2005
May 2005. Physics
Today Letters. Ideas Generated for Transforming
the Electric Infrastructure. Clark
Gellings and Kurt Yeager, in their article "Transforming
the Electric Infrastructure" (PHYSICS
TODAY, December 2004, page 45), propose "distributed
energy resources"
as part of the solution to transforming
and modernizing the electric power
infrastructure. They recommend
"small generation and storage
devices distributed throughout" the
system, but suggest only "fuel
cells and batteries" and offer
no details of how the cells and batteries
could be created economically or
how they would be integrated. Much
more appropriate devices already
exist and are currently proliferating-namely,
hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles,
such as the Toyota Prius. Although
nominally designed as transportation,
hybrid vehicles normally perform
that function for only an hour or
so per day. The rest of the time
they are small standby generator
plants. With their capacious batteries,
they could supply tens of kilowatts
of instantaneous power to cover peak
demands for electricity. The continuous
power output of hybrids is several
kilowatts, commensurate with the
power required not just to drive
down the highway but also to run
a house.
...We're all accustomed to the necessity of installing an uninterruptible
power source for each computer. Maybe it's time to consider installing
a UPS for the house as well.
Richard Factor (rcf@eventide.com), Eventide Inc., Little Ferry,
New Jersey
________________________________________
...Now, however, the relatively tiny
250-kW molten-carbonate fuel cell is more efficient than even
the largest central station, particularly when transmission and
distribution losses are taken into account and the high price
of natural gas relative to coal makes gas no longer as useful
for generating base-load energy. ...With mass production, fuel
cells' hardware cost will drop dramatically, perhaps 20% with
each doubling of production, and the full fuel-cell energy cost-including
the costs of both fuel and hardware-will become competitive with
that of central-station power from the grid. Moreover, apart
from their cost advantages, fuel cells can provide highly reliable
power. They can cut toxic pollution emissions by some 99% and
greenhouse gases by a lower percentage, and can do away with
the transmission lines snaking through wilderness or through
Connecticut suburbs. ...I think that distributed generation with
fuel cells will likely be the direction that our power supply
will take for the future. Reference 1. For more information,
see W. E. Brand, three-part article in EV World. See part 1 at http://evworld.com/view.cfm?section=article&storyid=587,
part 2 at =594, and part 3 at =595. Wallace E. Brand (webrand{at}earthlink.net)
Alexandria, Virginia
________________________________________
Gellings and Yeager reply: We thank
Wallace Brand and Richard Factor for providing additional insights
about the electric infrastructure. ...The solution to our electric
energy needs may include fuel cells-but realistically it will
also require increasing the utilization efficiency of electricity
and use of advanced nuclear reactors, cleaner combined-cycle
coal combustion, and renewable energy resources. Adapting hybrid
vehicles to become plug-in hybrid vehicles is an exciting potential
way to reduce overall energy needs even further, reduce emissions,
and provide the lowest vehicle life-cycle costs to consumers.
Several such vehicle configurations are being demonstrated in
the US and Europe. Clark Gellings (cgelling{at}epri.com), Kurt
Yeager, Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, California |
