Research Summaries

Back Wind-Turbine Powered Cooling System with Thermal Storage

Fiscal Year 2013
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Investigator(s) Gannon, Anthony J.
Sponsor Office of Naval Research (Navy)
Summary The Energy Systems Technical Evaluation Program (ESTEP) focuses on technical demonstrations of technologies that will reduce the Navy's energy costs.
The Turbo-propulsion Laboratory (TPL) of the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) will build a demonstration cooling plant. This plant will use wind power to drive coolant chiller units. To solve the problem of intermittence typical of wind power, thermal storage in the form of ice tanks will be used. When cooling is the application this type of energy storage is far cheaper and safer than using batteries.
The plant will be used to cool the exit air of the large compressors present at the TPL. At present this is cooled using a large evaporative chiller unit. A secondary potential application will be the cooling of the central control room within building 216.
The demonstration plant will be grid independent to simplify the implementation of the system in other installations. It also has future potential for applications in remote outposts where cooling is required for electronic equipment and cooling costs are high due to fuel having to be delivered.
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Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal