̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - electricity

Electric cars better for climate in 95% of the world

sc604 — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 16:00:00 +0000

Reports have questioned whether electric cars really are ‘greener’ once emissions from production and generating their electricity are taken into account.

But a new study by the universities of Exeter, Nijmegen and Cambridge has concluded that electric cars lead to lower carbon emissions overall, even if electricity generation still relies on fossil fuels. ̽��ֱ��results are reported in the journal Nature Sustainability.

Under current conditions, driving an electric car is better for the climate than conventional petrol cars in 95% of the world, the study finds.

̽��ֱ��only exceptions are places like Poland, where electricity generation is still mostly based on coal.

Average lifetime emissions from electric cars are up to 70% lower than petrol cars in countries like Sweden and France (which get most of their electricity from renewables and nuclear), and around 30% lower in the UK.

In a few years, even inefficient electric cars will be less emission-intensive than most new petrol cars in most countries, as electricity generation is expected to be less carbon-intensive than today.

̽��ֱ��study projects that by 2050, every other car on the streets could be electric. This would reduce global CO2 emissions by up to 1.5 gigatons per year, which is equivalent to the total current CO2 emissions of Russia.

̽��ֱ��study also looked at electric household heat pumps, and found they too produce lower emissions than fossil-fuel alternatives in 95% of the world.

Heat pumps could reduce global CO2 emissions in 2050 by up to 0.8 gigatons per year – roughly equal to Germany’s current annual emissions.

"We started this work a few years ago, and policy-makers in the UK and abroad have shown a lot of interest in the results," said senior author Dr Jean-Francois Mercure from the ̽��ֱ�� of Exeter. " ̽��ֱ��answer is clear: to reduce carbon emissions, we should choose electric cars and household heat pumps over fossil fuel alternatives."

" ̽��ֱ��idea that electric vehicles or electric heat pumps could increase emissions is essentially a myth," said lead author Dr Florian Knobloch, from the ̽��ֱ�� of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. "We've seen a lot of discussion about this recently, with lots of disinformation going around. Here is a definitive study that can dispel those myths. We have run the numbers for all around the world, looking at a whole range of cars and heating systems.

"Even in our worst-case scenario, there would be a reduction in emissions in almost all cases. This insight should be very useful for policy-makers."

̽��ֱ��study examined the current and future emissions of different types of vehicles and home heating options worldwide.

It divided the world into 59 regions to account for differences in power generation and technology.

In 53 of these regions – including the US, China and most of Europe – the findings show electric cars and heat pumps are already less emission-intensive than fossil fuel alternatives.

These 53 regions represent 95% of global transport and heating demand and, with energy production decarbonising worldwide, Mercure said the "last few debatable cases will soon disappear."

"Understanding the effect of low-carbon innovations on relevant sectors of the economy, such as heating and transport, is crucial for the development of effective policy," said co-author Dr Pablo Salas, from the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. "We hope our work can inform the policy process here in the UK and abroad, particularly around discussions of the new carbon targets under the Paris Agreement framework."

̽��ֱ��researchers carried out a life-cycle assessment in which they not only calculated greenhouse gas emissions generated when using cars and heating systems, but also in the production chain and waste processing.

"Taking into account emissions from manufacturing and ongoing energy use, it’s clear that we should encourage the switch to electric cars and household heat pumps without any regrets," Knobloch said.

Reference:
Florian Knobloch et al. ‘Net emission reductions from electric cars and heat pumps in 59 world regions over time.’ Nature Sustainability (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41893-020-0488-7

Adapted from a ̽��ֱ�� of Exeter press release.

Fears that electric cars could actually increase carbon emissions are unfounded in almost all parts of the world, new research shows.

Understanding the effect of low-carbon innovations on relevant sectors of the economy, such as heating and transport, is crucial for the development of effective policy

Pablo Salas

Andrew Roberts via Unsplash

Electric car charging in Birmingham City Centre

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

New video game teaches teens about electricity

sc604 — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 15:39:07 +0000

̽��ֱ��game, called Wired, is available to download and play for free from today, and teaches the key mathematical concepts underpinning electricity. Electricity affects all of us every day, but is difficult to teach as it is abstract, difficult to visualise and requires lots of practice to master.

“A video game is an ideal way to teach students about electricity as it allows players to visualise the underlying concepts and the relationships between them,” said Diarmid Campbell from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, and the game’s designer. “It provides a structure for incremental challenges, each one building on previous ones, and there is a set of tried and tested motivational techniques that can encourage people to push through tricky areas.”

