CERT holds second green energy conference

Energy researchers from around the world will gather at the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro on Monday and Tuesday for the Second International Conference on Green and Sustainable Technology. (Here’s the program.)

The event is organized by A&T’s Center for Energy Research and Technology.

Plenary speakers will include James C.  Dalton, Chief of the Engineering and Construction Community of Practice, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Markus Buehler of the Center for Materials Science and Engineering and Center for Computational Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Anthony Roper, Deputy Secretary, North Carolina Department of Transportation; Volker Hartkopf, director of the Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon University; and Joshua Kneifel, economist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Researchers from a number of U.S. institutions and from Australia, Germany, India, Iran, Nigeria, Poland, and Turkey will present research papers.

The conference is sponsored by N.C. A&T, Advanced Energy, Lockheed Martin, the North Carolina Community Development Initiative, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, Progress Energy, and the Proximity Hotel.

Ag Research Seminars set for October 20

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Editorial recognizes A&T green energy research

One more media note: A News & Record editorial on Sunday singled out green energy research as a key investment for Greensboro’s economy.  The editorial noted the volume of research conducted by the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, work of A&T researchers to help the Proximity Hotel gain its Platinum LEED certification, A&T spinoff company Advaero Technologies and Dr. Abolghasem Shahbazi’s work in alternative energy, among other projects.  Some nice recognition for one of the particularly strong areas of research at N.C. A&T.

Worth noting: Aggies at the landill of the future and summer research by apprentice Aggies

Two news items worth noting from the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences:

– Sunday’s News and Record reported on the involvement of A&T researchers at the Catawba County Regional EcoComplex and Resource Recovery Facility, which is developing a system to recover all useable products and by-products  from the local landfill (near Hickory).  Professor Abolghasem Shahbazi and grad student Quentin Brown were quoted in the article, available here.  More about the EcoComplex is available at its website.

– High school students in the School of Ag’s Research Apprenticeship Program did some serious research this summer.  Summaries of their projects are available on the program’s Facebook page.  If you want a reason to feel good about the next generation of researchers, give it a look.

NSF, DOE launch photovoltaic cell initiative

The National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy will jointly provide up to $39 million for research to improve photovoltaic cell performance and reduce module cost for grid-scale commercial applications. The agencies released a joint Funding Opportunity Announcement for the “Foundational Program to Advance Cell Efficiency” last week to identify and fund solar device physics and PV technology research and development. Details are available here.

Business Journal on CERT’s smart grid forum

The Business Journal has given some good coverage to the smart grid conference hosted by the Center for Energy Research and Technology this week:

“The ‘Smart Grid Technical Forum,’ held March 16 by N.C. A&T State University and the U.S. Department of Energy, combined a review of new technologies being developed to monitor energy usage, reduce peak demands and route around outages with discussions of the economic development potential of the effort.

“N.C. A&T, for example, presented an overview of its research into synchrophasors, which measure the condition and capacity of power lines running through electricity substations dozens of times per second and report back to a central computer designed to optimize flow through the grid.”

Dr. Gary Lebby and Ph.D. student/DOE engineer Will Bowen provided the insightful quotes.  To see them and the rest of the article, see The Business Journal, March 18 edition (subscription required).

Call for papers: CERT Green Conference 2011

The Center for Energy Research and Technology has issued the call for papers for the Second International Conference on Green and Sustainable Technology.  The event will be held Monday November 7-Tuesday November 8 at the Proximity Hotel.  Papers are solicited in the areas of green energy, green construction and green technology.  Details are here.

Agenda updated for March 16 smart-grid forum

The Center for Energy Research and Technology (CERT) has issued an updated agenda for the North Carolina Smart Grid Technical Forum.  The event will be held Wednesday March 16 at the Proximity Hotel.  Featured speakers include Dr. Gary Lebby of the A&T Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Eric Lightner, director of the Smart Grid Task Force of the U.S. Department of Energy; and Dr. Mark Johnson, program director for the Advanced Research Projects Agency — Energy.  The updated agenda: NC Smart Grid Tech Forum Agenda 2-28-11

Today’s lesson: Green energy can be fun

The electric Tesla roadster, an attention-grabber for school children arriving for CERT's Energy Day at the Cherry Building.

Busloads of school children arrived at the Cherry Building this morning for Energy Day, part of A&T’s Engineering Week activities.  While faculty members delivered lessons in bioenergy, hydropower, hydrogen fuel cells, and other topics, Duke Energy provided a nice introduction to the concept of green energy: the all-electric Tesla roadster (0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds, zero tailpipe emissions … you can pick one up for about $101,000).

Among the groups providing displays and presentations were the NOAA ISET center, College of Engineering, and the Waste Management Institute.  The annual event is organized by the Center for Energy Research and Technology.

A&T to host smart-grid conference March 16

As hot-button issues go these days, there are fewer hotter ones in the energy field than smart-grid technology.  North Carolina A&T is hosting a conference on the subject in four weeks that will draw researchers and representatives of federal agencies, utilities and other corporations.

The North Carolina Smart Grid Technical Forum will be held Wednesday, March 16.  The location will be every energy researcher’s favorite hotel, the LEED Platinum-certified Proximity.  Agenda highlights:

• Dr. Mark Johnson, Program Director, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), Department of Energy, speaking on the future of smart grid research.
• Other high-level speakers, including Eric Lightner, the director of the Smart Grid Task Force, U.S. Department of Energy; and Ward Lenz, director of the North Carolina Energy Office.
• Key executives of GE Energy, IBM, Duke Energy, Progress Energy, and a variety of smaller corporate players in the field.
• Researchers from A&T (Dr. Gary Lebby, Electrical Engineering), N.C. State and UNC Charlotte.

Details are on the conference website.  Registration is $125.