Faculty Focus: Mike Wagner

Michael J. Wagner is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and runs the Energy Systems Optimization Lab. His lab seeks to improve the design, performance, and characterization of energy generation and storage systems by applying advanced simulation and optimization techniques to applied systems.

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Mechanical Engineering Research – Mike Wagner

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Some of Wagner’s future collaborative work will be focused on an energy system in which an advanced nuclear reactor and a concentrating solar power plant share the same molten salt thermal energy storage. Read more.

IN TECHNICAL TERMS

What one project are you most excited about working on right now?

I’m most excited about a project funded by the Department of Energy – Solar Energy Technologies Office in which we are developing a set of simulation models that mimic the operation of large solar thermal power plants. In the field of concentrating solar power, the most deployed technology is the “parabolic trough” type, and that includes several large-scale systems currently in operation in the US Southwest region. Our research group has partnered with Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure who are the operators of the 260 MW Solana plant in Gila Bend, AZ, and an engineering firm called Solar Dynamics to develop an operations simulator for their plant. We have several graduate students working on various pieces of this effort, including development of detailed thermo-fluids models of the large solar energy collection field, the power conversion station, and the thermal energy storage system. We are also developing a graphical interface that provides model users with a control console that feels very much like that which is in place at the facility. The project is especially interesting because it advances the state of the art in dynamic modeling for this type of renewable system, and it introduces human factors considerations. In other words, we are using detailed engineering models to predict how the plant will respond to both expected and unexpected operator decisions.

What do you think the impact will be on tech and society?

One of the major obstacles facing the concentrating solar power industry is difficulty in attaining expected plant productivity. The technology is complex and requires that operations staff have broad knowledge of many operating scenarios, upset conditions, and procedures. Plants are also physically located in remote areas where it is hard to recruit and retain skilled staff, so plants are often run by relatively new and inexperienced operators. Our research project is working to produce a simulation platform that can be used by new (and more seasoned) operators to understand how the plant is likely to respond to control decisions. Trialing operations procedures and training for low-frequency-high-impact scenarios in a low-risk environment will accelerate the “upskilling” of operations staff and improve productivity of the actual system over time. We expect that this will help the concentrating solar industry to overcome historical performance shortcomings and to establish itself as a reliable, cost-effective, and dispatchable renewable resource in the US energy mix.