Campbell spent close to two decades in the gaming industry, developing titles for PlayStation, Xbox and PC. He is now a senior teaching associate at Cambridge, and develops video games to inspire more teenagers to study engineering.

Players of Wired will get an intuitive understanding of circuits, the logic of switches, voltage, current and resistance. They do this not by analysing circuits, as in textbooks, but by wiring up circuits to solve problems.

“Most educational games are delivered through the classroom and only need to be more fun than the lesson they are replacing,” said Campbell. “Wired will be delivered through gaming websites, so it needs to be at least as fun as other video games that people play. We are not gamifying education; we are edu-fying, and perhaps even edifying, a game.”

In many areas of physics, people already have an intuitive understanding of how things behave before they learn about them more formally. For instance, people have been throwing balls around since they were toddlers so when they learn about projectiles and Newton’s laws of motion they have an intuition to guide them in how to apply the equations.

Since electricity is invisible and isn’t something we encourage kids to play with, this intuition isn’t there in the same way. Students can learn the mathematics, but may not have the intuition to know how to apply it. “Students are often told that electricity behaves like water flowing through pipes – which gets you some of the way there, but actually, people don’t really understand how water behaves either,” said Campbell. “How many people can tell you why the shower changes temperature when you flush the toilet?”

According to Campbell, Wired bridges this gap, giving players an intuitive understanding of how electricity behaves and gets players solving problems that are not usually encountered until A-level physics.

̽��ֱ��project was supported by ̽��ֱ��Underwood Trust.

̽��ֱ��game is currently available on Mac and Windows.

An installable version can be downloaded at:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/885470/Wired/

A browser version of the game can be played at:
https://wiredthegame.com/

A new video game, designed by researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, gives teenagers an understanding of electricity by solving a series of puzzles in a bid to encourage more of them to study engineering at university.

A video game is an ideal way to teach students about electricity as it allows players to visualise the underlying concepts and the relationships between them.

Diarmid Campbell

Wired : ̽��ֱ��Game - Launch Trailer

Diarmid Campbell

Screenshot from Wired

Yes

Keeping the lights on in Ghana

sc604 — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 09:00:56 +0000

In Ghana, ‘Dumsor’ is a part of life. An annoyance, a risk, an impediment to be sure, but a part of life all the same.

̽��ֱ��half-joking, half-serious term, which roughly translates to ‘off-and-on’, refers to the frequent blackouts in the country. Entire neighbourhoods go dark in an instant. ̽��ֱ��patchwork electrical grid can leave one side of a street in darkness and the other fully lit. So widespread are the blackouts that John Mahama, until recently the country’s President, was often referred to as ‘Mr Dumsor’ by Ghanaians.

Like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana doesn’t produce enough power to meet demand. Its power supply has been erratic since the early 2000s, when water levels in the Akosombo Dam, the country’s main hydroelectric dam, dropped to dangerously low levels, and they have yet to recover fully. Although Ghana has one of the highest rates of access to electricity in Africa, in 2015 the country still experienced blackouts on 159 days.

“Ghana’s not so different from the UK, really – both countries have an electrical grid that’s under enormous strain,” says Dr Kevin Knowles of Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy. “ ̽��ֱ��difference is we’d be up in arms if the lights went out all the time, whereas in Ghana it’s just a fact of life. But there are things that researchers in Ghana are doing to help improve the electrical infrastructure.”

One such researcher is Dr Abu Yaya, Head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the ̽��ֱ�� of Ghana. Yaya has been working with Knowles with the aim of developing a home-grown industry back in Ghana to make a small but crucial component for power transmission: electroporcelain.

For electricity to get from the places where it is generated, such as the Akosombo Dam, to homes and businesses, it needs a well-established electrical grid made up of pylons, substations and transmission lines. Whereas high-voltage power lines are insulated by the surrounding air, a physical insulator is required at the point where the power lines are supported by utility poles or transmission towers, or where power lines enter buildings. These insulators prevent the loss of current and concentrate its flow, as well as help prevent electric shock.

Most insulators for high-voltage power transmission are made from glass or porcelain. Knowles describes the electroporcelain manufacturing industry as “mature”. In fact, in the UK it’s been around since the 1860s – a reason perhaps why the insulators can look curiously old-fashioned and incongruous, like small white ceramic bowls or brown spiral candlesticks perched on the arms of pylons.

