Research and Development Projects

|    Demonstration Projects   |    Demonstration and Equipment Projects   |
|    Curriculum and Educational Scholarships   |    Feasibility Study Projects   |
|    Implementation Projects   |    Research and Development Projects   |

The intent of this grant was to provide cost-sharing assistance on a competitive basis for applied renewable energy technology research and development projects that will improve market conditions for renewable energy systems and services. All supported R&D projects were required to meet one or more of the following objectives:

Create innovative renewable energy products and services
Enhance renewable energy product reliability
Reduce the costs of renewable energy products and services
Accurately assess Wisconsin's renewable energy resources
Provide renewable energy distributed benefits

Support for R&D projects is primarily directed toward assisting high-value, near-term (five years or less) commercialization of renewable energy applications in Wisconsin.

General Projects

Thermal Energy System Specialists
Timothy P. McDowell
Madison, WI
Award amount: $26,000

Development of a Zero-Net-Energy Building and Renewable Energy Technology Design Tool.
This project proposes the development of a simple to use, freely distributable software tool to aid Wisconsin architects and engineers in the design of zero-net-energy buildings with a focus on the assessment of active solar thermal, passive solar, wind, photovoltaic, and fuel cell potential. The modeling tool will contain data for as many Wisconsin cities as possible and will provide users with performance data for any combination of selected technologies, as well as allowing systems configured to be directly portable to more complex, complete building analysis tools. The project would also result in a series of workshops being conducted around the state to train architects and engineers in the use of the design tool.

Bioenergy Projects

Bioenergy & Environmental, LLC
Jun Yoshitani
Wheaton, IL
Award amount: $40,000

Prototype High Solids/Phased Anaerobic Digester For Small to Medium Size Dairy Farms
The objective of this R&D project is to design, assemble, and operate a reduced scale (approximately 500 gallons) prototype High Solids/Phased Anaerobic Digester (HS/PAD). The project is intended to demonstrate that a high efficiency low cost anaerobic digester can be assembled using mostly off-the-shelf components.

Bioenergy & Environmental, LLC
Jun Yoshitani
Wheaton, IL
Award amount: $45,000

Application of Sonication Technology to Increase Biogas Generation.
The objective of this project is to utilize an ultrasound technology called "sonication" to advance the process of degrading structural CHO prior to anaerobic digestion such that the normal hydrolytic, acedogenic, and methanogenic microorganisms will complete the mineralization process more completely and produce higher amounts of biogas per pound of dairy manure digested.

Virent Energy Systems, Inc.
Jeffrey Moore
Madison, WI
Award Amount: $49,573

Application of Aqueous-Phase Carbohydrate Reforming for Electricity Generation from Agricultural Products
The main objective of this project was to validate that the SuperNaturalTM Gas (SG) produced by the VirentTM system would effectively run an unaltered Marathon engine system. The economics and efficiencies of a distributed Aqueous-Phase Carbohydrate Reforming system can address major transport, storage and safety issues that are current roadblocks to the adoption of renewable gaseous fuels.
      Virent Final Report

Marquette University
Daniel Zitomer
Milwaukee, WI
Award amount: $48,529

Municipal Anaerobic Digesters as Regional Energy Facilities.
The objectives of this project are to define appropriate operating conditions, perform a full-scale demonstration, and prepare a detailed cost analysis regarding co-digestion of high-strength byproducts and municipal solid waste (MSW) to economically increase renewable energy production in Wisconsin. The industrial raw materials to be co-digested to methane include waste from the following Milwaukee, WI sources: (1) I-house beer filters from Miller Brewing Company, (2) discarded beer from Miller Brewing Company, (3) fermentation waste from Lesaffre yeast production facility, and (4) yeast fermentation waste from Southeastern Wisconsin Products (SWP). The full-scale testing will be accomplished at the South Shore Waste Water Treatment Plant in Oak Creek, WI with the participation of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD).
     Marquette University Municipal Anaerobic Digesters Feasibility Study

University of Wisconsin - Green Bay
Michael E. Zorn
Green Bay, WI
Award amount: $30,000

Biogas Generation From A Wisconsin Dairy Farm Using Anaerobic Catalysis and/Or Photocatalysis.
The proposed project seeks to demonstrate that alternative technologies such as anaerobic catalysis and/or photocatalysis using titanium dioxide-based materials may be applied to dairy manure to enhance the overall conversion of volatile solids to biogas that can ultimately be used for energy production. Although anaerobic catalysis and photocatalysis technologies have been used in other applications, this project likely represents the first application for the treatment of dairy manure.
     UW Green Bay Biogas Generation from a Wisconsin Dairy Farm

Wind Energy Projects

Seventh Generation Energy Systems, Ltd.
David Blecker
Belleville, WI
Award amount: $49,786

Wind Resource Evaluation
The objective of the proposed R&D project is to enhance the state's knowledge about the wind resource in Wisconsin through the installation of multiple tall-tower wind speed monitoring stations, and subsequent data collection, analysis and publication/distribution of the wind data. See their final report below for results and more details.

Superior Safety and Environmental Services, Inc.
Robert H. Owen, Jr.
Middleton, WI
Award amount: $29,200

Use Existing Wind Data and Offshore Sampling Measurements to Improve the Characterization of the Offshore Wind Resource in Five Counties of S.E. Wisconsin
This project will accomplish the following objectives: 1) put existing shoreline and offshore NOAA wind data for S. Lake Michigan, collected by NDBC and GLERL, into more usable format; 2) make above data available to public through the WI Dept. of Administration; 3) make sampling measurements from a boat within 5 miles of shore; and 4) estimate wind resources, using NOAA and sampling data, in promising areas more than 3 miles from shore from Sheboygan S to Kenosha Counties.
Lake Michigan Offshore Wind Resource Assessment 7-04

Yahara Linden Energy, LLC
Madison, WI
Award amount: $10,800

Development of a Web-based Wind Site Assessment Tool for the State of Wisconsin
The objective of this project would be the creation of a web-enabled application that would allow internet users to quickly receive a rough estimate of the annual energy production that would be expected for a specified wind turbine model and size, at a given hub height, located at a particular site in the State of Wisconsin.
Yahara Linden Energy R & D Grant Final Report

Solar Electric Projects

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
School of Architecture and Urban Planning
Michael Utzinger
Milwaukee, WI
Award amount: $40,000

Optimizing the Performance of Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) Systems
The primary objective of this proposal is to determine the most appropriate strategies to maximize the number of annual hours that the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center (SANC) BIPV system electric generation exceeds the building electric demand, thereby generating power for the grid while maintaining thermal and luminous comfort in the building. Secondary objectives include the development and validation of computer simulation modeling of total building energy systems (PV power, comfort, illumination, and ventilation) and the transfer of knowledge gained to the professional community of architects and consulting engineers.

Warning!!!
Complete report is available below for download, but it is over 22MB and extremely large in size. Choosing to download this PDF report may considerably slow or stop your network or dial-up connection.
Optimizing the Performance of Building Integrated Photovoltaic Systems