Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2013
Volume 58, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, April 13–16, 2013; Denver, Colorado
Session Q15: Energy Research and Applications |
Hide Abstracts |
Sponsoring Units: GERA Chair: Mark Deinert, University of Texas at Austin Room: Plaza Court 4 |
Monday, April 15, 2013 10:45AM - 10:57AM |
Q15.00001: Potential for solar-powered base-load capacity Brady Stoll, Mark Deinert In 2010 nuclear power accounted for 27{\%} of electricity production in Japan. The March 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power station resulted in the closure of all of Japans nuclear power plants and it remains an open question as to how many will reopen. Even before the loss of nuclear capacity there were efforts in Japan to foster the use of renewable energy, including large-scale solar power. Nuclear power plants in Japan operated beyond base load with excess energy being stored in large scale pumped hydroelectric storage systems. Here we show how coupling these storage systems to rooftop solar systems in Tokyo could compensate for the loss of nuclear power. Data from a study of rooftop space, and a 34-year data set of average daily irradiance in the Tokyo metropolitan area were used. If current generation PV systems were placed on the available rooftop space in greater Tokyo, this coupled system could provide for 20{\%} of Toyo's nuclear capacity with a capacity factor of 0.99. Using pumped hydroelectric storage with six times this rooftop area could completely provide for TEPCO's nuclear capacity with a capacity factor of 0.98. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 15, 2013 10:57AM - 11:09AM |
Q15.00002: Electricity demand and storage dispatch modeling for buildings and implications for the smartgrid Menglian Zheng, Christoph Meinrenken As an enabler for demand response (DR), electricity storage in buildings has the potential to lower costs and carbon footprint of grid electricity while simultaneously mitigating grid strain and increasing its flexibility to integrate renewables (central or distributed). We present a stochastic model to simulate minute-by-minute electricity demand of buildings and analyze the resulting electricity costs under actual, currently available DR-enabling tariffs in New York State, namely a peak/offpeak tariff charging by consumed energy (monthly total kWh) and a time of use tariff charging by power demand (monthly peak kW). We then introduce a variety of electrical storage options (from flow batteries to flywheels) and determine how DR via temporary storage may increase the overall net present value (NPV) for consumers (comparing the reduced cost of electricity to capital and maintenance costs of the storage). We find that, under the total-energy tariff, only medium-term storage options such as batteries offer positive NPV, and only at the low end of storage costs (optimistic scenario). Under the peak-demand tariff, however, even short-term storage such as flywheels and superconducting magnetic energy offer positive NPV. Therefore, these offer significant economic incentive to enable DR without affecting the consumption habits of buildings' residents. We discuss implications for smartgrid communication and our future work on real-time price tariffs. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 15, 2013 11:09AM - 11:21AM |
Q15.00003: Impedance and self-discharge mechanism studies of nickel metal hydride batteries for energy storage applications Wenhua Zhu, Ying Zhu, Bruce Tatarchuk Nickel metal hydride battery packs have been found wide applications in the HEVs (hybrid electric vehicles) through the on-board rapid energy conservation and efficient storage to decrease the fossil fuel consumption rate and reduce CO$_{2}$ emissions as well as other harmful exhaust gases. In comparison to the conventional Ni-Cd battery, the Ni-MH battery exhibits a relatively higher self-discharge rate. In general, there are quite a few factors that speed up the self-discharge of the electrodes in the sealed nickel metal hydride batteries. This disadvantage eventually reduces the overall efficiency of the energy conversion and storage system. In this work, ac impedance data were collected from the nickel metal hydride batteries. The self-discharge mechanism and battery capacity degradation were analyzed and discussed for further performance improvement. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 15, 2013 11:21AM - 11:33AM |
Q15.00004: Reversible Hydrogen Storage Characteristics of Catalytically Enhanced Ca(Li)-nMg-B-N-H System Sesha Srinivasan, Dervis Emre Demircak, Prakash Sharma, Goswami Yogi, Elias Stefanakos The aim of the present investigation is to study the synergistic effects of multi-walled carbon nanotubes, Nb$_{2}$O$_{5}$ and other catalysts for reversible hydrogen storage characteristics of Ca(Li)-nMg-B-N-H systems. Multinary hydride using light weight, high capacity hydride compounds such as Ca(BH$_{4})_{2}$, LiBH$_{4}$, LiNH$_{2}$, nanoMgH$_{2}$ in 3:1:8:4 composition was synthesized using high energy planetary milling under Ar/H$_{2}$ ambient. Various nano additives and bi-metallic catalysts were added in a very small concentration with the host hydride (Ca)Li-nMg-B-N-H. The TGA and DSC results demonstrated that the catalytically enhanced Ca(Li)-nMg-B-N-H with hydrogen release at lower temperatures when compared to the pristine systems such as either Ca-Li-B-H or Ca-Li-Mg-B-H. Analyses of metrological characterization using XRD, SEM and have revealed the effectiveness and the role of the catalytic nanoparticles and their enhanced reversible hydrogen storage behavior on the host hydride matrix. The mass spectrometric investigations employing RGA on these nanocrystalline, multi-component hydride systems exhibit the release of hydrogen in major proportion ($\sim$80-90{\%}) as compared to previously attributed ammonia. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 15, 2013 11:33AM - 11:45AM |
