GREEN DATA CENTER COOLING

Kristian Fredslund, Fridrik Rafn Isleifsson, Julie Juel

Andersen, Martina Zamboni, and Oxana Pantchenko

8/19/2009

C

OOLING

We design cooling solutions for future datacenters

using renewable solar energy while reducing electricity

consumption cost.

G

REEN

D

ATA

C

ENTER

C

OOLING

We design cooling solutions for future datacenters using renewable solar

energy while reducing electricity consumption cost.

A

BSTRACT

This report presents a business plan for a company that sells cooling

solutions for data centers. The main objective is to reduce electrical

consumption using solar powered absorption cooling. There is an increasing

demand for data centers and therefore an increased electricity demand. In

2006, this particular sector acquired 61 billion kWh of electrical energy,

which is approximately 1.5 percent of total electricity consumption in the

United States. Future predictions state, that by the year of 2011, the energy

consumption will exceed 100 billion kWh, for a price of 7.4 billion USD. In an

average data center, 30-40% of the electricity is consumed by the cooling

system. The aim of this study is to show whether a particular cooling system,

can reduce the electricity costs, CO2 emissions and if it is profitable to base a

business on. The outcome shows the cost of the absorption chiller and the

solar collectors is close to twenty five times the cost of a conventional chiller,

but with the reduced power consumption the cost is earned back in savings

on energy purchase. Assuming a power consumption of 70 kW for a

conventional chiller, the annual power consumption is 613,200 kWh. The

total cost is 91,980 USD per year for the cooling of the data center only.

Calculating the break-even point for the cooling system, it can be seen that in

6,7 years the absorption chiller has cost the same as the initial and running

costs of a conventional cooling system.

Contents

Abstract ... 1

Introduction ... 3

Background ... 3

Data Center and Its Energy Use ... 5

Business Proposal ... 7

Business Model and Pricing ... 9

Sales and marketing ... 10

Solar Powered Data Center Cooling ... 13

Competing Technologies Slide ... 17

The Team ... 20

Conclusion ... 21

Who did what ... 21

References ... 22

Appendix A ... 23

I

NTRODUCTION

Background

In the past few years, the renewable energy sources topic has been a frequent

discussion leader among politicians, economists and scientists. The demands

of energy are growing continuous as many professionals with different

backgrounds focus on the same problem of shortage of energy. For the past

several decades, government, academic, telecommunications and business

sectors have been slowly digitizing their daily activities and processes[1].

With that thought, demand for data centers has been rising in every sector of

economy.

Currently, there are several factors that increase demand for data centers.

They include;

• The increase use of electronic transactions in financial services

• The growing use of internet communication and entertainment

• The shift to electronic medical records for healthcare

• The growth in global commerce and services

• The adoption of satellite navigation

• High performance scientific computing

[1]

Sequentially, the number of data centers increased significantly in the last

several years causing to increasing energy consumption for its purposes.

Between the year of 2000 and 2006, the energy consumption doubled. In

2006, this particular sector acquired 61 billion kWh of electric energy, which

is approximately 1.5 percent of total electricity consumption in the United

States. The cost of this amount of energy approximates into 4.5 billion United

States dollars[1]. Figure 1 demonstrates number of data centers in the

Figure 1. Number of Data Centers in US. Localized Data Center was assumed to be less than 1000 sq. ft. with 100 servers, Mid-tier Data Center was assumed to be less than 5000 sq. ft. with 240 servers and Enterprise-Class Data Center was considered to be over 5000 sq. ft. holding approximately 500 servers.

When considering current efficiency trends and national energy consumption

up to date, by the year of 2011, the energy consumption should be more than

100 billion kWh, for a price of 7.4 billion United States dollars. In order to

accommodate such load on the power grid, additional 10 new power plants

would have to constructed and operate at a full capacity[1].

Data Center and Its Energy Use

Data center is a centralized repository used for storage, management and

dissemination of data and information organized around a particular body of

knowledge or pertaining to a particular business. A data center contains

equipment used for data processing, data storage and communications[2]. In

many cases, data centers also have special power conversion units and

backup equipment to maintain the proper temperature and humidity inside a

data center. It has been known that data centers can draw as much as 40

times electrical energy as conventional office buildings[1].

Typically, data centers have no windows and very little circulation of fresh

air. They are designed to hold maximum number of computer at maximum

operation. The size of a typical data center varies from small room to large

building, also known as

enterprise class data centers[1].

Data centers can easily

recognize by equipment racks

that contain servers, storage

devices and network equipment.

Before each rack, electricity is

first supplied to an

uninterruptible power supply

(UPS) unit. It acts as a battery

backup to prevent business

disruption or data loss[1].

Figure 2 demonstrates major

electrical components of a data

center.

Since data centers operate 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, servers and

power delivery equipment generate significant amount of heat. In order for

this equipment to function properly, this heat has to be removed from the

data center. In many cases, such heat in data centers can be removed by

computer room air conditioning units[1]. Such units contain fans, filters,

cooling coils, and other equipment that conditions and distributes air

throughout the data center room. Many data center rooms are designed in

such a way that only small amount of air enters from outside. Three main

components that consume the most power are servers, cooling equipment and

power delivery[1]. Only half of the power that enters the data center is used

for servers the other fifty percent is divided between powering cooling and

power equipment[1]. Figure 3 demonstrates total electricity use for server in

the US and the world in 2000 and 2005, including associated cooling and

auxiliary equipment.

Figure 3 Total electricity use for servers in the US and the world in 2000 and 2005, including the associated cooling and auxiliary equipment. [3]

B

USINESS

P

ROPOSAL

The Problem and Value Proposition

T

HE

P

ROBLEM AND

V

ALUE

P

ROPOSITION

"Our new data center uses half of the energy of the total

office building."

"Electricity used in data centers are expected to rise to 5%

of total use in US"

"Researchers are already discarding projects because we

cannot supply the computing power they need."

Cost per 16 years in US dollars Reference System Proposed System

UPS investment 200000 130000

UPS running battery cost 320000 208000

Chiller investment 32000 790000

Chiller power consumption 1500000 0

Backup generator 48000 24000

Total 2100000 1152000

Figure 4 The Problem and Value Proposition

The slide above shows a comparison of initial and operating costs between a

reference data center and a data center of the same capacity using the

proposed cooling technique.

To estimate the economical feasibility of using absorption cooling instead of

conventional cooling systems, a comparison of initial cost and operating costs

over a time period is made. Doing this it is possible to find out how long it

takes for the absorption cooling system to earn its initial cost back in saved

energy consumption.

About 30-40% of the electricity consumption in an average data center goes to

the cooling system, this part of the electrical consumption can be removed

using solar powered absorption cooling. It is also possible to reduce initial

costs of UPS and backup generators, because the absorption cooling system

does not need an electricity supply to function.