However, despite the prevalence of raw materials to make electroporcelain in Ghana, electroporcelain ceramics are imported from other countries at great expense.

Ghana’s not so different from the UK, really – both countries have an electrical grid that’s under enormous strain. ̽��ֱ��difference is we’d be up in arms if the lights went out all the time, whereas in Ghana it’s just a fact of life
Kevin Knowles

It’s a frustrating situation says Yaya, who has now developed a method of making electrical insulators out of the materials available in Ghana. His aim is to scale up the process for commercial use in the country, and possibly to other sub-Saharan countries as well. ̽��ֱ��process is economical because all it needs is the raw materials, water and a furnace.

Yaya grew up in the slums in Nima, a suburb of Accra in Ghana. After completing his undergraduate studies in his home country, he received funding from the European Union to complete his Master’s degree in materials science at the ̽��ֱ�� of Aveiro, Portugal, and the ̽��ֱ�� of Aalborg, Denmark, and his PhD at the ̽��ֱ�� of Nantes, France, after which he returned home to take up a post at the ̽��ֱ�� of Ghana.

It was when he returned to Ghana that Yaya first became interested in developing electroporcelain, after a discussion with a retired lab technician who had a stockpile of clays and feldspar, but wasn’t sure what to do with it. “I figured out the clays and feldspar could be used to make electroporcelain, and at the same time I realised that Ghana imports all of its electroporcelain from Asian countries,” he says. “So I asked myself why can’t we make these products – and that is how I ended up in Cambridge.”

In 2015, Yaya won a six-month CAPREx fellowship at Cambridge to work with Knowles, an expert in materials for use in challenging engineering environments. Most of Knowles’ research focuses on how small changes to the microstructure of materials can improve their mechanical, electronic or optical properties for use in components such as connecting rods, fan blades, glass and fuel cells.

“In electroporcelain, the raw materials are clay, feldspar and silica,” explains Knowles. “When these raw materials are mixed together in the right proportions and fired together, at a temperature such as 1,200°C, an electrical insulator is produced. What happens during firing is that the feldspar melts and this helps to bind the particles together inducing further chemical reactions and reducing porosity. ̽��ֱ��result is a dense product that can be given a surface glaze to enable it to pass national safety standards tests for porcelain insulators.”

Yaya adds: “Normally, imported electroporcelains are made to suit the original country’s specifications, and are not made specifically for Ghana or other African countries, where the climatic conditions could vary. By producing these products in Ghana using local raw materials, they are subjected to our own environmental conditions.

They would be sent to the Ghana Standards Authority for further testing to ensure that failure does not occur rapidly when the electroporcelains are in use.”

Dumsor is an irritation at times but it also shows the power crisis we must overcome
Abu Yaya

As well as working closely with Knowles, Yaya has also spent time working with UK-based company Almath Crucibles to optimise his process. His aim from the outset was to develop a manufacturing process for electroporcelain that would meet international standards so it can be sold to Ghana’s electricity company.

It’s a crucial time for Ghana, which has committed itself to universal electricity access by 2020. Making sure the electricity supply is widely available and reliable will aid the growth of industries and the economic development of the country. It will also support the demand for power by an increasing population.

“If we are able to manufacture insulators in Ghana then they will be far more affordable than imported insulators, and we stand a better chance of expanding our electrical infrastructure to improve capacity,” explains Yaya. Meanwhile, foreign investors are beginning to take notice of Ghana’s richness in materials: in August 2016, a Chinese-owned company opened the first phase of a US$60m factory in the Free Zone in Eshiem in Ghana to manufacture floor tiles and other ceramic products to supply domestic and international ceramics markets.

Yaya continues to collaborate with Knowles, as well as with other researchers in Europe. He is currently in the process of patenting his technique through a ̽��ֱ�� of Ghana Technology Transfer Grant, and is now looking for potential commercial partners to help him bring the technology from a laboratory to an industrial scale.

“Dumsor is an irritation at times but it also shows the power crisis we must overcome,” he says. “We need to be sure that limitations in generating and distributing electricity do not become a development challenge for the country.

Dr Abu Yaya is at the ̽��ֱ�� of Ghana. His research with Dr Kevin Knowles was funded by the Cambridge-Africa Partnership for Research Excellence (CAPREx) and ̽��ֱ��ALBORADA Trust, through the Cambridge-Africa Programme.

