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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Framework for optimization of long-term, multi-period investment planning of integrated urban energy systems

In order to achieve stringent greenhouse gas emission reductions, a transition of our entire energy system from fossil to renewable resources needs to be designed. Such an energy transition brings two main challenges: most renewables generate variable electric energy, yet most demand is currently not electric (carrier mismatch) and does not always manifest at the same time as supply (temporal mismatch). Integrating multiple energy infrastructures can address both challenges by using the synergy between different energy carriers; building on existing infrastructure, while allowing a robust and flexible integration of the new. This paper proposes an optimization framework for long-term, multi-period investment planning of urban energy systems in an integrated manner. We formulate it as a mixed-integer linear program, combining a capacitated facility location with a multi-dimensional, capacitated network design problem. It includes generation and network expansion planning as well as interconnections between networks and storage infrastructure for each energy system. It can incorporate pathway effects like techno-economic developments, policy measures, and weather variations. The intended use is to support urban decision makers with long-term investment planning, though it can be tailored to fit other geographical or temporal scales. We demonstrate the model using two cases based on an average city in The Netherlands, which wants to reduce its CO 2 -emissions with 95% by 2050. In the first case, we include explicit carbon-emission constraints to study the effects of the carrier mismatch. In the second case, we implement interannual weather variations to analyze the temporal mismatch. The results give valuable insights into the energy transition design strategy for urban decision makers. They also show the future potential, as well as the computational challenges of the optimization framework.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Energy Systems Integration Facility Stewardship Summary: Fiscal Year 2024

A summary of NREL's good stewardship of the nationally unique Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) highlighting performance metrics, infrastructure upgrades, and examples of R&D impact. In fiscal year 2024, we developed advanced energy security and resilience capabilities as we built a new test bed for power electronics and completed a 1-megawatt platform for studying energy systems with grid-forming inverters. Researchers collaborated with utilities, manufacturers, and communities to solve their pressing questions, such as a control architecture that heralds a new direction for distributed energy management systems. With support from the U.S Department of Energy (DOE), the work in the ESIF laboratories continues to advance national goals for resilient and affordable energy.

annual report↗
NASA NTRS2011

Continuous-Integration Laser Energy Lidar Monitor

This circuit design implements an integrator intended to allow digitization of the energy output of a pulsed laser, or the energy of a received pulse of laser light. It integrates the output of a detector upon which the laser light is incident. The integration is performed constantly, either by means of an active integrator, or by passive components.

Karsh, Jeremy↗
DOE OSTI2023

Energy Systems Integration Facility Stewardship Summary: Fiscal Year 2022

A summary of NREL's good stewardship of the nationally unique Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) highlighting performance metrics, infrastructure and capability upgrades, and examples of R&D impact. In fiscal year 2022, ESIF researchers made breakthroughs in everything from long-duration energy storage and cybersecurity visualizations to a world record in heavy-duty hydrogen vehicle fueling, and built out research assets to advance microgrid operation and controls, renewable hydrogen production, electric vehicles, energy-efficient buildings, and more.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,ENERGY CONSERVATION, C↗
DOE OSTI2023

Energy Systems Integration Facility Stewardship Summary: Fiscal Year 2023

A summary of NREL's good stewardship of the nationally unique Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) highlighting performance metrics, infrastructure and capability upgrades, and examples of R&D impact. In fiscal year 2023, ESIF installed its third-generation high-performance computer, expanded capabailities for validating building energy controls, and demonstrated a leap in scale through virtual networking with another national laboratory. ESIF researchers made breakthroughs in cybersecurity for energy systems, efficient high-powered electric vehicle charging, leveraging reinforcement learning for grid resilience, and more.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,ENERGY CONSERVATION, C↗
DOE OSTI2021

