Accessibility to low-priced, reliable microgeneration technologies is severely limited in the suburban areas surrounding Minneapolis-St.Paul. A survey indicated that 89.6% of homeowners in this areas did not use microgeneration technologies in 2020.
Most people in the United States are dependent on electricity to power their daily lives, from powering the coffee maker to turning on the lights at the office to powering their devices. In fact, most U.S. households use about 30 kWh of electricity per day. Of this, only 11.4% percent of energy was produced from renewable energy sources in 2019, according to a study done by the University of Michigan's Center for Sustainable Systems. In contrast, about 80% percent was produced from fossil fuels.
Combining our previous knowledge about the negative impacts of fossil fuels with this new statistical knowledge, and hoping to learn more about sustainable solutions for the future, our team decided to pursue a project in the field of electricity generation.
After further research revealed the field of microgeneration to be a comparatively underdeveloped, under-researched, and underutilized field, our team decided to pursue a project with the intent of creating or innovating a microgeneration technology.
Like many other people, our group has found the current energy system to be unsustainable and problematic for our climate. Our concern for the future of the climate and environment furthered our interest in this project.
Overall Summary of Scholarly Articles:
Microgeneration technologies are a promising solution, especially in rural areas or developing countries. However, the success of microgeneration is largely dependent on cost, government subsidies, and how well the general public understands the climate issue.
Article Title: A cross-sectional review: Impacts and sustainability of small-scale renewable energy projects in developing countries
Author(s): JuliaTerrapon-Pfaff, Carmen Dienst, Julian König, and Willington Ortiz
Year: 2014
Summary: This paper compares microgeneration to large-scale generation within developing countries. It found that microgeneration was a significantly better option due to its limited reliance on political, economic, socio-cultural, and other external factors. This paper found that within developing countries, microgeneration is more likely to succeed, thus having a better chance of helping the citizens of those countries.
Article Title: Off-Grid Renewable Energy Options for Rural Electrification in Western China
Author(s): John Byrne, Young-Doo Wang, Bo Shen, et al.
Year: 2001
Summary: This study examined the impact of small scale power generation (<2kw) in western China. 531 rural chinese households used some variation of microgeneration. The examination shows that the generation techniques are a cost effective way to generate power. The study also references a sizable marketplace for micro-generation.
Article Title: Incentives for Microgeneration Development in the U.S. and Europe
Author(s): Anthony E. Jones, Marty Irwin, and Afshin Izadian
Year: 2010
Summary: This study reviews various policies that have been implemented within the past 30 years. This study found that government subsidies and incentives are important factors in determining whether or not a new technology will be accepted and utilized by the general population.
Article Title: Factors Affecting Sustainable Market Acceptance of Residential Microgeneration Technologies: A Two Time Period Comparative Analysis
Author(s): Spyridon Karytsas, Ioannis Vardopoulos, Eleni Theodoropoulou
Year: 2019
Summary: This study consisted of two surveys given over a seven year time period (2012-2019). The survey found that the most common barriers or concerns with micrognerations were functional reliability, system lifetime, operation and maintenance cost, installation and operation process and costs, and compatibility with lifestyle. This study echoes that government incentives and subsidies are helpful to encourage installation of these technologies. Lastly, this study found that the more knowledge a person has on the environment, the more likely they are to support and/or install microgeneration technologies.
A majority of the people who took our survey reported that they have little or no microgeneration (81%), and that they would be interested in purchasing microgeneration technology (99%). The biggest concerns they had were high initial price (78%), high maintenance (20%), and reliability issues (20%). They found the biggest advantages to be the environmental impact (83%) and saving money (52%).
These results are consistent with the findings of our scholarly articles. Thus, in the following elements, we will attempt to address the issues listed here to the best of our abilities.
Many designers have attempted to make a microgeneration systems in the past. We looked at patents ranging from a miniaturized turbine designed to generate electricity from the movement of a car to system of batteries that uses thermal regulation to optimize efficiency. We also looked at products that created electricity such as a hand-held solar panel. We found that most existing designs conflicted with one of the most important factors cited in the sources above: upfront and/or operational cost. For more information on each of these products, see Element B: Documentation and Analysis of Prior Solution Attempts.