In a reference system that has a total power consumption of 200 kW, it can be

assumed that approximately 50 % goes to the servers, 15 % to other use and

35 % is used by the cooling system. As the absorption cooling does not need

UPS or backup power the power output of the UPS and the backup

generators can be reduced by 35 %, reducing the initial investment of the

data center.

The cost of the absorption chiller and the solar collectors is close to ten times

the cost of a conventional chiller, but with the reduced power consumption

the cost is earned back in savings on energy purchase.

The initial investments are UPS’s, backup generator and chillers. The UPS’s

cost 100,000.00 USD for each 100 kW [4], a 150 kW gas powered generator

costs 24,000 USD [5]. The chillers cost 32,000 USD for a conventional chiller

and 790,000 USD for a solar powered absorption chiller, where 132,000 USD

is the cost of the solar collectors and 588,000 USD is the cost of the

absorption chiller and 69,000 USD is the cost of ice storage.[6].

Assuming a power consumption of 70 kW for a conventional chiller, the

annual power consumption is 613,200 kWh. Today, the average price of one

kilowatt hour is 0.17 USD for the summer and 0.13 USD for the winter

period, giving a total cost of 91,980 USD per year only for the cooling of the

data center [7].

Now it is possible to calculate the simple break-even point for the cooling

system, using the above costs for initial and running costs it can be seen that

in 6.7 years the absorption chiller has cost the same as the initial and

B

USINESS

M

ODEL AND

P

RICING

B

USINESS

M

ODEL AND

P

RICING

• Chiller package

o Using of the shelf components

o Absorption technology and solar collectors o Eliminate cooling electricity load

• Eliminate traditional chillers in new data centers • Price basis:

o Chiller: $147k

o Chiller installation: $50k

o Solar collectors: $132k (including installation) o Profit margin: $50k (15%) • Selling price: $380k • Comparable std. installations: $73k Component producer System designer System Implement or Operator/m

aintenence End User

Figure 5 Business Model and Pricing

Figure 5 describes the business model of this company, basically how we are

going to make money. We have done cost calculations so we can estimate the

savings to a costumer and figure out the best marketing strategy.

The main issue here is that the capital costs are almost an order of

magnitude larger than for the conventional system. But the energy efficiency

will cover this expense quickly. See Appendix A for further calculations and

investigations.

Another issue is the overall company strategy. After the first pilot plant is

built, how is the company going to make money. Where in the value chain

can the company contribute the most to the overall value. This issue has not

been solved completely and is one of the things that have to be considered if

the business plan is to be implemented.

S

ALES AND MARKETING

S

ALES AND

M

ARKETING

• In 2009, there are approximately 6000 data centers in the US, they use 1,2% of the total electricity, expected to rise to 5% in 2020.

• An estimated 1000 of those are from 20-200KW in California. • Server lifetime 3 years, installation lifetime 16 years • Collective computing power doubles every 18 months • 200 New/refurbished data centers in this segment each year

• Data centers are mostly individually designed by operator in cooperation with independent consultants

• Market entrance: o Target consultants

pro-moting green solutions o Build promotion centers

(public) to create awareness o Cooling is normally not

operated by sysadmins (target might be building operators) 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 N u m b e r o f D a ta C e n te r s

Number of Data Centers in US

Localized Data Center Mid-tier Data Center Enterprise-class Data Center

Figure 6 Sales and Marketing

Figure 6 holds the key information about the market that we are targeting.

Extensive research has been carried out to get numbers of data centers and

the overall market segmentation. Interviews and field studies have been

conducted with representative costumers in the market.

The process of how the data center is built and what actors are involved in

the design and construction is still not well defined. There are still unknowns

concerning the extent at which the different stakeholders can influence a

decision concerning the cooling system.

The growth in the market is unquestionable, but the introduction of virtual

servers can reduce the power consumption and the total computational load

in the data centers. This has the present influence that server loads are

actually dropping while the number of services is staying the same or

increasing[8].

Silicon Valley is one of the world’s data-center-hotspots, but also located in a

climate with higher temperatures and a high solar influx. This makes the

location ideal for implementation of solar powered cooling. A large

concentration of datacenters with the same regulatory framework and

location is a natural first target segment.

M

ARKET

D

RIVERS

• Rising energy costs + consumption • Make the data center more "green"

• "LEED" points attainable for cooling solution • Incentives for Renewable & Efficiency:

(Our package complies with California Energy Code standards (Title 24))

Energy-Efficient Commercial Buildings (Federal)

o $1.80 per square foot for buildings that save 50% or more are eligible for a tax deduction

o $0.60 per square foot for buildings that save 20% on cooling Buildings must meet the ASHRAE 90.1-2001 standard.

California Solar Initiative (State rebate program)

Offers 10 years of State rebates from PG&E, SCE and SDG&E, depending on system size and performance.

 Non residential customers> 50kW gain 1.10 - 1.80 USD

per Watt

 Incentives declines in a step based system

Figure 7 Market Drivers

Figure 7 summarizes the different market drivers towards our

solution we have identified in our research. The two main drivers are

the ability to reduce electricity cost and to provide a greener

solution than today. Other factors that influence the markets

decisions are the public funded incentives and LEED certification

points.

Energy efficiency standards for residential and nonresidential

buildings are set by Part 6 of the California Energy Code. These

standards, well known as Title 24, were established in 1978 as a

response to a legislative mandate to reduce California's energy

consumptions. Since then, standards have been updated periodically to

allow new energy technologies and methods. Projects that apply for a

building permit on or after this date must comply with the 2005

Standards, while 2008 standards will be effective from January 1st,

2010.

There are also appliances efficiency standards for lighting, heating,

cooling equipment, water heaters, etc. (Household Appliance Efficiency

Regulations, 2007).

In addition to this, specific standards for cooling applications are

set by ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and

Air-Conditioning Engineers).

Federal tax incentives provide a tax deduction of 1.80 USD per

improved square foot to owners of new or existing buildings who reduce

the building’s total heating, cooling, ventilation, water heating and

interior lighting energy cost by 50% or more compared to the ASHRAE

Standard reference building. Partial deductions of 0.60 USD per square

foot are available for owners installing improvements to the building

envelope, lighting, or HVAC of a building that reduces either heating,

cooling or interior lighting energy by 16%.

At state level, California Solar Initiative (CSI) offers 10 years of

state solar rebates from PG&E, SCE and SDG&E. Rebates vary according

to system size and performance, and decline in time on a step based

system.

However, the goal of this company is to be able to provide a product

that in its own right is so appealing to the costumer that they will

buy it. On that basis, no governmental subsidies are included in the

economic feasibility studies. Only the simple direct savings are

included.

