy storage media. The pair of hydrides that was identified and developed was: (1) catalyzed MgH{sub 2} as the high temperature hydride material, due to its high energy density and enhanced kinetics; and (2) TiV{sub 0.62}Mn{sub 1.5} alloy as the matching low temperature hydride. Further, a proof-of-concept prototype was built and tested, demonstrating the potential of the system as HVAC for transportation vehicles.

Lightning Strike Ablation Damage Influence Factors Analysis of Carbon Fiber/Epoxy Composite Based on Coupled Electrical-Thermal Simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Yin, J. J.; Chang, F.; Li, S. L.; Yao, X. L.; Sun, J. R.; Xiao, Y.

2017-10-01

According to the mathematical analysis model constructed on the basis of energy-balance relationship in lightning strike, and accompany with the simplified calculation strategy of composite resin pyrolysis degree dependent electrical conductivity, an effective three dimensional thermal-electrical coupling analysis finite element model of composite laminate suffered from lightning current was established based on ABAQUS, to elucidate the effects of lighting current waveform parameters and thermal/electrical properties of composite laminate on the extent of ablation damage. Simulated predictions agree well with the composite lightning strike directed effect experimental data, illustrating the potential accuracy of the constructed model. The analytical results revealed that extent of composite lightning strike ablation damage can be characterized by action integral validly, there exist remarkable power function relationships between action integral and visual damage area, projected damage area, maximum damage depth and damage volume of ablation damage, and enhancing the electrical conductivity and specific heat of composite, ablation damage will be descended obviously, power function relationships also exist between electrical conductivity, specific heat and ablation damage, however, the impact of thermal conductivity on the extent of ablation damage is not notable. The conclusions obtained provide some guidance for composite anti-lightning strike structure-function integration design.

77 FR 31342 - Application To Export Electric Energy; Emera Energy Services Subsidiaries

Science.gov (United States)

2012-05-25

...] Application To Export Electric Energy; Emera Energy Services Subsidiaries AGENCY: Office of Electricity... EA-325, authorizing the Emera Subsidiaries to transmit electric energy from the United States to... date listed above. Comments on the Emera applications to export electric energy to Canada should be...

Parametric studies and optimisation of pumped thermal electricity storage

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McTigue, Joshua D.; White, Alexander J.; Markides, Christos N.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • PTES is modelled by cycle analysis and a Schumann-style model of the thermal stores. • Optimised trade-off surfaces show a flat efficiency vs. energy density profile. • Overall roundtrip efficiencies of around 70% are not inconceivable. - Abstract: Several of the emerging technologies for electricity storage are based on some form of thermal energy storage (TES). Examples include liquid air energy storage, pumped heat energy storage and, at least in part, advanced adiabatic compressed air energy storage. Compared to other large-scale storage methods, TES benefits from relatively high energy densities, which should translate into a low cost per MW h of storage capacity and a small installation footprint. TES is also free from the geographic constraints that apply to hydro storage schemes. TES concepts for electricity storage rely on either a heat pump or refrigeration cycle during the charging phase to create a hot or a cold storage space (the thermal stores), or in some cases both. During discharge, the thermal stores are depleted by reversing the cycle such that it acts as a heat engine. The present paper is concerned with a form of TES that has both hot and cold packed-bed thermal stores, and for which the heat pump and heat engine are based on a reciprocating Joule cycle, with argon as the working fluid. A thermodynamic analysis is presented based on traditional cycle calculations coupled with a Schumann-style model of the packed beds. Particular attention is paid to the various loss-generating mechanisms and their effect on roundtrip efficiency and storage density. A parametric study is first presented that examines the sensitivity of results to assumed values of the various loss factors and demonstrates the rather complex influence of the numerous design variables. Results of an optimisation study are then given in the form of trade-off surfaces for roundtrip efficiency, energy density and power density. The optimised designs show a

Foreign direct investments (FDI) in energy and electricity projects in the economies in transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brendow, K.

1996-01-01

Registered foreign direct investments (or equity finance) in energy and electricity projects in central and eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) presently stand at about US$ 3 billion (flows) and US$ 5.5 billion (stock). This is insignificant compared with world FDI and disappointing compared with expectations and business opportunities. In addition, energy FDI is concentrated in oil and gas exploration/extraction, primarily in Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. FDI opportunities in electricity generation, transmission and distribution while being explored (see list), have not been implemented: legislation was either restrictive as regards foreign participation, or not yet finalized, or not yet enacted. The major issue at present appears to be the extent of privatisation of this politically and socially sensitive industry. 1995 will see progress in Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. Related FDI would, however, still be modest. A significant breakthrough depends on political stability, economic recovery and progress in privatisation. (author)

Generation and Use of Thermal Energy in the Industrial Sector and Opportunities to Reduce its Carbon Emissions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McMillan, Colin; Boardman, Richard; McKellar, Michael; Sabharwall, Piyush; Ruth, Mark; Bragg-Sitton, Shannon

2016-01-01

focused on tightly coupled N-R HESs. Previously, INL analyzed the dynamic performance of two hypothetical N-R HESs and NREL analyzed the optimal economic configurations and operation of the same two N-R HESs. The first of those two is a Texas-synthetic gasoline scenario that includes four subsystems: a nuclear reactor, thermal power cycle, wind power plant, and synthetic gasoline production technology. The second hypothetical N-R HES is an Arizona-desalination scenario with four subsystems: a nuclear reactor, thermal power cycle, PV, and a desalination plant. INL analyzed the technical performance of the same two N-R HESs in another report. In another report NREL used the Texas-synthetic gasoline scenario provides the basis; however, the industrial process was removed. Instead, that N-R HES sells heat directly to an industrial customer. Subsystems that convert electricity to heat were also included. Future analyses are planned for other N-R HES options including one where hydrogen is produced within an N-R HES. This report quantifies greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the industrial sector and identifies opportunities for non-GHG-emitting thermal energy sources, such as N-R HESs, to replace the most significant GHG-emitting U.S. industries based on targeted, process-level analysis of industrial heat requirements.

Generation and Use of Thermal Energy in the Industrial Sector and Opportunities to Reduce its Carbon Emissions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McMillan, Colin [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Boardman, Richard [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); McKellar, Michael [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Sabharwall, Piyush [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Ruth, Mark [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Bragg-Sitton, Shannon [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

2016-09-01

focused on tightly coupled N-R HESs. Previously, INL analyzed the dynamic performance of two hypothetical N-R HESs and NREL analyzed the optimal economic configurations and operation of the same two N-R HESs. The first of those two is a Texas-synthetic gasoline scenario that includes four subsystems: a nuclear reactor, thermal power cycle, wind power plant, and synthetic gasoline production technology. The second hypothetical N-R HES is an Arizona-desalination scenario with four subsystems: a nuclear reactor, thermal power cycle, PV, and a desalination plant. INL analyzed the technical performance of the same two N-R HESs in another report. In another report NREL used the Texas-synthetic gasoline scenario provides the basis; however, the industrial process was removed. Instead, that N-R HES sells heat directly to an industrial customer. Subsystems that convert electricity to heat were also included. Future analyses are planned for other N-R HES options including one where hydrogen is produced within an N-R HES. This report quantifies greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the industrial sector and identifies opportunities for non-GHG-emitting thermal energy sources, such as N-R HESs, to replace the most significant GHG-emitting U.S. industries based on targeted, process-level analysis of industrial heat requirements.

