Introduction, Background, and Need for Renewable Energy
---------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Week 1
|
World energy needs, reliance on fossil fuels, CO2 and its greenhouse effect, toxic emissions from fossil fuel combustion and their impact on human health, economics of conventional vs renewable energy technologies, role of public policy in renewable energy promotion
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Wind Energy Engineering
---------------------------------------------------------------------
|
Week 2
|
History of wind energy conversion, worldwide wind energy potential, various types of wind turbines, calculation of energy contained in the wind, wind farms, connection to the grid, economical and environmental aspects, fluid mechanics of wind turbines, Bernoulli's principle
|
|
Week 3
|
Review of airfoil theory, forces acting on wind a turbine blade, analysis of energy conversion on a wind turbine blade, Betz Law, power coefficient and efficiency, tip speed ratio, turbine control and operation
|
|
Week 4
|
Project 1: Learn how to use software XFLR5 to design a 2-D airfoil, optmize an airfoil shape that will be used to build a 3-blade wind turbine, learn how to use software QBlade to analyze a wind turbine
|
|
Week 5
|
Project 1 continued: Develop and optimize a 3-blade wind turbine using QBlade, create 3D CAD model of the turbine blade, submit CAD model for 3D printing
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Solar Energy Engineering
---------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Week 6
|
Worldwide solar energy potential, solar spectrum, principles and physics of photovoltaic (PV) cells, materials and configurations of PV cells, improvements and roadblocks in PV cell technology, economics and outlook of PV technology
|
|
Week 7
|
Stand-alone PV systems, grid-connected PV systems, optical principles of concentrated solar thermal power (CSP), solar to thermal energy conversion, energy flow in solar thermal power plant, reflector designs, receiver designs
|
|
March 5
|
Midterm Exam
|
|
March 7
|
Wind turbine testing
|
|
Week 9
|
Spring Break
|
|
Week 10
|
Thermodyanamic analysis of components of a thermal plant such as solar collector, compressor, turbine, heat exchanger etc.
Project 2: Pevelopment of system-level model for a concentrated solar power (CSP) plant using MATLAB
|
|
Week 11
|
Project 2 continued: Development of system-level model for a concentrated solar power (CSP) plant using MATLAB
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Biomass Energy Utilization
---------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Week 12
|
Biomass potential, photosynthesis and crop yields, biomass production and use, biomass combustion and emissions, calculation of heating value, conversion of biomass to heat and electricity, various methods of biomass gasification
|
|
Week 13
|
Renewable carbon-based transportation fuels, discussion of technical pathways for renewable fuel generation, corn-based ethanol production and utilization, biodiesel production and utilization, efficiency of fuel generation
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Geothermal Energy
---------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Week 14
|
Thermal structure of the Earth, energy budget of the Earth, geothermal energy resources, technical and economical aspects, direct use of geothermal energy for heating
|
|
Week 15
|
Geothermal power plant, heat extraction from an aquifer, enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), efficiency, outlook for geothermal power
|
|
April 30
|
Review for final exam
|
|
May 02
|
Final Exam
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------
