+ Concept- Local Load-Levelling Power Storage Station

Load Levelling

A promising direction to avoid building more power plants is Demand Side management, seeking to lower peak energy usage. Two related concepts are Advanced Metering ("AMI") and large scale energy storage. AMI gives the consumers information about their consumption to help encourage them to cut back, especially during peak demand (4 pm on a 100 deg. F day in the city). Energy storage concepts use power generated at off-peak hours to charge up batteries or store energy in other ways.

Our research led us to propose a sub-neighborhood sized power station to help communities shave their peak power usage, and get power backup protection as a side benefit. We'll call it the local load-levelling ("3L") station. Sized for something like 20-60 homes in a several block area, the 3L Station is basically a mid-sized storage battery (50-100 kw sized) combined with a small diesel or fuel cell generator module . During off-peak hours, the batteries are charged from the electrical grid, with assistance from the generator if needed. At peak hours, the battery supplies the extra electrical load needed by A/C or other modern electric demands.


The sub-neighborhood tied into this system becomes a kind of local energy cooperative group, combining to avoid raising demand for a new power plant. Current generation technology is a small diesel generator gen-set with clean technology, such as the AdBlue or catalytic converter systems used on some European cars and trucks. A small natural gas reformer/hydrogen fuel cell arrangement may be possible in the very near future. The generator can be small because it has 2/3 of the day to charge the battery, if the battery is fully utilized. Another possible attribute is that the heat generated during battery charge and discharge could be captured and supplied to adjacent residences. In some locations, the community group served by this station could collectively add wind and/or solar power to help further reduce their total demand on the grid.

We see the station integrated into the neighborhood as a visually appealing asset, not hidden away. And that may be one of it's best attributes, because AMI field testing suggests that keeping power issues visible can be a powerful motivation for conservation.

+ Concept - Hybrid Semi Trailer Assist

A System to Make Semi Trucks more Efficient
What it is:

An add-on system for making semi-trailer trucks function as hybrids. A special trailer chassis and remote hybrid helper provide multiple levels of regenerative braking and energy storage. The stored energy is then used to boost fully loaded tractor trailer combos up hills, or to start-up in problem smog zones, such as port facilities, with reduced emissions. The system in one of several versions should provide increased fuel economy and reduced criteria pollutants by converting the energy lost in braking to energy for propulsion.

How it works:

Standard trailers used to haul intermodal containers are steel girder chassis with sets of tandem wheels. After offloading from ships or trains, containers are mated to the chassis, and a diesel powered semi-tractor unit couples on the chassis. In the HSTA concept, electric motor-generators are integrated into the trailer chassis’ tandem wheel axles. Similar to a hybrid car (Toyota Prius for example), the motor generators produce electricity via regenerative braking instead of normal friction brakes. A bank of batteries can be mounted under the trailer chassis (lots of room!) to store this energy.

When the truck/trailer combo needs to accelerate or go uphill, electric power flows from the batteries to the motors to provide some or all the power needed to propel the truck. The tractor’s diesel engine can be left at idle or even shut down until the batteries’ stored energy is drained. No modifications to the tractor other than perhaps some added control boxes are needed. So any of the hundreds of thousands of existing tractor trucks can become a hybrid by coupling up to one of these new modular chassis.

Adding a Helper

An alternative implementation of this idea is to duplicate or move the motors and batteries to a remote control guided helper vehicle. The remote hybrid helper vehicle, or”RHH”, couples to the rear of the trailer going either up or down hills, or in port facilities. On downhills the RHH’s motor/generators charge up it’s battery bank using regenerative braking, to be used to boost the trailer uphill, or from a stop. The unique twist is that the helper can decouple from the downhill bound vehicle after providing braking, and couple up to an uphill bound vehicle to push it up the hill.

Downhill link up: The Remote Hybrid Helper vehicle is guided
on auto pilot to link up to the rear of a semi with a hybrid chassis.


Downhill braking and charging: Motor generators on the RHH generate electricity via regenerative braking. The truck trailer can also generate power if suitably equipped. The electricity charges the batteries on the RHH.

At the bottom of the hill the RHH is released from the truck.


The RHH exits and returns to the opposite side for the next uphill trip.


Uphill pushing: The RHH now couples to an uphill bound semi truck with a compatible trailer. The RHH helps push the trailer and provides additional electricity to the trailer to power the motors.