Electrical appliance energy consumption control methods and electrical energy consumption systems

Science.gov (United States)

Donnelly, Matthew K [Kennewick, WA; Chassin, David P [Pasco, WA; Dagle, Jeffery E [Richland, WA; Kintner-Meyer, Michael [Richland, WA; Winiarski, David W [Kennewick, WA; Pratt, Robert G [Kennewick, WA; Boberly-Bartis, Anne Marie [Alexandria, VA

2006-03-07

Electrical appliance energy consumption control methods and electrical energy consumption systems are described. In one aspect, an electrical appliance energy consumption control method includes providing an electrical appliance coupled with a power distribution system, receiving electrical energy within the appliance from the power distribution system, consuming the received electrical energy using a plurality of loads of the appliance, monitoring electrical energy of the power distribution system, and adjusting an amount of consumption of the received electrical energy via one of the loads of the appliance from an initial level of consumption to an other level of consumption different than the initial level of consumption responsive to the monitoring.

Electrical appliance energy consumption control methods and electrical energy consumption systems

Science.gov (United States)

Donnelly, Matthew K [Kennewick, WA; Chassin, David P [Pasco, WA; Dagle, Jeffery E [Richland, WA; Kintner-Meyer, Michael [Richland, WA; Winiarski, David W [Kennewick, WA; Pratt, Robert G [Kennewick, WA; Boberly-Bartis, Anne Marie [Alexandria, VA

2008-09-02

Electrical appliance energy consumption control methods and electrical energy consumption systems are described. In one aspect, an electrical appliance energy consumption control method includes providing an electrical appliance coupled with a power distribution system, receiving electrical energy within the appliance from the power distribution system, consuming the received electrical energy using a plurality of loads of the appliance, monitoring electrical energy of the power distribution system, and adjusting an amount of consumption of the received electrical energy via one of the loads of the appliance from an initial level of consumption to an other level of consumption different than the initial level of consumption responsive to the monitoring.

Thermal and Arc Flash Analysis of Electric Motor Drives in Distribution Networks

OpenAIRE

Nikolovski, Srete; Mlakić, Dragan; Alibašić, Emir

2017-01-01

The paper presents thermal analysis and arc flash analysis taking care of protection relays coordination settings for electric motor drives connected to the electrical network. Power flow analysis is performed to check if there are any voltage and loading violation conditions in the system. Fault analysis is performed to check the short circuit values and compute arc flash energy dissipated at industrial busbars to eliminate damage to electrical equipment and electrical shocks and hazard to p...

Mechatronics design and experimental verification of an electric-vehicle-based hybrid thermal management system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yi-Hsuan Hung

2016-02-01

Full Text Available In this study, an electric-vehicle-based thermal management system was designed for dual energy sources. An experimental platform developed in a previous study was modified. Regarding the mechanical components, a heat exchanger with a radiator, proportional valve, coolant pipes, and coolant pump was appropriately integrated. Regarding the electric components, two heaters emulating waste heat were controlled using two programmable power supply machines. A rapid-prototyping controller with two temperature inputs and three outputs was designed. Rule-based control strategies were coded to maintain optimal temperatures for the emulated proton exchange membrane fuel cells and lithium batteries. To evaluate the heat power of dual energy sources, driving cycles, energy management control, and efficiency maps of energy sources were considered for deriving time-variant values. The main results are as follows: (a an advanced mechatronics platform was constructed; (b a driving cycle simulation was successfully conducted; and (c coolant temperatures reached their optimal operating ranges when the proportional valve, radiator, and coolant pump were sequentially controlled. The benefits of this novel electric-vehicle-based thermal management system are (a high-efficiency operation of energy sources, (b low occupied volume integrated with energy sources, and (c higher electric vehicle traveling mileage. This system will be integrated with real energy sources and a real electric vehicle in the future.

Electrical energy consumption control apparatuses and electrical energy consumption control methods

Science.gov (United States)

Hammerstrom, Donald J.

2012-09-04

Electrical energy consumption control apparatuses and electrical energy consumption control methods are described. According to one aspect, an electrical energy consumption control apparatus includes processing circuitry configured to receive a signal which is indicative of current of electrical energy which is consumed by a plurality of loads at a site, to compare the signal which is indicative of current of electrical energy which is consumed by the plurality of loads at the site with a desired substantially sinusoidal waveform of current of electrical energy which is received at the site from an electrical power system, and to use the comparison to control an amount of the electrical energy which is consumed by at least one of the loads of the site.

Thermal energy storage devices, systems, and thermal energy storage device monitoring methods

Science.gov (United States)

Tugurlan, Maria; Tuffner, Francis K; Chassin, David P.

2016-09-13

Thermal energy storage devices, systems, and thermal energy storage device monitoring methods are described. According to one aspect, a thermal energy storage device includes a reservoir configured to hold a thermal energy storage medium, a temperature control system configured to adjust a temperature of the thermal energy storage medium, and a state observation system configured to provide information regarding an energy state of the thermal energy storage device at a plurality of different moments in time.

Solar Spots - Activities to Introduce Solar Energy into the K-8 Curricula.

Science.gov (United States)

Longe, Karen M.; McClelland, Michael J.

Following an introduction to solar technology which reviews solar heating and cooling, passive solar systems (direct gain systems, thermal storage walls, sun spaces, roof ponds, and convection loops), active solar systems, solar electricity (photovoltaic and solar thermal conversion systems), wind energy, and biomass, activities to introduce solar…

A THERMAL-HYDRAULIC SYSTEM FOR THE CONVERSION AND THE STORAGE OF ENERGY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MITRAN Tudor

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The paper proposes the concept design of a thermal-hydraulic system that converts the thermal energy (from the geothermal water, from the cooling water of power equipment, from exhaust gasses, and so. in hydrostatic energy, that is stored in a hydraulic accumulator. The hydraulic energy can be converted into electrical energy when needed.

The supplying of primary energy to electric power stations up to 1985

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roux, J.P.

1975-01-01

After specifying the role of thermal power plants in supplying France with electric power, the report examines the impact on their activity of recent events affecting energy and, in the light of this analysis, shows how in the near future it is possible to plan their supplies of fossil fuels. In the face of some uncertainty still present in this field, the adaptability of the power plants to the many and uncertain constraints of the demand constitutes a favourable and important factor [fr

Layered thermal metamaterials for the directing and harvesting of conductive heat

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. R. Bandaru

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The utility of a metamaterial, assembled from two layers of nominally isotropic materials, for thermal energy re-orientation and harvesting is examined. A study of the underlying phenomena related to heat flux manipulation, exploiting the anisotropy of the thermal conductivity tensor, is a focus. The notion of the assembled metamaterial as an effective thermal medium forms the basis for many of these investigations and will be probed. An overarching aim is to implement in such thermal metamaterials, functionalities well known from light optics, such as reflection and refraction, which in turn may yield insights on efficient thermal lensing. Consequently, the harness and dissipation of heat, which are for example, of much importance in energy conservation and improving electrical device performance, may be accomplished. The possibilities of energy harvesting, through exploiting anisotropic thermopower in the metamaterials is also examined. The review concludes with a brief survey of the outstanding issues and insights needed for further progress.

75 FR 76962 - Application To Export Electric Energy; MAG Energy Solutions, Inc.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-10

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY [OE Docket No. EA-306-A] Application To Export Electric Energy; MAG Energy... electric energy from the United States to Canada pursuant to section 202(e) of the Federal Power Act (FPA... of Energy (DOE) issued Order No. EA-306, which authorized MAG E.S. to transmit electric energy from...

