illustration: Hydrostor systemProfessors Rupp Carriveau and David Ting will receive $112,000 to refine an underwater compressed air energy storage and conversion system.

Engineering professors receive $112k for underwater energy storage research

UWindsor researchers have played a critical role in developing Canada’s first underwater compressed air energy storage and conversion system and now, with the help of a federal grant, they hope to further improve the system’s design and efficiency.

The $112,000 grant comes as part of a $5 million federal investment in the NSERC Energy Storage Network announced March 1 by Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan. The project is part of an overall effort between 27 professors from 15 universities and eight provinces aimed at creating a more reliable, environmentally responsible and efficient power system.

“This support represents a big investment in connecting our country’s talented scientists and engineers with industry,” Duncan said.

UWindsor engineering professors Rupp Carriveau and David Ting will use their portion to implement the Next Generation Under Water Energy Storage project, which will fund the team’s efforts to push new designs that will decrease mobilization and deployment costs, which are traditionally high with offshore energy projects.

Drs. Carriveau and Ting are working with industry partners Hydrostor and Toronto Hydro, which currently operate the only grid-connected underwater energy storage facility in the world. The Hydrostor system includes underwater air storage located 2.5 km offshore in Lake Ontario, as well as a mechanical facility located on Toronto Island.

“Our focus is to increase operating efficiency to bring the cost of energy storage down, further increasing the appeal for customers,” Carriveau said about the Hydrostor system, which uses compressed air and the weight of water to run its system with minimal emissions. “The sustainable energy offshore sector is growing rapidly. Energy storage is critical to a sustainable energy future.”

The system stores electricity during off-peak hours when demand is low and electricity is cheapest. The stored electricity is returned during times of high demand or during short-term power outages.

This is accomplished by running electricity to power an air compressor. The energy now takes the form of compressed air, which is sent underwater and stored in large balloon-like structures. When electricity is needed again, the pressure of the water pushes the air to the surface, driving a generator to create electricity.

Read more on the Windsor Engineering website.

participants in “Bring a Self-Represented Litigant to School Day” on March 14.Windsor Law welcomed participants in “Bring a Self-Represented Litigant to School Day” on March 14.

Court experience sends litigants to law school

Chantal McCollum can relate to group of local self-represented litigants who visited Windsor Law last week. Her own experiences pursuing an employment dispute without legal counsel inspired her to study law.

The first-year law student spoke as part of a panel organized March 14 as part of “Bring a Self-Represented Litigant to School Day.” The event is organized by the National Self-Represented Litigants Project to help law students understand the challenges faced by self-represented litigants and the impact they have on the justice system.

The project builds on research work of Windsor Law professor Julie Macfarlane. Her study identified a need to enhance the capacity of courts to serve people representing themselves and called for continuing dialogue among stakeholders: litigants, lawyers, judges and court staff.

This was the second year visitors were invited to spend a day at Windsor’s law school: self-represented litigants Hedi Tremblay, Basma Preston, John Herceg and Kelly Christian attended classes and discussed what they learned representing themselves in court.

This year, law schools at Osgoode Hall and Ottawa University also participated, coordinated by second-year Windsor law student Gurleen Gill. Macfarlane hopes the event will spread further in future years.

For her part, McCollum describes appearing in small claims court without counsel as an “eye-opening” experience.

“It was daunting, because you’re unfamiliar with the legal system,” she says. “It was definitely very disconcerting.”

She recalls she was “lucky,” because the judge in the case was sympathetic to the fact that she and her partner were there without a lawyer, but the opposing counsel from a large firm tried to intimidate them. In the end, the two sides reached a settlement, but the process took a toll in terms of time, effort and emotional exhaustion.

“You’re dealing with really personal issues and so it’s hard to separate that, to look at things objectively,” McCollum says. “My classmates learned something by listening to our visitors. I think students got a sense that these people suffered.”

Feds pledge to fund infrastructure

The federal government committed $2 billion over three years for a new Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund in its 2016 budget, released Tuesday.

Universities Canada has prepared a summary of items in the budget that relate to universities and post-secondary training. Read it here.

Leddy library to maintain regular hours through Easter weekend

Most campus offices will close Friday, March 25, in observance of the Good Friday statutory holiday.

The Leddy Library will maintain its usual hours of operation. The Paul Martin Law Library will close Friday but open Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8:50 p.m.

The Crocodile Grill in Vanier Hall will serve breakfast 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. through the three-day weekend, and dinner from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, extending that to 11 p.m. Sunday.

Other campus food outlets will close Friday through Saturday. See a full schedule on the Food Services website.