Quick Hits

Bold ideas that solve the world’s energy needs.

A Few More Under-the-Radar Campus Programs

When AES unveiled its list of 187 Top Energy University Elites, Influencers and Contributors, there were just too many admirable energy initiatives to choose from. "When we began this project in 2016, we assumed that only a handful of universities were doing cutting-edge energy research," says AES President Eric Vettel. "We were shocked — and thrilled — to find almost 200 notable energy initiatives doing disruptive energy research."

The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Michigan State University, has five years of DoE funding to develop sustainable alternatives to transportation fuels and products. In the current phase, GLBRC scientists are conducting research that enables the sustainable production of specialty biofuels and bio-products using dedicated bioenergy crops such as switchgrass, poplar trees and sorghum. These will be grown on non-agricultural land. This alternative-fuels project had a serendipitous spin-off; in the process, GLBR researchers found a way to synthesize acetaminophen — the active ingredient in Tylenol — from a natural compound derived from plant material, rather than the current manufacturing process that uses chemicals derived from coal tar. How cool is that?

The Center for Energy Systems and Control (CESaC) at Howard University is developing variable models that optimize the introduction of renewable energy into the utility grid. The most effective energy system in one of their current models identifies and distributes a single renewable energy resource for multiple uses; a more efficient network of power systems that reduces costs and increases reliability. Another compelling aspect to this project? The university faculty and research staff assign critical design and development tasks to students.

Thanks in part to funding by the DoE's Minority University Research Associates (MURA) Program, the hands-on research seeks to address operational challenges as well as behavioral and economic issues that currently stand in the way of fully realizing the benefits of “renewable energy resource integrated networks,” which will allow the further incorporation of renewable power to the entire grid.

Since the early 1990s, the MagLab at the University of Florida has been developing a new type of magnet. Magnets vary in shape, size and technology, depending on their scientific application. Some researchers want powerful, high-field magnets to bring about strange, atomic-level phenomena in the materials they study, and they don't care if the field strength fluctuates a bit during their experiment. Others require exceptionally stable fields that deviate less than one millionth of a tesla. The MagLab was established to design and build an entirely new kind of magnet, dubbed the Series Connected Hybrid (SCH), that would couple a superconducting magnet with a resistive magnet to create the world's strongest NMR machine. Making the challenge even more difficult, the two magnets are made with different materials requiring entirely different infrastructures. The SCH magnet is currently operating at 36 teslas - the strongest magnet used for NMR in the world.

The Utility of the Future Center at Arizona State is developing a grid
that is very different from the integrated monopoly utility of today. The most pressing challenge is not technological but designing a smooth transition. The utility of the future is already here; it just hasn't been adopted yet because the transition is too complicated. Regulators need to design flexible regulations and temporary business models that allow the utilities to transition themselves into the utility of the future. The center operates a hub of utility innovation and thought leadership, pooling from a variety of leading interdisciplinary researchers, industry leaders and policy experts. The center's key goals:

A future where a high proportion of renewable and especially solar energy is delivered to the electricity grid.
A rapid expansion in the number of utility customers (residential and commercial) investing in new technologies for energy production, energy storage, and energy efficiency.
The already ongoing shift toward independent system operators and electricity markets.
Regulatory models and emerging markets that shift revenues from utilities to other participants in the energy system.

Colorado’s first public hydrogen fuel station recently arrived at Colorado State University, another top "contributor" on our TEU2020 list. Once fully operational, the station will enable the deployment of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles and will support a wide variety of research projects focused on hydrogen. The CSU station will be one of the only electrolyzer stations in the U.S. that will generate hydrogen on-site by splitting water molecules using electricity. The station will be operated and maintained by the CSU Energy Institute at the Powerhouse Energy Campus in Fort Collins where it will be used to teach and train students in hydrogen technology and will allow researchers to gather cost and operational data that can inform future station deployment in Colorado by commercial operators and by the non-profit Colorado Hydrogen Network. The station was originally scheduled to be decommissioned from its operating location in Washington, D.C. but was instead donated to CSU by Nel Hydrogen through the help of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.