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Politics and the economy, not environmentalism, are driving energy innovation President Bush’s commitment to fuel cell research, driven by the threat of reduced fuel resources in the event of an Iraqi war, is legitimizing alternative power in a way that years of consciousness-raising environmentalism hasn’t been able to match. Since Bush’s State of the Union address on January 26, there’s been major press coverage on hybrid cars, hydrogen power and fuel cells. The good news is that the solutions for cleaner, more efficient energy exist today. The hybrid car, already a reality in vehicles from Ford, GM and Toyota, will soon be reflected in the next advance: the hybrid building. The penetration of hybrid systems into the stationary market—commercial and residential buildings—is as important as the hybrid concept in transportation. Buildings are becoming more electronic just as mechanical cars are, and for the same reasons. The Hybrid Power Platform, the electronic blending of distributed power and storage with traditional grid power, promises greater reliability, flexibility and efficiency. For businesses there is added urgency. The electronic world of computers is as fundamental as the telephone. Computers, which require DC power, have to convert AC power from the entrenched grid infrastructure in order to operate. Indeed all electronic devices are fed from the same AC infrastructure that was ushered in by Westinghouse thanks to the intellectual property of Nicola Tesla. The conversion to DC power is a necessary step accomplished at each device. Today there are technologies for conversion to embed this function in our building’s power networks that are seamless in use and invisible to the user, like those developed by Nextek Power Systems. Ultimately, we will see hybrid buildings powered by combinations of grid power and alternative power sources, such as fuel cells, wind turbines and solar energy—without the need for multiple conversions of AC to DC at each device. The result will be energy that is more abundant, less dependent on foreign sources, safer and more reliable than grid power alone. These permeable DC networks can provide the enabling channel that distributed generation has been in search of, because these networks can deliver loads up to 50 percent more usable energy from DC sources – similar to the pick-up in efficiency hybrid vehicles deliver versus the internal combustion engine alone. The completely hybrid building will happen when the interface for grid-delivered power is moved from each appliance’s plug to the building envelope itself. Although the AC paradigm is still useful for wholesale transmission, for intra-building use it is becoming obsolete. Buildings should have DC standards for appliance manufacturers to use in manufacturing. Then entire building’s circuits could be cheaply made uninterruptible. DG sources, like solar, could be coupled directly to loads without going from DC to AC and back to DC. This is a costly excursion that can result in the loss of 50% of the usable output from the panel. The DC network dramatically improves the throughput efficiency of the solar panel, thus shortening the system’s payback by as much as 50%. The obstacle to adoption of alternative power has always been trying to conform to the existing infrastructure that represents an installed base of over a trillion dollars in global revenue from traditional grid networks. Moving any entrenched technology to a new paradigm has always met with resistance. The InfiniBand debate now underway in communications is just one example of faster, better, cheaper standards colliding with entrenched systems. Industry leaders like IBM and Dell say InfiniBand is the future of communications, but companies today aren’t sold yet to the point of making a wholesale transition to new systems. Fortunately, with hybrid power for buildings, we already have DC networks that are compatible with conventional circuits, so there needn’t be a destruction of the installed base. Hybrid buildings can bring the peak usage of buildings much closer to their average usage, which is the Holy Grail for energy providers subject to market forces. The regulated utility markets had the government’s support to pass along costs to customers, including a guaranteed profit. This has meant that utilities created capacity to cover the peak usage requirement of their customers, which occurs seasonally, and then had to carry that massive capital expenditure (and the overcapacity that goes with it) all the rest of the time. By taking advantage of the ability to store and dispatch power in a DC network, buildings could begin to flatten their consumption profile, which for a typical home can be in the 1500 to 2000 watts range on average, but perhaps 10 to 12 kilowatts at peak! Widespread adoption of the hybrid-building concept could more than double the usable capacity of the grid. This evolution is happening now, and it is measurable. As the twin trends of distributed generation and the increased density of electronics in buildings grow, the first electronic loads are starting to succumb. The largest base load in the country, electronically ballasted lighting, has already provided one opportunity. Three years ago, Nextek Power Systems targeted commercial and industrial lighting as the first load to address in the great migration to DC. Florescent lighting over telecom or server farms? Yes, for a number of reasons: it’s a huge reliable base load market that is always lit; it exists on separate circuits by code; and, all modern fixtures have electronic interfaces which can be easily replaced by DC-ready devices, no matter who the manufacturer of the fixture is. This issue about the interface is key because the portal for electricity to drive the lamp – called the ballast – is conventionally manufactured to accept AC but actually converts it to DC in order to efficiently run the lamps. Nextek’s product runs on DC, which is actually the same device as the AC ballast minus a few parts. It’s smaller, lighter and cooler to touch than an AC ballast, but best of all it opens-up the lighting load in a building to be used as a contra-point in the hybrid building ballet. Once unmasked as a DC load, the lights can be run from stored energy, or from DG at much higher efficiency. This optionality is the same driver that makes hybrid cars so economically attractive. At idle, the motor shuts off and the battery is available. The drive train of the vehicle can draw its peak requirement (acceleration) from stored energy. This flattening-out the demand curve from the engine’s perspective allows a smaller power plant (engine) to service the same load as once was served by a much larger one. In buildings the same dynamic comes into play. For a hybrid building, the peak requirement can be met by multiple sources, electronically dispatched. The analogy is perfect. Ironically, the threat of war may be what it takes to move alternative power into the mainstream. The hybrid car and the hybrid building may come into vogue as a response to the immediate need to protect our ability to generate power for our country. Alternative power has been a good idea for a long time, but now takes on a new urgency. Peace-loving environmentalists may not have envisioned it gaining acceptance in this way. Politics and economics are making the argument for innovative power solutions. The hybrid auto is here. The hybrid building is on the way.