Development of Sustainable
Power for Electrical Resources –
SuPER System
EE 563 Graduate Seminar
September 30, 2005
James G. Harris, Professor
EE Department and CPE Program
Outline
• Background
• Technical Description of SuPER System
• Feasibility Analysis
• Five Year Plan for Development
• Faculty Participating in SuPER Project
• Student Involvement
• Facilities, Equipment, and Resources
• Status and Plans
Background - Electrification
• Electrification – National Academy of
Engineering’s top engineering
achievement for the 20th Century
• Estimated 1/3 of population (now, 6B) do
not have access
– Significant proportion of remainder does not
have reliable access to battery or grid
– 18,000 occupied structures on Navajo Nation
lack electrical power (2001 legislation)
Background - Significance
• Impact of electrification significant
– Transformation of Western world
• Thomas Hughes: Networks of Power
– People who caused change
– Social Impact – standard of living
• Recognized by National Renewable Energy
Laboratory in late 1990s
– Village Power Program
– Development of microfinancing
Background – Solar Insolation
• Goal to provide electrical resources to people in
•
underdeveloped countries
Leapfrog technology – no need for 100 years of
development
– Example of cell phone in Asia
• Review of global insolation map
– Poorest people ($1-2 a day income)
– Within plus or minus 30 degree of latitude
• Highest values of solar insolation (minimum W hr/sq m/day)
Background – DC Power
• Solar photovoltaic systems inherently DC
• History of DC (Edison) versus AC (Westinghouse
and Tesla) at end of 19th century
– DC versus AC for generation, distribution, and
utilization
– Initially, applied to lighting
• Lighting today
– 60W incandescent bulb and 20W compact fluorescent
bulb lumens
– Equivalent to 3W LED technology, and improving
Background – DC power loads
• Efficiency of electrical motors: few horsepower
– Permanent magnet DC motors
• Electrical appliances
–
–
–
–
Computer: 50W laptop (DC)
TVs, radios use DC power
RV 12V DC market: kitchen appliances
Portable power tools – battery powered (DC)
• Computers: wireless connection
– Internet, phone (voice over IP), TV, radio,
– Education: MIT Media Lab $100 laptop project
Background – Moore’s Law
• Stand-alone solar photovoltaic system
•
technology is mature, e.g., Sandia Handbook
Application of Moore’s Law to development of
SuPER system
– Solar cell development: commercial and research lab
• Estimate 5% per decade with base of 16% in 2005
• Implies 25% efficiency in 2025
– DARPA RFP: 1000 units of 50% efficiency
Commercial Module Range
Laboratory Cells
Histories of Silicon Photovoltaic Module and Cell Efficiencies
Ref.: Martin A. Green; "Silicon Photovoltaic Modules: A Brief History of
the First 50 Years"; Prog. Photovolt: Res. Appl. 2005; 13:447–455
(Published online 18 April 2005 in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/pip.612)
April Allderdice and John H. Rogers; Renewable Energy for
Microenterprise; National Renewable Energy Laboratory; November
2000
Antonio C. Jimenez, Tom Lawand; Renewable Energy for Rural Schools;
National Renewable Energy Laboratory; November 2000
Jonathan O.V. Touryan and Kenell J. Touryan; Renewable Energy
for Sustainable Rural Village Power; Presented at the American
Scientific Affiliation Conference Arkansas August 1, 1999
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Background – Solar and DC Power
• Conclusion
– Solar photovoltaic is poised for leapfrog
technology
• Many development tools available
• Expectation of future efficiencies
• Sustainable power source
• Digital control of standalone system
– DC is power of future
• Decentralized
• Matched to source and loads
Technical Description of SuPER
System
• Modular design: four subsystems
• Stand-alone solar photovoltaic system
design very mature
Solar Panel
Control and
