PV, EV and Your Home: How Transportation and Grid Infrastructures Work Together

Friday, October 9 • 2:30 PM – UTEB, Rm. 175

Joint ME & CBE Seminar

PV, EV and Your Home: How Transportation and Grid Infrastructures Work Together

Dr. James Fenton

Director of Solar Energy Center University of Central Florida

Abstract: There are over 20 models of electric vehicles (EV) (350,000 vehicles on the road) that are so efficient that they cost the gasoline equivalent of $0.99 a gallon to operate, based on the national residential electricity average of 11.88¢/kWh. The levelized cost for residential “rooftop” photovoltaics (PV) in much of the U.S. is the same as the cost of electricity “out of the wall.” PV electricity is at cost parity with grid energy, and gasoline parity is a long distance in the rearview mirror. As prices for solar and EVs continue to decrease, consumer adoption rates for both technologies will increase dramatically, resulting in an integration of solar energy and electric transportation infrastructure. Will we get out in front and surf the wave created by the solar and EV tsunami or will we drown? This presentation will introduce the concepts that allow the transportation and grid infrastructures to work together, so that PV, EVs and energy efficient buildings can significantly decrease our dependency on fossil fuels, mitigate climate change, provide mobile backup power, and increase energy and transportation security. The seminar is largely based on articles that examine EVs, energy efficient homes, photovoltaics, the smart grid and EV charging; published in the Spring 2015 Interface magazine “PV, EV and Your Home” of the Electrochemical Society.

Biographical Sketch: Professor James M. Fenton is the Director of the University of Central Florida’s Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), where he leads a staff of 100 in the research and development of energy technologies that enhance Florida’s and the nation’s economy and environment and educate the public, students and practitioners on the results of the research. FSEC leads national programs funded by the U.S. Departments’ of Energy and Transportation in: “Building America” energy efficient homes, Photovoltaic Manufacturing, Hot-Humid PV testing of large-scale PV to show bankability, train-thetrainers education for solar installations, programs to decease the soft-costs of PV installation, Electric Vehicle Transportation (U.S. DOT’s only EV Transportation Center) and “Clean Cities” (alternative fuel transportation). Florida Utilities have funded FSEC’s SunSmart program which has placed 10 kW of PV with battery back-up at more than 100 schools to provide power to emergency shelters and education demonstrations for students. Prior to joining FSEC, Dr. Fenton spent 20 years as a Chemical Engineering Professor at the University of Connecticut. He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1984 and his BS from UCLA in 1979. He is an Electrochemical Society Fellow and received the Research Award of the Electrochemical Society’s Energy Technology Division in May 2014 for his work on Automobile Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells. He is the author of over 200 publications.

For additional information, please contact Prof. Xinyu Zhao at (860) 486-0241, xinyuz@engr.uconn.edu or Laurie Hockla at (860) 486-2189, hockla@engr.uconn.edu