Walter Yu, P.E., LEED AP

Vital to our everyday needs but suffering from innovation and development, electrical grids badly need upgrade.

The National Academy of Engineering recently named the electrical grid as its greatest technological achievement of the 20th century despite such inventions as the automobile and space program.

Whether we know it or not, the electrical grid profoundly affects our everyday lives. As we grow more reliant on electrical devices (think email, computers, etc.), the need for stable and sustainable energy sources has become more important than ever before.

The health of our electrical grids is slowly declining as demand grows but the system itself is aging without much innovation to keep up with the growing demand. As more demand is placed on the system, it grows more unstable leading to more blackouts, large inefficiencies during transmission over power lines (see photo) and be vulnerable from cyber attacks due to lack of firewalls.

The Obama administration pledged $3.4 billion to improve the health of the system and begin incorporating green technologies to solve these vulnerabilities. However, some experts estimate that the overall cost of updating the electrical grid to be over $100 billion.

The new system, dubbed the smart grid by engineers and researchers in the industry, would be able to not only push power to users but receive it back as well. Current systems only deliver energy but not allow energy to be sent back and coordinated by the grid when not in use. Having this ability would allow the grid to repair itself in the case of a black out or place more energy in its reserves for peak times during the day and seasons such as summer and winter.  This system would work similar to the battery alternator in our cars, which charge up the main battery as we drive.

In the short term, users can improve the health of the system but making small adjustments to their appliance usage. Changing to more efficient fluorescent or LED light bulbs and saving heavy usage during non-peak hours. The guidelines are the same as saving water – use less whenever possible and avoid maxing out usage during evening hours or day time hours in the summer due to air conditioning demand.

Such small but wide-spread savings across the grid can lead to big reduction in energy usage. The Department of Energy predicts that phasing out incandescent light bulbs for LED ones across the country can save up to $265 billion in energy usage, prevent the construction of 40 new power plants needed to meet future demand and cut demand by 30%. These savings would come from light bulbs everywhere, not just in our homes, but in office buildings, street lamps and outside lighting.

As our lives are becoming more wired and reliant on computers and Internet, so too has our existing electrical grid. Power utility companies rely on them to control power plants and the electrical grid. The existing grid is interconnected even though it is controlled regionally by different utility companies, all with different methods of managing security and stability on their portion of the grid. These conditions may invite disaster in the form of cyber attacks from hackers looking to control or damage our power, water and sewage systems.

Although most of us assume hackers are after information, such as with the recent Chinese cyber attacks on Google servers, but some hackers serve the interest of other countries looking to disrupt or permanently damage infrastructure systems. In short, many countries are using cyber attacks that can lead to physical damage of vital systems and pose a serious threat to national security.

Both the NSA and CIA have warned against cyber attacks and a need for increased security against foreign and domestic attacks.  Successful attacks can cause disruptions to cellphone networks, air traffic control and send financial markets into a panic. Because so many other systems rely on the electrical grid and therefore create a closed system, the health of the grid affects everything else connected to it.

In conclusion, the cost of upgrading the grid may be large but is necessary because of threats of national security and impacts it may have to our everyday lives in both the short and long-term.

Solar manufacturing process at an Applied Materials plant.

Semiconductor equipment manufacturer Applied Materials entered the solar panel industry in 2006 and made a big splash by delivering their first panels within two years of starting design.

There is an interesting article by the Technology Review that describes the manufacturing process and lessons learned during production.

Known for its work in the semiconductor industry, Applied Materials leveraged their expertise in working with silicon, while used in wafer fabrication (for semiconductor chips), is also a main component of solar panels.

The manufacturing process are produced in the same plants and some of the same equipment used for wafter fabrication. The panels start as a sheet of glass covered in a layer of conductive metal oxide, which is then etched in a similar fashion to silicon wafers for computer chips.

Two coats of silicon are added, and metal is added to serve as the electrical back of the panels. Their edges are then finished and tested with the results attached to each panel.

The lessons learned by engineers is that the product process scales better on larger panel sizes, and the panels themselves are more efficient with more surface area. As a result, the panels were not cut into smaller pieces as previously planned.

One important metric for solar panel product is the lifetime cost per watt of electricity that the panel products. The large panels by Applied Materials average about $3.50 per watt, while their is to reduct cost down to $1.00 per watt within a year after start of production.

Open for business despite hard economic times!

The world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalafi, recently opened in the Gulf emirate of Dubai, standing standing almost a half-mile tall (2716 ft). It beats the current record holder, Taipei 101 in Taiwan, by over a 1000 ft (previous record for Taipai 101 was 1666 ft).

Originally named the Burj Dubai, the building was renamed for the leader of  its emirate neighbor, Abu Dhabi, which loaned Dubai $10 billion to complete construction.

The project began construction in 2004 and completed November of last year. It boasts 160 stories and almost 5 million square feet of office and residential space.

Although the building interior was still being completed, the project was opened 1325 work days after start of excavation (ground breaking, essentially) work.

The building was designed by the American architecture firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which also designed the Sears Tower in Chicago and 1 World Trade Center tower in New York City.

Building a tower to an unprecedented height required special design considerations by the structural engineers. Specifically, the building faces high winds due to height and possible earthquakes from a nearby fault.

Other than design challenges, the project faced financial ones as well. The project began construction during good financial times but faced declining property values and shortage of buyers and leasers for its residential units and commercial space, respectively.

At its peak, the 1044 luxury condominium units were selling for approximately $2700 per square foot, which has dropped significantly during boom times. The same holds true for commercial space, where rental rates have plummeted.

The tower is big win for Dubai, which gained notoriety during the oil price spike in the past several years. Dubai and other emirates are major exporters of oil, which has paid for projects such as the Burj Khalafi.

In addition, the project is a win for civil engineering, which continues to innovate with new designs that allow buildings to climb higher and bridges to span longer.

Finally, other highlights include:

• A 900-ft fountain at the foot of the tower, the largest operating fountain in the world
• 57 elevator lifts to eliminate the need for elevators with much longer runs
• Main service lift has rise of over 1500 ft
• Tower is part of 500-acre development
• Tower occupancy to be approximately 12,000 people.