S

OLAR

P

OWERED

D

ATA

C

ENTER

C

OOLING

S

OLAR

P

OWERED

D

ATA

C

ENTER

C

OOLING

• 100KW Data Center Example • 1100m2_{solar collectors (a redzone)}

• 2400KWh cooling/sun required, 6 hour sun time • 1800KWh storage, 2 tons of ice = 21 m2

• IP could be developed in controls and storage management • Well tested and documented technology

• 100% renewable cooling, providing storage + unlimited runtime* Ice Adsorp. Chiller light Ice storage CW Data Center 2.5KWh 1KWh 1KWh 1KWh heat

Figure 8 Solar Powered Data Center Cooling

Solar cooling (later called SC) is a solar technology that produces cold by

exploiting solar energy. A big potential for this technology comes from the

fact that, in many cooling applications, the greatest demands occurs when

solar radiation is at maximum. However, this is not quite the case for data

centers, whose energy requirement is almost constant in time. Please refer to

Figure 9.

There are two practical approaches to solar cooling:

1. Pair a PV array with a standard air conditioning unit.

2. Pair a solar thermal collector with an absorption chiller.

In case 2, the system should be grid-tied so that if the PV system is

insufficient or if cooling is not required electricity can be transferred to and

from the grid.

Photovoltaic refrigeration, although uses standard refrigeration equipment

which is an advantage, has low efficiency and higher costs. In fact, the price

for solar thermal energy is currently 0.31USD/kWh, while PV is 0.50

USD/kWh. Peak price is 0.5 USD/W

peak

, while PV is still 8 USD/ W

peak

. [9-10].

The PV solution is not cost effective, and will not be discussed here.

In the SC system in exam, the heat from the sun is collected and transferred

to an adsorption chiller, where ice production happens through a

thermodynamic cycle. In order to provide 24 hours of cooling power, ice from

the chiller is stored in a tank, and melt later on at night.

We use non imaging, stationary solar collector. The specific design is Winston

Compound Parabolic Collector (XCPC), a basic stationary parabolic collector

coupled to a Dewar type evacuated tube. See Figure 10. The design has been

developed by the Argonne National laboratory in the early 70’s, and improved

by R. Winston in 2004.

The XCPC has a wide acceptance angle (+/-35°) and can operate without

tracking, thus decreasing the cost. As a downside, concentration ratio is only

1.1-1.5x, depending on incidence angle.

Efficiency depends on both optical and thermal properties. See Figure 11.

Optical efficiency, (accounting for absorption, reflection and geometry, is

η

0

=0.59 . Besides, there are thermal losses due to the difference in

temperature between the fluid and the environment. The useful power can be

estimated as:

P

useful

=

η

0

A*I – P

loss

(T

coll

, T

amb

)*A

where A is the collector aperture area, I is incident solar radiation, and P

loss

is heat loss per unit area per unit time, which is function of the average

collector operating temperature (T

coll

) and average ambient temperature

(T

amb

). Thermal efficiency would decrease with increasing temperature difference. See

Figure 12.

Figure 11 Efficiency vs. temperature difference in evacuated solar collectors, at different concentrations. XCPC is assumed to follow the 1.5x curve [12].

All components are low cost, with minimal operation and maintenance and

expected lifetime of 15 years. Estimated production and installation cost is

100 USD per square meter [13].

Figure 12 Efficiency vs. temperature for XCPC collectors[13].

Collectors are sold in modules consisting of 6 tubes, whose gross dimensions

are 1.6 x 1.3 x 0.2 m.

Assuming that California receives 6 hours of peak solar irradiance per day

[14]. See Figure 13 for typical daily irradiance. Assumed that the efficiency

of solar collectors is 0.4 at 180 degrees Celsius (Figure 12), it would require a

surface of 1100 square meters (a football field) to cover the energy

consumption of a 100kW data center.

A fraction of this energy (1800 kWh) would be stored in a 21 m

3

_tank,

containing 2 tons of ice.

C

OMPETING

T

ECHNOLOGIES

S

LIDE

C

OMPETING TECHNOLOGIES

100KW Servers installed Solar area [m2] Grid power use [KW] Capital Cost Running cost Reliabili ty Green image Carbon footprint Conventional chiller ₁₅₀ Very

low Very high Decent Bad High PV panels

conventional

cooling 1420 Low Low Decent

Very good, PV Low Solar concetrated power and UPS 5670 Very

high Very low Good Good Low

SC powered

absorbtion 1420 High Low Good Good,

solar Low

Figure 14 Competing Technologies

The following equation was used to calculate the area of solar panels needed

to provide the desired amount of energy.

  ·  1_η ·  

 ! "#$% & _' ( · η)*+

, - '

Where P

Cooling

is the cooling power needed, η

Cooling

is the efficiency of the

cooling system, η

Solar

is the efficiency of the solar panel and A is the area of

the solar panels and calculating for 24 hours, using a solar influx of 5.5

kWh/m

2

_.

For a data center with a consumption of 130 kW, using PV panels to supply a

conventional cooling system:

P

Cooling

= 130 kW, η

Cooling

= 2, η

Solar

= 0.2

130 · 0122 · 24  5,5 _' · 0.2

For a data center with a consumption of 130 kW, using solar collectors

supplying an absorption cooling system:

P

Cooling

= 130 kW, η

Cooling

= 1, η

Solar

= 0.4

130 · 0112 · 24  5,5 _' · 0.4

, 1418 '

For a data center with a consumption of 130 kW, using solar collectors to

supply an absorption cooling system and a stirling engine utilizing heat from

the solar collectors to provide power to the data center.

P

Cooling

= 130 kW, η

Cooling

= 1, η

Solar

= 0.4, η

Stirling

130 · 0 1_{0.272 9 130 · 0}1_{12 · 24}

5,5 _' · 0.4 , 6671 

'

Explanation of the cost, reliability and Carbon footprint.

Systems can be stated with a "good" reliability, if they do not rely on

electricity from the grid. The grid in US is not always reliable, so with

systems that is feed by a renewable source such as solar-energy is more

reliable. In our solution of Solar Collectors that powers absorption cooling the

reliability can be stated good. Furthermore the case also includes generator

and UPS, so the customers, are not to be concerned.

A conventional chiller is stated "decent", on reliability, because it relies on

the grid. When powers black out, there will be no back ups for running the

conventional chillers. Reliability is also measured for the equipment.

Addressing the environmental concerns

Renewable Cooling products are a step on the way to reduce you Carbon

Footprint.

For addressing the environmental concerns and reduce the Carbon Footprint

with Renewable Cooling, you will save both money and Carbon Footprint by

skipping electricity from the grid. Furthermore less back up UPS batteries

are needed.

Result:

+ Decrease electricity consumption from the grid

+ Decrease material use and electronic equipments

= Less Carbon Footprint .