Q15.00005: Correlated electron transfer and nonlinear optical effects in QD sensitized solar cells Yuri Dahnovsky, Grigory Kolesov Nonlinear optical properties in pump-probe experimental setups and photoelectric current are theoretically and computationally studied for both quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) and isolated quantum dots (QDs). A nonlinear polarization vector and correlated current are found from a solution of Kadanoff-Baym (KB) equations, which are solved by a novel efficient computational method based on a two-time spectral expansion (2TSE) of nonequilibrium Green's functions. In addition we study electron transfer within the uncorrelated Markovian approach. It is shown that differential transmission and electric current strongly depend on the value and the character of chemical bonding between a quantum dot and semiconductor surface. The higher the tunneling amplitude and bond width, the larger the differential transmission. The relaxation time for electronic states in a QD is also an important parameter indicating to the competition of two electron dynamics mechanisms, electron tunneling and electron relaxation. The higher the electron relaxation rate, the lower the discrepancy in the differential transmissions for QDSSCs and isolated QDs. The discrepancy between the markovian and KB approaches can reach as much as one order of magnitude. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 15, 2013 11:45AM - 11:57AM |
Q15.00006: SEM analysis as a diagnostic tool for photovoltaic cell degradation Gilbert Osayemwenre, E.L. Meyer The importance of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis as a diagnostic tool for analyzing the degradation of a polycrystalline Photovoltaic cell has been studied. The main aim of this study is to characterize the surface morphology of hot spot regions (degraded) cells in photovoltaic solar cells. In recent years, production of hetero and multi-junction solar cells has experience tremendous growth as compared to conventional silicon (Si) solar cells. Thin film photovoltaic solar cells generally are more prone to exhibiting defects and associated degradation modes. To improve the lifetime of these cells and modules, it is imperative to fully understand the cause and effect of defects and degradation modes. The objective of this paper is to diagnose the observed degradation in polycrystalline silicon cells, using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In this study poly-Si cells were characterize before and after reverse biasing, the reverse biasing was done to evaluate the cells' susceptibility to leakage currents and hotspots formation. After reverse biasing, some cells were found to exhibit hotspots as confirmed by infrared thermography. The surface morphology of these hotspots re [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 15, 2013 11:57AM - 12:09PM |
Q15.00007: Spectrally-tuned plasmonic-excitonic photovoltaics using gold nanoshells Anna Lee, Daniel Paz-Soldan, Susanna Thon, Michael Adachi, Haopeng Dong, Pouya Maraghechi, Mingjian Yuan, Andr\'e Labelle, Sjoerd Hoogland, Kun Liu, Eugenia Kumacheva, Edward Sargent Recent advances in spectrally-tunable solution-processed metal nanoparticles have provided unprecedented control over light at the nanoscale. Parallel progress in colloidal quantum dot photovoltaics offers the potential for low-cost, large-area solar power; however, these devices suffer from poor quantum efficiency in the more weakly-absorbed near infrared portion of the sun's spectrum. Here, we report a plasmonic-excitonic solar cell that combines two jointly-tuned solution processed infrared materials. We show through experiment and theory that a plasmonic-excitonic design using gold nanoshells with optimized single-particle scattering-to-absorption cross section ratios leads to a strong enhancement in near-field absorption and resultant photocurrent in the performance-limiting near infrared spectral region. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 15, 2013 12:09PM - 12:21PM |
Q15.00008: Photovoltaic cost reduction powered by nuclear spending Timothy Smith, Mark Deinert Between 1975 to 2010, Japan has spent an average of {\$}2700 Million per year on nuclear R{\&}D and {\$}74 Million per year on solar energy R{\&}D (2010 dollars). While the cost of photovoltaics dropped by a factor of 30 during that time, the overnight cost to build a nuclear power plant has doubled between 2003 and 2009. The price of commercially available photovoltaics has been shown to follow a power law reduction with the number of units produced. This begs the question as to what the current price of these systems would be had some of the available funds used for nuclear R{\&}D been spent on the acquisition of photovoltaics. Here we show the reduction in price for single crystal photovoltaic panels if the Japanese government spent some of their nuclear R{\&}D funds on the installation of these systems. We use historical cost and cumulative production for the world and Japan to build a learning curve model for PV. If the government had spent only 0.07{\%} of its nuclear R{\&}D budget toward PV technology since 1975, photovoltaics would now have reached {\$}1/Watt, the point at which they are cost competitive with conventional resources. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 15, 2013 12:21PM - 12:33PM |
Q15.00009: Isotopic feedback and the stability of traveling wave reactors Mark Deinert Simulations have shown that fertile nuclear materials could sustain fission waves with soliton like properties and is envisioned as a possible means for producing a self stabilizing power reactor Self limiting stability in neutron chain reactions is rare and when it happens it typically arises through thermal feedback effects that reduce the reaction rate within the system. However, the soliton like properties of fission waves can evolve without these effects. Several studies have suggested that that fission waves in uranium can stabilize through a feedback mechanism between Np239 and Pu239. Here we show that these isotopes play a critical role in determining the excess neutron production in a wave and that their peak concentrations are coupled to the peak intensity of the neutron field. Together the neutron flux and excess neutron production can evolve to a stable node in phase space, independent of thermal feedback or intervention, and stable against perturbations. The critical factors affecting this behavior are the half-life of Np239 and the reaction cross sections for Np239 and Pu239. We use numerical simulations to show that the initial composition and geometry of the system determine the steady state behavior of the wave. [Preview Abstract] |
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