NSF Engineering Research Center for Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems

ERC for Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems

Alex Q. Huang, Director

North Carolina State University, Arizona State University, Florida State University,

Florida A&M University, University of Missouri-Rolla

Project Summary

Our vision for the ERC for Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management

(FREEDM) Systems is an efficient electric power grid integrating highly distributed and scalable

alternative generating sources and storage with existing power systems to facilitate a green

energy based society, mitigate the growing energy crisis, and reduce the impact of carbon

emissions on the environment. We believe the key to solving the energy crisis is not necessarily

the renewable energy itself, but the infrastructure needed to deliver and manage large scale

distributed renewable energy resources (DRER).

The mission of the ERC for FREEDM Systems is to develop the fundamental and enabling

technology to demonstrate the system and, through such development and demonstration,

foster a revolution in innovation and technology in the electric power and renewable energy

industries, providing long-term energy security and environmental sustainability for the U.S.

Key Goals:

Develop the fundamental knowledge base for the FREEDM system and provide fundamental

breakthrough technology in energy storage and power semiconductor devices. Develop enabling technologies for subsystem and system demonstrations.

Develop a 1MW FREEDM green energy hub system to power the ERC headquarters.

Develop a diverse group of adaptive, creative, and innovative graduates who advance

fundamental knowledge, enabling technology and engineered systems innovations in

renewable electric energy delivery and management systems

Develop long-term partnerships with middle and high schools, teachers, and students to

enhance engineering content knowledge and pedagogical methods, bring engineering

concepts into the classroom, involve pre-college students in research, and thereby increase

the diversity and enrollment of domestic students in university engineering degree programs.

Form long-term partnerships with large and small firms to speed the translation of ERC

research into commercially viable products, stimulate formation of start-up companies based

on ERC intellectual property, and involve students in all phases of the innovation process.

Increase the diversity of the proposed Center?s leadership, faculty, and students to exceed

academic engineering-wide national averages within the first five years of operation.

Intellectual Merit: In addition to social, economic, and market challenges to be addressed

by the ERC and by the power industry as a whole, barriers include needs for: new system

theory for the paradigm-shifting FREEDM system; new high-frequency high-voltage power

electronics based on wide bandgap materials; and significantly higher energy density storage

technologies. Innovative development of such an infrastructure cannot be expected to occur in

todays centralized model, where power companies seek only incremental solutions and

research investments are suppressed to maximize profits. The systems approach required

cannot be expected to occur through individual research projects with no common standards or

test bed. To develop the FREEDM system, a multidisciplinary center of excellence is needed to

pull together our nation?s top expertise in energy system theory, policy, renewable energy

technology, energy storage technology, electronic devices, and communication.

Broader Impacts include an increasingly diverse and innovative pool of U.S. engineers;

mitigation of global warming; aversion of an energy crisis; innovation in renewable energy

systems developed with industry leading to new products, companies, and jobs; integration of

innovation in multidisciplinary training for graduate and undergraduate students; broadening

participation in power engineering through integrated research activities for K-12 teachers and

students; and improved faculty and graduate student skills in mentoring minorities and women.