Measuring the Carbon Footprint for all the four different systems requires

the program of SimaPro or others. It is doubly a thing to consider, specially

the production of lead-acid batteries for the UPS are one of the main culprits.

A large Global warming culprit is the production of electricity. The harmful

effect varies according how it is produced. If the electricity is produced in

Denmark the factor of harmfulness is bigger (factor 0.5) than it is for the

electricity produced in California (factor 0.24). The reason is that in

California they use far more Renewable Energy than in Denmark.

By using the SC powered absorption system instead of a conventional chiller

system to cooling of 100 kW Data Center the CO

2

e emissions will be reduced

by:

T

HE

T

EAM AND

M

ILESTONES

T

HE

T

EAM

T

HAT

W

ILL

P

USH

F

ORWARD

CEO Market Experience Business Strategy Entrepreneurship System Designer Experience Connections System Integrator Technical Experience Operator Technical Experience

Figure 15 The Team

M

ILESTONES

year 1 year 2 year 3 year 4 year 5

Pilot ordered 6/10 1st plant operational 12/10 Pilot tests complete 12/11

C

ONCLUSION

The market for data center cooling is a large market with a steady growth.

The drivers for adopting new technologies are strong and will most likely

intensify in the future.

We have a solid technical solution for a problem that is readily identified by

the costumers. A cooling solution with an absorption chiller and ice storage is

a viable solution for data centers located in sunny areas. The investment

costs are high, but the savings in electricity costs are significant.

Utilizing the suns energy will enable the cooling to run almost without any

use of electricity. This will both improve the costumer’s green image as well

as the lowering their electricity bill.

The main identified problem is the business proposal. How can this company

continue to make money after the first pilot plants are built? What is the

continuous contribution to the value chain? This will have to be addressed,

but can be solved without a doubt so that the business can grow and decrease

the overall data center energy use.

W

HO DID WHAT

Kristian did most of the cooling research and calculations.

Martina did solar and part of the legislature.

Julie did empirical data research and cost and environment impact

calculations.

Fridrik did energy costs and calculations.

Oxana did market size analysis and history related research.

The writing of the report was done tight collaboration between every member

of the group.

R

EFERENCES

1. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, E.S.P., Public Law 109-431: Report to Congress on Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency Public Law 109-431. US Environmental Protection Agency ENERGY STAR Program. 2007, U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency, ENERGY STAR Program

2. TechTarget. SearchDataCenter.com Definitions. 2005 [cited 2009; Available from:

http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid80_gci332661,00.html. 3. Koomey, J.G., Estimating total power consumption by servers in the US and the

world. Final report. February, 2007. 15. 4. APC.com, Symmetra® PX. 2009.

5. PoweredGenerators.com. Guardian Elite 150kW 6.8L Generator Review 2009 [cited; Available from: http://www.poweredgenerators.com/guardian/elite-150kW.html. 6. Winston, R., Solar Collectors with Evacuated Receiver and Nonimaging External

Reflectors. 2004, Foley and Lardner: US.

7. Company, P.G.E. 2009 [cited; Available from: www.pge.com. 8. UCSC: ITS Data Center Tour, in Eric Keisler. 2009: Santa Cruz, CA.

9. J. Norwood,N. Kamphuis, D. Sotham, MSE 226: Distributed Solar Thermal/Electric generation (2007)

10. A. Nottrott, Solar Radiation In California Report, UC San Diego. 11. www.solarbuzz.com

12. J. O'Gallagher, Nonimaging Optics in Solar Eergy, Morgan & Claypool Publisher (2008)

13. R. Winston, Solar collectors with evacuated receiver and nonimaging external reflectors, US Patent n.US 2004/0261788 A1 (2004)

14. National Solar Radiation Data Base (NSRDB),

http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/

15. UC San Diego Decision Making Using Real-time Observations for Environmental Sustainability (DEMROES), 2009.

A

PPENDIX

A

F

IELD

T

RIP

D

IARIES

Zero Motor Cycles

Friday, July 31, 9:30 am - 10:30 am

Founded in 2006 with approx $450k angel funding. Neal Sykie, aerospace engineer, educated by calpoly, worked in nasa doing transport analysis.

$25m additional funding from private equity fund in NY. Started by 4 rich Belgian families. Initial $25m growth to $4b. strategic investors. None of the ones in Silicon Valley were interested. Break even expected q4 2010.

The key is the batteries, the li-ion technology was the enabling factor that made electric motorcycles feasible. Last year was full blast on production, improvements have been implemented within the year, jumps in performance have been seen. The key performance indicators are $/kWh and energy density within the batteries. Tha battery capacity is 3,8KWh in a package of 85 pounds. The spare part cost of the battery is $5000. A full charge will take 4 hours, but most of the trips will be smaller and the charging time is much less. The deep-cycle recharge will take a heavy toll on battery life. The number of cycles (deep charge) was to be “hundreds”, but the smaller quick charges is not noticeable on battery performance. The battery is considered dead when the full charge capacity is less than 80% of the beginning value. The continuous current draw is 100 amps and with a voltage of 50V then the running effect is 5kw, but the peak power output goes up to 17kw.

The company has an mechanical engineering department, working with SolidWorks and finite element model analysis. The design of the motorcycle frame is their own and is tailored specifically for an electric motorcycle. The weight is very low, the frame is only around 30 pounds.

They also have an electrical engineering department, working on their own brushless engine design (not implemented). Their main products are a charging device monitoring the

individual cells to make sure that the charging and load on each cell is well balanced. They are also moving on a motor controller and have problems getting the skilled engineers that know analog to digital conversions.

weight Battery

capacity

range Top speed 0-30 mph Price Swap battery

Dirt bike 50 2 7,5k No

Urban 55 2,5 10k yes

2 main competitors shipping electric motorcycles (larger than scooters): Bravo and Quantia. Today the production facility can produce 10 bikes a day, but at the end of 2010 they expect to ramp up production to 20 bikes /day.

The motors used today are brushing motors with no regenerative breaking. The new design will be better motors with engine braking capabilities. They have put a lot of effort into making the throttle response of the motorcycle as close as possible to the dynamics of a traditional ICE motorcycle. The weight of the motorcycle is less than that of conventional ICE motorcycles. The limited amount of power available makes weight hugely important.

NASA Ames

Friday, July 31, 11am – 12pm

NASA Ames is placed just before the area of the innovative area of Silicon Valley. Started as NACA in 1939 the area now has 2500-3000 employees.

Unfortunately, we did not have the time to go inside in the different tunnels and buildings, but we got a guided tour around the buildings.

Wind tunnels and Hangar:

As we walked around we looked at, and told about, the large hangar that is found inside NASA Ames. It has the space for 3 Titanic. The hangar is the second hangar in the history of NASA. The first was placed in Langley.

