Micro Renewable Energy Systems As A Vehicle For International Awareness

1. Narayanan Komerath Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta Micro Renewable Energy Systems As A Vehicle For International Awareness ASEE 2010-1585 1

2. What are MRES and Why Are They Interesting? • Micro: Less than 3kW (one family or small shop) • Renewable: “Free” and inexhaustible. Solar, wind, hydro, tide, biomass • Energy: Capacity to do work. Energy per unit time is “power” in watts or KW. • System: Includes all the various items that make it successful. 2

3. SUMMARY OF THE PAPER • Experience from 3 years of course offerings of a course on Micro Renewable Energy Systems. • Students come with strong motivation to help solve major global problems. • Individual assignments reveal the differences between the constraints, resources and perspectives in the US and elsewhere. • Opens avenues for students with experiences in other countries to contribute their perspectives. • International awareness aspect is seen to be a good vehicle and attractor to learn across disciplines.

4. COURSE OUTLINE: TECHNICAL ASPECTS 1. General exploration of MRES. Estimate needs of a typical family. 1 to 3 KW range translates into a 6 to 10 square meter footprint, suitable for backyards or rooftop “terraces”. 2. Ideas of conversion efficiency thermodynamics and laws of physics. Absolute upper limits on the power available, and then on the possibility of capturing that power for useful purposes. Figure of Merit as the metric for device efficiency. 3. Generation at point of use. Basic conversion efficiency vs. fuel transport, conversion to and from line power, grid transmission efficiency, and conversion from electric to mechanical work. Local employment, free & distributed availability of renewable energy, land costs. 5. Broad range of ideas for energy extraction and conversion explored quickly to convey perspective 6. System design concepts and methods 7. Smart Grid and distributed generation. 8. Technology surveys: Wind, Solar PV, Solar thermal, Biofuels

5. GENERATION AT POINT OF USE CAN BE FAR MORE EFFICIENT THAN CENTRALIZED GENERATION Example: Operate water pump, or grind flour. Note: Need for storage reduces efficiency, but water-head storage is still quite efficient.

6. COURSE OUTLINE: PUBLIC POLICY / INTERNATIONAL ISSUES • Climate Change Issues • US engineering students appear to be unaware of issues, but keenly interested in hearing all aides, European students keenly aware of European status. Students from other parts of the world bring very different perspectives. • Runup to Copenhagen conference enabled discussion from North American, European and African perspectives. • Focus on identifying the economics and public policy relevance to viability of technical concepts. • This discussion set the context for cooperative problem-solving. Distributed Generation policies and impacts on different stakeholders Smart Grid issues and opportunities Implications for micro distributed generation Strategy Difference Based on Population Density

7. DISTRIBUTED GENERATION IN DENMARK DG Enables Increased Role of Renewables

8. ASSIGNMENTS 1. Individual assignment, compare realities in 2 regions, one “developed” and one “developing”. 2. Requirements definition for proposed system: Teams of 2. 3. Technical System Final Report. Teams of 2. 4. Final Exam: Individual Business Plan.

9. OBSERVATIONS Students went with original choices of regions, but they also had freedom to choose other regions. Some of the students have been natives of the regions that they chose, but others are not, and chose the regions purely out of interest in learning about them. Some students had already volunteered as testers of Smart Meters at home, and were thus excited to learn of the prospective advantages of the Smart Grid, and employment opportunities in its various aspects. This topic again brought out discussions from international students, as such technologies are spreading faster in Europe and Southeast Asia. Support for increased depth in coverage of individual technologies. Students proved thirsty for this depth and willing to do the reading to enable it. Assigned reading material was voluminous, but appeared to be used quite well in developing project work. At the culmination of the course, and in fact through the latter third of the semester, students were developing team project reports.

10. GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE Assignment 1: compare realities in 2 regions. Definition broadened from “One US State vs 1 undeveloped nation”.