Status
Energy
Storage
(Battery)
DC Interface
Technical Description of SuPER
System – approach and goals
• Approach to design from first principles
• Created set of five sets of requirements
– Overall, and a set for each subsystem
• Overall goal:
– Mean time between failures (MTBF): 25 years
– Mean time to repair (MTTR): 1 hour
– Design lifecycle of 20 years
– Cost: less than $500 for 1 sq m PV module
including battery replacements
Technical Description of SuPER
System - requirements
• Overall system requirements (abbreviated)
– Total power/energy budget: input, storage,
output
– Measurements and definition of state
– Safety: NEC/standards code, grounding
– Mechanical design: enclosure/packaging
– Startup and shutdown, error
detection/recovery
– Documentation: General Public License (Open
Source)
Technical Description of SuPER
System - requirements
• Solar Panel requirements (abbreviated)
– Size: 1, 2, 4 sq m modular design
– Voltage (DC); 12V, 24V, 48V
– Fixed tilt @ latitude + or – 15 deg
– Modularity: parallel/series, interface DC
sources
– Maintenance
– Measurements: voltage/current; spectral and
temporal characterization; temperature
Technical Description of SuPER
System - requirements
• Energy storage requirements
(abbreviated)
– Type: deep cycle, AGM-gel, Ni-Cd
– Maintenance minimal (clean terminals)
– Replacement schedule: every 5-10 years
– Safety and sustainability
– Measurements: charging and discharging
– Grounding and mechanical
Technical Description of SuPER
System - requirements
• DC interface requirements (abbreviated)
– Single or multiple DC outputs: model of AC
110V input service bus with multiple circuits
– Currents: use of AWG 12 or 14 implies 15A
– Circuit breakers, GFI, overload for motors
– Characterization of DC electrical loads
– Modular design for load growth
– Forum for DC standarization: model of
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Technical Description of SuPER
System- requirements
• Control and status module requirements
(abbreviated)
– Digital development technology: example is Altera
FPGA/NIOS with uclinux OS, internet I/F
– Switching of array power with conditioning
– User display/interface
– Digital control algorithms: maximum power point
tracking (MPPT), softstart for power switching
– Safety and grounding
– Enclosure with environmental conditioning
Feasibility Analysis
• Worst case global solar radiation: 4 KW h / sq m
•
•
•
per day
Solar cell efficiency of 10% yields 400 W h / sq
m
Solar module of 1 sq m for 400 W h per day
Energy storage at 12V with discharge of 50%
yields 66 A h battery
– Car/truck battery
– Five year replacement
Feasibility Analysis
• Lighting: 5 LED lamps @ 3W for 4 hours
yields 60 W h
• Water pump: ¼ HP (187 W) for one hour
– 565 liters at maximum heigth of 7.62 m
(garden hose)
• Computer and communication: 50 W for
one hour
• Refrigerator (12V DC) @ 50 W h
• Portable battery charging @ 50 W h
Feasibility Analysis
Daily Source
(W h)
Solar energy production
400
Total energy use allocation
Lighting
Pump/motor
Computer/communications
Refrigerator
Portable battery charging
397
60
187
50
50
50
Energy storage: 12V AGM lead acid battery rated at 66 A h
(one day supply for 50% discharge)
Feasibility Analysis
• Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS)
– SunWize Systems model DC30 75/100
– Manufacturer suggested retail price $1469
– Solar power generator system
• Self-contained 12V DC with battery storage
• 190 W h with input solar radiation of 4 K w h / day
• Marketed for emergency power applications
• AC output models available
Five Year Plan for Development
• Summary of development process
– First three years for prototype development
• Three generations at one year for each
• Use of Electric Power Institute for administration
– Last two years for field testing
– Five years for completed design and testing
