SBIR Phase I: Materials for Renewable Energy Systems

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将为新型波浪能设备开发新的和改进的材料。 我们已经开发了一种正在申请专利的概念，用于使用低成本磁致伸缩合金的无移动部件波能采集器。 这项技术显示出作为一种发电和输送基本负荷电力的手段的前景，这种电力与传统技术（如燃煤或燃气发电厂）竞争，而没有清洁能源激励措施。 磁致伸缩合金的开发具有比我们的基准材料更好的性能成本比，可以将电力的平准成本降低高达50%，这将加速商业化的道路，并显着提高波浪能的能力，为沿海地区的电力供应做出有意义的贡献。 在第一阶段的工作中，我们将生产和测试有可能实现这种影响的新合金，并通过实验室规模的演示来证明在波浪能采集器应用中使用这些新材料的可行性。 将对这些合金的机械性能和耐腐蚀能力进行测试。 在第一阶段的可行性论证活动之后，我们将进一步优化材料，将其纳入子规模波浪能收集设备，并在第二阶段进行详细的系统分析和建模。该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是使波浪能收集成为世界电力供应的重要贡献者。 波浪能有潜力支持美国6.5%的能源需求，相当于每年约180亿美元的电力生产。 快速开发和部署低成本、低碳、可再生的电力资源，以减少我们对化石能源的依赖及其人为温室气体排放，无疑是本世纪全球面临的重大挑战之一。 这些技术将推动经济增长，改善人类和环境健康，并提高能源安全。 海洋是一种巨大但尚未开发的可再生能源，特别适合解决不断增长和/或服务不足的沿海人口的问题，但前提是必须制定经济上可行的解决方案。 从海洋中开发电网规模能源的努力继续受到高资本成本、高运营维护成本和低可用性的阻碍。 通过该项目开发的材料将加速新技术的商业化，预计该技术将比现有替代品具有更低的成本和更高的可用性，从而实现与传统电力技术竞争的电力成本。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop new and improved materials for a novel wave energy device. We have developed a patent-pending concept for a no-moving-parts wave energy harvester that uses low-cost magnetostrictive alloys. This technology shows promise as a means for generating and delivering baseload electric power that is competitive with conventional technologies such as coal or gas-fired power plants, without clean energy incentives. Development of magnetostrictive alloys with a better performance to cost ratio than our baseline material could reduce the levelized cost of electricity by up to 50%, which will accelerate the path to commercialization and dramatically increase wave energy's ability to make a meaningful contribution to electricity supply for coastal regions. In this Phase I effort, we will produce and test new alloys that have the potential to achieve this impact and demonstrate the feasibility of using these new materials in the wave energy harvester application through a bench-scale demonstration. These alloys will be tested for mechanical performance and their ability to resist corrosion. Following feasibility demonstration activities in Phase I, we will further optimize the materials, incorporate them into sub-scale wave energy harvesting devices, and conduct detailed system analysis and modeling in Phase II.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to enable wave energy harvesting as a significant contributor to the world's electricity supply. Wave energy has the potential to support an estimated 6.5% of U.S. energy needs, representing approximately $18 billion of annual electricity production. The rapid development and deployment of low-cost, low-carbon, renewable electricity sources to reduce both our dependence on fossil energy sources, and their anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, unquestionably ranks as one of this century's global grand challenges. Such technologies will fuel economic growth, improve human and environmental health, and improve energy security. Oceans constitute a vast but untapped renewable energy source that is particularly well suited to address growing and/or underserved coastal populations, but only if economically viable solutions are developed. Efforts to tap grid-scale energy from the ocean continue to be hampered by high capital costs, high operating & maintenance costs, and low availability. The materials developed through this project will accelerate the commercialization of a novel technology that is expected to have substantially lower costs and higher availability than existing alternatives, enabling a levelized cost of electricity that is competitive with conventional electric power technologies.