MEETING OFF-GRID TRANSPORTATION ENERGY NEEDS: A RESOURCE EVALUATION MODEL FOR A SOLAR VORTEX POWER GENERATION SYSTEM A Dissertation Presented to The Academic Faculty By Amy Marie Moore In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology December 2016 Copyright © 2016 Amy Marie Moore MEETING OFF-GRID TRANSPORTATION ENERGY NEEDS: A RESOURCE EVALUATION MODEL FOR A SOLAR VORTEX POWER GENERATION SYSTEM Approved by: Dr. Michael O. Rodgers, Advisor Dr. Ari Glezer, Committee School of Civil and Environmental Member Engineering Woodruff School of Mechanical Georgia Institute of Technology Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology Dr. Randall Guensler, Committee Member School of Civil and Environmental Dr. William Drummond, Engineering Committee Member Georgia Institute of Technology School of City and Regional Planning Dr. Susan Burns, Committee Member Georgia Institute of Technology School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology Date Approved: November 9, 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Global Climate Change ......................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Transportation Sector’s Impact on Global Climate Change ............................................ 2 1.2.1 Reducing the Transportation Sector’s Impact ........................................................... 4 1.2.2 The Need for Off-Grid Energy Production .................................................................... 5 1.2.3 The National Parks: Reducing the Transportation Sector’s Impact at the Micro- Level 5 CHAPTER 2: TRANSPORTATION IN THE NATIONAL PARKS ............................................ 7 2.1 Overview of Transportation Energy Needs at the National Parks ........................................ 7 2.2 Ongoing Efforts at the National Parks .................................................................................. 9 2.2.1 Green Parks Plan ............................................................................................................ 9 2.2.2 Clean Cities Program ..................................................................................................... 9 2.3 Renewable Energy Usage at National Parks ....................................................................... 10 2.3.1 Small Scale................................................................................................................... 10 2.3.2 Utility Scale ................................................................................................................. 11 2.4 Electric Vehicle Charging Stations at National Parks ........................................................ 12 2.5 Electric Buses...................................................................................................................... 15 2.6 Transit in National Parks .................................................................................................... 16 2.6.1 Features of Park Transit ............................................................................................... 18 2.6.1.1 Transit Funding ..................................................................................................... 18 2.6.1.2 Parking Problems on Park Property ...................................................................... 19 2.6.1.3 Park Visitors’ Perception of Park Transit ............................................................. 19 2.6.1.4 Park Transit’s Influence on Park Visitation .......................................................... 22 2.6.1.5 Park Transit’s Influence on Surrounding Communities ....................................... 22 CHAPTER 3: SHORT-TERM SOLUTIONS AT THE NATIONAL PARKS AND OTHER OFF-GRID LOCATIONS: LOWER IMPACT FUELS ............................................................... 24 3.1 Green Bus Fleets ................................................................................................................. 24 iii 3.2 Propane ............................................................................................................................... 25 3.3 Compressed Natural Gas..................................................................................................... 26 3.4 Liquefied Natural Gas ......................................................................................................... 27 3.5 Biofuels ............................................................................................................................... 28 3.5.1 Ethanol ......................................................................................................................... 28 3.5.2 Biodiesel ...................................................................................................................... 29 3.6 Long-Term Solutions for the National Parks and Other Off-Grid Locations: Power from Renewable Sources ................................................................................................................... 30 3.6.1 Cogeneration ................................................................................................................ 31 3.6.2 Bio-waste ..................................................................................................................... 32 3.7 Wind and Solar Technologies ........................................................................................ 32 3.7.1 Wind Technologies ...................................................................................................... 33 3.7.2 Solar Technologies....................................................................................................... 34 3.7.2.1 Solar PV arrays ..................................................................................................... 34 3.7.2.2 Concentrated Solar Power..................................................................................... 36 CHAPTER 4: WIND AND SOLAR RESOURCE MODELS ..................................................... 39 4.1 Solar Resource Model ......................................................................................................... 39 4.2 Wind Resource Model ........................................................................................................ 41 4.3 Concentrated Wind Resource Model .................................................................................. 44 CHAPTER 5: EMERGING TECHNOLOGY .............................................................................. 45 5.1 The Solar Vortex (SoV) ...................................................................................................... 45 5.1.1 Design Concept ............................................................................................................ 46 5.1.2 Initial SoV Prototype ................................................................................................... 50 5.1.3 Renewable Power from SoVs ...................................................................................... 53 5.1.4 Comparison of SoV with Wind and Solar ................................................................... 54 5.1.5 Renewable Power from SoVs at National Parks .......................................................... 55 5.1.6 SoV Resource Model ................................................................................................... 56 CHAPTER 6: CONCENTRATED WIND RESOURCE MODEL .............................................. 58 6.1 The GIS Model ................................................................................................................... 59 6.2 MODIS ................................................................................................................................ 60 6.2.1 MODIS Data ................................................................................................................ 64 iv 6.3 Weather Station Variables .................................................................................................. 84 6.3.1 Obtaining Data from NOAA’s NCDC Weather Stations ............................................ 84 6.4.2 Weather Station Variable Data in ArcGIS ................................................................... 86 6.4 Calculation of Sensible and Latent Heat Flux .................................................................... 93 6.4.1 Gamma Calculation ..................................................................................................... 95 6.4.2 Delta Calculation ......................................................................................................... 96 6.4.3 psat ∗ and VPD Calculation ....................................................................................... 96 6.4.4 푝푣 Calculation ............................................................................................................. 97 6.4.5 푝푑 Calculation ............................................................................................................. 97 6.4.6 휌 Calculation