Andrea Mammoli, EPRI, Gives CURENT Power and Energy Seminar on Friday, September 25

Andrea Mammoli, EPRI, will give the CURENT Power and Energy Seminar (ECE 496 and 691) on Friday, September 25, from from 12:20 pm to 1:10 pm. The seminar will be available via ZOOM. The ZOOM link will be sent to CURENT students and faculty through email. Contact Wendy if you need a link.

Presenter: Andrea Mammoli, Principal Project Manager, EPRI

Title: "Inexpensive thermal storage at the smaller scale" 

Abstract: The energy system is undergoing radical transformation. We are shifting away from dispatchable fossil resources to variable, if somewhat predictable renewable generation. The IoT is allowing unprecedented state estimation and controllability of devices. Batteries are becoming increasingly inexpensive. Yet, a substantial fraction of energy is still used to heat and cool buildings, often at the wrong times. Thermal storage could form an interesting sustainability alliance with battery storage to improve our ability to manage energy while providing energy services when they are needed. While thermal storage for large commercial buildings has been around for decades, at the small commercial and residential scale it has never crossed the technological valley of death, despite valiant attempts. In this talk, we will present a concept to overcome two of the main barriers to commercial success: cost and battery-like performance. This is done via a combination of geometry and materials. The heat transfer mechanisms that lead to the high performance of the system are discussed, followed by potential manufacturing and integration opportunities.

Bio:  Andrea Mammoli is Principal Project Manager in the Customer Technologies program at Electric Power Research Institute, and Area Lead for Project Set X – tools and technology development. He leads projects ranging from development of innovative near-zero-GWP heat pumps for CEC to deployment of AI to detect equipment degradation using AMI data. Prior to joining EPRI in 2019, Andrea was Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of New Mexico, and Director of the Center for Emerging Energy Technologies. During more than two decades spent at UNM, Andrea led research in complex fluids at low Reynolds numbers, solar thermal energy systems, building energy management and optimization, and finally design of microgrids focusing on the community scale. Andrea obtained his Bachelor of Engineering in 1991 and Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering in 1995, at the University of Western Australia. He subsequently spent two years at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow, before joining UNM. He is currently on the editorial board of Energies journal and has authored over 150 peer reviewed journal and conference papers.

Upcoming seminars are: 

Multicultural Student Life Educators - October 2
Diversity and Inclusion: Cross-cultural Communication 

David Gao, University of Denver - October 9
Wind Control

Masood Parvania, University of Utah - October 16
TBD

Brian Sohn, Carson Newman University - October 23
Professional Development: Listening and Learning in New Domains

TBA - October 30

Jingling Sun, University of Tennessee and Yu Yan, University of Tennessee - November 6
TBD and Zero-Voltage Switching for a Dual-Active-Bridge-Based Bidirectional EV Charger

Dr. Hong Tao - November 13
TBD