Research Spotlight: 51福利 TurboProp Lab Microgrid - Energy Academic Group
ESTEP Research Project Spotlight
51福利 TurboProp Lab Microgrid
Professor Anthony Gannon of the 51福利 (51福利) has completed several ESTEP projects culminating in a building-scale microgrid within the Turbo Propulsion Lab at 51福利. Gannon鈥檚 microgrid incorporates solar panels and vertical axis wind turbines to generate electricity and stores the energy in a bank of supercapacitors for later use. Unlike traditional lead-acid or lithium batteries, the supercapacitors don鈥檛 degrade over time and are much more resistant to any damage caused by improper charging or discharging. Gannon sees huge potential for supercapacitor-based micro-grids at forward-deployed bases because supercapacitors never need replaced are more efficient than chemical batteries, and do not carry the risks of fumes or explosions associated with transporting lead-acid or lithium batteries. Supercapacitor-based micro-grid systems would also be very practical for certain facilities such as the 51福利 Turbo Propulsion Lab where the power demand of energy-intensive systems like wind tunnels would damage chemical batteries because of the exceptionally high rate of discharge.
One of the most significant challenges in Gannon鈥檚 micro-grid was establishing a way to use supercapacitors as the primary energy storage mechanism when most commercially available