Patent Application
20140202154
The aspects of the disclosed embodiments are directed to renewable energy resources for commercial and residential buildings and, more particularly, to a new and useful building structure which integrates multiple renewable energy resources to enable complete off-grid power during peak hours of demand.
As the cost of fuel, i.e., oil, nuclear, coal, and natural gas, has steadily increased over the past several years, a greater emphasis has been placed on renewable energy resources in commercial and residential buildings as a means to offset the escalating cost of fuel, and mitigate power disruptions due to storms and brownouts. Such renewable sources of energy offer the further benefit of mitigating a reliance on foreign sources of fossil fuels along with the political and social turmoil oftentimes influencing the price volatility and availability of such fuels. The prior art sources of renewable energy have principally relied on solar, wind or a combination of solar and wind powered systems to augment energy provided by a central power grid employing non-renewable energy sources, such as petroleum, natural gas or coal, to produce electrical power. While such renewable sources of energy have provided a degree of relief from non-renewable sources, there has not, as yet, been a satisfactory solution for a building structure, which is fully powered by one or more renewable energy resources.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a non-explosive permanent isolation valve for spacecraft fluid systems that overcomes the problems described above.
As described herein, the exemplary embodiments overcome one or more of the above or other disadvantages known in the art.
One aspect of the exemplary embodiments relates to an integrated renewable energy system is provided for a tall multi-story building including solar, wind, and hydrogen subsystems. The solar subsystem includes a plurality of photovoltaic panels/glass to produce a first source of electrical energy and a concentrated solar thermal system for producing a second source of electrical energy.
The concentrated solar thermal system includes plurality of directional mirrors operative to concentrate solar energy onto a plurality of steam producing vessels and a turbine generator operative to receive steam expanded from the vessels to drive a turbine of the generator. The wind subsystem includes at least one wind turbine to produce a third source of electrical energy. The hydrogen subsystem includes an artificial photosynthesis (photoelectrolysis) system for producing hydrogen and a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) System receiving the hydrogen for producing a fourth source of electrical energy through hydrolysis. The SOFC waste heat, roughly 1,000 degrees C., will be used to power a micro steam generator. The artificial photosynthesis (photoelectrolysis) system receives one of the first, second and third sources of electrical current to separate hydrogen from a hydrogen-based fluid (water H2O) to produce a supply of hydrogen. The hydrogen fuel subsystem further includes a containment system for storing the hydrogen for subsequent use by the fuel cell system
These and other aspects and advantages of the exemplary embodiments will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. Additional aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. Moreover, the aspects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
The accompanying drawings illustrate presently preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, and together with the general description given above and the detailed description given below, serve to explain the principles of the present disclosure. As shown throughout the drawings, like reference numerals designate like or corresponding parts.
Referring to
In accordance with the aspects of the present disclosure, the primary energy source of the building 20 will be electric. As is shown in the embodiment of
In the preferred embodiment, the panels 102 are disposed along/cover the exterior walls of the tower 20 on the uppermost portion thereof, i.e., at an elevation, which is essentially unobstructed by adjacent buildings/structures. Accordingly, a system 10 may employ photovoltaic panels 102 along the exterior walls of the uppermost portion (i.e., upper 2000 feet) of the tower 20 to prevent solar energy from being shadowed by adjacent structures standing below this elevation (i.e., the lowermost 1000 feet).
In one embodiment, the curtain wall 104 of photovoltaic panels 102 will facilitate approximately 56 acres or 2.4 million square feet of transparent photovoltaic glass panels. The entire curtain wall 104 can form a vertical solar farm that can be disposed approximately 1 km above the ground level, with direct solar or photonic exposure from all directions, such as east, south, north and west. In one embodiment, specialized windows can be used in the building 20, such as transparent photovoltaic glass windows that are several times the efficiency of leading conventional solar panels. The solar transparent glass panels will collect photons through microcells embedded in the glass. The microcells can rapidly and efficiently transfer the photonic energy to electric semiconductor conduits in the curtain wall frame down to a central collection unit where the solar energy will be inverted into an AC supply and trifurcated into three main functions. These functions include providing a direct current (DC inverted to AC) supply to building energy load demands, utilization of a Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST) system, using the concentrated sun's rays on liquid contained in tubes to be heated at very high temperatures that produce steam to power steam-turbine generator and producing hydrogen through artificial photosynthesis (photoelectrolysis) for fuel cell generation and storage for intermittent supply.
In one embodiment, the specialized windows can cover all or only a portion of the building 20. In one example, windows can cover from for example, the 30th floor to the top of the building 20. In alternate embodiments, the windows can be situated along any suitable portion of the building 20 that captures sun energy.
In the example of
In one embodiment, the solar powered steam turbine 110 includes a plurality of directional mirrors 114 (see
As illustrated in
The wind turbines 204 can generally disposed at inconspicuous locations along the exterior of the tower 20. Preferably, the wind turbines 204 are disposed at an elevation at or above which winds are sustained to drive the wind turbines 204. Generally, sustained winds are present at altitudes above ground level (GL).
