Educators and administrators compete for funding and students to fill the growing need for renewable energy professionals.
From Ivy League universities to small-town colleges, there's a high-stakes battle under way at America's institutions of higher learning. Winners take home millions in corporate and government funding; losers settle for hard-fought lessons in capturing limited funds from commercial and public sectors. And yet, no matter the nature of the funds, the ultimate goal is to capture another limited resource—students.
"Universities are competing with their programs and that's natural," says Scott Samuelsen, director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center at the University of California–Irvine (UCI). "We have a situation where states are contributing substantially to help their universities become viable in this area. It reflects an evolution and the excitement about the opportunities. This is similar to the solid state microelectronics revolution that occurred in the late '70s."
Samuelsen and UCI have maintained a leadership position on the front lines of power generation research for more than 30 years, based mostly in turbine technology. In the 1990s, fuel cell research took hold and UCI created the National Fuel Cell Research Center in 1998. Dedicated by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the California Energy Commission, the center does research and provides guidance and support to university programs throughout the country for the Departments of Defense and Energy.
"The response has been outstanding," says Samuelsen. "We have over 80 universities involved in the initiative and we hold workshops in key subject areas. Universities can be particularly strong in contributing to fuel cell technology in areas of materials, controls, and core electronics." In the future, Samuelsen plans to add to that contribution with new workshops for university educators in reformation technology, systems analysis, tools, and information technology.
If job placement is any measure of success, UCI has a winning strategy. Fuel cell companies don't seem to have the patience to wait for students to graduate. "We have students recruited out of our graduate program before they have a chance to complete their degree," notes Samuelsen. "It's almost like the NBA recruiting students from high school. It just shows the demand that the industry has to get students working on practical applications."
That demand also reflects something of a less-than-abundant supply of students in engineering fields related to fuel cells and distributed energy. The shortage has states spending to meet the challenges of creating new programs so universities can recruit students. For example, the State of Ohio's legislature has already spent $30 million to jump-start its fuel cell industry, and the state's higher education system is a key player in the effort.
 Photo: University of California—Irvine |
According to Ken Alfred, executive director of the Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition, state colleges and universities are cashing in on a good portion of that money. "We have strong funding programs led by a funded chair, the Ohio Eminent Scholar in Fuel Cells at Case Western Reserve University," explains Alfred.
Case Western (CWRU) received an $18 million grant from the state to lead its Power Partnership for Ohio. The grant will support research, development, and commercialization of fuel cells. Four other schools in the university and college system will work with a number of companies, including American Electric Power; Battelle Memorial Institute; Dana Corporation; Keithley Instruments; HydroGen; NexTech Material Ltd.; OM Group Inc.; Parker Hannifin Corporation; and SOFCO-EFS, a subsidiary of McDermott International.
The Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition wants more collaboration and networking among both academic and industrial parties. "People recognize the tremendous benefits to the country in moving towards much greater use of fuel cell technologies," says Alfred. "It's an appropriate role for the colleges and universities to get involved with the fundamental and applied research. There's a lot that needs to be done before we have a commercial market with competitive products out there."
Farther east, the State of Connecticut is making a strong push to establish its fuel cell industry. The Connecticut Global Fuel Cell Center (CGFCC) at the University of Connecticut launched in 2001 and has received more than $17 million in state, federal, and private sector funds. In March 2004, the center hosted its first International Conference on Fuel Cell Development and Deployment. More than 350 leaders in fuel cells representing industry, academia, national labs, and government attended.
In June 2002, the center targeted Congressional funds earmarked for cutting-edge fuel cell research. The first funds ($2.4 million) focused on the development of an advanced portable direct methanol fuel cell system. The second ($3.5 million) addressed research in the areas of miniature– and micro–fuel cell research, focusing on reformation, PEM, SOFC, new material development, diagnostics, and modeling.
According to Nigel Sammes, CGFCC's operations director and a professor of fuel cell technology, it's important to highlight the center's research capabilities for training students. "There's an urgency to satisfy the industry's need for engineers," explains Sammes. "We're changing the way we produce electricity, but what happens when we have a requirement for 20,000 graduates in fuel cell technology?"
Considering the state's aggressive programs, that requirement may come sooner than later. As home to both FuelCell Energy and UTC Fuel Cells, Connecticut has a strong foothold in the industry. Incentives include the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund's request for proposals to install and demonstrate fuels cells (greater than 1 kW) under the CCEF Fuel Cell Initiative, now in its third year. FuelCell Energy scored handsomely from this program with the sale of a 250-kW unit to Yale University.
The state also offers the Yankee Ingenuity Program, with awards of up to $300,000 each to Connecticut universities that collaborate with Connecticut businesses in such clean and renewable sources as solar, wind, waves, and fuel cells. "We have the local industry here and we're trying to set up as good a collaboration as possible," Sammes notes. "We are aggressive in that area; it's the only way to survive."
