Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2010
Volume 55, Number 2
Monday–Friday, March 15–19, 2010; Portland, Oregon
Session W5: Renewable Energy Education |
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Sponsoring Units: FEd Chair: Robert Ehrlich, George Mason University Room: Portland Ballroom 256 |
Thursday, March 18, 2010 11:15AM - 11:51AM |
W5.00001: NREL's Education Program in Action in the Concentrating Solar Power Program Advanced Materials Task Invited Speaker: Concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies use large mirrors to concentrate sunlight and the thermal energy collected is converted to electricity. The CSP industry is growing rapidly and is expected to reach 25 GW globally by 2020. Cost target goals are for CSP technologies to produce electricity competitive with intermediate-load power generation (i.e., natural gas) by 2015 with 6 hours of thermal storage and competitive in carbon constrained base load power markets (i.e., coal) by 2020 with 12-17 hours of thermal storage. The solar field contributes more than 40{\%} of the total cost of a parabolic trough plant and together the mirrors and receivers contribute more than 25{\%} of the installed solar field cost. CSP systems cannot hit these targets without aggressive cost reductions and revolutionary performance improvements from technology advances. NREL's Advanced Materials task in the CSP Advanced R{\&}D project performs research to develop low cost, high performance, durable solar reflector and high-temperature receiver materials to meet these needs. The Advanced Materials task leads the world in this research and the task's reliance on NREL's educational program will be discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 18, 2010 11:51AM - 12:27PM |
W5.00002: Evolution of a New Engineering Degree Program: the Bachelors of Science in Renewable Energy Engineering Invited Speaker: In Fall 2008, the Oregon Institute of Technology began offering a new engineering degree program, the Bachelors of Science in Renewable Energy Engineering (BSREE). However, the winding road that led to the BSREE began much early, in 2003, with a proposal for a Bachelors of Science in Renewable Energy Systems (BRES). Analysis of the educational market place and observed growth in career options across the renewable energy fields revealed significant opportunities for graduates with a solid energy engineering education. This presentation discusses these and other motivating factors that convinced the Oregon Institute of Technology to change track and begin offering the BSREE degree. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 18, 2010 12:27PM - 1:03PM |
W5.00003: Modernizing the Physics Curriculum by Being Less Modern Invited Speaker: This presentation offers suggestions for changes that could be made to the undergraduate physics program to better prepare scientists and engineers for careers in energy, and in particular, renewable energy. The author's perspective comes from the traditional academic training at the undergraduate and PhD levels in physics followed by work experience in industrial research in solar energy. The traditional physics undergraduate curriculum is composed of Hamiltonian mechanics, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and special relativity. In the laboratory, students typically repeat famous experiments in modern physics. While these subjects are essential to a comprehensive understanding of the physical world they do not provide the foundation necessary for work in energy production. The subjects at the core of energy production are classical thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics, yet they receive little if any attention in the physics curriculum. Most students of physics are familiar with the historic year 1905 but few know that one year earlier Prandtl revolutionized our understanding of fluid mechanics with his invention of the boundary layer which is at the heart of heat transfer. Reynolds and Nusselt are equally obscure. We will give examples of how the design of solar power plants requires solving elementary physical problems that are foreign to most physics students. Thermodynamic analysis, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer are core disciplines underlying the production of steam from which 90 per cent of the electricity in the US is derived. Knowledge of these subjects will continue to be essential for the future development of renewable energy. Unlike quantum mechanics, classical physics also helps to explain the phenomena of everyday life. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, March 18, 2010 1:03PM - 1:39PM |
W5.00004: Renewable Energy at George Mason University and Around the Nation: Lessons Learned by One Faculty Member New to the Field Invited Speaker: Together with an overview of renewable energy and renewable energy programs in the U.S., I discuss why faculty (especially physics faculty) should consider getting more involved in renewable energy. Students apparently need no such encouragement, but many schools (not including Mason!) have been slow to move into this area, despite evidence of strong student interest {\&} strong job prospects. The reasons for this hesitancy are also discussed. Finally, I discuss one recent effort (www.rev-up.org) to ``tunnel through'' one significant barrier facing faculty new to the field. [Preview Abstract] |
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