Thermal energy storage for the Stirling engine powered automobile

Science.gov (United States)

Morgan, D. T. (Editor)

1979-01-01

A thermal energy storage (TES) system developed for use with the Stirling engine as an automotive power system has gravimetric and volumetric storage densities which are competitive with electric battery storage systems, meets all operational requirements for a practical vehicle, and can be packaged in compact sized automobiles with minimum impact on passenger and freight volume. The TES/Stirling system is the only storage approach for direct use of combustion heat from fuel sources not suitable for direct transport and use on the vehicle. The particular concept described is also useful for a dual mode TES/liquid fuel system in which the TES (recharged from an external energy source) is used for short duration trips (approximately 10 miles or less) and liquid fuel carried on board the vehicle used for long duration trips. The dual mode approach offers the potential of 50 percent savings in the consumption of premium liquid fuels for automotive propulsion in the United States.

77 FR 50486 - Application To Export Electric Energy; TexMex Energy, LLC

Science.gov (United States)

2012-08-21

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY [OE Docket No. EA-294-B] Application To Export Electric Energy; TexMex Energy.... SUMMARY: TexMex Energy, LLC (TexMex) has applied to renew its authority to transmit electric energy from...Mex to transmit electric energy from the United States to Mexico as a power marketer for a five-year...

Electricity. The answer to sustainable energy needs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bulcke, J.

1996-01-01

When debating the rational use of energy, it very often happens that all attention is drawn to the reduction of the use of electricity. Limiting, even eliminating the application of electric heating is seen as a rational choice. On the other hand, industrial consumers are urged to invest in combined heat and power, even without considering a thorough analysis of energy usage. Mastering such an environment is today's challenge for the electricity producers and distributors. Considering the fact that, for a majority of customers, the cost of electricity is more important than the cost of other energy sources, products and services has been developed which, lead to lower bills and lower energy use. From a marketing point of view, this approach introduces electro-thermy to the consumer thereby securing the electricity company of durable sales and even increases in sales. The high efficiency of electrothermal applications secures a reduction in primary energy use. (author)

Economic and Environmental Considerations for Zero-emission Transport and Thermal Energy Generation on an Energy Autonomous Island

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fontina Petrakopoulou

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The high cost and environmental impact of fossil-fuel energy generation in remote regions can make renewable energy applications more competitive than business-as-usual scenarios. Furthermore, energy and transport are two of the main sectors that significantly contribute to global greenhouse gas emissions. This paper focuses on the generation of thermal energy and the transport sector of a fossil fuel-based energy independent island in Greece. We evaluate (1 technologies for fully renewable thermal energy generation using building-specific solar thermal systems and (2 the replacement of the vehicle fleet of the island with electric and hydrogen-fueled vehicles. The analysis, based on economic and environmental criteria, shows that although solar thermal decreases greenhouse gases by 83%, when compared to the current diesel-based situation, it only becomes economically attractive with subsidy scenarios equal to or higher than 50%. However, in the transport sector, the sum of fuel and maintenance costs of fuel-cell and electric vehicles is found to be 45% lower than that of the current fleet, due to their approximately seven times lower fuel cost. Lastly, it will take approximately six years of use of the new vehicles to balance out the emissions of their manufacturing phase.

75 FR 57912 - Application To Export Electric Energy; Rainbow Energy Marketing Corporation

Science.gov (United States)

2010-09-23

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY [OE Docket No. EA-375] Application To Export Electric Energy; Rainbow Energy... electric energy from the United States to Mexico pursuant to section 202(e) of the Federal Power Act. DATES... franchised service area. The electric energy that Rainbow proposes to export to Mexico would be surplus...

Electrical, thermal and abusive tests on lithium thionyl chloride cells

Science.gov (United States)

Frank, H. A.

1980-04-01

Electrical characterizations, thermal characterizations, and outer limits tests of lithium thionyl chloride cells are discussed. Graphs of energy density vs power density and heat rate vs time are presented along with results of forced reversal and high rate discharge tests.

75 FR 75994 - Application To Export Electric Energy; Sempra Energy Trading LLC

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-07

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY [OE Docket No. EA-191-D] Application To Export Electric Energy; Sempra Energy... application. SUMMARY: Sempra Energy Trading LLC (SET) has applied to renew its authority to transmit electric... transmit electric energy from the United States to Canada for a two- year term as a power marketer using...

Energy-Regenerative Braking Control of Electric Vehicles Using Three-Phase Brushless Direct-Current Motors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bo Long

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Regenerative braking provides an effective way of extending the driving range of battery powered electric vehicles (EVs. This paper analyzes the equivalent power circuit and operation principles of an EV using regenerative braking control technology. During the braking period, the switching sequence of the power converter is controlled to inverse the output torque of the three-phase brushless direct-current (DC motor, so that the braking energy can be returned to the battery. Compared with the presented methods, this technology can achieve several goals: energy recovery, electric braking, ultra-quiet braking and extending the driving range. Merits and drawbacks of different braking control strategy are further elaborated. State-space model of the EVs under energy-regenerative braking operation is established, considering that parameter variations are unavoidable due to temperature change, measured error, un-modeled dynamics, external disturbance and time-varying system parameters, a sliding mode robust controller (SMRC is designed and implemented. Phase current and DC-link voltage are selected as the state variables, respectively. The corresponding control law is also provided. The proposed control scheme is compared with a conventional proportional-integral (PI controller. A laboratory EV for experiment is setup to verify the proposed scheme. Experimental results show that the drive range of EVs can be improved about 17% using the proposed controller with energy-regeneration control.

Thermal burn and electrical injuries among electric utility workers, 1995-2004.

Science.gov (United States)

Fordyce, Tiffani A; Kelsh, Michael; Lu, Elizabeth T; Sahl, Jack D; Yager, Janice W

2007-03-01

This study describes the occurrence of work-related injuries from thermal-, electrical- and chemical-burns among electric utility workers. We describe injury trends by occupation, body part injured, age, sex, and circumstances surrounding the injury. This analysis includes all thermal, electric, and chemical injuries included in the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Occupational Health and Safety Database (OHSD). There were a total of 872 thermal burn and electric shock injuries representing 3.7% of all injuries, but accounting for nearly 13% of all medical claim costs, second only to the medical costs associated with sprain- and strain-related injuries (38% of all injuries). The majority of burns involved less than 1 day off of work. The head, hands, and other upper extremities were the body parts most frequently injured by burns or electric shocks. For this industry, electric-related burns accounted for the largest percentage of burn injuries, 399 injuries (45.8%), followed by thermal/heat burns, 345 injuries (39.6%), and chemical burns, 51 injuries (5.8%). These injuries also represented a disproportionate number of fatalities; of the 24 deaths recorded in the database, contact with electric current or with temperature extremes was the source of seven of the fatalities. High-risk occupations included welders, line workers, electricians, meter readers, mechanics, maintenance workers, and plant and equipment operators.

77 FR 15091 - Application To Export Electric Energy; DTE Energy Trading, Inc.

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-14

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY [OE Docket No. EA-211-C] Application To Export Electric Energy; DTE Energy... transmit electric energy from the United States to Canada pursuant to section 202(e) of the Federal Power... transmit electric energy from the United States to Canada as a power marketer for a two-year term using...

THERMAL AND DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF PINE WOOD IN THE TRANSVERSE DIRECTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hamiyet Şahin Kol

2009-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper, the thermal conductivity and dielectric parameters for pine [Pinus sylvestris (L.] woods were determined in transverse directions for moisture conditions from oven-dry to 22 percent at a room temperature of 22 to 24 °C. Results indicate that the behaviors of thermal conductivity and dielectric parameters with moisture content and structural directions were similar. In general, the properties increased within the range studied with increasing moisture content. The radial values were similar to tangential values for both thermal conductivity and dielectric properties. The data presented here should be useful in most design problems where pine wood is subjected to microwave electric fields and heat changes.