• Includes business plan, documentation and
dissemination
Five Year Plan for Development
• First year activities
– First generation functional design
• Use of 20-101 power senior project lab
• Set up development environment
– FPGA and uclinux OS
• Using EE/CPE senior project and thesis
• Prototype goal: satisfy all functional requirements
– Marketing plans with OCOB students
• Winter 06 client for BUS 454 Developing and Presenting
Marketing Plans/Senior Project
– At least three marketing plans proposed:
 USA investors for SuPER development
 Indigenous entrepreneurs business opportunity
 Indigenous consumers for SuPER system
Five Year Plan for Development
• Second year activities
– Second generation prototype addressing:
• modularity, manufacturing, reliability,
maintainability, cost, packaging
– Development of involvement of student clubs
– Extensive system testing and evaluation
– Initiation of business plan
– Establishment of DC standards forum
Five Year Plan for Development
• Third year of activities
– Third generation SuPER prototype addressing:
•
•
•
•
Packaging
Satisfies all functional and performance requirements
Cost requirements satisfied
Extensive testing and evaluation
– Complete open source documentation of SuPER System: GPL
compliant
– Growth of DC standard forum development activities
– Business plans disseminated
• Targeted entrepreneurs within countries of interest
– Plan for field testing in fourth year
• Potential of Navajo Nation developed
Five Year Plan for Development
• Fourth and fifth year of activities:
– Assessment of SuPER system
• Improvement of design and construction
• MTBF of 25 years, MTTR of 1 hour
• 20 year lifecycle cost < $500
• Update of SuPER system open source
documentation
– Pilot projects initiated and evaluated
– DC standards forum publishes DC standard
– Revised business plan disseminated
Faculty Participating on SuPER
Project
• Administrated by Electric Power Institute
– Dr. Ahmad Nafisi, Director
• Collaboration with CENG Center for Sustainability in
Engineering
– Dr. Deanna Richards, Director
• EE/CPE faculty initially involved:
– Drs. James G. Harris, Ahmad Nafisi, Ali Shaban, Taufik
• OCOB faculty initially involved:
– Dr. Doug Cerf, Associate Dean
– Dr. Norm Borin, Chair of Marketing Area
Student Involvement
• EE graduate students for thesis work in system
engineering
– Overall system requirements, design, integration and testing
– System design for status and control
• EE and CPE students for senior projects in subsystem
development
– Design and testing of subsystems
• OCOB students for senior projects in BUS 454 for
•
marketing plans
Development of a Cal Poly SuPER team
Student Involvement
• Initially work with resources available
– Adequate for start, just lengthens schedule
• Plan to acquire support for not only
additional resources, but also students
• Faculty to provide continuing direction
through “generations” of students working
on SuPER project
Facilities, Equipment and Resources
• Solar panel system available in EE Department –
•
•
•
see photo
Development laboratory to be established in
power senior project laboratory (20-101)
Resources of Power Electronics Laboratory
available (20-104)
Basic infrastructure for system development
exists at Cal Poly
450-W 24-V Solar Panels on mobile station, 40-Amp charge
controller, Solar Boost MPPT, and 2 Deka Solar Sealed
Electrolyte Batteries; lab also has a 3.5 kW Outback All-In-One
(MPPT, Charge Controller, and Inverter) to accommodate future
expansion of the solar panel system.
Status and Plans - foundations
• Support solicited over summer from foundations:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
MacArthur
Rockefeller Brothers
Energy Foundation
Ford
Hewlett
Packard
Clairborne (Liz) and Art Ortenbery
Gates
Kaufman
• “it does not fall within either of their current funding
priorities and/or guidelines.”
