During our team brainstorming, we came across plenty ideas. However, we all agreed that what ever we would choose to do it should be plain, simple and really interesting for the students to try. Also, since our experiment has to be related to a energy and sustainability concept as how to we learned in class, in that case one of our team members had a great idea of doing some type of experiment related to green houses.
Since greenhouses are becoming more and more popular in todays century, specially since it saves so much energy there are so many other unique things to them that we don’t know about, and it will be a great way to show the class how much energy can be saved and or consumed in a regular home, even though creating a greenhouse will be much more expensive than a regular home. In that case, we thought about building either a lego small house or wood house and installing the light bulbs and windows to it, to show the concept of energy efficiency.
However, since the special unique features of a unique home include clear walls and cealines. Also within our experiment we talked about using green energy efficient light bulbs that help consume much less energy than regular light bulbs.
Since this is just a brainstorming session, ones we meet and clearly talk about how were actually going to pull this of, our concept of this experiment will be much clear later on.
mdsuarez-peralta
April 12, 2013
Why is demand response necessary?
Since the power grid supplies only the electricity we ask for, one way to decrease the demand load is demand response.
In broad terms, demand response programs give us — residential, commercial and industrial consumers the ability to voluntarily trim our electricity usage at specific times of the day (such as peak hours) during high electricity prices, or during emergencies (such as preventing a blackout).
When demand is high and supply is short, power interruptions such as power outages can sometimes be the result. But by building enough power plants to satisfy every possible supply and demand scenario is one possibility, but the cost and environmental impact of that would be huge.
Demand response programs are made to be both fiscally and environmentally responsible ways to respond to occasional and temporary peak demand periods.
The programs offer incentives to businesses that volunteer and participate by temporarily reducing their electricity use when demand could outpace supply.
However, when we have strong storms and heat waves or other natural disasters, these can affect any states supply and demand for electricity.
As it exists now, the energy industry faces a myriad of infrastructure issues. To keep up with the load demand and its expected rise, the industry needs to relieve the increased stress on the grid and build new power plants and transmission power lines while working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the skyrocketing costs of energy.
Direct demand response technology
One of the most exciting models and example of demand response is the smart grid and its connection to smart buildings.
A smart grid is the 21st century version of the current grid. Today’s grid is one-way only: You turn on the t.v and it brings the power. A smart grid would be a two-way communication system between provider and consumer.
The structure of the grid is often described as similar to the Internet.
In the same way every computer that accesses the Internet has an Internet address, the smart grid would have a web of access points that could be identified and contacted.
Through these contact points, the grid would automate the flow of electricity needed, identify and isolate problems; it would also be able to handle uneven supplies of energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar power.
Currently, demand response programs are administered by California’s three regulated investor-owned utilities: PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E.
Most of the utility demand response programs target large commercial and industrial customers that are equipped with meters that are capable of measuring and reporting energy usage in one hour intervals or less.
Customers without an interval meter (essentially residential and small commercial customers) will eventually be able to participate in demand response programs as utilities’ proposals for Advanced Metering make their way through the regulatory approval and implementation processes.
The government agrees that the U.S. needs a real-time demand response infrastructure to optimally manage and link electric supply- and demand-side systems.
This Smart Grid infrastructure must be compatible with requirements of electric system grid operators and electric utility companies while serving the loads and needs of electricity customers.
Therefore, the Demand Response Research Center plans and conducts multi-disciplinary research to advance demand response within Smart Grid infrastructures in California, the nation, and abroad.
Works Cited
http://www.pjm.com/markets-and-operations/demand-response.aspx
http://www.pge.com/mybusiness/energysavingsrebates/demandresponse/
http://drrc.lbl.gov/
mdsuarez-peralta
April 4, 2013
The trip to the Museum of Science in Boston was based of learning more about wind and solar energy. However, overall the museum had great graphics and so much important information that can help anyone understand and learn more about solar and wind energy. This blog will give you a broader idea of what we saw and what we learned in the museum.
The Museum Wind lab
This is an experiment/laboratory that is designed to monitor local wind conditions and wind power generation data for each of the Museum’s roof-mpunted wind turbines. This laboratory experiment showed a screen with the current conditions and the historical information that was recorded ever since the wind turbines were installed.
The museum had plenty people who have made wind turbines and bellow there are 2 examples.
1. The Southwest Sky-stream 3.7 : This turbine could generate power for nineteen 15-watt energy efficient light bulbs at the Museum for one year.
Produced by: Southwest Windpower, Inc.
Rotor Diameter: 12ft
Tower Height:33 ft
Weight:179 lbs
Cut- in Wind Speed: 8mph
Maximum Rated Power: 1.9 kW
Annual Maximum Power: 16,644 kWh
2. Swift Rooftop Wind Energy System: This turbine could generate power for fifteen 15-watt energy efficient light bulbs at the Museum for one year.
Produced by: Renewable Devices
Rotor Diameter: 7 ft
Tower Height:9 ft
Weight: 209 lbs
Cut-in Wind Speed Power: 7.5 mph
Maximum Rated Power: 1.5 kW
Annual Maximum Power: 13,140 kWh
Storing Energy
Beacon Power Corporatio, Tyngsboro, MA
The Beacon Power Corporation magnetic flywheel system transforms electricity into mechanical energy which is easier to store. The rotating core stores energy in its spin. When power plants produce more electricity that consumers need, the excess makes the flywheel spin faster. When consumers require more electricity, the spinning motor becomes an electrical generator, adding electricity back to the grid.
Its parts involve
– A vacuum chamber: where the vacuum surrounds the flywheel to reduce friction, enabling the flywheel to spin at high speed.
– Carbon & glass fiver rim: The outer rim of the flywheel is made of alternating layers of glass.
– Magnetic bearing: The flywheel levitates on magnets, further reducing friction.
– Combination of the motor and the generator: The motor mode uses electricity to increase the rotation speed. In generator mode, it converts the rotation back into electricity, slowing the flywheel down.
Energy Lost & Found
Levant Power, Cambridge, MA
This exhibit explains the matter of lost energy, in this example when cars hit potholes, the up- and- down motion of the care wastes energy.
The team at Levant Power designed a new shock absorber that recovers this energy and sends it back into a cars system . Levant’s design is based on a dynamic damping system that translates vertical motion in a car’s suspension system into useful electricity power.
A picture bellow shows an example of the shock absorber from the one that was in the museum exhibit.
It has a power connector, an integrated piston head, a Hydraulic fluid, a floating piston and a compresses nitrogen.
Solar collector shapes
This exhibit was really interesting,it showed and explained how solar collectors can be different shapes and sizes, but they all use mirrors to concentrate and intensify the Sun’s energy.
The museum had three different small examples of solar collectors; A tower, a trough and a parabolic dish.
Tower
Trough
Parabolic dish
mdsuarez-peralta
April 4, 2013