October 21, 2009 –
OLLI and CALIT2: a look at renewable energy
They may have been out of school for many years and retired from successful careers, but approximately 30 eager and inquisitive students happily returned to the classroom last week. They were attending OLLI, the Osher Lifetime Learning Institute, which, for the 4th consecutive year, is conducting its fall course at CALIT2.
Renewable energy is the focus for this year’s three-week class. The opening session featured talks on solar energy and the convergence of information technology and energy.
Yongan Yang, a postdoctoral researcher in chemistry who is affiliated with UCI’s Center for Solar Energy, told the class that solar energy is plentiful; the energy delivered from the sun in one hour is approximately equal to the amount of energy consumed by humans in a year. But harnessing that energy and delivering it to consumers at a reasonable price is a challenge.
Yang explained that silicon solar panels absorb sunlight but rely on heat engines to produce power, leading to significant waste. “Ninety percent of solar power is generated from heat engines but a lot of that heat is lost,” he said.
By contrast, Yang and his mentor, professor Reg Penner, are working on thermo-electric materials that generate energy directly from solar rays. They are experimenting with nanomaterials that are formed into long nanowires, which absorb sunlight and produce electricity spontaneously when they’re heated on one end. To increase efficiency, they have developed a process called lithographically patterned nanowire electrodeposition, which suspends the nanowires across air gaps as they are deposited on glass wafers.
Nanocell and nanowire solar energy is in its infancy and will need another 10 years or so before becoming commercially available, Yang told the group.
Irvine director G.P. Li discussed CALIT2’s goal of using information technology to improve energy generation, transmission and utilization.
From reducing carbon dioxide emissions to increasing output to enabling consumers to sell energy back to the grid, information technology will change the face of the energy industry.
For example, said Li, most renewable power plants in the U.S. are located in remote locations far from the electric grid. In addition, fluctuation is inherent in wind and solar power generation. “We need to use IT to understand when energy is available, how much is available and how to get it,” he said.
Solutions include underground transmission, web-based interactive tools, cost allocation, distributed generation and demand response.
CALIT2 is also interested in increasing the efficiency of appliances, Li said. One response is the smart plug, which knows when to send power to the appliance and when to turn it off.
Smart systems can also address intermittency in supply and demand, as well as provide overall monitoring of the grid.
“A clear solution to increased energy demand could take 30 years,” he said. “But we can’t wait that long. We need to find other solutions and IT can be used to gain efficiency in the system now.”
Part two and three of the OLLI curriculum will address fuel cells, the smart grid, cleaner coal generation and nuclear power.
