E&EM doctoral students Ariel Castillo and Steve Burns, along with Professor Jonathan Deason, served as luncheon speakers at the April 24, 2009 symposium on “Solar Energy: A Solution to Energy and Environmental Problems?” The event, sponsored by the Institute for the Analysis of Solar Energy, was held in the GW Jack Morton Auditorium.
Other notables besides the E&EM speakers included media mogul Ted Turner, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, German Bundestag Member Hans Josef Fell, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellington, and GW President Steve Knapp.
During their luncheon presentations, the E&EM speakers described their solar energy research projects, which are forming the bases for the doctoral dissertations of Ariel and Steve.
Steve’s project is entitled “A Linear Programming Model to Support Development and Maintenance of a Solar Grand Plan Deployment Schedule. This project will assist in translating a major build-out of U.S. solar facilities from a conceptual vision into a full implementation plan. It involves the development of a linear programming model that outputs a development timeline along with expected energy costs, solar and wind power capacity installed and expected markets to be served on an annual basis. The model will enable planners to develop a realistic deployment schedule that balances power price and construction timeframes with growth in installed solar capacity, with such capacity being limited based on projected available equipment production capacity to support the solar build-out plan.
Ariel’s project is entitled “Determination of Renewable and Solar Energy Transition Potential of Department of Defense Facilities and Non-Tactical Vehicles.” This project is will assist in solving climate and energy issues by determining energy demands of Department of Defense (DoD) facilities and non-tactical vehicles that could be met by renewable and other solar generation. In addition, the project includes the development of recommendations for a transition by the DOD to renewable and solar energy technologies for its current operations.
More information about the solar energy symposium, including the Power Point presentations used by Ariel and Steve in their presentations, can be seen at http://solar.gwu.edu/Symposium.html