Facilities at NASA Ames also include wind tunnels as big as 80 * 100 fod. The largest test can be done at 345.000 miles per hour. Furthermore, a smaller wind tunnel with wind speeds up to 10.000 miles per hour is part of the facilities of NASA.

The Blower in the tunnel has 135.000 HP made by a power plant. They have a High Voltage directly to the tunnel.

All simulations are made by super-computers. Actually the world’s thirds largest computer is at NASA Ames.

NASA Ames Microgrid Facility Testbed

Friday, July 31, 11am – 12pm

UC Santa Cruz had in the lab facilities at NASA Ames installed a 1KW solar array. The array is mounted in a tracking system that improved the performance of the panel. The tracking system has a material cost of approximately $6000, but the real cost is the

installation which amounted to $12000. The tracking system and installation is therefore by far the most expensive part of the system.

The tracker operates with at small solar detector at the top of the panel and the panel then turns, (slowly but steadily) towards the one of the diodes that receives the most sunlight. They have installed an expensive measuring device that can make IV-curves for the panel; the device utilizes an capacitor, which gives the ability to provide a full spectrum of load from short circuit to no load. They did two different sweeps to illustrate the difference between a

They have not done any lifecycle analysis on the panels, but they expected the power consumption from making the panel would be offset after 1 to 2 years (this should be validated in an analysis).

San Luis Reservoir

Saturday, August 1, 8am – 10am

The San Luis reservoir is an artificial lake made as a part of a water distribution system for California and electrical energy storage. To make the reservoir a dam was built in the valley and water was led through channels to fill it up. To store electrical energy water is pumped up to the reservoir and during high demand time is used to produce electrical energy. Using renewable energy sources to pump the water, while demand for electricity is low and energy would otherwise go to waste; this method for storing electrical energy has the potential to increase use of renewable energy sources.

The technology used is well known and tested so technological challenges are few, but to make this method for energy storage more attractive the efficiency of the pumping process would need to be improved so as not to waste to big a part of the energy. Because the same machine is used for pumping water and producing electricity a compromise on the type of turbine wheel must be made, the power plant uses Francis turbines which are not the most efficient types of turbines for pumping and generating for this particular site, but are the best option while combining the two processes.

For building more hydro storage plants the biggest obstacle would be getting it approved due to environmental concerns. The reservoir can change the height of ground water in the immediate area, turning otherwise useful land into swamps, so that it would not only be the space the reservoir takes up, but also the surrounding area that could be influenced.

A big advantage of using an hydro storage facility in Denmark would be that during the nights where electrical power consumption is low, it would be ideal to store excess wind power using this method of energy storage. Unfortunately the disadvantages of using this method are bigger than the advantages, due to Denmark being a very flat country sites where a reservoir could be dammed up are few, if there are any.

Advantages of using this method in California are that there are more opportunities for making reservoirs using natural sites. To use this form of energy storage it would be optimal to use excess energy from a sustainable energysource to store electrical energy, but as California seems to be mostly focusing on solar energy it does not match this application well as the energy would optimally be stored during the night.

UC Merced Solar Test Facility

Mon, August 3, 10:30am – 12:00pm

1- Concentrated Photovoltaics (CPV), that employ high efficiency multi junction solar cells to convert direct solar flux into electricity;

2- Concentrating Solar Thermal devices, that use concentrated sunlight to heat water; 3- and finally, Concentrated Solar Lighting, bringing natural light directly into buildings through optical fibers.

Concentrated solar technologies are an optimal solution in California, where latitude and climate guarantee many bright days with no clouds, and good average insulation.

1- Concentrated photovoltaics

Concentration is achieved through Compound Parabolic Concentrators (CPC), whose original SolFocus design has been improved: second generation concentrators are made of an

achromatic parabolic primary mirror (aluminum covered in PMMA) and a secondary small dome (glass molded and silver coated), so that light impinging on the primary mirror is not focused onto the cell, but onto the secondary mirror.

Ripples on the surface soften the focus, to avoid hot spots that could damage the cell. Acceptance is +/- 1.2 degrees, that requires tracking of the sun.

The efficiency of the optical system is 86% (versus 70% of the first generation). There's a heat sink on the bottom, and air/water cooling is possible.

Future improvements in design might involve hexagonal concentrators that would make the system more compact.

Tests have been run @ California Lighting Technology Center.

Solar cells in use are InGaP/GaAs/Ge triple junction manufactured by Emcore, whose efficiency is currently 35%-40%. Cell size is 1 cm2.

Concentrated flux is proven to improve the cell performance, until a maximum is reached. In III-V multi junctions as the one in use, the maximum is achieved at 500 suns flux (1 sun = 1 kW/m2): therefore, all concentration ratios are built around this value. Traditional Silicon cells can't stand this flux, and must work at lower concentrations (<100 suns).

Main benefits of CPCs are: simple design, low cost materials, high efficiency and uniform flux distribution o the cell surface.

The main problem is moisture that can diminish the efficiency of the cell, and heating related issues. Complications arise when several systems are built in series.

2- Solar Thermal

In solar thermal systems, the parabolic collector surrounds a vacuum tube, inside which a fluid (mineral oil) loops around. Within 100 cycles, fluid temperature can increase from room temperature to 200°C. Huge arrays of 160 collectors can be used on industrial sites.

These collectors have a broad acceptance angle (60°) and do not require tracking, but is confined to small concentrations (1.5-1.8). The system has a low efficiency (35%-45%), but is definitely cheaper than PV arrays.

Main problems come from heating and weight of the system (when several CPCs are put together). Besides, a storage system is necessary.

and conveyed to the interiors of the building, through a light pipe. This helps to reduce electricity demand (and related heat production). This technology is of easy constructability and allows to integrate natural and electric light (hybrid systems).

Gallo Biogas Facility

Monday, August 3rd, 1pm – 3pm

The fieldtrip took its beginning at "the world largest waterbed". A 7 acres big lagoon covered with plastic to make the inside anaerobic. It was build in 2004 and the input was 2,5 million dollars and in addition they got 1,5 million dollars in grant. Still there are 10 years payback time.

Biogas production:

Biogas production requires a steady environment for the bacteria to ferment and produce the gas. We are not sure of how much it differs between night and day here in Merced. But the climate differs from summer compared to winter, so maybe the gas production goes more slower in winter time. A possibility to optimize the gas production could be to use the heat from the power plant, so the temperature in the lagoon will rise. A bigdifferences from the Danish climate is that in Denmark the temperature varieties more, so there is a need for heating the process. The system needs to be stable either at 30-40 C (mesospheric) or at 50-55 C and (hemophilic). The natural production of methane in the rumen of a cattle, takes place at 39 C degrees and pH at 6,5. By copying the naturally design of the rumen of cattle’s, methane can be produced in human controlled conditions in biogas plants and used for energy sources. In this case the biogases are used in a combination for heat and power. The methane production actually only constitutes 65 % of the biogas produced. The rest is CO2. The energy content is in methane, and by then CO2 is not to be included in the biogas potential. When the biogas is burned it says that it is CO2 neutral.