77 FR 20805 - Application to Export Electric Energy; PPL EnergyPlus, LLC

Science.gov (United States)

2012-04-06

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY [OE Docket No. EA-210-C] Application to Export Electric Energy; PPL Energy... electric energy from the United States to Canada pursuant to section 202(e) of the Federal Power Act (FPA... to transmit electric energy from the United States to Canada as a power marketer for a two-year term...

77 FR 50487 - Application To Export Electric Energy; RBC Energy Services LP

Science.gov (United States)

2012-08-21

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY [OE Docket No. EA-328-A] Application To Export Electric Energy; RBC Energy... electric energy from the United States to Canada pursuant to section 202(e) of the Federal Power Act (FPA... to transmit electric energy from the United States to Canada as a power marketer for a five-year term...

Influence of reflectance from flat aluminum concentrators on energy efficiency of PV/Thermal collector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kostic, Ljiljana T.; Pavlovic, Tomislav M.; Pavlovic, Zoran T.

2010-01-01

In this paper the results of the influence of reflectance from flat plate solar radiation concentrators made of Al sheet and Al foil on energy efficiency of PV/Thermal collector are presented. The total reflectance from concentrators made of Al sheet and Al foil is almost the same, but specular reflectance which is bigger in concentrators made of Al foil results in increase of solar radiation intensity concentration factor. With the increase of solar radiation intensity concentration factor, total daily thermal and electrical energy generated by PV/Thermal collector with concentrators increase. In this work also optimal position of solar radiation concentrators made of Al sheet and Al foil and appropriate thermal and electrical efficiency of PV/Thermal collector have been determined. Total energy generated by PV/Thermal collector with concentrators made of Al foil in optimal position is higher than total energy generated by PV/Thermal collector with concentrators made of Al sheet.

Tuning the Electrical and Thermal Conductivities of Thermoelectric Oxides through Impurity Doping

Science.gov (United States)

Torres Arango, Maria A.

Waste heat and thermal gradients available at power plants can be harvested to power wireless networks and sensors by using thermoelectric (TE) generators that directly transform temperature differentials into electrical power. Oxide materials are promising for TE applications in harsh industrial environments for waste heat recovery at high temperatures in air, because they are lightweight, cheaply produced, highly efficient, and stable at high temperatures in air. Ca3Co4O9(CCO) with layered structure is a promising p-type thermoelectric oxide with extrapolated ZT value of 0.87 in single crystal form [1]. However the ZT values for the polycrystalline ceramics remain low of ˜0.1-0.3. In this research, nanostructure engineering approaches including doping and addition of nanoinclusions were applied to the polycrystalline CCO ceramic to improve the energy conversion efficiency. Polycrystalline CCO samples with various Bi doping levels were prepared through the sol-gel chemical route synthesis of powders, pressing and sintering of the pellets. Microstructure features of Bi doped ceramic bulk samples such as porosity, development of crystal texture, grain boundary dislocations and segregation of Bi dopants at various grain boundaries are investigated from microns to atomic scale. The results of the present study show that the Bi-doping is affecting both the electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity simultaneously, and the optimum Bi doping level is strongly correlated with the microstructure and the processing conditions of the ceramic samples. At the optimum doping level and processing conditions of the ceramic samples, the Bi substitution of Ca results in the increase of the electrical conductivity, decrease of the thermal conductivity, and improvement of the crystal texture. The atomic resolution Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM) Z-contrast imaging and the chemistry analysis also reveal the Bi-segregation at grain boundaries of CCO

Microwavable thermal energy storage material

Science.gov (United States)

Salyer, I.O.

1998-09-08

A microwavable thermal energy storage material is provided which includes a mixture of a phase change material and silica, and a carbon black additive in the form of a conformable dry powder of phase change material/silica/carbon black, or solid pellets, films, fibers, moldings or strands of phase change material/high density polyethylene/ethylene vinyl acetate/silica/carbon black which allows the phase change material to be rapidly heated in a microwave oven. The carbon black additive, which is preferably an electrically conductive carbon black, may be added in low concentrations of from 0.5 to 15% by weight, and may be used to tailor the heating times of the phase change material as desired. The microwavable thermal energy storage material can be used in food serving applications such as tableware items or pizza warmers, and in medical wraps and garments. 3 figs.

Computer modeling of electrical and thermal performance during bipolar pulsed radiofrequency for pain relief

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pérez, Juan J.; Pérez-Cajaraville, Juan J.; Muñoz, Víctor; Berjano, Enrique

2014-01-01

Purpose: Pulsed RF (PRF) is a nonablative technique for treating neuropathic pain. Bipolar PRF application is currently aimed at creating a “strip lesion” to connect the electrode tips; however, the electrical and thermal performance during bipolar PRF is currently unknown. The objective of this paper was to study the temperature and electric field distributions during bipolar PRF. Methods: The authors developed computer models to study temperature and electric field distributions during bipolar PRF and to assess the possible ablative thermal effect caused by the accumulated temperature spikes, along with any possible electroporation effects caused by the electrical field. The authors also modeled the bipolar ablative mode, known as bipolar Continuous Radiofrequency (CRF), in order to compare both techniques. Results: There were important differences between CRF and PRF in terms of electrical and thermal performance. In bipolar CRF: (1) the initial temperature of the tissue impacts on temperature progress and hence on the thermal lesion dimension; and (2) at 37 °C, 6-min of bipolar CRF creates a strip thermal lesion between the electrodes when these are separated by a distance of up to 20 mm. In bipolar PRF: (1) an interelectrode distance shorter than 5 mm produces thermal damage (i.e., ablative effect) in the intervening tissue after 6 min of bipolar RF; and (2) the possible electroporation effect (electric fields higher than 150 kV m −1 ) would be exclusively circumscribed to a very small zone of tissue around the electrode tip. Conclusions: The results suggest that (1) the clinical parameters considered to be suitable for bipolar CRF should not necessarily be considered valid for bipolar PRF, and vice versa; and (2) the ablative effect of the CRF mode is mainly due to its much greater level of delivered energy than is the case in PRF, and therefore at same applied energy levels, CRF, and PRF are expected to result in same outcomes in terms of thermal

Computer modeling of electrical and thermal performance during bipolar pulsed radiofrequency for pain relief

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pérez, Juan J. [Instituto de Investigación Interuniversitario en Bioingeniería y Tecnología Orientada al Ser Humano, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia 46022 (Spain); Pérez-Cajaraville, Juan J. [Pain Unit and Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, University of Navarra, Pamplona 31008 (Spain); Muñoz, Víctor [Neurotherm Spain, Barcelona 08303 (Spain); Berjano, Enrique, E-mail: eberjano@eln.upv.es [Biomedical Synergy, Electronic Engineering Department, Universitat Politècnica de València 46022 (Spain)

2014-07-15

Purpose: Pulsed RF (PRF) is a nonablative technique for treating neuropathic pain. Bipolar PRF application is currently aimed at creating a “strip lesion” to connect the electrode tips; however, the electrical and thermal performance during bipolar PRF is currently unknown. The objective of this paper was to study the temperature and electric field distributions during bipolar PRF. Methods: The authors developed computer models to study temperature and electric field distributions during bipolar PRF and to assess the possible ablative thermal effect caused by the accumulated temperature spikes, along with any possible electroporation effects caused by the electrical field. The authors also modeled the bipolar ablative mode, known as bipolar Continuous Radiofrequency (CRF), in order to compare both techniques. Results: There were important differences between CRF and PRF in terms of electrical and thermal performance. In bipolar CRF: (1) the initial temperature of the tissue impacts on temperature progress and hence on the thermal lesion dimension; and (2) at 37 °C, 6-min of bipolar CRF creates a strip thermal lesion between the electrodes when these are separated by a distance of up to 20 mm. In bipolar PRF: (1) an interelectrode distance shorter than 5 mm produces thermal damage (i.e., ablative effect) in the intervening tissue after 6 min of bipolar RF; and (2) the possible electroporation effect (electric fields higher than 150 kV m{sup −1}) would be exclusively circumscribed to a very small zone of tissue around the electrode tip. Conclusions: The results suggest that (1) the clinical parameters considered to be suitable for bipolar CRF should not necessarily be considered valid for bipolar PRF, and vice versa; and (2) the ablative effect of the CRF mode is mainly due to its much greater level of delivered energy than is the case in PRF, and therefore at same applied energy levels, CRF, and PRF are expected to result in same outcomes in terms of

Computer modeling of electrical and thermal performance during bipolar pulsed radiofrequency for pain relief.