To keep up to date with the latest stories about Cambridge’s engagement with Africa, follow #CamAfrica on Twitter.

When Ghanaian Abu Yaya wondered why his country imports all of its electroporcelain – a small but crucial component for electrical power transmission – it led to a collaboration with Cambridge materials scientist Kevin Knowles that might one day result in Ghana being able to reduce its frequent blackouts.

So I asked myself why can’t we make these products – and that is how I ended up in Cambridge"

Abu Yaya

jbdodane on flickr

Akosombo Dam, Ghana

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Liquid light switch could enable more powerful electronics

sc604 — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 14:09:36 +0000

Researchers have built a miniature electro-optical switch which can change the spin – or angular momentum – of a liquid form of light by applying electric fields to a semiconductor device a millionth of a metre in size. Their results, reported in the journal Nature Materials, demonstrate how to bridge the gap between light and electricity, which could enable the development of ever faster and smaller electronics.

There is a fundamental disparity between the way in which information is processed and transmitted by current technologies. To process information, electrical charges are moved around on semiconductor chips; and to transmit it, light flashes are sent down optical fibres. Current methods of converting between electrical and optical signals are both inefficient and slow, and researchers have been searching for ways to incorporate the two.

In order to make electronics faster and more powerful, more transistors need to be squeezed onto semiconductor chips. For the past 50 years, the number of transistors on a single chip has doubled every two years – this is known as Moore’s law. However, as chips keep getting smaller, scientists now have to deal with the quantum effects associated with individual atoms and electrons, and they are looking for alternatives to the electron as the primary carrier of information in order to keep up with Moore’s law and our thirst for faster, cheaper and more powerful electronics.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge researchers, led by Professor Jeremy Baumberg from the NanoPhotonics Centre, in collaboration with researchers from Mexico and Greece, have built a switch which utilises a new state of matter called a Polariton Bose-Einstein condensate in order to mix electric and optical signals, while using miniscule amounts of energy.

Polariton Bose-Einstein condensates are generated by trapping light between mirrors spaced only a few millionths of a metre apart, and letting it interact with thin slabs of semiconductor material, creating a half-light, half-matter mixture known as a polariton.

Putting lots of polaritons in the same space can induce condensation – similar to the condensation of water droplets at high humidity – and the formation of a light-matter fluid which spins clockwise (spin-up) or anticlockwise (spin-down). By applying an electric field to this system, the researchers were able to control the spin of the condensate and switch it between up and down states. ̽��ֱ��polariton fluid emits light with clockwise or anticlockwise spin, which can be sent through optical fibres for communication, converting electrical to optical signals.

“ ̽��ֱ��polariton switch unifies the best properties of electronics and optics into one tiny device that can deliver at very high speeds while using minimal amounts of power,” said the paper’s lead author Dr Alexander Dreismann from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory.

“We have made a field-effect light switch that can bridge the gap between optics and electronics,” said co-author Dr Hamid Ohadi, also from the Cavendish Laboratory. “We’re reaching the limits of how small we can make transistors, and electronics based on liquid light could be a way of increasing the power and efficiency of the electronics we rely on.”

While the prototype device works at cryogenic temperatures, the researchers are developing other materials that can operate at room temperature, so that the device may be commercialised. ̽��ֱ��other key factor for the commercialisation of the device is mass production and scalability. “Since this prototype is based on well-established fabrication technology, it has the potential to be scaled up in the near future,” said study co-author Professor Pavlos Savvidis from the FORTH institute in Crete, Greece.

̽��ֱ��team is currently exploring options for commercialising the technology as well as integrating it with the existing technology base.

̽��ֱ��research is funded as part of a UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) investment in the Cambridge NanoPhotonics Centre, as well as the European Research Council (ERC) and the Leverhulme Trust.

Reference:
A. Dreismann et al. ‘A sub-femtojoule electrical spin-switch based on optically trapped polariton condensates.’ Nature Materials (2016). DOI: 10.1038/nmat4722

Researchers have built a record energy-efficient switch, which uses the interplay of electricity and a liquid form of light, in semiconductor microchips. ̽��ֱ��device could form the foundation of future signal processing and information technologies, making electronics even more efficient.

We’re reaching the limits of how small we can make transistors, and electronics based on liquid light could be a way of increasing the power and efficiency of the electronics we rely on.

