October 21, 2009: “The Smart Power Grid” by Stephen T. Lee of EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) (slides)

Abstract:The Smart Power Grid- With so much going on world-wide in the name of Smart Grid, what are the most significant and beneficial developments in Smart Grid from the technical and economic standpoints? What is EPRI’s vision and roadmap for the most critically needed R&D to enable and support a truly smart grid? This presentation will focus on that vision and roadmap. Included in this discussion will be the following:

Topic of Discussion:

• Holistic Power Supply & Delivery Chain * Smart Grid Standards (NIST)
• Smart Meters/Home Area Network
• Demand Response
• Electric / Plug-in Hybrid Electric
• Highly Variable Renewable Wind and Solar Resources (Utility scale and distributed)
• Energy Storage Technologies
• Applications of Synchrophasors

Bio: Stephen T. Lee Stephen T. Lee (IEEE M’69, SM’75) is Senior Technical Executive, Power Delivery and Utilization, in the Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, California, USA. Dr. Lee has over 40 years of electric power industry experience. He received his S.B., S.M., E.E. and Ph.D. degrees from M.I.T. in Electrical Engineering, majoring in Power System Engineering, in 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972, respectively. He worked for Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation in Boston, Systems Control, Inc. in Palo Alto, California, and he was Vice President of Consulting for Energy Management Associates (EMA). Before joining EPRI in 1998, Dr. Lee was an independent Consultant in utility planning and operation. At EPRI, Stephen Lee is involved with technical research programs for power system analysis, planning and operations, and has been actively developing new concepts and tools for power system operation, probabilistic transmission planning, and the Smart Grid.

June 25, 2009: “New Class of Silicon Based Solar Photovoltaic Power Systems” by Tim Keating, V.P. of Marketing and Field Operations Skyline Solar, Inc.

Abstract: The discussion addresses a new class of silicon based solar photovoltaic power systems which produces highly scalable power for commercial, industrial and utility-scale deployments.

Bio: Tim Keating’s the former managing director of Intel Capital Europe where he led the European team which made more than 70 equity investments between 1998 and 2003. He is a 22-year veteran of Intel where he helped grow the Fortune 500 company’s core processor business into one of the strongest in the world by heading up the microprocessor business unit in Europe in the 1990’s and launching the original Intel Pentium™ brand and chip as the Pentium Processor Marketing Director for Intel worldwide.

Tim started his career as an engineer estimator at Pacific Gas and Electric. He has a deep understanding of operations and manufacturing, product marketing, content relationships and the venture capital market gained during his extensive Intel career and since Intel as a venture consultant serving young companies as an advisor and operations executive during funding and company ramp phase.

Tim is a graduate of University of California, with a B.S. in electrical and computer engineering, and is an alumnus of the Harvard University Graduate School of Business; General Management Program where he focused on corporate finance, strategy and operations.

April 23, 2009: “Evaluating Alternative Energy Solutions and Their Impact on the Environment” by Dr. Mark Z. Jacobson, Professor of Civil and Energy Resources Engineering, Stanford University (slides)

Abstract: The discussion addresses a variety of alternative energy technologies and their impact on global warming, air pollution and energy security. It will examine some of the multidisciplinary issues engineers in the energy field must consider to satisfy new technical, environmental and political constraints. This presentation reviews and ranks major proposed energy-related solutions to global warming, air pollution mortality, and energy security while considering other impacts of the proposed solutions, such as the water supply, land use, wildlife, resource availability, thermal pollution, chemical pollution, nuclear proliferation, and economics.

The list of topics to be discussed include:

• Causes of Global Warming
• The Comparative Impacts of Solar, Wind, Nuclear, Bio, Hydro, Tidal and Fossil Energy Sources
• A Comparison of Energy Solutions to Global Warming
• Energy Resource Abundance and Effects Associated with Their Use
• Lifecycle CO2 and U.S. Electricity Sources
• Energy Independence and Security Concerns
• Land use Footprint and the Economic aspects of different energy options
• An Overall Ranking of Different Energy Technology Combination

In his talk Dr. Jacobson will describe how nine electric power sources and two liquid fuel options were evaluated in his engineering trade-studies. The electricity sources include solar-photovoltaics (PV), concentrated solar power (CSP), wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, wave, tidal, nuclear, and coal with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. The liquid fuel options include corn-ethanol (E85) and cellulosic-E85. To place the electric and liquid fuel sources on an equal footing, he examines their comparative abilities to address the problems mentioned by powering new-technology vehicles, including battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs), and flex-fuel vehicles run on E85. Stanford University News Service Video Interview.

Bio: Dr. Jacobson earned his B.S and M.S. Degrees in Engineering as well as a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University in 1988 He also holds M.S. (1991) and PhD. (1994) degrees in Atmospheric Science from UCLA.

He has delivered testimony to the U.S. Congress and his work has been the subject of numerous radio talk show interviews as well mass media articles. Dr. Jacobson’s award winning research has evaluated the atmospheric effects of a wide range of energy solutions on climate change and air pollution. In addition, he has examined the issue of renewable energies availability and optimal methods of combining various new energy technologies.

In 2000, he discovered that black carbon, the main component of soot particles, may be the second-leading cause of global warming after carbon dioxide. He has also demonstrated and quantified the effect of carbon dioxide on human health through its feedback to air pollution, examined the relative effects of greenhouse gases versus aerosols on global climate, the effects of biomass burning on climate, the effect of hydrogen fuel cells on air pollution and the effects of ethanol and diesel vehicles on air quality. He has compared various energy technologies in terms of their impacts on climate, air pollution, and energy security. To date, he has published two textbooks and over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles.

In 2005, he received the American Meteorological Society Henry G. Houghton Award for “significant contributions to modeling aerosol chemistry and to understanding the role of soot and other carbon particles on climate.” His recent paper, “Effects of ethanol versus gasoline on cancer and mortality in the United States” was the top-accessed article in the Journal Environmental Science and Technology for April-September, 2007.

February, 26, 2009: “Digital PWM Control in High Frequency Power Conversion Applications” by Prof. Seth Sanders, EECS Department, UC Berkeley

Abstract: Topics of Discussion:

• Outlined fundamental considerations on resolution and sampling as applied to the digital PWM control challenge
• Circuit enabling solutions to these issues are presented and covered
• Potential digital control solutions, incorporating look-up table and on-line adaptive techniques
• Potential digital control solutions offer efficiency and regulation improvements over conventional analog schemes is then discussed
• Specific examples applicable in mobile computing platforms will be given

Bio: Seth R. Sanders , received the S.B. degrees in electrical engineering and physics and the S.M. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, in 1981, 1985, and 1989, respectively.

He was a Design Engineer at the Honeywell Test Instruments Division, Denver, CO. Since 1989, he has been on the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, where he is presently Professor. His research interests are in high frequency power conversion circuits and components, in design and control of electric machine systems, and in nonlinear circuit and system theory as related to the power electronics field. He is active presently supervising research projects in the areas of flywheel energy storage, novel electric machine design, renewable energy, and digital pulse-width modulation strategies and associated IC designs for power conversion applications. During the 1992 to 1993 academic year, he was on industrial leave with National Semiconductor, Santa Clara, CA.

Dr. Sanders received the NSF Young Investigator Award in 1993 and Best Paper Awards from the IEEE Power Electronics Society and the IEEE Industry Applications Society. He has served as Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Computers in Power Electronics, and as a Member-At-Large of the IEEE PELS Adcom.