Science.gov (United States)

Pérez, Juan J; Pérez-Cajaraville, Juan J; Muñoz, Víctor; Berjano, Enrique

2014-07-01

Pulsed RF (PRF) is a nonablative technique for treating neuropathic pain. Bipolar PRF application is currently aimed at creating a "strip lesion" to connect the electrode tips; however, the electrical and thermal performance during bipolar PRF is currently unknown. The objective of this paper was to study the temperature and electric field distributions during bipolar PRF. The authors developed computer models to study temperature and electric field distributions during bipolar PRF and to assess the possible ablative thermal effect caused by the accumulated temperature spikes, along with any possible electroporation effects caused by the electrical field. The authors also modeled the bipolar ablative mode, known as bipolar Continuous Radiofrequency (CRF), in order to compare both techniques. There were important differences between CRF and PRF in terms of electrical and thermal performance. In bipolar CRF: (1) the initial temperature of the tissue impacts on temperature progress and hence on the thermal lesion dimension; and (2) at 37 °C, 6-min of bipolar CRF creates a strip thermal lesion between the electrodes when these are separated by a distance of up to 20 mm. In bipolar PRF: (1) an interelectrode distance shorter than 5 mm produces thermal damage (i.e., ablative effect) in the intervening tissue after 6 min of bipolar RF; and (2) the possible electroporation effect (electric fields higher than 150 kV m(-1)) would be exclusively circumscribed to a very small zone of tissue around the electrode tip. The results suggest that (1) the clinical parameters considered to be suitable for bipolar CRF should not necessarily be considered valid for bipolar PRF, and vice versa; and (2) the ablative effect of the CRF mode is mainly due to its much greater level of delivered energy than is the case in PRF, and therefore at same applied energy levels, CRF, and PRF are expected to result in same outcomes in terms of thermal damage zone dimension.

76 FR 30325 - Application to Export Electric Energy; E-T Global Energy, LLC

Science.gov (United States)

2011-05-25

... Export Electric Energy; E-T Global Energy, LLC AGENCY: Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy... authority to transmit electric energy from the United States to Mexico pursuant to section 202(e) of the... an application from E-T Global for authority to transmit electric energy from the United States to...

Solar cooling - comparative study between thermal and electrical use in industrial buildings

Science.gov (United States)

Badea, N.; Badea, G. V.; Epureanu, A.; Frumuşanu, G.

2016-08-01

The increase in the share of renewable energy sources together with the emphasis on the need for energy security bring to a spotlight the field of trigeneration autonomous microsystems, as a solution to cover the energy consumptions, not only for isolated industrial buildings, but also for industrial buildings located in urban areas. The use of solar energy for cooling has been taken into account to offer a cooling comfort in the building. Cooling and air- conditioned production are current applications promoting the use of solar energy technologies. Solar cooling systems can be classified, depending on the used energy, in electrical systems using mechanical compression chillers and systems using thermal compression by absorption or adsorption. This comparative study presents the main strengths and weaknesses of solar cooling obtained: i) through the transformation of heat resulted from thermal solar panels combined with adsorption chillers, and ii) through the multiple conversion of electricity - photovoltaic panels - battery - inverter - combined with mechanical compression chillers. Both solutions are analyzed from the standpoints of energy efficiency, dynamic performances (demand response), and costs sizes. At the end of the paper, experimental results obtained in the climatic condition of Galafi city, Romania, are presented.

Electro-thermal analysis of Lithium Iron Phosphate battery for electric vehicles

Science.gov (United States)

Saw, L. H.; Somasundaram, K.; Ye, Y.; Tay, A. A. O.

2014-03-01

Lithium ion batteries offer an attractive solution for powering electric vehicles due to their relatively high specific energy and specific power, however, the temperature of the batteries greatly affects their performance as well as cycle life. In this work, an empirical equation characterizing the battery's electrical behavior is coupled with a lumped thermal model to analyze the electrical and thermal behavior of the 18650 Lithium Iron Phosphate cell. Under constant current discharging mode, the cell temperature increases with increasing charge/discharge rates. The dynamic behavior of the battery is also analyzed under a Simplified Federal Urban Driving Schedule and it is found that heat generated from the battery during this cycle is negligible. Simulation results are validated with experimental data. The validated single cell model is then extended to study the dynamic behavior of an electric vehicle battery pack. The modeling results predict that more heat is generated on an aggressive US06 driving cycle as compared to UDDS and HWFET cycle. An extensive thermal management system is needed for the electric vehicle battery pack especially during aggressive driving conditions to ensure that the cells are maintained within the desirable operating limits and temperature uniformity is achieved between the cells.

75 FR 38514 - Application to Export Electric Energy; Brookfield Energy Marketing LP

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-02

... Energy Marketing LP AGENCY: Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, DOE. ACTION: Notice of application. SUMMARY: Brookfield Energy Marketing LP (BEM LP) has applied for authority to transmit electric... surplus energy purchased from electric utilities, Federal power marketing agencies and other entities...

Water-energy nexus: Impact on electrical energy conversion and mitigation by smart water resources management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gjorgiev, Blaže; Sansavini, Giovanni

2017-01-01

Highlights: • The issues to energy conversion stemming from the water-energy nexus are investigated. • The objective is to minimize power curtailments caused by critical river water conditions. • A water-energy nexus model for smart management of water resources is developed. • Systemic risks to energy conversion stem from critical temperature and flow regimes. • Full coordination of the hydrologically-linked units provides the most effective strategy. - Abstract: The water-energy nexus refers to the water used to generate electricity and to the electric energy used to collect, clean, move, store, and dispose of water. Water is used in all stages of electric energy conversion making power systems vulnerable to water scarcity and warming. In particular, a water flow decrease and temperature increase in rivers can significantly limit the generation of electricity. This paper investigates the issues to energy conversion stemming from the water-energy nexus and mitigates them by developing a model for the smart utilization of water resources. The objective is to minimize power curtailments caused by a river water flow decrease and a temperature increase. The developed water-energy nexus model integrates the operational characteristics of hydro power plants, the environmental conditions, the river water temperature prediction and thermal load release in river bodies. The application to a hydraulic cascade of hydro and a thermal power plants under drought conditions shows that smart water management entails a significant reduction of power curtailments. In general, the full coordination of the power outputs of the units affected by the hydrological link provides the most effective mitigations of the potential issues stemming from the water-energy nexus. Finally, critical temperature and flow regimes are identified which severely impact the energy conversion and may cause systemic risks in case the generators in one region must be simultaneously curtailed.

Heat-electrical regeneration way to intensive energy saving in an electric arc furnaces

Science.gov (United States)

Kartavtcev, S.; Matveev, S.; Neshporenko, E.