Hamid Ohadi

Alexander Dreismann

Polariton fluid emits clockwise or anticlockwise spin light by applying electric fields to a semiconductor chip.

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Yes

'Extreme sleepover #15' – keeping the lights on in rural Uganda

lw355 — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 16:28:50 +0000

“If I have a flush toilet in my house I think I can be a king of all kings because I can’t go out on those squatting latrines… also it can protect my wife from going outside alone as recently my wife was almost raped by a thug when she escorted my son to the latrine at around 10:30pm in the night.”

This is Paul. His declaration of the possession he would most value is met with laughter from his fellow villagers, but it highlights a very real concern – the safety of his family.

It’s also a valuable research finding for me. Too often, projects that bring electricity to villages like Paul’s fail because of lack of uptake and maintenance by the rural communities. But if, for instance, the benefits of electrification could be understood in terms of the safety value of night-time lighting, this could improve the sense of community responsibility towards sustaining the technology after its implementers have gone home.

Another villager, Michael, explains that he places most value in owning a corrugated iron sheet instead of grass-thatched roofing because this would reduce the risk of indoor fires. Here too, the value of electricity can be highlighted – it would avoid the need to cook on an open fire.

Understanding the locals’ real needs and desires can be a key element in overcoming the lack of technology uptake. Finding out what these are is the aim of my PhD research, working with Dr Heather Cruickshank at the Centre for Sustainable Development. While the technology itself has been extensively studied, social attributes in project design have received little attention.

I have travelled here by a ‘boda boda’ motorbike and then night bus, sharing my seat on the 12-hour journey on unpaved roads to the West Nile Region of Uganda with two too many people, a goat lying beneath me, and enough chickens not to be able to ignore the smell. Only once I am on the bus do I realise that my local research assistant has accidentally booked us on the budget bus (only US$2 cheaper than the luxury coach).

To provide better infrastructure services to rural communities, it is fundamentally important to relate to the beneficiaries’ needs and aspirations, and I need to travel to the areas to learn this at first hand. Infrastructure failure after the projects are handed over to the communities is common across the basic utility provisions such as water and electrification, and I am keen to discover if there is a way of improving project longevity by ‘selling’ a service that is valued.

Seven villages and three days of focus group discussions per village seem like an achievable task in the two months scheduled. Today is the first day of fieldwork and we have arrived at the village of Moyo for the day’s focus group discussions.

̽��ֱ��village is still very familiar to me; not much has changed since my last visit three years ago when I was working with the German Development Agency, GIZ, on the installation of the community-operated pico-hydropower scheme. These schemes are perfect for small communities with about 50 homes that require only enough electricity to power a few light bulbs and a small number of electrical items.

In Moyo, however, the scheme no longer works, and the villagers are once more plunged into darkness while a more effective solution is being explored.

We meet one of the women to mobilise the six chosen villagers. We decide to start with the men, as by late morning some of the men in the village will be drunk.

Identifying what is important to rural villagers when implementing basic infrastructure projects is far more complex than simply asking “what is important to you?” I have made a ‘value game’ and explain to the locals that they must choose, initially individually, 20 items from a list of approximately 50 items that include cow, hoe, fridge, water pot, bed and utensils. Following prioritisation, they will be asked to give reasons as to why these items are important to them.

Another example arises during the discussion. ̽��ֱ��villagers use kerosene lamps to light their homes. Simply offering a solution that replaces light from one source with another is not enough. Modern technologies can offer benefits that are indirectly linked to aspects perceived as ‘very important’ in rural communities – in this case, avoiding the use of fume-producing kerosene would resonate with the mothers’ hopes of keeping their children healthy.

̽��ֱ��findings from my research will be fed back to project implementers. My hope is that only small adjustments in the project design will be required in order to communicate these ‘additional’ benefits to the target users, and that the lights will be turned on and kept on in rural villages like Moyo.

Stephanie Hirmer is a PhD student in the Department of Engineering. She is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Qualcomm and the Smuts Memorial Fund.

Inset image – credit: Stephanie Hirmer.

Stephanie Hirmer travelled to Moyo in northern Uganda to ask which possessions the villagers most value and why. ̽��ֱ��results will be used to help reduce the failure rate of projects that bring electricity to rural communities.

Identifying what is important to rural villagers when implementing basic infrastructure projects is far more complex than simply asking “what is important to you?”

