Fuel Transformer Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

The following report documents the technical approach and conclusions made by Acumentrics Corporation during latest budget period toward the development of a low cost 10kW tubular SOFC power system. The present program, guided under direction from the National Energy Technology Laboratory of the US DOE, is a nine-year cost shared Cooperative Agreement totaling close to $74M funded both by the US DOE as well as Acumentrics Corporation and its partners. The latest budget period ran from January of 2006 through June 2006. Work focused on cell technology enhancements as well as BOP and power electronics improvements and overall system design. Significant progress was made in increasing cell power enhancements as well as decreasing material cost in a drive to meet the SECA cost targets. The following report documents these accomplishments in detail as well as the layout plans for further progress in next budget period

Program Area of Interest: Fuel Transformer Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

The following report documents the technical approach and conclusions made by Acumentrics Corporation during latest budget period toward the development of a low cost 10kW tubular SOFC power system. The present program, guided under direction from the National Energy Technology Laboratory of the US DOE, is a nine-year cost shared Cooperative Agreement totaling close to $74M funded both by the US DOE as well as Acumentrics Corporation and its partners. The latest budget period ran from July of 2005 through December 2005. Work focused on cell technology enhancements as well as BOP and power electronics improvements and overall system design. Significant progress was made in increasing cell power enhancements as well as decreasing material cost in a drive to meet the SECA cost targets. The following report documents these accomplishments in detail as well as the layout plans for further progress in next budget period

Fuel Transformer Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

The following report documents the technical approach and conclusions made by Acumentrics Corporation during latest budget period toward the development of a low cost 10kW tubular SOFC power system. The present program, guided under direction from the National Energy Technology Laboratory of the US DOE, is a nine-year cost shared Cooperative Agreement totaling close to $74M funded both by the US DOE as well as Acumentrics Corporation and its partners. The latest budget period ran from January of 2005 through June 2005. Work focused on cell technology enhancements as well as BOP and power electronics improvements and overall system design. Significant progress was made in increasing cell power enhancements as well as decreasing material cost in a drive to meet the SECA cost targets. The following report documents these accomplishments in detail as well as the layout plans for further progress in next budget period

Battery Electric Tractors: Small-Scale Organic Growers’ Preferences, Perceptions, and Concerns

Battery electric tractors (BETs) demonstrate considerable advantages over diesel-fueled tractors, including higher conversion efficiency, higher torque, less maintenance, and no tailpipe emissions. Converting to BETs also requires tradeoffs in the form of the batteries’ high cost, increased weight, limited energy capacity, finite charging cycles, and lengthy charging time. The extent to which small-scale organic vegetable, fruit and cut-flower growers are aware of these tradeoffs is unknown. Little research exists examining these growers’ perceptions, concerns, and willingness to pay for or adopt BETs. Here, we address that gap by conducting qualitative semi-structured interviews with 14 organic growers in the US Midwest, most operating in Michigan. We focus our questions on growers’ motivations, existing tractor-use patterns, and the evaluation of different configurations of a belly-mount open-station cultivating BET. Our results suggest interest in and potential for growers to transition to BETs, including an estimated willingness to pay 14 percent more for a BET compared to a diesel-fueled alternative. This premium is driven by most growers’ preferences for reduced noise, fumes, fuel, and greenhouse gases, as well as beliefs about BETs ultimately being a more sustainable long-term option than diesel-fueled tractors. Growers also identify significant concerns and uncertainty about the long-term performance, maintenance, storage, cost, safety, and weight of the tractors’ battery systems. While growers linked some environmental values and motivations to their interest in BETs, altruistic value signaling was absent, and growers focused considerably more on financial and instrumental concerns and motivations for BET adoption

Battery Electric Tractors: Small-Scale Organic Growers’ Preferences, Perceptions, and Concerns

Battery electric tractors (BETs) demonstrate considerable advantages over diesel-fueled tractors, including higher conversion efficiency, higher torque, less maintenance, and no tailpipe emissions. Converting to BETs also requires tradeoffs in the form of the batteries’ high cost, increased weight, limited energy capacity, finite charging cycles, and lengthy charging time. The extent to which small-scale organic vegetable, fruit and cut-flower growers are aware of these tradeoffs is unknown. Little research exists examining these growers’ perceptions, concerns, and willingness to pay for or adopt BETs. Here, we address that gap by conducting qualitative semi-structured interviews with 14 organic growers in the US Midwest, most operating in Michigan. We focus our questions on growers’ motivations, existing tractor-use patterns, and the evaluation of different configurations of a belly-mount open-station cultivating BET. Our results suggest interest in and potential for growers to transition to BETs, including an estimated willingness to pay 14 percent more for a BET compared to a diesel-fueled alternative. This premium is driven by most growers’ preferences for reduced noise, fumes, fuel, and greenhouse gases, as well as beliefs about BETs ultimately being a more sustainable long-term option than diesel-fueled tractors. Growers also identify significant concerns and uncertainty about the long-term performance, maintenance, storage, cost, safety, and weight of the tractors’ battery systems. While growers linked some environmental values and motivations to their interest in BETs, altruistic value signaling was absent, and growers focused considerably more on financial and instrumental concerns and motivations for BET adoption