2018-03-01

Energy saving in steel production is of great significance for its large economical scale of 1500 mil t/year and high-energy consumption. Steady trend of last years is an increase of steel production in electric arc furnaces (EAF) with a very high consumption of electricity up to 750 kWh/ton. The intention to reduce so much energy consumption they can reach by many ways. One of such way is a transforming heat energy of liquid steel to electricity and destine it to steel electric arc process. Under certain conditions, it may lead to “zero” consumption of electric power in the process. The development of these conditions leads to the formation of energy-efficient heat schemes, with a minimum electricity consumption from the external network.

The European directive on renewable electricity: conflicts and compromises

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rowlands, I.H.

2005-01-01

As part of its efforts to increase the use of renewable energy in Europe, a Directive regarding renewable electricity was agreed by the European Union in 2001. The purpose of this article is to examine this Directive, examining how the discussions surrounding its content unfolded. The investigation focuses upon three contentious issues that were debated during the Directive's development: the definition of 'renewable', the national targets for renewable electricity (their levels, as well as whether they should be 'binding' or 'indicative') and the questions associated with harmonisation (whether one Union-wide 'support scheme' for renewable electricity should be in place, and, if so, what it should be). During the 5 years that the Directive was negotiated, many intra-Union conflicts were eventually resolved, at least temporarily, by compromises. Nevertheless, some difficult decisions regarding the promotion of renewable electricity in the European Union still have to be taken

Detection and analysis of thermal energy loss in the Atucha I nuclear power plant residual heat removal system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berra, Sandra; Guala, Mariana I.; Khon, Hector; Lorenzo, Andrea T.; Raffo Calderon, Maria C.; Urrutia, Guillermo

1999-01-01

It is presented the methodology used to detect and to measure energy losses which are existent in the Atucha I nuclear power plant. They were not directly detected, since the magnitude of those was below of the instrumentation precision which is used to measure the electric and thermal power in the plant. To achieve this work temperature special measurements were made. In this way it was possible to quantify the energy losses after operational long periods. (author)

75 FR 12737 - Application To Export Electric Energy; Integrys Energy Services, Inc.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-17

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY [OE Docket No. EA-301-A] Application To Export Electric Energy; Integrys... authority to transmit electric energy from the United States to Canada pursuant to section 202(e) of the.... 824a(e)). On May 24, 2005, DOE issued Order No. EA-301 authorizing Integrys Energy to transmit electric...

77 FR 23238 - Application To Export Electric Energy; Citigroup Energy Canada ULC

Science.gov (United States)

2012-04-18

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY [OE Docket No. EA-326-A] Application To Export Electric Energy; Citigroup... electric energy from the United States to Canada pursuant to section 202(e) of the Federal Power Act (FPA... electric energy from the United States to Canada as a power marketer for a five-year term. The current...

Solar energy for electricity and fuels.

Science.gov (United States)

Inganäs, Olle; Sundström, Villy

2016-01-01

Solar energy conversion into electricity by photovoltaic modules is now a mature technology. We discuss the need for materials and device developments using conventional silicon and other materials, pointing to the need to use scalable materials and to reduce the energy payback time. Storage of solar energy can be achieved using the energy of light to produce a fuel. We discuss how this can be achieved in a direct process mimicking the photosynthetic processes, using synthetic organic, inorganic, or hybrid materials for light collection and catalysis. We also briefly discuss challenges and needs for large-scale implementation of direct solar fuel technologies.

Study of light-absorbing crystal birefringence and electrical modulation mechanisms for coupled thermal-optical effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Ji; He, Zhihong; Ma, Yu; Dong, Shikui

2014-09-20

This paper discusses Gaussian laser transmission in double-refraction crystal whose incident light wavelength is within its absorption wave band. Two scenarios for coupled radiation and heat conduction are considered: one is provided with an applied external electric field, the other is not. A circular heat source with a Gaussian energy distribution is introduced to present the crystal's light-absorption process. The electromagnetic field frequency domain analysis equation and energy equation are solved to simulate the phenomenon by using the finite element method. It focuses on the influence of different values such as wavelength, incident light intensity, heat transfer coefficient, ambient temperature, crystal thickness, and applied electric field strength. The results show that the refraction index of polarized light increases with the increase of crystal temperature. It decreases as the strength of the applied electric field increases if it is positive. The mechanism of electrical modulation for the thermo-optical effect is used to keep the polarized light's index of refraction constant in our simulation. The quantitative relation between thermal boundary condition and strength of applied electric field during electrical modulation is determined. Numerical results indicate a possible approach to removing adverse thermal effects such as depolarization and wavefront distortion, which are caused by thermal deposition during linear laser absorption.

Electrohydrodynamics: a high-voltage direct energy conversion process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brun, S.

1967-04-01

This analysis consists of a theoretical and practical study of a high-tension electrical power generator based on the Van de Graaff generator principle, the main difference being that the charges produced are transported by a gas in motion and not by a belt. The electrical and thermal properties of such a generator are studied, as well as the difficult problem of the production of the ionised particles used in the conversion. A certain number of results already published on this process for converting kinetic energy into electrical energy is given, as well as some possible applications in the field of space technology. (author) [fr

ENERGY EFFICIENCY OF ELECTRIC HEATING OF REACTORS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF VARNISHES AND PAINTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tovajniansky L.L.

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The drawbacks of the traditional design of the heaters, which make known imperfections in manufacturing processes, realized with the use of electric heating. This determines the need for a radically new design of the heating devices. Created by high-temperature ceramics, characterized by abnormally high thermal stability and clarified the parameters that allow a certain degree change its thermal conductivity. On this basis the contact type ceramic heaters that provide thermal flow direction using different materials in the body of the heater - of high thermal conductivity, the surface facing the heat transfer and low which differs opposite sides of the heater are designed to eliminate the dissipation of heat into the surrounding space. This made it possible to equip the modern production paint industry energy efficient heating equipment with explosion and fire heating system reactors.

Thermal and electrical conductivities of Cd-Zn alloys

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saatci, B; Ari, M; Guenduez, M; Meydaneri, F; Bozoklu, M; Durmus, S

2006-01-01

The composition and temperature dependences of the thermal and electrical conductivities of three different Cd-Zn alloys have been investigated in the temperature range of 300-650 K. Thermal conductivities of the Cd-Zn alloys have been determined by using the radial heat flow method. It has been found that the thermal conductivity decreases slightly with increasing temperature and the data of thermal conductivity are shifting together to the higher values with increasing Cd composition. In addition, the electrical measurements were determined by using a standard DC four-point probe technique. The resistivity increases linearly and the electrical conductivity decreases exponentially with increasing temperature. The resistivity and electrical conductivity are independent of composition of Cd and Zn. Also, the temperature coefficient of Cd-Zn alloys has been determined, which is independent of composition of Cd and Zn. Finally, Lorenz number has been calculated using the thermal and electrical conductivity values at 373 and 533 K. The results satisfy the Wiedemann-Franz (WF) relation at T 373 K), the WF relation could not hold and the phonon component contribution of thermal conductivity dominates the thermal conduction

Geothermal energy

OpenAIRE

Manzella A.

2017-01-01

Geothermal technologies use renewable energy resources to generate electricity and direct use of heat while producing very low levels of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. Geothermal energy is the thermal energy stored in the underground, including any contained fluid, which is available for extraction and conversion into energy products. Electricity generation, which nowadays produces 73.7 TWh (12.7 GW of capacity) worldwide, usually requires geothermal resources temperatures of over 100 °C. Fo...