Stephanie Hirmer

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Yes

Low-impact hub generates electrical current from pure plant power

lw355 — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 09:00:52 +0000

A prototype “green bus shelter” that could eventually generate enough electricity to light itself, has been built by a collaboration of ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge researchers and eco-companies.

̽��ֱ��ongoing living experiment, hosted by the Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden and open to the visiting public, is incorporated in a distinct wooden hub, designed by architects MCMM to resemble a structure like a bus shelter. Eight vertical green wall units – created by green wall specialists, Scotscape – are housed along with four semi-transparent solar panels and two flexible solar panels provided by Polysolar.

̽��ֱ��hub has specially adapted vertical green walls that harvest electrons naturally produced as a by-product of photosynthesis and metabolic activity, and convert them into electrical current. It is the brainchild of Professor Christopher Howe and Dr Paolo Bombelli of the Department of Biochemistry. Their previous experiments resulted in a device able to power a radio using the current generated by moss.

̽��ֱ��thin-film solar panels turn light into electricity by using mainly the blue and green radiation of the solar spectrum. Plants grow behind the solar glass, ‘sharing the light’ by utilising the red spectrum radiation needed for photosynthesis, while avoiding the scorching effect of UV light. ̽��ֱ��plants generate electrical currents as a consequence of photosynthesis and metabolic activity during the day and night.

“Ideally you can have the solar panels generating during the day, and the biological system at night. To address the world’s energy needs, we need a portfolio of many different technologies, and it’s even better if these technologies can operate in synergy,” said Bombelli.

̽��ֱ��structure of the hub allows different combinations of the photovoltaic and biological systems to be tested. On the north east aspect of the hub, plants receive light directly, without being exposed to too much direct sun. On the south west orientation, a green wall panel is housed behind a semi-transparent solar panel so that the effect on the plants and their ability to generate current can be monitored. Next to that, in the same orientation, a single solar panel stands alone, and two further panels are also mounted on the roof.

“ ̽��ֱ��combination of horticulture with renewable energy production constitutes a powerful solution to food and resource shortages on an increasingly populated planet,” explained Joanna Slota-Newson from Polysolar. “We build our semi-transparent solar panels into greenhouses, producing electrical energy from the sun which can in turn be used to power irrigation pumps or artificial lighting, while offering a controlled environment to improve agricultural yields. In this collaboration with Cambridge ̽��ֱ��, the public can experience the plants’ healthy growth behind Polysolar panels.”

̽��ֱ��green wall panels in the hub are made from a synthetic material containing pockets, each holding a litre of soil and several plants. ̽��ֱ��pockets are fitted with a lining of carbon fibre on the back, which acts as an anode to receive electrons from the metabolism of plants and bacteria in the soil, and a carbon/catalyst plate on the front which acts as a cathode.

When a plant photosynthesises, energy from the sun is used to convert carbon dioxide into organic compounds that the plant needs to grow. Some of the compounds – such as carbohydrates, proteins and lipids – are leached into the soil where they are broken down by bacteria, which in turn release by-products, including electrons, as part of the process.

Electrons have a negative charge so, when they are generated, protons (with a positive charge) are also created. When the anode and cathode are connected to each other by a wire acting as an external circuit, the negative charges migrate between those two electrodes. Simultaneously, the positive charges migrate from the anodic region to the cathode through a wet system, in this case the soil. ̽��ֱ��cathode contains a catalyst that enables the electrons, protons and atmospheric oxygen to recombine to form water, thus completing the circuit and permitting an electrical current to be generated in the external circuit.

̽��ֱ��P2P hub therefore generates electrical current from the combination of biological and physical elements. Each element of the hub is monitored separately, and members of the public can track the findings in real time, at a dedicated website and on a computer embedded in the hub itself.

Margherita Cesca, Senior Architect and Director of MCMM Architettura, the hub’s designer, is pleased that it has garnered so much interest. “This prototype is intended to inspire the imagination, and encourage people to consider what could be achieved with these pioneering technologies. ̽��ֱ��challenging design incorporates and showcases green wall and solar panels as well as glass, creating an interesting element which sits beautifully within Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Botanic Garden,” she said.

Bombelli added: “ ̽��ֱ��long-term aim of the P2P solar hub research is to develop a range of self-powered sustainable buildings for multi-purpose use all over the world, from bus stops to refugee shelters.”

̽��ֱ��P2P project was supported by a Partnership Development Award grant from the ̽��ֱ��’s EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account.