For example, a building or superstructure 20 that is approximately 1 kilometer (3,300 feet) tall can capture more wind energy by tapping sustained wind currents at approximately 400 meters (1,700 ft) above the ground level. Hence, the wind turbines 204 should preferably be disposed on the tower 20 at altitudes exceeding this elevation. This constant wind stream, combined with the cube tubular design of the building structure 20, will also create effective sustained wind vortexes that can expand the wind collection beyond 5-7 megawatts of projected wind harvest. In one embodiment, the wind turbines 204 will each generate approximately 5-7 megawatts of electrical power.
In one embodiment, the wind turbines 204 may include a conventional propeller type or centrifugal rotor system 208 for capturing wind energy. In accordance with the aspects of the present disclosure depicted in the figures, a pair of centrifugal rotor systems are disposed at an uppermost portion of the tower 20. The rotor system 208 drives a conventional turbine generator 212 which produces yet another source, i.e., a third source S3, of electrical energy. The energy produced is direct current (DC) which is converted to alternating current (AC) by a conventional DC-AC converter 206. While the third source S3 of electrical energy may be used to augment the primary sources, i.e., the sources S1, S2 produced by the solar subsystem 100, the third source S3 can be a secondary source of energy for the tower 20. That is, the third source S3 of electrical energy from the wind subsystem 200 is available when ambient conditions do not permit the generation of electrical energy by the solar subsystem 100.
When all power requirements of the tower 20 are met by either the solar or wind subsystems 100, 200, excess energy may be harnessed and stored by the hydrogen fuel subsystem 300 illustrated in
There are highly developed SOFCs currently in production that can be powered by hydrogen (H2) produced by the aforementioned (wind and solar) through Artificial photosynthesis (photoelectrolysis) and effectively supply the balance of the building's electric demand during peak demand and off-hours. Referring to
The fuel cell system 300 collects excess energy and converts water to hydrogen from the solar and wind units 100, 200, stores that energy locally, then running that hydrogen in reverse to supply for intermittency when solar and/or wind cannot be utilized. Examples include, evenings, cloudy or rainy conditions.
A main concern with the development of renewable energy is the effective use of adequate storage of intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar. Hydrogen energy converted by wind and solar, through artificial photosynthesis (photoelectrolysis), is a very effective source of energy that does not emit carbon dioxide in the environment. Hydrogen storage has been studied for mobile applications for cars, boats, and the like. The challenges for mobile applications have been hydrogen/energy density issues which question the loss factor of such storage and the overall use of hydrogen as a fuel. Unlike mobile applications, hydrogen/energy density is not a major problem for stationary application such as this off-grid localized building integrated renewable energy concept. There are established technologies that exist for hydrogen storage that would make the use of hydrogen storage, and consumption in this building concept very safe and practical. The storage applications for hydrogen include, for example, slush hydrogen in a cryogenic hydrogen tank, compressed hydrogen (CGH2) in a hydrogen tank, and liquid hydrogen in a (LH2) cryogenic hydrogen tank.
Utilizing the excess energy in the form of stored hydrogen, the hydrogen fuel cell unit 300 is able to produce its own electric energy at a rate of several times the amount of what is collected and stored from the other two sources 100, 200. That energy is then used to support the balance of the building's functions when the solar and wind systems 100, 200 are not at optimum production levels.
SOFCs produce up to 1000-degrees C of waste heat. The waste heat can be harnessed and used to propel a steam turbine. This efficiency view is similar to a Combined Cycle natural gas power plant.
In the example illustrated in
The fuel cell system (SOFCs) 308 shown in
In another embodiment of the present disclosure, rather than, or in addition to, excess electrical energy being used to produce hydrogen for the hydrogen fuel subsystem 300, such excess electrical energy may be returned to the power grid during peak hours of demand. As such, in one embodiment, electrical energy may be sold back to the grid at a favorable rate or used to power neighboring buildings in a micro grid format.
Referring to
The aspects of the present disclosure provide an integrated renewable energy system that includes solar, wind and hydrogen fuel subsystems for providing energy and power in a self-sustaining manner, also referred to as an off-grid energy sustaining building. The aspects of the present disclosure are directed to providing a 100% Building Integrated Renewable Energy sustainable building. 100% Renewable Energy Sustainable is generally defined by the building's ability to supply the building's energy demands by producing 100% renewable energy by utilizing the building's renewable energy multi-generating/storage components. From the Photovoltaic Curtain Wall 104, Wind Turbines 200, specialized Fuel Cells Units 300 with reverse hydrogen storage, the aspects of the disclosed embodiments are able to support the building operations and energy demands on a 24-hour basis 7 days a week, 365 days per annum without the need for electricity/natural gas/steam supplied by a third-party energy company.
These multi-components are tied to inexhaustible energy sources, such as Solar (photonic or photovoltaic), wind, water (H2O) and fuel cells, where renewable energy can be harvested on site. The building will employ 100% off-grid building integrated renewable energy, generating power from a photovoltaic curtain wall, wind building integrated turbines, and specialized solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) fuel cell systems that work synergistically with specialized hydrogen flow energy storage units. The renewable energy components will be configured to work together simultaneously to supply the building's energy load, and provide continuous uninterrupted power supply without occupant operational requirements. The building will be on the cutting edge of technology in mechanical design to achieve the highest degree of operations efficiency and structural integrity.
Thus, while there have been shown, described and pointed out, fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to the exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of devices and methods illustrated, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. Moreover, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps, which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results, are within the scope of the invention. Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements and/or method steps shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of design choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61756430 | Jan 2013 | US |