The picture shows the lagoon. The "bobbles" consist of methane produced by anaerobic bacteria. The lagoon have a capacity of 44,225,000 gallon (167,409 m3) of manure. Its an ongoing process, 24 hour a day.

Farm information:

The farm is a "vertically integrated dairy, farming and cheese making enterprise". The production started way back in 1946. It now consists of 14.000 acres (5666 hectar) of land. 500 people living at the area of the farm. They try to hire entire families to work at the farm.

100.000 gallons (378 m3) of milk are produced each day. 80 % of the milk is from their own livestock. The livestock are placed at 4 Farms.

There are around 35,000 dry and diary cattle. There are only one site with a digester and at that particular site there are 14.000 cattle.

The missing smell at the biogas "plant" was explained by that the cattle was not feed with any artificial hormones. They are mainly feed with natural feed from the farm.

All in all it is an extremely efficiency system. The farm has a very integrated and profitable system.

Biogas in Denmark:

In Denmark we have had biogas for many years. But in many years it has not been profitable for a farmer (not even groups of farmers) to invest in bio gas plants, even though they also will obtain a much more efficient manure, when degassed. The problem is the taxes. In our country Sweeden they have removed the taxes and implemented biogas into there grid of natural gas. Actually you can buy biogas for your vehicle at the gasoil stations. Some busses in Sweeden are right now driven by gas bought in Denmark. There are for sure a future for more biogas production in Denmark. We do have a huge lifestock of both cattle, pigs and chickens which all produce manure with high biogaspotential. By combination both manure and waste from households, you can obtain an even higher biogaspotential. In Denmark a huge amount of the waste are already used for CHP.

UC Merced Cooling + energy tour/lecture

Who: John Elliot, Assisant director of energy and sustanability at UC Merced. Tuesday, August 4th, 8:30am – 10:00am

They key issue for all the energy saving efforts here is the building energy efficiency. The basis for their energy efficiency plan is improving target numbers. The target numbers are from the other UC facilities and are corrected for climate and location differences so that there exists a base load on each of the 3 types of buildings (lab, residential, office). they have the target of reducing the energy consumption to 50% of the reference numbers.

They have not done any lifecycle studies and are not considering the total carbon footprint. They are focusing on running costs. The energy savings runs in approximately $1 mio per year compared to other universities. The long term goal (2020) is to have a zero carbon footprint and to have all net consumption of energy from renewable sources.

They will have a new solar plant on 1MW in photovoltaics installed on campus. the installation is done by a contractor and the university have committed to a 20 year power deal at fixed costs. The investment is therefore not done by the university. The power prices agreed upon is actually lower than the rates they get today from PG and E.

They have a challenge with the data centers as the power consumption in the data center is expected to increase by an order of magnitude. This will be a serious challenge for the target goal on decreasing the overall energy consumption. There is talks about building a off-campus centralized UC data center where different off-campuses would house their IT equipment. this would enable a location which is more suitable climate wise. The most important factor is the efficiency of the cooling system, which is more or less determined by the ambient temperature.

At UC Merced they have a central cooling plant that supplies chilled water to the buildings for ac and to the data center for cooling. Around 25% of the electricity load of the campus is for the cooling system. It also uses 15% of the total water consumption for the evaporative condensation. (50% water is irrigation and rest 35% is tap water). The cooling plant runs at night and loads up a cold storage tank (2mio gal) for usage during the day. The lower nighttime temperature and the lower electricity rates amount to a cost reduction of 15-20% per year.

The campus is planned to expand by a factor of 8 in the next years, so the cooling facility is oversized by a factor of 2. This have an impact on performance, but the cold store minimizes this disadvantage. They plan to build new facilities as the campus expands.

They have a district heating system that runs with natural gas boilers. The heat load is unknown but from 25-75% of the cooling load. There is no heat recovery from that. The indoor climate is controlled mainly in therms of temperature and they have very advanced air mixing valves that can do both heating and cooling of the air. The valves are controlled for the individual rooms from a temperature sensor in each room. There is also a monitoring of the co2 level, but the adjustments based on that are limited.

They have a datacenter for the administration but it is very inefficient because the room was initially planned as a telecommunications room (very light heatload) and the layout and infrastructure are not suitable for at data center. The room was cooled by two central hvac units, but the airflow was very mixed and the performance was poor. The return temperature of the cold water for the system was too high, which caused problems later in the chilled water system (the storage tank).

John explained that in a new facility they are building, the data center consumes the same amount of energy as the rest of the 100.000 squarefeet (9300m3) building.

California Legislature, Sacramento

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009, 10:30AM – 12:30PM Discussion with: • Kip Wiley, Senate Office of Research

• Lawrence Lingbloom, Chief Consultant to the Assembly Natural Resources Committee • Kellie Smith, Consultant to the Senate Energy, Utilities

Tour with:

• Fred Keeley

Today, we visited the most beautiful Capitol in Sacramento, California. • California Legislature is represented by the Senate and the Assembly.

o Senate consist of 40 members, each serving a 4 year term. Each Senate member can serve up to two appointments.

o Assembly consist of 80 member, each serving 2 year term. Each Assembly member can serve up to three appointments.

• California Senate or Assembly can introduce a bill, however the number of bills by each group is limited. For instance, Senate can introduce up to 32 bills and Assembly members can introduce up to 40 bills.

o The bill has to be in print for 3 days before it can be discussed during the official meeting.

• In Senate, to pass any bill there has to be 21 votes for it, while in an urgent matter Senate has to agree on it with 27 votes.

• 50% of bills that get introduced in the legislature never get passed.

• The state of California used to be a leader in environmental laws before the Federal Government overtook.

• Less than 20 years go, 1 Senator thought that the Earth is flat.

• California legislature first officially became active on the topic of energy efficiency in the beginning of 70s.

o There haven't been any standards enforced for data centers. o Sufficient number of data farms (large data center) are moving out from

California. This is happening due to high cost of energy. o Renewable Energy Sources

 geothermal  wind energy  photovoltaic

 not hydroelectric because it is encouraging of building more dams that harm the environment.

o By 2020, 1/3 of all power has to come from the renewable energy sources. This rule was proposed by our governor.

o It takes 8 years from the time when a bill gets proposed to the time when the actual building occurs.