P2P is an outreach activity developed under the umbrella of the BPV (BioPhotoVoltaic) project working in collaboration with green technology companies including MCMM, Polysolar and Scotscape. ̽��ֱ��BPV project includes scientists from the Departments of Biochemistry, Plant Sciences, Physics and Chemistry at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, together with the ̽��ֱ�� of Edinburgh, Imperial College London and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cape Town.

Green wall technology and semi-transparent solar panels have been combined to generate electrical current from a renewable source of energy both day and night.

This prototype is intended to inspire the imagination, and encourage people to consider what could be achieved with these pioneering technologies

Margherita Cesca, MCMM Architettura

Yes

'Endeavour' blazes across the Outback

ns480 — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:00:38 +0000

̽��ֱ��car, named "Endeavour Mk II", successfully battled bush fires and thunderstorms to complete the gruelling 3,000 km race across the Australian Outback, from Darwin to Adelaide.

̽��ֱ��CUER team was entering the race only for the second time in its short history and the car and team outperformed the other British entrant (Durham ̽��ֱ��) and performed at a similar level to some of the most recognised teams in the world.

̽��ֱ��race this year suffered from poor weather conditions that meant 30 out of 37 entrants in the field (CUER included) were unable to travel the entire race distance under solar power alone. Endeavour II was only able to complete 1487km under solar power in the strict 6-day time limit.

̽��ֱ��team was able to demonstrate levels of technical reliability and organisational competence that were significantly better than both their predecessors in 2009 and many of their fellow competitors. Furthermore, the professionalism of CUER was even recognised by the event organisers who, at the closing ceremony, presented them with the award for the team that has displayed the highest standard of safe and consistent racing.

CUER is a team composed entirely of students from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge who, in their spare time, design and build solar and electric powered racing vehicles. Over the past 18 months, the team estimates that around 17,000 man-hours have been poured in to the car, which is the culmination of a number of Masters projects in Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Engineering Department.

Work has already begun on development of a much-improved car to enter the World Solar Challenge in 2013 and the team are looking to raise money to support its efforts over the next two years.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Solar Car Team (CUER) has completed 2011 Veolia World Solar Challenge.

CUER

Endeavour II

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Yes

Towards a smarter electricity future

bjb42 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:39:58 +0000

Global efforts to address climate change will involve the massive roll-out of existing low carbon energy technologies as well as the development of new technologies, together with increased energy efficiency, fundamental behavioural shifts, and processes that will reduce carbon emissions, all on an unprecedented scale. Such change requires smart engineers, willing industries and green consumers. But it also requires getting the regulatory framework structures and policies right at national and international levels.

A better understanding of these incentives and policies forms part of the work of the Electric Policy Research Group (EPRG), along with analysis of liberalised energy markets, and pricing carbon via taxes or emissions trading.

This joint research programme between the Faculty of Economics and Judge Business School was launched in 2005, when the EPRG was awarded a five-year, £2.38 million grant from Research Councils UK (RCUK), expanding on the work of the Cambridge-MIT Institute Electricity Project.

Professor David Newbery, Director of the EPRG, leads a group that now numbers more than 30 researchers, including a team of 12 faculty and senior research staff, together with PhD students and Associates from departments across Cambridge and other leading institutions. ̽��ֱ��research team is built around core expertise in economics and policy, with active collaboration between experts from different academic traditions, and draws on insights from engineering, political science and law. ̽��ֱ��group is also supported by the industry and government sponsors of its Energy Policy Forum, which helps leverage research funding and enhances the EPRG’s ability to respond to important research questions as they arise.

Two recently completed EPRG research projects exemplify the types of analyses that are helping the electricity industry evolve: the risks and incentives for taking forward carbon capture and storage (CCS), and the opportunities for increasing energy efficiency through smart metering, both of which are key elements in the UK’s new Low Carbon Transition Plan.

CCS: risks and incentives

A study sponsored by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change has analysed the incentives needed to reduce emissions from fossil-fired electricity generation.

̽��ֱ��idea behind CCS is to capture the CO₂ emitted from power plants burning fossil fuels and to store it safely in geological formations such as depleted oil fields. By 2015, the European Union (EU) aims to have up to 12 commercial-scale CCS demonstration projects deployed across Europe, but as of today there are still no commercial projects operating and each project is expected to cost hundreds of millions of pounds.