Thermal modelling of Li-ion polymer battery for electric vehicle drive cycles

Science.gov (United States)

Chacko, Salvio; Chung, Yongmann M.

2012-09-01

Time-dependent, thermal behaviour of a lithium-ion (Li-ion) polymer cell has been modelled for electric vehicle (EV) drive cycles with a view to developing an effective battery thermal management system. The fully coupled, three-dimensional transient electro-thermal model has been implemented based on a finite volume method. To support the numerical study, a high energy density Li-ion polymer pouch cell was tested in a climatic chamber for electric load cycles consisting of various charge and discharge rates, and a good agreement was found between the model predictions and the experimental data. The cell-level thermal behaviour under stressful conditions such as high power draw and high ambient temperature was predicted with the model. A significant temperature increase was observed in the stressful condition, corresponding to a repeated acceleration and deceleration, indicating that an effective battery thermal management system would be required to maintain the optimal cell performance and also to achieve a full battery lifesapn.

Deregulation of Electricity Market and Drivers of Demand for Electrical Energy in Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bojnec Štefan

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates deregulation of electricity market focusing on electricity prices and drivers of demand for electrical energy in industry in Slovenia. The patterns in evolution of real electricity price developments and the three main components of the electricity price are calculated: liberalized market share for purchased electricity price, regulated infrastructure share for use of electricity network grids and mandatory state charges in the sale of electricity (duty, excise duty and value-added tax. To calculate the real value of electricity prices, producer price index of industrial commodities for electricity prices in industry is used as deflator and implicit deflator of gross domestic product for the size of the economy. In the empirical econometric part is used regression analysis for the amount electricity consumption in the industry depending on the real gross domestic product, direct and cross-price elasticity for natural gas prices in the industry. The results confirmed volatility in real electricity price developments with their increasing tendency and the increasing share of different taxes and state charges in the electricity prices for industry. Demand for electrical energy in industry is positively associated with gross domestic product and price of natural gas as substitute for electrical energy in industry use, and negatively associated with prices of electrical energy for industry.

Electric vehicle energy management system

Science.gov (United States)

Alaoui, Chakib

This thesis investigates and analyzes novel strategies for the optimum energy management of electric vehicles (EVs). These are aimed to maximize the useful life of the EV batteries and make the EV more practical in order to increase its acceptability to market. The first strategy concerns the right choice of the batteries for the EV according to the user's driving habits, which may vary. Tests conducted at the University of Massachusetts Lowell battery lab show that the batteries perform differently from one manufacturer to the other. The second strategy was to investigate the fast chargeability of different batteries, which leads to reduce the time needed to recharge the EV battery pack. Tests were conducted again to prove that only few battery types could be fast charged. Test data were used to design a fast battery charger that could be installed in an EV charging station. The third strategy was the design, fabrication and application of an Electric Vehicle Diagnostic and Rejuvenation System (EVDRS). This system is based on Mosfet Controlled Thyristors (MCTs). It is capable of quickly identifying any failing battery(s) within the EV pack and rejuvenating the whole battery pack without dismantling them and unloading them. A novel algorithm to rejuvenate Electric Vehicle Sealed Lead Acid Batteries is described. This rejuvenation extends the useful life of the batteries and makes the EV more competitive. The fourth strategy was to design a thermal management system for EV, which is crucial to the safe operation, and the achievement of normal/optimal performance of, electric vehicle (EV) batteries. A novel approach for EV thermal management, based on Pettier-Effect heat pumps, was designed, fabricated and tested in EV. It shows the application of this type of technology for thermal management of EVs.

Direct electrical heating of irradiated metal fuel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fenske, G.R.; Emerson, J.E.; Savoie, F.E.; Johanson, E.W.

1985-01-01

The Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) concept proposed by Argonne National Laboratory utilizes a metal fuel core. Reactor safety analysis requires information on the potential for fuel axial expansion during severe thermal transients. In addition to a comparatively large thermal expansion coefficient, metallic fuel has a unique potential for enhanced pre-failure expansion driven by retained fission gas and ingested bond sodium. In this paper, the authors present preliminary results from three direct electrical heating (DEH) experiments performed on irradiated metal fuel to investigate axial expansion behavior. The test samples were from Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) driver fuel ML-11 irradiated to 8 at.% burnup. Preliminary analysis of the results suggest that enhanced expansion driven by trapped fission gas can occur

Hydrogen as the solar energy translator. [in photochemical and photovoltaic processes

Science.gov (United States)

Kelley, J. H.

1979-01-01

Many concepts are being investigated to convert sunlight to workable energy forms with emphasis on electricity and thermal energy. The electrical alternatives include direct conversion of photons to electricity via photovoltaic solar cells and solar/thermal production of electricity via heat-energy cycles. Solar cells, when commercialized, are expected to have efficiencies of about 12 to 14 percent. The cells would be active about eight hours per day. However, solar-operated water-splitting process research, initiated through JPL, shows promise for direct production of hydrogen from sunlight with efficiencies of up to 35 to 40 percent. The hydrogen, a valuable commodity in itself, can also serve as a storable energy form, easily and efficiently converted to electricity by fuel cells and other advanced-technology devices on a 24-hour basis or on demand with an overall efficiency of 25 to 30 percent. Thus, hydrogen serves as the fundamental translator of energy from its solar form to electrical form more effectively, and possibly more efficiently, than direct conversion. Hydrogen also can produce other chemical energy forms using solar energy.

Study of electrical and thermal characteristics of inverters for grid-connected photovoltaic systems; Estudo de caracteristicas eletricas e termicas de inversores para sistemas fotovoltaicos conectados a rede

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rampinelli, Giuliano Arns

2010-12-15

Grid-connected photovoltaic systems directly convert solar energy into electrical energy delivering to the distribution grid a clean and renewable energy. These systems are basically formed by an array of photovoltaic modules and inverters. The inverters are responsible for converting direct current to alternating current. A study of electrical and thermal characteristics of inverters used in grid-connected photovoltaic systems from a theoretical and experimental analysis. The inverters tests were carried out in two stages: the first stage was performed at Solar Energy Lab. of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil, where it was used a 4,8 kW{sub p} grid-connected photovoltaic system and ten inverters of different manufacturers. The inverters electrical characteristics measured and analyzed were: direct current to alternating current conversion efficiency, maximum power point tracker efficiency, power factor and harmonic distortion in current and voltage. Inverters thermal testing was also conducted and its results are presented ana analyzed. The second stage of the experimental tests was performed at Photovoltaic Solar Energy Lab. at CIEMAT in Spain. It was used 3 kW{sub p} photovoltaic system and seven inverters of different manufacturers. The inverters are single-phase, up to 5 kW and different topologies (high frequency transformer, low frequency transformer and transformerless). The influence of DC voltage input in the behavior of DC to AC conversion efficiency and power factor was analyzed. The results of the tests allowed the development of mathematical models that describe the electrical and thermal behavior of the inverters. The proposed mathematical models were inserted into computer simulation software developed at UFRGS named FVConect. The evolution of the simulation results compared to the experimental results validates the proposed models. The analysis of the behavior of the inverters improves the understanding of the operating os