11. CONCEPTS EXPLORED • Old Lady of the Gobi: Solar Concentrator Woodstove • Woodstoves with thermoelectric generation • Solar PV • Vertical Axis wind turbine • Bioreactor • Algae Biodiesel microfarming, land co-use • Agricultural Energy Use Planner

12. Concepts being developed at Georgia Tech MRES lab Tesla Turbine. EduKitchen: Clean woodstove thermoelectric power generator Vertical axis wind turbine Land co-use for Algae biodiesel and dairy/ mushroom farming 1KW solar thermal-power 11

13. LEARNING ACROSS DISCIPLINES • Success of MRES requires integration of many concepts and disciplines. No single “magic” • solution. Most engineers and most faculty are “experts” trained in one specialty, afraid to move into • “other people’s” grazing grounds. • “No flexibility in curriculum, what we can do?” • Students are enthusiastic, but need careful, disciplined guidance. • Issues include all fields of science and engineering (incl. bio-sciences) plus: • Economics for Business Case innovation • Local Culture • Aesthetics • Customer care skills • System design • Public Policy • Global Warming/Climate Change debate • Courage and confidence based on discipline, to depart from textbook superstitions.

14. INSTRUCTOR’S OBSERVATIONS • Opportunity for students to contribute their own experience. • 2. European students of today come with considerable knowledge about Climate Change and distributed generation issues, and gladly share their observations. • Students from India and China have experience of conservation measures and rural practices • from ancient times and modern initiatives. • 4. Korea, Japan, Israel offer modern experience with urban developments. • 5. Students raised on US farms find that they have truly unique perspectives to convey on the technological and cultural issues of farm life, something that people brought up in cities have no opportunity to learn otherwise. 6. Opportunity for all students to learn about other regions

15. OPPORTUNITY TO COLLABORATE WITH STUDENTS IN OTHER REGIONS • Undergraduate team in India in 2008 developed low-rpm electric generator and constant-voltage • controller. • Interactions with US student team did not work : different timelines etc. • Present interaction with undergrad team in India for 2010-2011.

16. CONCLUSIONS A new cross-disciplinary course on Micro Renewable Energy Systems, offers opportunity for students to share local and international experience b. International students get an opportunity to express their experience. c. US students gain knowledge about conditions in other countries through experience of technical colleagues, in joint projects. d. Several reports of comparative experience between different regions have been collected from 3 teachings of the course. e. The international aspects appear to have more potential than the cross-disciplinary aspect of the course.

17. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author expresses gratitude to the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Office of International Education for the initial support to develop the laboratory parts of this course. Recent support from NASA for the “EXTROVERT” cross-disciplinary learning project under NASA Grant NNX09AF67GS01 enables development of cross disciplinary resources. Mr. Anthony Springer is the Technical Monitor.

18. STUDENTS’ OBSERVATIONS Israel, like Pennsylvania, depends largely on coal, but does not have the additional benefit of a large nuclear power plant. In Israel the use of solar water heaters is nearly universal, but there are additional opportunities to incorporate biomass, wind and low-grade geothermal sources at the kibbutz level. A secondary observation is that because of the prevalent use of solar water heaters, there may be little roof ideal space left to install photovoltaic or other rooftop collectors. Pennsylvania has potential wind resources in the Erie, Scranton and Lancaster areas, and is already the 18th among US states in installed wind power. Israel on the other hand, appears to have little potential for wind energy extraction near the most populated areas. Egypt and California provides interesting observations. Egypt is currently dependent on fossil power (from natural gas reserves) to a large extent, followed by hydroelectric power, mainly from the Aswan dam on the Nile, which is used mainly for industries in the Nile valley. Energy demand from agriculture is very small, because farming practices have not changed much from ancient times, and depend primarily on manual or animal labor. There are plans to bring a 1-GW nuclear plant on line to meet some of the demands of growth. However, the coastal areas, especially the Mediterranean coast with its steady winds, provide excellent potential for wind farms, and this is seen as a major new source. A tough issue in Egypt is how to reach the outlying communities, where the electric power grid is not well developed. In these regions, small-scale solar converters provide an excellent alternative. The provision of water heating can help alleviate problems due to unsanitary water sources. In comparison, California is much advanced in using renewable sources, but can take advantage of integrated solar-wind solutions at the micro level.