Good fences make good neighbors: Stakeholder perspectives on the local benefits and burdens of large-scale solar energy development in the United States

In order to meet decarbonization goals, the number of large-scale solar (LSS) facilities in the US is expected to increase considerably. The advantages of LSS over fossil-fueled power generation are numerous and well documented. However, residents living nearby proposed and existing LSS sites have voiced a number of concerns about LSS, including its possible impacts to farmland and agricultural production, biodiversity, stormwater runoff, home and property values, as well as concerns about solar panels' toxicity and safety. While rapid expansion of LSS currently relies on officials permitting and residents being willing to host these systems, the appetite for LSS in some communities may be waning. Here we examine the perceived benefits and burdens of recent LSS developments, conducting 54 interviews with a broad set of stakeholders including residents, officials and developers at seven LSS sites across the US. We focus on identifying residents' most common concerns regarding LSS systems across states, site types, landscapes and ownership structures. We find concerns are associated with either LSS development processes or impacts, and center on the type and amount of information provided, the community's influence over project design, the efficacy of community subscription efforts, as well as projects' economic, environmental, and visual and landscape impacts. Importantly, we also investigate strategies that have been employed to improve perceptions and project outcomes, which include increasing in-person engagement, more explicit discussion of project tradeoffs, third-party intermediaries acting as community champions, and explicit requirements for meaningful local economic benefits

The energy crises revealed by COVID: Intersections of Indigeneity, inequity, and health

The global COVID-19 pandemic is a health crisis, an economic crisis, and a justice crisis. It also brings to light multiple ongoing, underlying social crises. The COVID-19 crisis is actively revealing crises of energy sovereignty in at least four ways. First, there are many whose access to basic health services is compromised because of the lack of energy services necessary to provide these services. Second, some people are more vulnerable to COVID-19 because of exposure to environmental pollution associated with energy production. Third, energy services are vital to human wellbeing, yet access to energy services is largely organized as a consumer good. The loss of stable income precipitated by COVID-19 may therefore mean that many lose reliable access to essential energy services. Fourth, the COVID-19 crisis has created a window of opportunity for corporate interests to engage in aggressive pursuit of energy agendas that perpetuate carbon intensive and corporate controlled energy systems, which illuminates the ongoing procedural injustices of energy decision making. These four related crises demonstrate why energy sovereignty is essential for a just energy future. Energy sovereignty is defined as the right for communities, rather than corporate interests, to control access to and decision making regarding the sources, scales, and forms of ownership characterizing access to energy services. Energy sovereignty is a critical component in the design of a post-COVID-19 energy system that is capable of being resilient to future shocks without exacerbating injustices that are killing the most vulnerable among us

Building a Values-Informed Mental Model for New Orleans Climate Risk Management

Individuals use values to frame their beliefs and simplify their understanding when confronted with complex and uncertain situations. The high complexity and deep uncertainty involved in climate risk management (CRM) lead to individuals’ values likely being coupled to and contributing to their understanding of specific climate risk factors and management strategies. Most mental model approaches, however, which are commonly used to inform our understanding of people\u27s beliefs, ignore values. In response, we developed a “Values-informed Mental Model” research approach, or ViMM, to elicit individuals’ values alongside their beliefs and determine which values people use to understand and assess specific climate risk factors and CRM strategies. Our results show that participants consistently used one of three values to frame their understanding of risk factors and CRM strategies in New Orleans: (1) fostering a healthy economy, wealth, and job creation, (2) protecting and promoting healthy ecosystems and biodiversity, and (3) preserving New Orleans’ unique culture, traditions, and historically significant neighborhoods. While the first value frame is common in analyses of CRM strategies, the latter two are often ignored, despite their mirroring commonly accepted pillars of sustainability. Other values like distributive justice and fairness were prioritized differently depending on the risk factor or strategy being discussed. These results suggest that the ViMM method could be a critical first step in CRM decision-support processes and may encourage adoption of CRM strategies more in line with stakeholders’ values