Energy Hub thanks Exelon Corporation for their continued support of the Energy Hub conference and organization.  Exelon was Energy Hub’s first sponsor in 2007.

Jim Meister, VP of Operations Support at Exelon, visited UW-Madison last week (10/14/2011) and made a point to deliver Exelon’s 2011 Conference sponsorship in person.  Thanks Jim, and thanks Exelon!

Pictured: James Meister of Exelon Corp, Michael Corradini of UW-Madison Nuclear Engineering/Engineering Physics Department, and the eHub Executive Team.

Are you an Innovator, Politico, Technician or Storyteller (or maybe a combination of a few)?  Your passion and skills are needed to drive creative clean energy solutions on your campus and in your community.

Focus the Nation, a national organization committed to clean energy leadership development, is now planning its next cycle of Forums-to-Action (F2A) for the upcoming 2011-2012 academic year.

Our F2A program engages hundreds of millennials on strategically selected campuses across the nation each year developing their Clean Energy Leadership skills.  Our program prepares you to moderate high-level multi-sector panel discussions on campus that develop and implement dynamic solutions in your local community.

By taking part in F2A you will gain leadership skills, knowledge of clean energy, and professional development. You will also have the opportunity to earn:

• Federal Work Study money (for eligible students)
• Independent Study Credit
• Service-Learning Credit

More information about the F2A program and the 2012 Theme:  Energy Innovation can be found on its web site.

If you are interested in this dynamic leadership opportunity, please don’t hesitate to contact Scott Williams at 608-890-2199 or spwilliams@wisc.edu.

The New York Times has a nice article by Kate Galbraith summarizing the technological and logistical obstacles to building bigger, better, more efficient and more economical wind turbines.

Some interesting notes:

• Current largest turbine: manufactured by German company Enercon, 7.5 MW capacity, 135m tower, 127m diameter Wind Swept Area
• Average US turbine: 1.8 MW
• Land-based turbine size is limited by width/weight capacity of roadways and bridges during delivery – offshore turbines are expected to keep growing because space constraints are less important.
• Turbine manufacturers are working to improve the radar transparency of their turbines.
• Some newer turbines now generate power via a direct-drive mechanism linking the rotor and generator directly, while many still rely on a high-speed gearbox to transfer power from the rotor to the generator.

Expect the wind industry to keep evolving and improving – as Galbraith notes, the modern wind turbine industry is still in its infancy compared to other established industries, like the automotive industry.  Learn more about wind energy at the AWEA.

A Series on the Four Main Levers of Carbon Emissions

Event Webpage
Sponsored by the UW Energy Institute, the WAGE Governing Global Energy Collaborative, the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), and the European Union Center for Excellence (EUCE)

To understand where carbon emissions come from and what to do about them, we need to understand four distinct yet interconnected factors: population, economic growth, energy intensity (or economic energy efficiency), and carbon content of energy generation. These four factors, when multiplied together, can tell us how much carbon a single country is sending to the atmosphere and how much it might emit in the future.

Knowing something about each of these four factors can also help us understand what options are available to reduce carbon emissions on a global scale. In this four-part lecture series, we will examine each component as a launching point for a more in-depth discussion of global energy and environmental policy.

All lectures will take place at 4:15 p.m. in Room 1106 Mechanical Engineering (map)

• Thursday, February 17:
  “From Energy Use to Emissions: What Environmental Benefits Can Be Achieved Near-Term?” (Click here for video webcast)
  • Markus Amann, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
• Thursday, March 10:
  “Economic Energy Intensity: Complexities, Implications, and Controversies”
  • Chris Green, McGill University
• Tuesday, April 5:
  “Managing Without Growth: Slower by Design, Not Disaster”
  • Peter Victor, York University
• Thursday, April 28:
  “Population Growth and Climate Change”
  • Paul Murtaugh, Oregon State University

For more information, contact Scott Williams by e-mail or (608) 890-2199.

Registration requested. Click here to register.

Read the rest of this entry →

The New York Times Green Blog article “Hold That Megawatt!” gives a quick overview of some grid-scale energy storage technologies that are being implemented in 2011.  Among the promising technologies – lithium-iron battery banks and carbon-fiber flywheels.

Grid scale energy storage could play an important role in a future electricity grid that incorporates large quantities of variable renewable generation sources, like wind and solar.   Today’s mostly fossil-fuel powered grid could also benefit from quick-dispatch energy storage systems to help grid operators keep the AC cycle frequency within the strict ranges required by modern electronic equipment.

Admin note, 11/2/11: Beacon Power, the flywheel-based energy storage manufacturer featured in the NYT article linked above, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 31, 2011.

Is the drab weather keeping you indoors in front of a TV or computer screen?  If so, this is a great time to augment your energy literacy by catching up on the energy lectures and programs that have happened right here at UW-Madison over the past year.

Energy Hub’s partner, Wisconsin Public Utility Institute, has an online archive of audio/video recordings of their top-quality programs dealing with various modern energy issues like electricity generation and transmission, fossil fuels, renewable energy, nuclear energy, climate change, EV-to-Grid strategies and more.

The screenshot shown above is from the archived talk with Dr. Gavin Schmidt, from his “Communicating Climate Science” lecture in March 2010:

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The 2010 Energy Hub Conference was a big success!  Thanks for attending!

We’ll post pics and video soon, so please check back soon.

Help us plan the 2011 Conference – stop by our weekly meeting to get involved and make your mark on the next eHub event.

As part of the Daily Cardinal’s ongoing “Green Room” series, UW graduate students Stephen Collins and Danny Spitzberg propose that Madison follow the example of Austin, Texas and implement a new cooperative effort to “promote conservation and clean energy, such as smart grid technology and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.” This effort would combine the resources of major stakeholders in Madison, such as city government, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (including the Energy Institute and Wisconsin Public Utility Institute) and Madison Gas and Electric.

Read the full article here.

By Danny Spitzberg and Stephen Collins

Earlier this week, fellow Daily Cardinal opinion writer Anthony Cefali posed a question: “How do we [in American education] inspire our science program to shoot for the moon, or at least our own modern equivalent?” Well, we think we have an answer.

Look no further than clean energy. Some are calling it the biggest market opportunity in history. Experts of all stripes have repeatedly stated that the nation that wins the clean-energy race will be the nation that leads the 21st century economy. Discovering and implementing cheap, clean and reliable energy technologies is our generation’s final frontier. Read the rest of this entry →

Source: The Daily Cardinal

The fourth annual UW-Madison Residence Hall Energy Competition, organized by Big Red Go Green begins Monday.

According to Clay Thomas, Big Red Go Green media intern, the competition encourages residences of each dorm on campus to reduce their energy consumption, offering a prize for the winning dorm. Big Red Go Green is a campaign run by the Wisconsin Students Public Interests Research Group on campus.

Thomas said in the past that the prize has involved parties or socials for all members of the winning dorm, but the organizers are looking into new ideas for this year’s prize.

He added that students who promise to save energy individually by signing a pledge will become eligible to win prizes from area businesses such as Buffalo Wild Wings, Sconnie Nation and Underground Textbook Exchange.

Click here to continue reading at The Daily Cardinal