This paper quantifies the increased green house gas emissions and negative effect on energy conservation (or “efficiency penalty”) due to electric rate structures that employ an unavoidable customer charge. First the extent of customer charges was determined from a nationwide survey of U.S. electric tariffs. To eliminate the customer charge nationally while maintaining a fixed sum for electric companies for a given amount of electricity, an increase of 7.12% in the residential electrical ...
Both the origins of the high open circuit voltages (VOC) in amorphous silicon solar cells having p layers prepared with very high hydrogen dilution and the physical structure of these optimum p layers remain poorly understood topics, with several studies offering conflicting views. This work attempts to overcome the limitations of previous studies by combining insights available from electronic measurements, real time spectroscopic ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy, and both high-resoluti...
The majority of U.S. drivers do not consistently monitor the tire pressures in their vehicles. The 2000 TREAD Act, which requires automakers to gradually provide tire pressure monitoring systems for vehicles sold in the U.S. will correct this problem for new vehicles. This law does not impact the problem in previously deployed vehicles, which have a turnover time of 20 years. A solution is provided here to address under-inflated tires on the current 220 million vehicles and the concomitant wa...
To both replace fossil-fuel-energy use and meet the future energy demands, nuclear energy production would have to increase by 10.5% per year from 2010 to 2050. This large growth rate creates a cannibalistic effect, where nuclear energy must be used to supply the energy for future nuclear power plants. This study showed that the limit of ore grade to offset greenhouse gas emissions is significantly higher than the purely thermodynamic limit set by energy payback times found in the literature....
In order to stabilize the global climate the world’s governments must make significant commitments to drastically reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. One of the most promising methods of curbing GHG emissions is a world transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy. Solar photovoltaic (PV) cells offer a technically sustainable solution to the projected enormous future energy demands. This article explores utilizing industrial symbiosis to obtain economies of scale an...
As the debate over the future of energy grows, often nuclear energy production is pitted against solar photovoltaic energy conversion. There is a widespread belief that solar cannot compete with nuclear energy economically without government subsidies. The continued and widespread belief in the economic viability of nuclear energy, however, is predicated in part on government-mandated limitation on the liability of the nuclear industry. To demonstrate the magnitude of this nuclear energy insu...
This paper investigates the feasibility of implementing a hybrid solar photovoltaic (PV) + combined heat and power (CHP) and battery bank system for a residential application to generate reliable base load power to the grid in Ontario. Deploying PV on a large-scale has a penetration level threshold due to the inherent power supply intermittency associated with the solar resource. By creating a hybrid PV+CHP system there is potential of increasing the PV penetration level. One year of one seco...
The recent development of small scale combined heat and power (CHP) systems has provided the opportunity for in-house power backup of residential-scale photovoltaic (PV) arrays. This paper investigates the potential of deploying a distributed network of PV CHP hybrid systems in order increase the PV penetration level in the U.S. The temporal distribution of solar flux, electrical and heating requirements for representative U.S. single family residences were analyzed and the results clearly sh...
In order to alleviate production costs and increase the environmental performance of solar photovoltaic manufacturing, an eco-industrial park for GW-scale production of PV is proposed. This article quantifies the inputs and outputs for the glass manufacturing component of such a system using standard manufacturing techniques. Utilizing industrial symbiosis in this way, potential reductions for such a plant were found to be about 30,000 tons/year in raw materials and over 220,000 GJ/year in em...
"The Ontario feed-in tariff (FIT) for solar photovoltaic (PV) technology has provided Ontario's Aboriginal communities with an opportunity to i) weaken the cycle of poverty; ii) directly counteract climate change by producing renewable energy; and iii) become more self-sufficient. This paper critically analyzes the technical, cultural, and economic viability of leveraging the FIT for PV to provide green electricity and revenue to assist First Nations communities in sustainable development. A ...
The technological evolution of the 3-D printer, widespread internet access and inexpensive computing has made a new means of open design capable of accelerating self-directed sustainable development. This study critically examines how open source 3-D printers, such as the RepRap and Fab@home, enable the use of designs in the public domain to fabricate open source appropriate technology (OSAT), which are easily and economically made from readily available resources by local communities to meet...
The advent of small scale combined heat and power (CHP) systems has provided the opportunity for in-house power backup of residential-scale photovoltaic (PV) arrays. These hybrid systems enjoy a symbiotic relationship between components, but have large thermal energy wastes when operated to provide 100% of the electric load. In a novel hybrid system is proposed here of PV-trigeneration. In order to reduce waste from excess heat, an absorption chiller has been proposed to utilize the CHP-produ...
As the solar photovoltaic (PV) matures, the economic feasibility of PV projects are increasingly being evaluated using the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) generation in order to be compared to other electricity generation technologies. Unfortunately, there is lack of clarity of reporting assumptions, justifications and degree of completeness in LCOE calculations, which produces widely varying and contradictory results. This paper reviews the methodology of properly calculating the LCOE f...
Nuclear power and solar photovoltaic energy conversion often compete for policy support that governs economic viability. This paper compares current subsidization of the nuclear industry with providing equivalent support to manufacturing photovoltaic modules. Current U.S. indirect nuclear insurance subsidies are reviewed and the power, energy and financial outcomes of this indirect subsidy are compared to equivalent amounts for indirect subsidies (loan guarantees) for photovoltaic manufacturi...
Due to the negative environmental effects of fossil fuel combustion, there is a growing interest in both improved efficiency in energy management and a large-scale transition to renewable energy systems. Using both of these strategies, a large institutional-scale hybrid energy system is proposed here, which incorporates both solar photovoltaic energy conversion to supply renewable energy and cogeneration to improve efficiency. In this case, the photovoltaic reduces the run time for the cogene...