The State of Michigan is just as aggressive, but targets distributed energy companies with a different approach--the Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center (MAREC). Located in one of Michigan's 11 "smart zones," MAREC was created by Grand Valley State University as a business incubator and research and development center. The building operates an energy laboratory, a conference center, and classroom facilities. Students and visitors get a firsthand demonstration of the application of distributed generation from renewable energy sources at MAREC. It consumes much less energy than it generates from a 250-kW fuel cell, plus a rooftop photovoltaic system with nickel metal hydride battery storage (for saving excess energy from peak daylight hours).
The building has been independent of the grid since April 2004, and has its first incubator tenant, E-Village, an energy integrator specializing in solar, wind, and battery technologies. "A company has to meet the criteria of energy programs or product development with the intent to create jobs," explains Dr. Imad Mahawili, executive director of MAREC. Mahawili has finished the syllabus for new courses based on the center's technology, and he's currently directing the development of software to automate and integrate the energy sources into the building systems.
"I believe in creating the infrastructure now," says Mahawili, "so in the coming years we'll have technicians emerging that understand solar panels and fuel cells. So we are blending classes with the facility." Mahawili also has a grant application for a new biomass project.
Mahawili plans to develop a $1.3 million biomass demonstration facility. The plant will give students a unique hands-on experience in the rather unattractive subject of dairy cow and swine manure, and its conversion to something more attractive—and profitable—methane gas–to-power fuel cells. It's an environmentally friendly solution to the problem of waste disposal for Michigan's farmers, notes Mahawili. If operated as planned, at the Muskegon County Wastewater Management System, the combined fuel cell plus heat and microturbine could produce enough electricity to run the wastewater facility with power to spare for local businesses.
Both the biomass demonstration and MAREC follow Grand Valley's philosophy of teaching students about technology in real day-to-day operations. "We are not a research university," says Mahawili. "This is education with an entrepreneurial approach. Along with our 12 to 14 co-op programs with local industries, it provides an outstanding engineering education."
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 Photos: University of California—Irvine |
Co-op programs are a cost-effective strategy for universities, agrees Professor Sanjeev Mukerjee of Northeastern University's chemistry department. Northeastern's co-ops allow undergraduates to alternate semesters of full-time study with semesters of paid experience relevant to their interests and major, totaling nearly two years of professional experience upon graduation. The university boasts that the majority of its graduates receive a job offer from a co-op employer.
"A university should excel at what it does best and not just copy another program," notes Mukerjee. "It's a situation of competing to attract the best students. If you're in the department of Harvard or MIT it's not so tough. But at Northeastern I have to go out of my way, so the door is always open to get kids in and show them what our program has."
Once in the door, students see an impressive track record. From its location outside of Boston, Northeastern has incorporated federal funding from sources such as the DOE, plus corporate support from UTC Fuel Cells and such startup ventures as Protonex Corporation and Integrated Fuel Cells Inc. The result: a research initiative in materials science for portable power. One such initiative comes from the Army Research Office to develop portable fuel cells for soldiers in the field.
"This is micro fuel cell technology such as a fuel cell on a chip," Mukerjee explains. "It would be manufactured in a normal silicon fabrication unit using off-the-shelf technology. In our business plan, we would use a facility that is already obsolete for the electronics industry but fine for fuel cell production."
At this stage, Mukerjee and other university professors like him are working overtime to attract students, but they may soon find the task requires much less effort. Fueled by concerns for the environment and the promise of new energy technologies, many K-12 school districts are implementing energy-awareness programs throughout the United States.
In California, BP (formerly British Petroleum) partnered with the National Energy Education Development Project to launch A+ for Energy, a program that will recognize instructional creativity by awarding $2 million in grants to California K-12 educators to teach students about energy and energy conservation. Detroit has a similar program provided by DTE Energy Foundation. Working in partnership with Eastern Michigan University, the workshop helps high school and middle school teachers develop their own energy-education programs and integrate new materials into existing curricula.
It's not just the big energy players getting into the act. Ballard Power Systems, a manufacturer of portable fuel cells starting at 1 kW, now offers course materials appropriate for post-secondary training in fuel cells. Heliocentris Energy Systems, a specialist in fuel cell curriculum packages for education institutions, distributes the courses.
Even politicians are learning something new about energy. Samuelsen of UCI recently presented testimony to Congress and the Department of Technology about US leadership in fuel cells and distributed energy, and how it's catching on around the world. Outside the halls of Congress, Samuelsen says the trend is adding new enthusiasm for engineering as a career choice, an area where the US has fallen behind compared to some other countries.
"After the Cold War we had competition from professions like law and medicine because they offered high salaries," notes Samuelsen. "But we have more attractive opportunities now. And as students begin to recognize the environmental degradation due to the way we generate energy today, they will gravitate back into engineering that works with energy."
Sammes of the University of Connecticut agrees with Samuelsen's assessment, but says government needs to continue to increase its efforts. "We can get the students," says Sammes, "but we need the funding to support them. When you think of the money being put into this it's pretty negligible compared to other industries."
Considering the role universities are playing in developing the infrastructure for distributed energy, renewables, and the much-vaunted hydrogen economy, more funding would seem to represent a valuable investment at both the state and federal levels. If so, Sammes may yet be able to deliver on that predicted need for 20,000 graduates.