• California legislature favors photovoltaic purchase and installation in the following way:

o subsidizes cost of the panel by returning 15% of the original cost o Federal government gives 30% back of the original cost

o there is no property tax on this additional installation

• In 2001, California raised awareness of the public of their energy consumption. It worked really well.

• Most of energy in California comes from the following sources o Hydroelectric

o Nuclear o Natural Gas o Photovoltaic

• There is currently an ongoing installation of photovoltaic panels being done in Mojave Desert

o Current problems:

 mirrors get dusty from sand storms and vehicles that are operating near by

 rotating mechanical parts break down because of the sand that gets into them

 panels interfere with the native species

• A lot of people in California support renewable sources however some of them say "Not in my back yard approach"

• By 2050, California State needs to achieve 80% mark in renewable energy sources.

California ISO

Thursday, August 6th, 8am – 12pm

CAISO is the independent operator of California’s electrical transmission system. It is a non-profit corporation which is in control of running most of California’s transmission system and to operate the electrical energy market. CAISO is regulated by FERC, who make sure CAISO follows the mandatory standards for operating an energy market and transmission.

The peak load in CAISO’s transmission was 50270 MW in 2008 and the total production capacity is 58432 MW. CAISO makes forecasts for electrical power consumption for each day, which is then met with purchase of energy on the market operated by CAISO. CAISO does not directly control switching in the grid nor do they have direct control over production generators, but send out control messages to the different owners of the equipment that makes up the transmission system.

The main features of the technology used for transportation of electricity have seen very little change since the beginning of its use. But with advantages in computing and communication technologies, running a reliable transmission system has become easier. These advancements have made a lot of new information available to the system operators, faster and more detailed than before. Using this information makes it possible to transport more energy through the existing network and in a more reliable way than before.

The biggest challenges for CAISO is to get licenses to build new overhead transmission lines to new electrical production sites. This is mainly due to environmental reasons and in some cases lack of space. The process for building a new overhead line can take from 3 to 7 years, with the beurocracy process taking most of that time.

With California’s goal of increasing the part of renewable energy sources up to 33% of the total electrical energy production in 2020, it will be necessary to build new overhead lines to the new production sites needed to fulfill this requirement. Since the plan to increase use of renewable energy sources comes from the state, it is possible that getting licenses to build new overhead lines might be a quicker process for those lines connecting the production to the grid.

Replacing overhead lines with underground cables is rarely feasible due to the cables being up to 10 times as expensive to buy and lay, and also in some cases the environmental concerns are similar of those for overhead lines.

McClellan Nuclear Radiation Center. TRIGA Reactor.

Thursday, August 6th, 2009, 13:00 – 16:00

• When we arrived at the McClellan Nuclear Radiation Center, we were split into four groups that rotated through four stations. Each group was following a leader who was given a radiation meter.

• Each station had a employee who gave a presentation about particular site. • Four stations included

o Station #1: The reactor Station

o Station #2: The reactor equipment room o Station #3: The radiography bays

o Station #4: The radiography control room

• Nuclear Plants are not considered as renewable energy source.

• This particular center was built by the Airforce for the purpose of analyzing air crafts.

• The reactor began to operate in 1990.

• Reactor was located 25 ft deep and 7 feet in diameter container full of water. • Reactor is capable of providing 2MW power

• This particular radiation center offers several technologies for imaging o Radiography

 The neutron radiography system uses a Gadolinium detector to produce images.

 used for looking for corrosion  Gadolinium and H can be detected  in many ways better than x-ray imaging  used to look at chemical tanks

 used to look through aircraft parts  can do up to 208 parts/day

o Tomography



The neutron tomography uses a CCD camera to image the

sample.

 3D imaging

 0.14 pixel resolution camera  0.25 degree increments

 provides highs test resolution in the world  resolution up to 30,000 of an inch

o Contain total of 4 bays • Safety of the reactor

o employees es check most parts on daily basis before starting the reactor o check beam impurity

o one directional water from Sacramento city. The water pump was designed in such a way that water can only flow from the city to the plant but not the opposite direction.

 water inside the container is radioactive  evaporated water can also be radioactive

 contains Argon 41 that could be radioactive, but with life time up to 10 hours

• When problems with parts are found, employee can locate exact location and use some tool to groin it it out

• Unusual projects that employees worked with o imaging of dinosaur egg

 the goal was to look for an embryo, however none were found o 2500 year old tablet

 contained information for farm manager on what, where and how to plant and harvest

Woodland Biomass Power Plant

The technology in our own words and the technical and non-technical challenges: ”Take trash and make power” is the aim of the power plant at Woodland.

The power plant looks a bit old and dirty, but it is still producing power 24-7 and it only shuts down twice a year. The main input of biomass is wood from construction.

The turbines can maximum produce 30 MW. Actually it produces 28 MW and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) are buying 25 MW. The power goes directly to the substations and into the grid. The rest 3 MW is used at Woodland Biomass Power plant.

The turbine is suppose to run 32 days without problems, but the maximum days without problems at Woodland has been 80 days. In all there are 30 people working at the plant. Furthermore contractors are coming in once a month and do work as removing trash. Everybody can come and deliver their wood spill overs here instead of at the Landfill where there is a fee for deliver.

The spill over of heat from the power production are reused in form of steam to preheated everything that goes into the system.

In the power production they use sand to mix with biomass 8wood) to increase heat transfer. The picture shows the spill over of sand. That is for the last seven years.

A challenge in California is to make the electricity in the grid more reliable. Furthermore a challenge is to keep on using our waste and minimize the emissions of CO2e.

Potential for this technology and advantages and disadvantages of this technology in DK and CA.

The production of power from biomass is expected to increase dramatically in the light of the wish of declining dependence on fossil energy. The potential is huge both in Denmark and in California. Producing energy from waste is ideal in a society who produce so much waste everyday. In Denmark we have a lot of CHP (Combined Heat and Power) plants, but we have also plants producing only power to the grid. By mixing different waste products, such as agricultural waste and by-products for food and feed production, the potential can be even higher.

A small note:

Comparing Nuclear power and Biomass power:

We will need 64 power plants like Woodland to produce the same amount of power that a single Nuclear Power Plant can produce (a nuclear plant produce normally 1,6 GW).