The unique benefit is that the RHH is an exchange medium for collecting the potential energy of the downhill bound tractor-trailer combination, and handing it off to another uphill bound vehicle. And the vehicle itself doesn’t have to carry the cost and weight of the battery-motor system on long, flat runs where it might not provide any benefit. Further, in a dense transport environment like a port or city, the RHH vehicles could be charged up from the utility grid, and provide smog-free propulsion to get the semi-truck out on the open road. Of course, we'd want to have a high efficiency, low emission utility power plant powering the grid.

In some situations, both the RHH and HSTA technologies can be employed together, with the RHH providing power to the HSTA trailer.

+ Fuel Cells: What are They and How do They Work?

With an ever growing need for an alternative energy source, one of the newest, most promising technologies is the modern fuel cell. While licenses for fuel cell patents were purchased for use in NASA space programs back in the 1960’s, recent advances are making fuel cell technology a serious near future contender for general commercial purposes. However, with all of this recent talk of these breakthrough devices, one may wonder, what exactly is a fuel cell and how does it work?

How Does It Work

I checked out How Stuff Works to get a basic understanding. In the most basic sense, a fuel cell utilizes a chemical reaction to produce electricity, much like the standard batteries we are all familiar with. While there are many different types of fuel cells, let’s take a look at a polymer exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) for the sake of simplicity.

In the basic construction, we basically have two plates with grooves or channels, one negative (called the anode) and one positive (called the cathode), much like the terminals on a battery. Between these two plates is a thin layer of material called a proton exchange membrane. Then, two “fuels” such as hydrogen and oxygen are sent down the channels on either side of the membrane. On the negative anode, molecules of a fuel like hydrogen are split into electrons (electricity) and protons (positively charged particles). The membrane allows the protons to cross the barrier in-between the two fuels while the electrons are forced to travel around an electrical circuit, generating a current, before rejoining the protons on the other side of the membrane and completing the chemical reaction, forming a byproduct such as water (in the case of hydrogen and oxygen) or carbon dioxide.

What About the Hydrogen?

In a world that relies upon naturally occurring and refined fuels such as gasoline, ethanol, propane, etc., how do we effectively produce the hydrogen necessary for fuel cells? While research continues in the pursuit of a long term, fully hydrogen sufficient solution, the answer for the transitional period from fossil fuels to hydrogen seems to lie in a process called “Steam Reforming.” Fuels like readily available methane (natural gas), ethanol, propane and even gasoline are reacted with steam at high temperatures (700 -1000ºC) and in the presence of a catalyst (a material that speeds up a chemical reaction) produces hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Then, in another process called the "water-gas shift reaction," the carbon monoxide from the previous reaction is reacted with water and another catalyst and water, producing more hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

After saying this, I’m sure some red flags have gone up. Aren’t we trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Isn’t that the point of using a fuel cell over conventional combustion? Won’t this just switch our dependence on imported oil to a dependence on natural gas? However, according to the U.S. Department of Energy,

“Producing hydrogen from natural gas does result in some greenhouse gas emissions. When compared to ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles using gasoline, however, fuel cell vehicles using hydrogen produced from natural gas reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60%... Current estimates indicate that using natural gas to produce hydrogen during the transition period to a hydrogen economy would increase overall U.S. natural gas consumption by less than five percent… [The Department of Energy] is not funding research activities for large-scale central production of hydrogen from natural gas. DOE efforts are focused on distributed natural gas reforming for the transition period only. Large-scale hydrogen production from natural gas reforming is a mature technology, and natural gas resources in the United States are limited—15% of the natural gas we use is imported. Producing large amounts of hydrogen from natural gas in the long term would only trade U.S. dependence on imported oil for U.S. dependence on imported natural gas.”

In addition, natural gas pipeline infrastructure already exists, reducing costs associated with needing new equipment, facilities and additional maintenance. Again, according to the department of energy, “Today, 95% of the hydrogen produced in the U.S. is made via natural gas reforming in large central plants. (The hydrogen produced is used predominantly for petroleum refining and ammonia production for fertilizer).”

High Efficiency

Another question that might arise is why do we even care about fuel cells? For one, they have incredible efficiency over standard batteries and combustible fuels alike. For two, they create less waste and/or pollution. Typical batteries are completely closed systems, meaning that when their internal chemicals are finished reacting (and cannot be reversed in the case of rechargeables) the battery is completely “dead” and must be replaced, generating landfill waste and possibly environmental hazards while fuel cells will generate electricity as long as the proper fuels are continuously supplied. Additionally, in terms of engines taking advantage of fuel cells, typical byproducts are water, carbon dioxide or other eco-friendly compounds.

