Intermittency-Friendly Community Scale Renewable Energy Microgrids

The challenges proposed by long-term resource supplies, global climate change and energy market volatility require strategies and policies directed towards the development of technologically, economically and socially acceptable energy solutions. The need for major reductions in fossil fuel consumption and carbon emissions from large-scale centralized power generation will require a significant increase in the use of sustainable energy sources and facilities for delivery and distribution.

This talk will describe a new joint US-Danish collaboration between UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis and Aalborg University and the Technical University of Denmark(DTU) to investigate, develop and deploy distributed community-scale electro-thermal micrgrids based upon 100% renewable energy, as integrated systems that combine electricity generation, heating and cooling optimized for efficiency and resource utilization. The key focus will be on intermittency-friendly system design. This program will serve as a model for trans-national education designed to solve global problems and will lead to a trans-national, distributed virtual research, design, development and educational center dedicated to the goal of 100% renewable and sustainable energy production and use.

The program includes: 1) a bi-national summer school open to all qualified US and Danish students, alternating between California and Denmark that will lead to transformative training of students in engineering and the social sciences to investigate practical approaches to renewable energy systems, 2) a professional development program to enable more effective global collaboration, 3) development of jointly taught courses between the four partner institutions, and 4) understanding and development of renewable energy testbeds operating under different environmental conditions.

Speaker: Michael Isaacson, UC Santa Cruz