Bus Tour of Solano County Wind Farms

When: Friday, August 7th, 2009, 2:15pm – 5:30pm Where: along Highway 12

Who: Henry Shiu and Scott Johnson

• Wind turbines around Solano County are driven by the winds coming from the coast • On regular basis, the wind is continuous with a speed of 7-8 meters/sec

o Maximum tip speed is 70 meters/sec o Generator produces up to 600-690 Volts • Ideally, the need for wind is around 1-7PM

o this particular area gets great wind between 3 and 4PM • Rules regarding wind farming are stated by individual counties

• Solano County runs 7-8 mi from North to South and 7-8 mi from East to West • Using wind farming, Solano County is able to extract 400-450 MW of power • The largest type of turbines installed are 92 meters in diameter

• Most turbines are lid up at night for air traffic control

• VM 92, V 80 type of turbines, the number usually represents the diameter of the turbine

• "rule of a thumb", the height of the turbine should be as twice as the diameter of the turbine itself

• Farmers get paid for having turbines on their property o 4000-5000 us dollars/ turbine/year

• Typical problems with turbines are oil leaks that create fire hazard

• Any advertisement, such as stickers and posters are permitted. Local government wants to blend in wind farming as much as possible.

• Most wind turbines are mainly constructed by Danish and German companies • PG&E is the primary customer for wind generated energy

• Not that many problems with lightnings

• In most cases, damage of blades occurs during transportation

Livermore National Laboratories, National Ignition Facility

Monday, August 10th, 9:00-12:00 am.

• They develop fusion based on confinement.

• use lasers to fire a 400MJ burst of energy into a small capsule to create temperatures high enough for fusion.

• The laser puse is generated in a small pulseroom where the light travels through a series of amplifiers and into the target chamber. Here the laser hit a small target (1cm high cylinder with a diameter of 0,5 cm) the target captures the light and the conditions for fusion should be produced inside the taget.

• After the fusion the chamber would hold considerable radiation, but by using aluminum, the radiation should decrease within hours to tolerable levels. this will limit the time between shots that can be fired

• The first fusion shots should be fired within 18 months.

• the installation is a $3.5b test facility only used for developing the technology and studying the process. (and other processes)

• they will be able to do approximately 4 shots per day. (but with radiation that will be less)

• for a commercial inertial confinement fusion, the shot rate would have to be around 10 shots per second.

• they have a perspective of the technology that says a fusion society within 20-50 years, but with a concentrated effort that could be reduced to the first commercial power plant within 15 years.

The fusion technology holds tremendous perspectives as the energy source of the future. The fuel (deuterium) is readily available and the reactors could produce all the energy needed for a future society. Furthermore, the reactors could prove to be a viable was to minimizing the spent nuclear fuel and solve some of the storage problems associated with that.

the problem with fusion technology is that it is still very much under development. The perspectives are great, but so are some of the obstacles that needs to be overcome for the technology to have a practical application in energy generation. Hopefully within the next years enough is uncovered about the technology to lead to a massive funding and a massive investment of resources.

The ability to use fusion reactors to utilize spent nuclear fuel should be used with care as not to mix the irrational radiation fear of the public with the fusion technology.

Sandia National Laboratories Mon, August 10th, 13:00 – 16:00

Who: Craig Taatjes, Robert W. Carling, Nils Hansen

We visited the Combustion Research Facility (CRF, founded 1981), which is part of the Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences.

The center conducts both fundamental and applied research. Moreover, some industrial applications are developed here.

Heart of the CFR research is deep understanding of combustion and combustion related processes. On the renewable energies side, main issues are biofuels and hydrogen storage. After a brief introduction, we went for a tour of the labs. Several projects were presented, Experimental ignition chemistry.

The program tries to reveal chemical processes that underlie the mechanism of combustion, using laser-based imaging techniques. Models are based on chemistry and fluid dynamics. Both low pressure cells and high pressure cells (up to 100 atm) are employed.

In the high compression ignition engine, spectroscopy of the combustion can be done. There are no new technologies being used here, and the main (only) difficulty comes from those species that can't be proved optically.

Flame Chemistry and Flame Diagnostics

THese techniques can investigate the presence of combustion intermediates. Low pressure (20-30 Tor), premixed flames burn in laminar regime (no turbulence). The beam, is ionized by radiation from the Lawrence-Berkeley ALS (Advanced Light SOurce), and redirected to a time of flight (TOF) Mass Spectrometer. Beam energy is in the UV range, and the ALS output is tunable, to perform an energy scan to identify different isomers.This allows to determine molecular weight of the flame components.

A more sensitive method is Resonance Enhanced Multiple Ionization (REMPI), that using multiphoton ionization can detect species otherwise unidentified ).

High temperature combustion engines

CRF has been working with U.S. engine manufacturers to increase understanding of internal combustion engine processes affecting efficiency and emissions. The work aims at building high efficiency diesel engines, with low emissions. The experimental setup includes a cylindrical engine simulator, where a window has been removed from the piston, allowing optical diagnostic.

Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI)

A new form of internal combustion, where the fuel is compressed until auto ignition starts. Potentially, this technology can provide high efficiency engines, but there main problems are connected with the high temperature.

Calpine Geothermal

Wednesday , August 12th, 1:00pm – 3:30pm

Calpine geothermal operations are located 72 miles north of San Francisco. The first wells were drilled in the 1950’s and since then 746 wells have been drilled. The steam is lead through pipes from the wells to the power plants where it is used to spin a turbine connected to a generator to produce electricity. After going through the turbine the steam is condensed in cooling towers and the water is pumped back into the steam reservoir.

Geothermal energy is only available in areas where heat is close to the earth’s surface, making it rare and in some cases inaccessible. This limits the use of geothermal energy and reduces its potential as a major energy source for the future. With advances in drilling technologies it is now possible to drill wells as deep as 10 kilometers; this technology has the potential to increase areas where geothermal power is available as well as extending the lifetime of current geothermal sites.

Aside from having access to geothermal energy the drilling itself can be problematic, depending on the site there can be problems with drilling through very hard layers of rock, pockets of mud or other soft layers that could collapse the well and in rare cases molten lava can enter the well and close it.

Other complications to use of geothermal energy are the cleaning of emission and water consumption. The steam from the wells contains hydrogen sulphide which needs to be cleaned, either by using scrubbers or by burning the gas. Geothermal power plants use water for cooling and to pump down into the geothermal reservoirs. Even though water

requirements are small there still needs to be access to water at the site.

The non technical challenges for geothermal power plants are mostly from environmental standpoints, thins such as if the area should be used for a power plant or if it should rather be preserved either for wildlife or simply as not to spoil it with man made constructions. In rare cases harnessing of geothermal energy can cause earthquakes of considerable size, though this is often very hard to predict before operations begin. It could also be debated what impact the cooling down of the area has, geothermal sites may be cooled so much in a 100 to 150 years of operation that they are no longer suitable for energy production. The difference in advantages and disadvantages between using geothermal energy in Denmark and California really just come down to the fact that geothermal energy is currently only available in certain areas. If it were available in useful amounts in Denmark it would surely have been harnessed for energy production.

Solazymes

When: Friday, August 14th, from 9:30-11:00 Location: South San Francisco.

Solazymes was founded in 2003. It is a company that produce both renewable energy, chemicals for the industry and ingredients for many products (for house holding and