PIRE: U.S.-Denmark Cooperative Research and Education in Intermittency-Friendly Community-Scale Renewable Energy Micro-Grids

不确定的资源供应、全球变化和能源市场波动要求制定旨在发展替代能源解决办法的战略。大规模集中发电对减少化石燃料消耗和碳排放的预期要求，表明需要从根本上健全的方式来增加可再生能源以及运输和分配设施。这个国际研究和教育伙伴关系（PIRE）项目涉及社区规模可再生能源微电网的技术、社会和经济方面。这一伙伴关系涉及来自美国和丹麦的研究人员，他们将共同作为一个合作的、虚拟的研究、发展和教育中心。主要合作伙伴是加州大学圣克鲁斯分校、加州大学戴维斯分校、奥尔堡大学和丹麦技术大学。从技术上讲，该项目的核心工作集中在将工程设计和部署原则与能源用户行为的社会学要素相结合。这将通过一个合作研究框架来实现，该框架将收集两国的供需数据，模拟微电网用户的操作，并分析间歇性和可变需求的影响。在此过程中，美国和丹麦的团队将重点关注基于特定地点的太阳能、风能、热泵、热电联产和储存以及负荷管理的智能代理的系统优化。与五年的研究工作相结合，为学生和初级研究人员提供了一个平衡的教育计划，专注于可持续发展工程，可再生能源和生态设计的专业发展，以及为行业专业人员提供的劳动力发展研讨会。初级参与者有机会亲自动手设计和运营，并通过联合准备的可再生微电网基础知识和运营视频课程得到加强。总的来说，预期的更广泛的影响包括考虑到地方和区域变化的创新发电方法的实际改进，同时补充现有电网。如果成功，未来的应用可能会导致无碳能源容量的显著增加，同时可能降低环境和监管要求。此外，通过向社区、学校、学院和工业界提供外联和指导，通过讲习班、专门的劳动力发展活动和新的教育模块，预计综合结果将提供可获取和开放的资源，以协助预见到其当地社区或区域类似需求和挑战的企业家、决策者和教育工作者。该项目由美国国家科学基金会国际科学与工程办公室（OISE）通过PIRE项目资助。

Uncertain resource supplies, global change and energy market volatility call for strategies directed at developing alternative energy solutions. Anticipated requirements for reduction in fossil fuel consumption and carbon emissions from large-scale centralized power generation, point to the need for fundamentally sound ways to increase renewable energy sources along with facilities for delivery and distribution. This Partnership for International Research and Education (PIRE) project addresses the technical, social, and economic aspects of community-scale renewable energy micro-grids. The partnership involves researchers from the U.S. and Denmark who, together, will serve as a cooperative, virtual research, development and education center. Primary partners are the University of California-Santa Cruz, the University of California-Davis, Aalborg University and the Technical University of Denmark.Technically, the core efforts of this PIRE focus on integrating engineering design and deployment principles with sociological elements of energy user behavior. This will be achieved through a collaborative research framework that collects supply and demand data in both countries, models micro-grid-user operation, and analyzes the effects of intermittency and variable demand. In doing this, the U.S.-Danish team will focus on system optimization based on site-specific solar, wind, heat pumps, cogeneration and storage, and intelligent agents for load managing. Integrated with the five-year research effort is a well balanced educational program for student and junior researchers, professional development focused on sustainability engineering, renewable energy, and ecological design, as well as workforce development seminars for industry professionals. Junior participants have access to hands-on design and operation opportunities, reinforced by jointly prepared video-linked courses on renewable micro-grid fundamentals and operation. Overall, the anticipated broader impacts include the practical refinement of an innovative approach to power generation that takes into account local and regional variations, while complementing the existing power grid. If successful, future applications could lead to a measurable increase in carbon-free energy capacity with potentially lower environmental and regulatory requirements. Furthermore, through outreach and instruction for communities, schools, colleges and industry, via workshops, specialized workforce development activities, and new education modules, the combined results are expected to provide an accessible and open resource to assist entrepreneurs, decision makers and educators who foresee similar needs and challenges in their own local communities or regions. The project is funded by NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) through the PIRE program.