SBIR-STTR Award

The energy requirements of the United States and the world, with over 2 billion people without electricity, are increasing each year. In addition, environmental problems resulting from the use of present energy sources also are increasing. In 2003, total US energy consumption was 95 quadrillion Btu with over 26 percent imported from other countries, a major contributor to our foreign trade deficit. This project will develop a renewable energy source that can: (1) generate energy for transport to other locations for use, or (2) upon demand, be converted into electricity for electrical peaking loads, base load, or to supply 24-hour power for non-grid/remote applications. Phase I will complete a system design to integrate a commercial concentrating solar photovoltaic (PV) system with an electrolyzer and fuel cell technology, thereby meeting system level requirements for hydrogen and electrical generation. Hardware components will be configured to verify the performance of the design.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:
The system should be of interest to electrical utilities in this country and others around the world. The United States could generate clean energy for all its needs in a small area of Nevada and become an exporter of energy instead of an importer

In order to facilitate energy independence, increased usage of alternative enery sources will be required. Unfortunately, of the renewable technologies now available, there are no viable alternatives that can produce power 24 hours a day. For example, wind energy requires a threshold wind speed and solar energy requires sunlight. However, if solar energy could be used to produce hydrogen, then the hydrogen could be used as a fuel source for fuel cells, which in turn could produce totally clean energy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The challenge is to incorporate both of these technologies in an efficient and cost effective system. This project will address this challenge by integrating a high-concentration photovoltaic system with a hydrogem electrolyzer. Phase I identified the system and subsystem requirements for both power input and output. A preliminary design was completed, and estimates of annual hydrogen production and system cost were calculated. Phase II will incorporate a feedback system into the design to ensure the most efficienct use of the solar energy. Efficiencies will be further improved, and costs reduced, by using a smaller silicon device in the solar sub-system.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:
The PV-Hydrogen system should contribute greatly to President Bush's 2003 Hydrogen Initiative by providing an alternative renewable energy source for the production of clean hydrogen.