Integration of energy storage with diesel generation in remote communities

Highlights Battery energy storage may improve energy efficiency and reliability of hybrid energy systems composed by diesel and solar photovoltaic power generators serving isolated communities. In projects aiming update of power plants serving electrically isolated communities with redundant diesel generation, battery energy storage can improve overall economic performance of power supply system by reducing fuel usage, decreasing capital costs by replacing redundant diesel generation units, and increasing generator system life by shortening yearly runtime. Fast-acting battery energy storage systems with grid-forming inverters might have potential for improving drastically the reliability indices of isolated communities currently supplied by diesel generation. Abstract This paper will highlight unique challenges and opportunities with regard to energy storage utilization in remote, self-sustaining communities. The energy management of such areas has unique concerns. Diesel generation is often the go-to power source in these scenarios, but these systems are not devoid of issues. Without dedicated maintenance crews as in large, interconnected network areas, minor interruptions can be frequent and invasive not only for those who lose power, but also for those in the community that must then correct any faults. Although the immediate financial benefits are perhaps not readily apparent, energy storage could be used to address concerns related to reliability, automation, fuel supply concerns, generator degradation, solar utilization, and, yes, fuel costs to name a few. These ideas are shown through a case study of the Levelock Village of Alaska. Currently, the community is faced with high diesel prices and a difficult supply chain, which makes temporary loss of power very common and reductions in fuel consumption very impactful. This study will investigate the benefits that an energy storage system could bring to the overall system life, fuel costs, and reliability of the power supply. The variable efficiency of the generators, impact of startup/shutdown process, and low-load operation concerns are considered. The technological benefits of the combined system will be explored for various scenarios of future diesel prices and technology maintenance/replacement costs as well as for the avoidance of power interruptions that are so common in the community currently. Graphic abstract Discussion In several cases, energy storage can provide a means to promote energy equity by improving remote communities’ power supply reliability to levels closer to what the average urban consumer experiences at a reduced cost compared to transmission buildout. Furthermore, energy equity represents a hard-to-quantify benefit achieved by the integration of energy storage to isolated power systems of under-served communities, which suggests that the financial aspects of such projects should be questioned as the main performance criterion. To improve battery energy storage system valuation for diesel-based power systems, integration analysis must be holistic and go beyond fuel savings to capture every value stream possible.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Combined Cycle Integrated Thermal Energy Storage “CiTES” (Final Scientific/Technical Report)