With so much at stake, a competition has been launched by the UK Government to build one of the world’s first commercial-scale CCS power plants in the UK. This was followed by recent announcements of support for CCS at the level of the EU, and a UK Government commitment of up to four demonstration plants. But how to select the projects? A study led by Dr David Reiner and Professor David Newbery set out to identify the key risks in designing the project selection process and to examine the interactions between incentives for CCS at the EU level and those at the national level.

Bringing together experts on auction design, game theory and R&D policy, the study examined European support schemes in greater detail. In addition to stimulus spending of over €1 billion (up to €180 million per project), the EU has earmarked 300 million allowances under the EU Emissions Trading Systems to support CCS and innovative renewables technologies (up to 45 million allowances per project). Several risks were identified in designing the project selection process, including the carbon price risk, the variable cost risk, the technological risk and inefficiencies such as the effect of firms colluding or possessing information unavailable to governments. To overcome these concerns, a Technology Category Auction was proposed that would deliver learning from diversity (validation of the main available technological options) rather than learning by doing.

̽��ֱ��hope is that research such as this can help governments put in place policy frameworks at national and international levels that will enable the CCS demonstration phase to be conducted in a manner that is both effective, by demonstrating a range of CCS technologies across Europe, and accomplishes it at least cost.

Examining the prospects for smart metering

Could smart meters be the answer to promoting efficient, flexible and sustainable energy consumption?

Decarbonising the electricity system is just part of the story. Achieving the UK’s target of an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by 2050 will involve perhaps as much as a 50% or more improvement in energy efficiency relative to business as usual. A key part of any climate change strategy therefore is to change the nature of the relationship between the energy services that people need and the amount of energy that is supplied. One mechanism for delivering this is the so-called smart electricity meter – a two-way real-time communication between the household and the electricity grid that enables demand to be varied in response to available supply.

̽��ֱ��UK Government is currently in a two-year consultation period prior to announcing its strategy for how to roll out smart meters to all households by 2020 in line with the EU Energy Services Directive. Dr Michael Pollitt and colleagues Dr Tooraj Jamasb and Aoife Brophy Haney in the EPRG have been examining the prospects for smart meters in the light of international roll-outs that have already occurred.

Currently, we have an electricity system in which supply is largely driven by demand. At the household level, most homes have a ‘dumb’ electricity meter that records cumulative consumption to date. Individuals have very poor information about their instantaneous electricity consumption, and hence may be consuming more energy than they need. It also means that individual electricity demands are unable to respond to the situation of the electricity system as a whole. A ‘smart’ electricity meter would address both of these problems and be an essential part of delivering an electricity system based on the concept of energy services rather than consumption.

̽��ֱ��EPRG study is providing a comprehensive framework for assessing the costs and benefits of smart meters. Data from Ontario and California show that the introduction of smart metering can have two immediate impacts on the electricity system. It might reduce electricity consumption by 5–7% simply by giving people real-time information on their electricity use. It can also allow for the variation of electricity prices across the day to better reflect the costliness of the generation required at that time. Such real-time pricing can result in shifts in peak energy consumption of 8–13% of total electricity demand.

However, these two effects are only the start of the possibilities that smart meters offer. Smart meters are central to the use of information technology to seamlessly manage household energy consumption and production. A smart meter can also ensure that any electricity produced by the household (via micro-combined heat and power or solar panels) can be sold to the grid at a price that reflects its real-time value.

Smart metering research is part of the work that the EPRG has been carrying out for the past three years in collaboration with a consortium of nine universities under the FlexNet project. Funded by £7 million from the Economic and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the project as a whole is looking at the evolution of the UK electricity system to 2050. ̽��ֱ��research on smart metering has been submitted to the UK Government to assist in its assessment of the best way to roll out smart meters.

For more information, please contact the authors Dr David Reiner (d.reiner@jbs.cam.ac. uk) and Dr Michael Pollitt (m.pollitt@jbs.cam.ac.uk) at Judge Business School and Professor David Newbery (dmgn@econ.cam.ac.uk) at the Faculty of Economics or visit www.eprg.group.cam.ac.uk/

̽��ֱ��Electricity Policy Research Group – a programme that spans the Faculty of Economics and Judge Business School – is providing world-class analysis to support an evolving electricity industry.

Change requires smart engineers, willing industries and green consumers. But it also requires getting the regulatory framework structures and policies right at national and international levels.

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