19. A comparison of southern Brazil and Zimbabwe provides some stark observations. In Zimbabwe, hyperinflation and deprivation or disruption of many services that were nominally available, provides extreme challenges. Southern Brazil, on the other hand, has had to depend on local sources, mostly privatized. Brazil does have massive natural resources and a developed economy in the densely populated coastal regions, but there are vast areas with virtually no development. The dependence on annual rainfall is heavy, and causes major problems when there are sharp variations in rainfall. These include disruption of hydroelectric power supply and the power grid. The Brazilian example of recovery from economic collapse and shifting to local self-reliance provides an encouraging prospect for recovery in Zimbabwe. Major sources of untapped power are the vast biomass reserves in both nations, as well as the micro hydel power potential from the mountainous regions. Ireland provides sharp contrasts with Namibia. Ireland (at least until recently) was one of the wealthier nations of Europe, but had to import 91% of its energy. Residential energy usage is 36% above that of the EU average. CO2 emissions from home energy use is a concern. Two major untapped sources are the strong winds and the abundance of water, along with hydroelectric potential at a micro level. In addition, Ireland also has some of the best wave energy sources on the planet. Namibia is relatively poor and mostly rural, with a low population density and a large desert area. Biomass resources are scarce, and so is water. However, solar energy is abundant, and offshore wind and shoreline wave resources are some of the best in the world – though of course not suitable for exploitation at a micro level. The Bahamas and Florida posed an attractive comparison problem, since both have some unique features due to the annual hurricane season, and similar climates. The Bahamas import all their energy supplies, so solar and wind resources are attractive options for micro power generation.

20. EduKitchen: Clean woodstove power generator • Thermoelectric power extraction • Regulated fan to optimize fuel/air for best combustion/ least pollutants • Battery/charger with LED lights • Needs: • Thermo-electric conversion; Combustion fuel/air ratio control for least smoke / best heat release • DC LED lighting for kitchens: power control for storage and LED. • Heating Value and optimal equivalence ratio for Kerala wood fuels. • Expanded version: Smokeless leaf waste incinerator / biogas generator.

21. Tesla Turbine. Solar Collector Prototype • Simple compressor for long-term use • Controller to optimize system efficiency best distribution between thermal, mechanical, thermoelectric and PV • Solar heat engine design for low temperature gradient • Optimized positioning for a given location: Adaptive learning system.

22. Algae-Mushroom Experiment • Vigneshwar Venkat, School of AE • Food-grade mushrooms generate CO2 • Algae grow on sunlight, water, CO2 and some nutrients. • Algae provide biodiesel. Larger issue: How to enable algae biodiesel farming at the single family level, with land and resource co-usage for other useful purposes? Technical needs: Long-duration, fine precision control of optimal conditions

23. Retail Beamed Power Transmission Micro- and mm-wave – Line AC generation, transmission, beam pointing, reception.

24. Prelude: Extraterrestrial In situ resource utilization (ISRU) technologies • Research Leading Edge: • Maximize efficiency in low temperature waste heat utilization • Gas separation and purification, methane and H2 extraction • Natural Gas Fuel Cells • Oxygen and metal extraction • High-temperature water splitting: hydrogen extraction • Beamed retail power • High intensity solar photovoltaics • Solar thermal power generation • Thermoelectric power generation • Solar refrigeration without battery storage Question: How to bring these technologies to villages and urban homes?

25. Why Micro? Because the Sun shines and rain falls everywhere “The Rain, it falleth on The Just, And on the Unjust fella.. But mostly on The Just, because The Unjust stealeth The Just’s Umbrella” - Anon In urban and micro-divided rural landscapes, “micro” is a good way to capture a large percentage of solar, wind, rainwater and biomass sources.

