The White Mountain Energy Project (WMEP) is a cooperative effort

between the University of California White Mountain Research Station

(WMRS) and the University of California, Irvine Advanced Power and Energy Program (APEP). The goal is

to provide high-quality, renewable energy to Barcroft Field Station, one of North America’s premier high-altitude

research facilities.

Left. APEP graduate students Jim Meacham and Jim Maclay install monitoring instruments on a transformer supplying power to the Barcroft Observatory (background). Above A sample of the monitoring output, showing what happens when building heaters are turned on (rise at center).

White Mountain Energy Project (WMEP)

WMRS Barcroft Field Station12,500’ elevation – potentially open all year

Medical and physiology research – human and animal subjectsAtmospheric and environmental sciences

Astronomy and astrophysicsEcology and behavior

Historic transmission line, still in operation (Southern California Edison)

WMRS owns above-ground transmission line between Silver Peak and Crooked Creek, also vulnerable to spikes and outages.

The problem:

9 miles of direct-buried transmission line between Crooked Creek and Barcroft – unreliable and low-quality power! Difficult and expensive to repair!

The SolutionPhase 1 (2004) With support from UCOP, WMRS and APEP collaborated to designed an integrated energy solution for Barcroft. The first step was monitoring and modeling energy use with different technologies (figure). This information was used in a proposal to NSF’s Field Stations and Marine Lab (FSML) Program.

B a r c r o f t S i m u l a t i o n R e s u l t s - 1 W i n t e r M o n t h

0

2 0 0

4 0 0

6 0 0

8 0 0

1 0 0 0

1 2 0 0

1 4 0 0

1 6 0 0

1 8 0 0

2 0 0 0

B a s e - E l e c t r i cH e a t

H y d r o n i c H e a t i n g H y d r o n i c H e a t i n g+ 2 3 0 k W M T G s

E l e c t r i c H e a t +1 0 k W P V

H y d r o n i c H e a t i n g+ 1 0 k W P V

C O S T S a v i n g s f r o m B a s e k W h f r o m G r i d ( / 1 0 ) P e a k k W ( * 1 0 )

Phase 2 (2005). WMRS is awarded $266,000 from NSF for “Bringing 21st Century Energy Technology to the Barcroft Field Station.” The proposal was ranked “excellent” and 1 of only 3 awarded > $250k out of 99 applications.

hot water to station

return

480 V to dome

switchInverter bank (15KW)hot water

heat storage

liquid propane storage6000 gallons

electric battery bank50 KWhr storage

Micro-turbine

generator boilers

(2)

boiler control system

future rooftop solar hydronic panels

rooftop solar photovoltaic

future wind turbine

Exhaust bypass

Propane vaporizer

grid power in @ 12 KV

Transformer

monitoring and control system

transformer

AC supply to station

Grid-tie inverters

switch

Portable diesel

generator

HeatExchanger

Trans-former

2006

2008

2007

2008

WMEP current and future system, with installation timing.

Hydronic space heating system with 8 thermostat-controlled zones

Zone 1

Zone 2

Zone 4

Zone 3

Zone 5Zone 4

Large animal building circuit

Small animal building circuit

Zone 6

Main Pace Lab circuit with 6 zones

95% efficient propane boilers, specially modified for high elevation. In winter this system consumes 10-15 gallons of propane per day to heat the buildings.

In summer, 2006 we installed a high-efficiency propane heating system, along with 6000 gallons of propane storage. This is enough to last through 7-10 months of winter road closure, enabling full winter operations.

Progress 2006

UC Irvine APEP team assembling solar arrays at WMRS Owens Valley Lab, May 2007.

UCI graduate student Jim Maclay preparing EPDM surface for solar panel attachment.

Progress 2007

The principle goal in 2007 was to install and test the solar photovoltaic/inverter/battery system

Flexible solar panels cover the curved roof of the Pace Laboratory at Barcroft, generating approximately 50 kilowatt-hours per day of electricity on sunny days. The roof curvature ensures that summer and winter generation rates are similar. The APEP team installed the panels in June 2007, draping them across the roof.

2007 progress, continued

2007 progress, continued

Power from the solar panels is stored and converted to usable AC power by the inverter -battery system shown at left. The system runs off stored battery power for several hours, depending on the electrical load.

In fall 2007 the system worked in tandem with a portable diesel generator, which ran 5-7 hours per day, saving well over 1000 gallons of diesel fuel and several thousand pounds of CO2.

In 2008 the propane microturbine generator will replace the diesel unit, improving efficiency and lowering cost.

2008 and the future: In 2008 we plan to install the clean, super-efficient microturbine co-generation system. Successful implementation of the WMEP will greatly facilitate winter research, including astrophysics research. The dome shown below will house a new millimeter-wave telescope designed and built by the UC Santa Barbara cosmology group. WMEP provides safe, clean, renewable power with backup systems for winter safety. Future upgrades will focus on reducing propane consumption, increasing station capacity and utilizing WMRS for research in energy technology with APEP (WMEP Phase 3). For more information see the WMEP website at http://www.wmrs.edu/projects/BARenergy/default.htm.