Energy Highlights
A twice-monthly energy news update from MMPEI
April 3 , 2008
Vol. 2 No. 6
U-M NEWS
2008 MMPEI - Rackham Energy Fellowships
Four two-year fellowships for PhD students doing research in energy will be awarded this spring. Details will be released in the coming week and posted on the MMPEI website: http://www.mmpei.umich.edu. For information contact Shelly Sherman at sacs@umich.edu.
Wind and Human Powered Sustainable Energy Installation Shares First Prize at WorkPlay Competition
The WorkPlay competition, sponsored by the College of Engineering (CoE) and Arts on Earth, called for innovative designs for an attractive and interactive gathering place for North Campus, home to five colleges and schools."C'ing Energy", the sustainable energy project, includes low-power, artistically designed wind turbines and kinetic kiosks where visitors can generate power themselves at sites across campus. A central amphitheater would run on this power. Light-emitting diode "fireflies" would be scattered among new plantings of aspen, native prairie grass and switch grass, which would sequester carbon and also could be harvested for biofuels research.
U-M 'Ballast-Free Ship' Could Cut Costs (and Save Energy) While Blocking Aquatic Invaders
University of Michigan researchers are investigating a radical new design for cargo ships that would eliminate ballast tanks, the water-filled compartments that enable non-native creatures to sneak into the Great Lakes from overseas. In addition to helping fine tune the design, results from the latest round of tank tests and computer simulations suggest the ballast-free ship will deliver an unforeseen benefit. The design appears to provide a significant savings—possibly as much as 7.3 percent—in the power needed to propel the ship.
FACULTY NEWS
Levi Thompson: Building Clean Energy From the Atom Up
MMPEI Faculty Fellow Levi Thompson explains "...The reality is, those of us doing energy have to focus on basic materials work—at the device level, the systems level, and the megasystems level."
ENERGY NEWS
A Critical Look at Biofuels
Time magazine's April 7th cover story, The Clean Energy Myth, looks at the big picture of how ethanol and other biofuels affect the environment, global economy, politics and society. Time magazine reports ".... the force that biofuels have unleashed - political, economic, social - may now be too powerful to constrain."
Business of Green: A Special Section
New York Time's March 26th special section reports on the impact of going "green" in the job market, housing design and academia.
Michigan's Steelcase, Inc. Sponsors Commercial-Scale Wind Farm
Steelcase Inc., a global office furniture company, has become the first REC (Renewable Energy Credit) buyer to sponsor a commercial-scale wind farm by making the first known long-term purchase of all the RECs during a wind farm project’s financing stage.The power expected to be generated by the wind farm on an annual basis represents approximately 20 percent of the power Steelcase facilities require in the US. The windfarm, located in Texas, will be named in honor of Peter M. Wege, son of Steelcase Inc. founder, environmentalist and U-M alumnus.
U.S. Will Approve New Nuclear Reactors
One of the U.K.'s top nuclear officials reported on March 28 that she was told the U.S. will okay plans to build the first nuclear power plants since the accident at Three Mile Island nearly three decades ago.
Biogas Projects Show Promise to Power The Developing World
Throughout the developing world, fossil fuels are still the means by which most people get their energy. Projects in Cambodia and Costa Rica are trying to change that by showing people that the waste they generate can be used to fuel their homes and businesses.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
Coal And Biomass To Liquid Fuels: Research And Development Needs - 05/16/2008
This DOE announcement requests applications for research and development in producing liquid hydrocarbon fuels from coal/biomass mixtures. Area of interest 1 – Feeding Coal/Biomass Mixtures Across a Pressure Gradient (DE-PS26-08NT00258-01). Area of Interest 2 – Characterization of the Products from Gasifying Coal/Biomass Mixtures (DE-PS26-08NT00258-02). Area of Interest 3 – Optimization of the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) and Water-Gas-Shift (WGS) Processes (DE-PS26-08NT00258-03).
Energy for Sustainability - Due 09/15/2008
The National Science Foundation Energy for Sustainability program supports fundamental research and education in energy production, conversion, and storage and is focused on energy sources that are environmentally friendly and renewable such as sunlight, wind, biomass, hydrogen and alcohols.
Thermal Transport Processes - Due 09/15/2008
The National Science Foundation Thermal Transport Processes program supports research aimed at gaining a basic understanding of the microscopic and macroscopic levels of thermal phenomena underlying energy conversion, the synthesis and processing of materials, cooling and heating of buildings and equipment, the interaction of industrial processes with the environment, the propulsion of air and land-based vehicles, and thermal phenomena in biological and environmental systems.
Additional funding opportunities are listed on the MMPEI Opportunities Page.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Clean Energy Strategies for California Utilities
When: Thursday, April 10, 2008 (5:10 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.)
Where: Ross School, Room E 1540, 701 Tappan Street
What: Erb Speaker Series event with Hal LaFlash of California Pacific, Gas & Electric.
Energy and the Social Sciences: Challenges and Opportunities
When: Tuesday, May 6, 2008 (8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.)
Where: The Michigan League Ballroom, North University Avenue, Ann Arbor
What: Workshop and research grant opportunity.
Sponsors: MMPEI, the Center for Advancing Research and Solutions for Society (CARSS), and the Center for the Study of Complex Systems.
Registration Deadline: April 28, 2008.
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