Status and Plans - NSF
• Submitted proposal to National Science
Foundation on September 23, 2005
– RUI: Development of Sustainable Power for Electrical
Resources – SuPER System
– Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI)
Program Announcement within its Faculty Research
Projects area for three years and total of $240K
– Submitted to Control, Networks & Computation
Intelligence (CCNI) program within Electrical &
Communications and Systems (ECS) Division of the
Engineering Directorate
Status and Plans - start
• Initiate the effort with existing resources
– Senior projects and thesis work
• Engineering – technical
• Business – economic
– Establish DC web-based forum
– Continue to involve other faculty and students
Why? Broader Impact of SuPER
Project
• Provides family owned electrical power source
– Only electrical power source for family
– Increasing power resource with time
– With financial business plan: $2-3 per month for all
electrical power needs
• Decentralized, sustainable development of
•
electrical power in poorest countries
SuPER system potential resource for raising
standard of living of poorest to par with rest of
world
Broader Impact
• Priority and focus on developing sustainable
•
electrical resource for poorest people
Success will provide model for people in
developed nations
–
–
–
–
Recognize commitment to status quo
Centralized AC power generation with distribution
Review current PG&E bill
Replace with sustainable distributed DC power
Interested in Participating?
• Check out SuPER website:
http://www.ee.calpoly.edu/~jharris/research/research.html
– Announcement of opportunities
– White Paper
– Graduate Seminar Presentation
• Visit with faculty involved:
– EE: Jim Harris, Ahmad Nafisi, Ali Shaban, Taufik
– OCOB: Doug Cerf, Norm Borin
References
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•
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•
•
•
•
1. George Constable, Bob Somerville; A Century of Innovation: Twenty Engineering Achievements
that Transformed our Lives; National Academy of Engineering; 2003; overview available at
http://www.greatachievements.org/
2. Jonathan O.V. Touryan, Kenell J. Touryan; "Renewable Energy for
Sustainable Rural Village Power"; Presented at the American Scientific Affiliation
Conference Arkansas August 1999, available from NREL as NREL/CP-720-26871
[hybrid system for nrel village power program report
3. Begay-Campbell, Sandia National Laboratories; "Sustainable Hybrid System Deployment with
the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority"; NCPV and Solar Program Review Meeting 2003 NREL/CD-52033586 Page 541; available at http://www.nrel.gov/ncpv_prm/pdfs/33586073.pdf [estimated date
2003, describes program resulting from "On November 5, 2001, President Bush signed the Navajo
Nation Electrification Demonstration Program (Section 602, Public Law 106-511) into Law. This
law directs the Secretary of Energy to establish a 5-year program to assist the Navajo Nation in
meeting its electricity needs for the estimated 18,000 occupied structures on the Navajo Nation
that lack electric power."]
4. Thomas P. Hughes; Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930;
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983
5. Thomas P. Hughes; American Genesis A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm
1870-1970; Penguin Books; 1989
6. David Nye; Electrifying America Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880-1940; MIT Press;
1990
References
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
7. Antonio C. Jimenez, Tom Lawand; "Renewable Energy for Rural Schools"; National Renewable
Energy Laboratory; November 2000
[report from village power program at nrel – covers all renewable sources]
8. April Allderdice, John H. Rogers; Renewable Energy for Microenterprise; NREL: November
2000; available from http://www.gvep.org/content/article/detail/8508
[microfinance introduction for renewable energy in underdevelopment countries]
9. Ulrich Stutenbaumer, Tesfaye Negash, Amensisa Abdi; "Performance of small scale
photovoltaic systems and their potential for rural electrification in Ethiopia"; Renewable Energy
18 (1999) pp 35-48
[authored by locals, but dated – example of early recognition of possibilities]
10. Sunwize Technologies; http://www.sunwize.com/; insolation map available at
http://www.sunwize.com/info_center/insolmap.htm
[on-line catalog and interactive planning support; global insolation map]
11. Evan Mills; "The Specter of Fuel-Based Lighting"; Science; v. 308, 27 May 2005, pp 12631264
12. E. Fred Schubert, Jong Kyu Kim; "Solid-State Light Sources Getting Smart"; Science; v. 308,
27 May 2005, pp 1274-1278
13. Thurton, J.P. and Stafford, B; "Successful Design of PV Power Systems for Solid-State Lighting
Applications"; Fourth International Conference on Solid State Lighting; 3-6 August, 2004, Denver.