Although fuel cells have advanced incredibly far since their first applications in NASA space programs, manufacturers still face many challenges in production. Equipment costs and sheer cost of materials (one material often found is platinum) used in the fuel cell must be overcome in order to make hydrogen cheap enough to be able to compete with current alternatives. Key research areas include reducing these costs with more effective catalysts/manufacturing methods and combining the many manufacturing processes required into several larger steps.

Despite these challenges, many companies are taking fuel cell technology to the next level, integrating them into various prototype consumer devices, vehicles and power generation devices. Among those companies are Honda with their FCX Clarity, their latest fuel cell vehicle, planned for availability to a limited number of customers in summer 2008. Other companies include Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies, whose remote control car runs completely on hydrogen, and Medis Technologies with their 24/7 Power Pack, producing portable power for a wide range of handheld devices.

+ Interview with the CSIRO in Australia

We are very pleased to have interviewed Dr. John Wright, Director of the Energy Transformed Flagship program at the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency.

TGG: Could you share a few of the changes that are happening or that are predicted for Australia as a result of global warming and why the Energy Transformed Flagship’s work is so important?
JW: Australia is a very dry continent and CSIRO climate modeling is indicating that we will be significantly impacted by global warming. We have done considerable regional climate change modeling and this information is available. The work of the Energy Transformed Flagship is targeted directly in developing technologies and systems that will assist Australia to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. This is important to show the world that Australia is assuming a responsible role in a global problem and also assist in reducing commercial risk for Australia given that we are the largest exporter of coal in the world and a significant supplier of gas and energy intensive products such as aluminum and alumina.

TGG: Australia was the latest country to sign the Kyoto Protocol – has that impacted the work of the Energy Transformed Flagship program?
JW: Australia is late in coming to the table. We do not expect a major impact on the work of the Flagship although we are exploring the potential of various Clean Development Mechanism opportunities that were closed to us.

TGG: Of the many projects within the Energy Transformed Flagship, which do you see as the most ambitious/aspiring in the long term? Most critical in the short term (~10+ yrs)?
JW: Probably our development of solar thermal technology. Now that Australia has a long term greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 60% by 2050 (over 200 levels) and a renewable energy target of 20% by 2020 and some of the best solar isolation areas in the world, this is an exciting area to be researching. Most critical in the shorter term is to pilot, demonstrate and install commercial carbon capture and sequestration technology for both existing and future fossil fuel power plants (both coal and gas).

TGG: Climate change seems to be something that is hard to quantify for many people. How do you plan on measuring the success of your programs, and in turn, communicating that to the public as something they can use?
JW: At the end of 2006, the Flagship released a report, "The Heat is On". This was the outcome of an energy futures forum that explored a range of energy scenarios for Australia out to 2050. The forum consisted of government, industry, environmental and public interest groups (20 in all). Look here for a copy of the report and more details. This analysis provide a range of energy trajectories that we now use to track the progress of the Flagship - at least the major Flagship activities that will assist us to achieve the progressive targets of the scenarios. We have just commenced a similar Future Fuels Forum that will track where out future transport fuels will come from. This report will be released mid 2008. Activities such as these provide a robust reporting mechanism to our stakeholders, including the public.

TGG: Making clean energy is critical, but with an ever increasing mobile world, energy storage is just as important. What is wrong with most conventional batteries today, and what makes the UltraBattery better?
JW: Conventional batteries, based on reversible chemical reactions are still not as robust as they need to be under the harsh mobile operating conditions - the best are expensive and still do not have long enough lives. The UltraBattery, being a combination of an advanced lead acid battery and a supercapacitor in the same page has the twin advantage of being cheaper than other types and also, due to the power handling capability of the supercapacitor - ie the physical charge storage characteristics, can smooth out the power flow to and from the battery for long life, well beyond that of other battery types.

TGG: Tell me about CSIRO’s work regarding supercapicitors, what they are, and how they might transform the way we use mobile electric devices.
JW: Supercapacitors have great power handling characteristics, but poor storage capacity. That is why the combination of a lead acid battery with its high storage capacity with a supercapacitor is so good - we get the best of both. For small applications, supercapacitors are also a good power device. Our initial work was taken over a few years ago and further developed by CapXX for use in communications devices.