26. Energy crunch and Climate Change concerns motivate a project-based learning environment to acquire lifelong learning and knowledge integration skills. Hypothesis:Public participation through mass-marketed, family-sized power generation at the point of use, is an effective route to sustainable energy independence for much of the world. Background • Question: How to develop renewable power generators suited to a single family’s needs • Paper describes issues and results from 2 teachings of a campus-wide course set at the senior elective level in Engineering, open to all students at junior level and above, and some engineering sophomores. 2

27. Energy curricula spread all over campus. Graduate curricula on “non-conventional energy”: large-plant context. Project courses appropriate for small-scale sustainable design. Grassroots community efforts recognize need to integrate renewable energy with economics and sustainable development. International teams have worked on community projects, e.g., Engineers Without Borders and MIT’s Solar Turbine lab. Intellectual challenge: Content and methods for cross-discipline learning Learning Resources • Spread out over the internet, and in research and project reports. • Web-based resources have to be found for specific parts of MRES. Reports from Think Tanks and the Congressional Research Service are valuable summaries. • Selected book: Vaitheeswaran, “Power to The People: How The Coming Energy Revolution Will Transform An Industry, Change Our Lives, And Maybe Even Save Our Planet”. Farar, Stroux and Giroux, New York, First Edition, 2003 6

28. Cross-Disciplinary Challenge 7

29. Introduction to Micro Renewable Energy Systems. General process of System Design Global energy needs and usage in different sectors Kyoto Protocol, Carbon Market Distributed Generation Thermodynamics survey Economics; Case for micro-renewables Technology surveys (several modules) Project discussions and presentations Course Outline 8

30. General discussion lectures: philosophy, issues, how to estimate parameters. Demographics assignment of the student’s choice: One US State vs. one foreign region, compare needs, realities, opportunities, and apirations. Student choices: Iceland, UK, India, East Africa, Canada, Australia, and several US states. Hungary, Haiti, Jamaica, Singapore, Bangladesh, Patagonia, Japan. Readings from Think Tanks and Congressional Research Service Reports: Excellent templates, learning experience, surprising challenge ! Requirements definition: Discussion on basic conceptual system design process. Formalizes knowledge and emphasizes customer and market early. Each student is assigned to two projects, one as leader and one as supporter, so that each team will had two members. Two lab testbeds developed: Vertical axis wind turbine at our 42-inch low speed tunnel, and Solar collector/heat engine. Take-home final exam is a concise individual Business plan. COURSE CONTENT 9

31. Interspersed lectures on different topics: Lectures on each technology in a "time-sharing" manner. Required Reading material. Instructor helped distill essence of each project area. Project meetings: Lively discussions. Visiting speaker on economics: Recent PhD, working in Strategic Consulting. Developing Project Documents: adapted from industry/DARPA formats. Feedback discussions on presentations: Students were asked to list questions and discussion as a course assignment. Mid Semester presentation “crunch-time” worked very well compared to usual “end-of-semester presentation” in inducing thought and organization. Some Strategies Picture from the UROP symposium, courtesy of the “Technique”, April 11, 2008. 10

32. Lessons from first teaching of MRES 12

33. Post-course e-mail survey • Why take the course? Expectations vs. Outcome • What would you like to see added/deleted from this course? • Balance between class lectures, class discussions, assigned readings, outside readings & discussions with people outside the class. • Should the course go to a “3-hour lecture” format while retaining the projects? • Compare intellectual demands / demand on critical thinking and exploration, to other courses • Depth vs. breadth • Any other questions that should have been asked / comments 13

34. Micro Renewable energy systems (MRES) seen as a worldwide approach to energy independence. Implementing MRES requires integration of knowledge from various branches of science, policy and cultural issues in addition to engineering. Course open to students from all across a campus. Tested through two semesters. Format changed from 2-3-3 to 3-0-3, with later “lecture periods” turning into discussions. Suite of 5 concepts selected for development. Outcomes assessment and alumni opinions show that the initiative, independent study and teamwork aspects of the course are effective and well-received, and alumni are comfortable in giving thoughtful opinions and assessments. Obstacles remain in recruiting students from outside engineering and science. Conclusions 14