Colorado / Proc. of SPIE; v. 5530; 2004; pp284-295
[mainly lessons learned]
References
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
14. MIT Media Lab; http://laptop.media.mit.edu/
15. Sandia National Laboratories, Solar Programs and Technologies Department; Southwest
Technology Development Institute, New Mexico State University; Daystar, Inc., Las Cruces, NM;
"Stand-Alone Photovoltaic Systems: A Handbook of Recommended Design Practices"; Sandia
National Laboratories, SAND87-7023 Updated July 2003
[revised handbook first published in 1988]
16. Kyocera Solar, Inc., Solar Electric Products Catalog , August 2005
[available on web – prices for small modules only]
17. IEA PVPS International Energy Agency Implementing Agreement on Photovoltaic Power
Systems Task 3 Use of Photovoltaic Power Systems in Stand-Alone and Island
Applications Report IEA PVPS T3-09: 2002 "Use of appliances in Stand-Alone PV Power supply
systems: problems and solutions; September 2002
[dos and don'ts for design]
18. Alison Wilshaw, Lucy Southgate & Rolf Oldach; "Quality Management of Stand Alone PV
Systems: Recommended Practices" IEA Task 3, www.task3.pvps.iea.org
[another report of iea agreement]
19. Martin A. Green; "Silicon Photovoltaic Modules: A Brief History of the First
50 Years"; Prog. Photovolt: Res. Appl. 2005; 13:447–455 (Published online 18 April 2005 in Wiley
InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/pip.612)
[history and use of moore's law with darpa rfp; also figure]
20. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) BAA05-21 posted Feb. 25, 2005 RFP—
Very High Efficiency Solar Cell (VHESC) program announcement with deadline on 3/29/2005,
which will be open at least a year from this date; see
http://www.darpa.mil/ato/solicit/VHESC/index.htm
References
• 21. H. Spanggaard, F.C. Krebs; "A brief history of the development of organic and
• polymeric photovoltaics"; Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 83 (2004) 125–146
• [overview in context of inorganic (si) pv's)
• 22. T. Givler, P. Lilienthal; "Using HOMER® Software, NREL’s Micropower Optimization
•
•
•
•
•
Model, to Explore the Role of Gen-sets in Small Solar Power Systems Case Study: Sri
Lanka"; Technical Report NREL/TP-710-36774; May 2005.
23. David L. King, Thomas D. Hund, William E. Boyson, Mark E. Ralph, Marlene
Brown, Ron Orozco; "Experimental Optimization of the FireFly. 600 Photovoltaic OffGrid System"; Sandia National Laboratories, SAND2003-3493 October 2003
[system and component test with ac inverter; measurement parameters; standards
and codes identified, e.g., grounding]
24. R. Akkaya*, A. A. Kulaksiz; "A microcontroller-based stand-alone photovoltaic
power system for residential appliances"; Applied Energy 78 (2004) 419–431;
available at
www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy
[microbased control, but focused on AC output]
References
• 25. Angel V. Peterchev, Seth R. Sanders; "Digital Loss-Minimizing Multi-
Mode Synchronous Buck Converter Control"; 2004 35th Annual IEEE Power
Electronics Specialists Conference Aachen, Germany, 2004
• [dc to dc for cell phone/computer using digital techniques]
• 26. Jason Hatashita, "Evaluation of a Network Co-processing Architecture
•
•
•
•
Implemented in Programmable Hardware." EE MS Thesis, February 2002;
available at
http://www.netprl.calpoly.edu/files/phatfile/papers/masters/jasonH.pdf
27. Homepage for Cal Poly Marketing Program:
http://buiznt.cob.calpoly.edu/cob/Mktg/Borin/ ; see client application in
lower right hand space
28. EE 460/463/464 Senior Seminar/Senior Project Handbook available at:
http://www.ee.calpoly.edu/listings/29/sphand.pdf]
29. Muhammad H. Rashid; Power Electronics: Circuits, Devices and
Applications(3rd Edition); Prentice-Hall; 2004