Thermal Storage Systems Assessment for Energy Sustainability in Housing Units

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tania I. Lagunes Vega

2016-04-01

Full Text Available In order to achieve greater enhancements in energy sustainability for housing, the function and efficiency of two different passive cooling systems were studied: encapsulated water in recycled bottles of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET and polystyrene plates, in comparison with standard concrete slab systems, which are customarily used in housing. Experiments were placed over a tile surface, in which temperature changes were monitored for a period of 20 days from 08:00 to 20:00. The efficiency of passive thermal storage systems was endorsed through statistical analysis using the “SPSS” software. This resulted in a 17% energy saving, thus promoting energy sustainability in housing units, which reduces the use of electrical appliances required to stabilize conditions to achieve optimum thermal comfort for the human body inside a house, therefore, reducing electrical power consumption, CO2 emissions to the atmosphere and generating savings. Due to the complexity of a system with temperature changes, a fractal analysis was performed for each experimental system, using the “Benoit” software (V.1.3 with self-compatible tools of rescaled range (R/S and a wavelets method, showing that the thermal fluctuations on the tiles with the thermal storage system adapt to the rescaled range analysis and the regular tiles adapt to the wavelets method.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Life Cycle Cost Assessment, Final Technical Report, 30 May 2012

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Martel, Laura [Lockheed Martin, Manassas, VA (United States); Smith, Paul [John Halkyard and Associates: Glosten Associates, Houston, TX (United States); Rizea, Steven [Makai Ocean Engineering, Waimanalo, HI (United States); Van Ryzin, Joe [Makai Ocean Engineering, Waimanalo, HI (United States); Morgan, Charles [Planning Solutions, Inc., Vancouver, WA (United States); Noland, Gary [G. Noland and Associates, Inc., Pleasanton, CA (United States); Pavlosky, Rick [Lockheed Martin, Manassas, VA (United States); Thomas, Michael [Lockheed Martin, Manassas, VA (United States); Halkyard, John [John Halkyard and Associates: Glosten Associates, Houston, TX (United States)

2012-05-30

The Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) Life Cycle Cost Assessment (OLCCA) is a study performed by members of the Lockheed Martin (LM) OTEC Team under funding from the Department of Energy (DOE), Award No. DE-EE0002663, dated 01/01/2010. OLCCA objectives are to estimate procurement, operations and maintenance, and overhaul costs for two types of OTEC plants: -Plants moored to the sea floor where the electricity produced by the OTEC plant is directly connected to the grid ashore via a marine power cable (Grid Connected OTEC plants) -Open-ocean grazing OTEC plant-ships producing an energy carrier that is transported to designated ports (Energy Carrier OTEC plants) Costs are developed using the concept of levelized cost of energy established by DOE for use in comparing electricity costs from various generating systems. One area of system costs that had not been developed in detail prior to this analysis was the operations and sustainment (O&S) cost for both types of OTEC plants. Procurement costs, generally referred to as capital expense and O&S costs (operations and maintenance (O&M) costs plus overhaul and replacement costs), are assessed over the 30 year operational life of the plants and an annual annuity calculated to achieve a levelized cost (constant across entire plant life). Dividing this levelized cost by the average annual energy production results in a levelized cost of electricity, or LCOE, for the OTEC plants. Technical and production efficiency enhancements that could result in a lower value of the OTEC LCOE were also explored. The thermal OTEC resource for Oahu, Hawaii and projected build out plan were developed. The estimate of the OTEC resource and LCOE values for the planned OTEC systems enable this information to be displayed as energy supplied versus levelized cost of the supplied energy; this curve is referred to as an Energy Supply Curve. The Oahu Energy Supply Curve represents initial OTEC deployment starting in 2018 and demonstrates the

New materials for thermal energy storage in concentrated solar power plants

Science.gov (United States)

Guerreiro, Luis; Collares-Pereira, Manuel

2016-05-01

Solar Thermal Electricity (STE) is an important alternative to PV electricity production, not only because it is getting more cost competitive with the continuous growth in installed capacity, engineering and associated innovations, but also, because of its unique dispatch ability advantage as a result of the already well established 2-tank energy storage using molten salts (MS). In recent years, research has been performed, on direct MS systems, to which features like modularity and combinations with other (solid) thermal storage materials are considered with the goal of achieving lower investment cost. Several alternative materials and systems have been studied. In this research, storage materials were identified with thermo-physical data being presented for different rocks (e.g. quartzite), super concrete, and other appropriate solid materials. Among the new materials being proposed like rocks from old quarries, an interesting option is the incorporation of solid waste material from old mines belonging to the Iberian Pyritic Belt. These are currently handled as byproducts of past mine activity, and can potentially constitute an environmental hazard due to their chemical (metal) content. This paper presents these materials, as part of a broad study to improve the current concept of solar energy storage for STE plants, and additionally presents a potentially valuable solution for environmental protection related to re-use of mining waste.

Enhancing Low-Grade Thermal Energy Recovery in a Thermally Regenerative Ammonia Battery Using Elevated Temperatures

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Fang

2015-02-13

© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA. A thermally regenerative ammonia battery (TRAB) is a new approach for converting low-grade thermal energy into electricity by using an ammonia electrolyte and copper electrodes. TRAB operation at 72°C produced a power density of 236±8 Wm-2, with a linear decrease in power to 95±5 Wm-2 at 23°C. The improved power at higher temperatures was due to reduced electrode overpotentials and more favorable thermodynamics for the anode reaction (copper oxidation). The energy density varied with temperature and discharge rates, with a maximum of 650 Whm-3 at a discharge energy efficiency of 54% and a temperature of 37°C. The energy efficiency calculated with chemical process simulation software indicated a Carnot-based efficiency of up to 13% and an overall thermal energy recovery of 0.5%. It should be possible to substantially improve these energy recoveries through optimization of electrolyte concentrations and by using improved ion-selective membranes and energy recovery systems such as heat exchangers.

Energy-momentum tensor in thermal strong-field QED with unstable vacuum

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gavrilov, S P [Department of General and Experimental Physics, Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, Moyka emb. 48, 191186 St Petersburg (Russian Federation); Gitman, D M [Instituto de Fisica, Universidade de Sao Paulo, CP 66318, CEP 05315-970 Sao Paulo, SP (Brazil)], E-mail: gavrilovsergeyp@yahoo.com, E-mail: gitman@dfn.if.usp.br

2008-04-25

The mean value of the one-loop energy-momentum tensor in thermal QED with an electric-like background that creates particles from vacuum is calculated. The problem is essentially different from calculations of effective actions (similar to the action of Heisenberg-Euler) in backgrounds that respect the stability of vacuum. The role of a constant electric background in the violation of both the stability of vacuum and the thermal character of particle distribution is investigated. Restrictions on the electric field and the duration over which one can neglect the back-reaction of created particles are established.

Energy-momentum tensor in thermal strong-field QED with unstable vacuum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gavrilov, S P; Gitman, D M

2008-01-01

The mean value of the one-loop energy-momentum tensor in thermal QED with an electric-like background that creates particles from vacuum is calculated. The problem is essentially different from calculations of effective actions (similar to the action of Heisenberg-Euler) in backgrounds that respect the stability of vacuum. The role of a constant electric background in the violation of both the stability of vacuum and the thermal character of particle distribution is investigated. Restrictions on the electric field and the duration over which one can neglect the back-reaction of created particles are established

Study of thermal energy storage using fluidized bed heat exchangers

Science.gov (United States)

Weast, T. E.; Shannon, L. J.; Ananth, K. P.

1980-01-01

The technical and economic feasibility of fluid bed heat exchangers (FBHX) for thermal energy storage (TES) in waste heat recovery applications is assessed by analysis of two selected conceptual systems, the rotary cement kiln and the electric arc furnace. It is shown that the inclusion of TES in the energy recovery system requires that the difference in off-peak and on-peak energy rates be large enough so that the value of the recovered energy exceeds the value of the stored energy by a wide enough margin to offset parasitic power and thermal losses. Escalation of on-peak energy rates due to fuel shortages could make the FBHX/TES applications economically attractive in the future.