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Full-Text Articles in Materials Science and Engineering
Economics Of Grid-Tied Solar Photovoltaic Systems Coupled To Heat Pumps: The Case Of Northern Climates Of The U.S. And Canada, Joshua M. Pearce, Nelson Sommerfeldt
Economics Of Grid-Tied Solar Photovoltaic Systems Coupled To Heat Pumps: The Case Of Northern Climates Of The U.S. And Canada, Joshua M. Pearce, Nelson Sommerfeldt
Michigan Tech Publications
Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is now a profitable method to decarbonize the grid, but if catastrophic climate change is to be avoided, emissions from transportation and heating must also decarbonize. One approach to renewable heating is leveraging improvements in PV with heat pumps (HPs). To determine the potential for PV+HP systems in northern areas of North America, this study performs numerical simulations and economic analysis using the same loads and climate, but with local electricity and natural gas rates for Sault Ste. Marie, in both Canada and U.S. Ground-mounted, fixed-tilt, grid-tied PV systems are sized to match 100% of electric …
Decentralized Renewable Hybrid Mini-Grids For Rural Communities: Culmination Of The Irep Framework And Scale Up To Urban Communities, Blessing Ugwoke, Adedoyin Adeleke, Stefano P. Corgnati, Joshua M. Pearce, Pierluigi Leone
Decentralized Renewable Hybrid Mini-Grids For Rural Communities: Culmination Of The Irep Framework And Scale Up To Urban Communities, Blessing Ugwoke, Adedoyin Adeleke, Stefano P. Corgnati, Joshua M. Pearce, Pierluigi Leone
Michigan Tech Publications
The Integrated Rural Energy Planning (IREP) framework offers a unified road map for locating, planning and operating decentralized renewable hybrid off-grid energy systems for localized (rural) applications in low-income countries. This paper presents the culmination of the IREP framework and aims to illustrate the final step of the IREP framework for two communities in Nigeria. It is focused on two aspects. Firstly, the techno-economic modeling (investment and operation optimization) of a hybrid mini-grid system using HOMER Pro, a techno-economic evaluation tool; and evaluating the benefits of demand side management (DSM) based on energy efficiency on the overall system economics using …
Could 79 People Solarize The U.S. Electric Grid?, Joshua M. Pearce, Emily Prehoda
Could 79 People Solarize The U.S. Electric Grid?, Joshua M. Pearce, Emily Prehoda
Department of Materials Science and Engineering Publications
Although wealth inequality has many established negatives, this study investigates a potential positive, unprecedented wealth concentration makes it possible for solutions to large and seemingly intractable problems to be deployed by convincing a relatively small number of individuals to invest. In order to probe this potential outcome of inequality, this study quantifies the number of people necessary to radically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global climate destabilization from the U.S. electric grid, which is one of the largest sources of emissions. Specifically, this study determined that 1544 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology must be deployed to eliminate …
Open Source Low-Cost Power Monitoring System, Shane W. Oberloier, Joshua M. Pearce
Open Source Low-Cost Power Monitoring System, Shane W. Oberloier, Joshua M. Pearce
Department of Materials Science and Engineering Publications
This study presents an entirely open-source, low-cost power monitoring system capable of many types of measurements including both loads and supplies such as solar photovoltaic systems. In addition, the system can be fabricated using only open source software and hardware. The design revolves around the Digital Universal Energy Logger (DUEL) Node, which is responsible for reading and properly scaling the voltage and current of a particular load, and then serializing it via an on-board ATTiny85 chip. The configuration of the DUEL node allows for custom sensitivity ranges, and can handle up to 50 A and 300 V. Up to 127 …
High-Efficiency Solar-Powered 3-D Printers For Sustainable Development, Jephias Gwamuri, Dhiogo Franco, Khalid Khan, Lucia Gauchia, Joshua M. Pearce
High-Efficiency Solar-Powered 3-D Printers For Sustainable Development, Jephias Gwamuri, Dhiogo Franco, Khalid Khan, Lucia Gauchia, Joshua M. Pearce
Michigan Tech Publications
The release of the open source 3-D printer known as the RepRap (a self-Replicating Rapid prototyper) resulted in the potential for distributed manufacturing of products for significantly lower costs than conventional manufacturing. This development, coupled with open source-appropriate technology (OSAT), has enabled the opportunity for 3-D printers to be used for sustainable development. In this context, OSAT provides the opportunity to modify and improve the physical designs of their printers and desired digitally-shared objects. However, these 3-D printers require electricity while more than a billion people still lack electricity. To enable the utilization of RepRaps in off-grid communities, solar photovoltaic …