Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory

RAEL is designing and implementing low-carbon energy microgrids for Necker and Moskito Islands in the BVI. The natural resources available at Necker and Moskito present an excellent opportunity to move towards renewable electric power generation. In addition to the immediate local environmental benefits, powering these islands from renewable sources could meet many social goals.

The ERG Biofuel Analysis Meta-Model (EBAMM) was developed by students and faculty of the Energy and Resources Group and Richard & Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley to review the current state of ethanol energy analyses. This project has resulted a publication and a freely-downloadable spreadsheet model that are available on the project's web page.

We are currently extending this work to model a variety of biofuel pathways, including Braziian sugarcane ethanol, "advanced" corn, and an array of biorefinery alternatives. We are also preparing a comparison of biodiesel life-cycle analyses.

See the project webpage

We offer our consulting services as a research lab by creating renewable energy resource maps. We are using ESRI’s GIS visualization software, ArcMap to create maps of the energy resources in a given location along with geographic and political land exclusions. Work is currently underway on creating a regional wind energy blueprint for Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands area. This blueprint consists of both a comprehensive assessment of the potential for wind power in the region and also a rigorous discussion of how to best promote this resource's utilization. The gross and technical potential as well as top wind farm sites are being quantified using a wind mapping tool developed in RAEL. Future plans to create a similar blueprint for Alameda and Marin Counties are being discussed.

Image: Clip of Wind Resource Map in Santa Barbara County, CA

Contact: Dan Prull

Research is currently being done on the feasibility of high altitude tethered wind energy systems (TWES). We are working on a simulation to quantify the stress that a tether will experience if attached to a lighter-than-air device at different altitudes. The simulation takes into account the variation of drag along the length of the cable as well as the tension due to its own weight. The goal of the simulation is to find a maximum height that a tether of a given material can be hung before it yields as well as the catenary shape that the tether will assume. We are also researching different methods of estimating the power in the wind at altitudes of 30,000 feet and above. Work so far has been done using weather balloon data collected daily from local airports. Other data sources and models are being considered. Future work will be in designing different high altitude turbine structures and simulating their performance using the ADAMS and FAST programs.

Image: Magenn Power's TWES Concept

The project's goal is to promote sustainable biomass energy management for positive economic development in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. Although its focus is on Eastern Zimbabwe, if successful it promises to be a model for the integration of large-scale and community/household-scale sustainable biomass energy and ecological management in a number of developing nations. The project will consist of testing, evaluating, and implementing methods for sustainable power generation using the wood waste produced by large, medium and small sawmills operating in the Manicaland region, near the border of Mozambique. Currently, over 70,000 tons of this biomass waste is produced annually. The project's principal objectives will be to examine the technical and economic feasibility of the available alternative biomass energy generation technologies, their effect on the forest-management practices, and the social implications for this region.

In this project we evaluated the performance and condition of single junction amorphous silicon (a-Si) modules used in PV systems installed in Kenya, and used this opportunity to provide additional training and market analysis opportunities for local East African renewable energy entrepreneurs. We carefully surveyed a-Si PV systems and measured PV module performance in each site. We analyzed the data in order to establish the survival rate and performance of a-Si modules in field operating conditions and to identify equipment and institutional options that could benefit the private PV industry and the end-user community in East Africa. We are sharing the results with solar rural electrification projects, manufacturers, dealers and end-users as well as the international development community through publications, correspondence, and regional workshops.

Image: Rural Kenyan woman holding her amorphous silicon photovoltaic panel

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