35. Fears at the beginning are real.Science student fears “engineering skills”, engineers fear “culture / policy discussion”, both fear economics. Few US students had heard of the Kyoto Protocol, and none knew what was really involved. Engg. seniors had as much trouble with thermodynamics as those who had never taken a thermo course. Common-sense estimation lights up eyes of all. Magical learning in team projects as they see things working. Conclusion: Given enough time, all the students learn the essentials. Some go far beyond. BUT.. recruiting non-engg. / science students remains a huge hurdle. Mostly because of faculty superstitions ... :) Co Does an open cross-disciplinary course work? 16

36. To learn more about development of different renewable energy systems and recent technologies being used. Enjoyed opportunity to focus on wind energy. Expected a bit more background. Micro-renewable energy often overlooked. Interested in local, non-grid solutions, particularly in developing countries. “Design for the other 90%” of the world without typical western resources. Course opened many options that I was able to use in my research in developing applications using green energy. Found the concept of learning more about small scale systems and developing our own ideas very attractive. Forced me to actively think and come up with solutions, one of which (biofuels) I am currently researching. Post-course e-mail survey.1. Why take the course? Expectations vs. Outcome

37. More background in individual technologies before splitting off into individual projects. Have class explain their updated findings to the others. Include hands-on experience with devices. Develop tactile learning. Build a few devices from plans, to get a feel for construction and energy balances. Survey contemporary commercial solutions Question: What would you like to see added/deleted from this course?

38. Would have enjoyed further readings and background. Perhaps not assigned reports, but more reference readings: Ex. A report on solar and then discussion on that, a report on wind and then a discussion on that Good balance between class lectures, class discussions and projects. Every class gave the opportunity for us to learn something from the instructor than discuss is amongst our peers. We also worked in teams of two on two projects that allowed us to use the classroom knowledge to gain some hands on experience. Format was ideal. The course began with more of an emphasis on lectures, shifted to discussions and then required us to read outside material as we began working on our projects and finally lead to discussions and work outside of class. Balance between class lectures, class discussions, assigned readings, outside readings & discussions with people outside the class. Should this balance be altered?

39. Workload was manageable. I think with some additional readings, it would've matched a typical elective class. Definitely less than a typical AE core class however. Comparable to 3 credit hour senior capstone courses. Layout and workload almost identical to the senior space design course I took in Fall 2008. Workload was very light at the start but increased quite exponentially during project completion time. However, it was never overwhelming and on the whole, probably comparable if not lower than most AE courses. Should the course go to a “3-hour lecture” format while retaining the projects? (Max is 3 credit hours)

40. Project/research emphasis provided greater opportunity for critical thinking and exploration. Format allowed students to stay interested in material by developing their project. Appreciated focus on real-world market conditions. Good to design for manufacture in a developing country. Refreshing application of the practical. I use this aspect when talking to recruiters. Course required a lot of research and creativity because the subject material is not frequently touched upon by many classes. Challenged me to think a lot more than most other courses at this level. I loved the concept of actively coming up with a new solution to problems in our assigned fields. Did not merely attempt to teach about present advances but also improved our problem solving and professional presentation methodology. Learned how to research and create professional reports too. Compare intellectual demands / demand on critical thinking and exploration, to other courses

41. Fine, but further background references would be helpful before splitting up into projects. Perhaps better with continued depth throughout the semester in the individual technologies/applications. Good balance. Maybe add a little about application of off-grid technologies in America. Talk about zoning, expectations of power availability, materials. I see America as a potential test bed for technology to be developed for areas with fewer resources. Went into a lot of depth into our selected project topics and got an overview of the others. While this is ideal, I would have maybe personally liked to explore more extensively in 2-3 topics as well as have the overview. This might however make the workload too big. Depth vs. breadth