The Phase I of this project confirmed the technical feasibility of a Combined Cycle integrated Thermal Energy Storage “CiTES” system, calculated the key performance parameters like power efficiency and costs, and proved its commercial value with full-year simulations for several US electricity markets with high degree of variable renewable generation and volatile hourly electricity prices. The core element of this project is the Electro Thermal Energy Storage (ETES) technology from Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy GmbH, using thermally stable and inexpensive volcanic rocks as storage material and air as heat transfer medium. This technology is backed by more than 10 years of experience and a 440MMBTU (130MWh-th) pilot plant in Hamburg, Germany, which is in operation since 2019. The integration of this thermal storage in an existing combined cycle power plant (CCPP) is typical power plant technology without any major technology risks. It allows the storage of inexpensive renewable energy during times of surplus renewable generation and the discharge of this energy in times of high energy demand when the fossil plant is in operation. This supplements the fossil power generation with CO2-emission-free energy. The secondary effect of the CiTES system is that a small part of the stored thermal energy is used to keep the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) and steam turbine (ST) of the combined cycle power plant in hot and ready-to-start condition. This enables the plant to start rapidly when fossil generation is required to satisfy demand as soon variable generation drops off in the evenings or during cloud cover and calm wind periods. Without pre-warming of the HRSG and ST, the CCPP would need several hours for a cold or warm start, burn a lot of gas and release high NOx emissions during start and wouldn’t be able to use the short times of high energy prices in an efficient or economical manner. The economic parameters of CiTES were determined by a full year “8760” simulation using a data set calculation for each of the hours of the year, and historical electricity and gas prices. For consistency, the simulations were focused on the pre-COVID year 2019. The financially most attractive markets were in the Energy Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region, which allowed substantial value generation with arbitrage (charge with cheap energy during renewable surplus times and discharge when energy is needed and expensive). The improvement of flexibility with the CiTES system by pre-heating and warm-keeping of the CCPP allowed for additional power generation during short time periods when demand is high but renewable generation is down; when the hourly energy prices are highest in these markets. The simulations are based on 2019 data, when ERCOT had 27GW of installed photovoltaic (PV) and wind generation. They showed that the created revenue with the prototypically sized CiTES system of 1,000MMBTU (300MWh-th) falls a little bit short of what is expected from a commercially viable investment. The system has optimization opportunities for cost reduction and increased effectiveness which will be realized during a potential Phase II Pre-FEED study following this project. Furthermore, it is safe to assume that a lot of renewable generation capacity will be added all over the US in the coming years. As an example, ERCOT is predicting to more than double its renewable generation from 27GW in 2019 to a forecasted 63GW in 2023. This will increase the amount of renewable overproduction exponentially. This rapid increase of local overproduction and the need to curtail renewable generation is well documented by the California ISO (www.CAISO.com / managing oversupply). However, the simulations also revealed a weakness in the structure of the electricity markets in the US. More specifically, when electricity prices are very low and approaching negative levels, the owners of Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) will curtail a part of their facility to stabilize the price by reducing supply. This results in a situation in which storage facilities, which are integrated in existing fossil assets and don’t have the behind-the-meter benefit of a VRE, won’t be able to purchase low cost – otherwise curtailed – renewable energy off the grid. A special tariff, which motivates VRE owners to sell otherwise curtailed renewable energy to storage facilities (Hydrogen, thermal, pumped hydro, etc.) can solve this issue. The implementation of such a regulating tariff by Independent System Operators, thus avoiding renewable curtailment, is a pre condition for successful commercialization for renewable energy storage technologies. With this advancement of design and technology and improvements in the market environment, it can be expected that the Combined Cycle integrated Thermal Energy Storage proves itself as an important innovation to keep highly efficient, natural gas-based power generation economically successful and relevant for the power industry in the United States of America.

Wolf, Thorsten↗
DOE OSTI2024

Innovating the next generation of commercial smart building software

Nearly 30% of commercial building energy use is wasted due to equipment faults and HVAC controls problems. The result is increased emissions, compromised comfort and productivity, and less reliable coordination of building power needs with a clean grid. The energy impact alone represents $17 billion in potential savings. Today’s smart building software provides a robust solution to address these operational deficiencies. Energy management and information systems (EMIS) are saving up to 9% on average, with two-year paybacks. They are being incorporated into energy management processes, commissioning services, and utility programs. As effective as they are, two barriers prevent even deeper benefits; limited personnel to fix problems once they are identified, and the expense and time to manually implement changes in control systems. In partnership with the research community, the EMIS industry is developing new capabilities to overcome these barriers. Moving beyond siloed products for either fault detection and diagnostics, or optimal control, these new capabilities empower users to not only automatically identify faults, but also to push corrective action, and control improvements to their buildings. In this paper, several areas for enhancements are documented: ‘one-time’ correction of faults such as setpoints, schedules, and economizer lockouts; short-term active testing for automated proportional integral derivative (PID) loop tuning and functional testing; and continuous supervisory control for demand flexibility and year-round efficiency. Results are presented from a pair of partner implementations out of a dozen providers integrating these enhancements into their products, including field tests from across the country, and insights into operator acceptance and integration into operations and maintenance practices.

Casillas, Armando↗
NASA NTRS1980

Excitation of the b 3 Sigma u + state of H2 by electron impact - Semiclassical exchange potentials at intermediate energies

Integrated and differential cross sections for the excitation of the b 3 Sigma u + state of H2, from the ground state, by electron impact, are presented. The energy range of interest is 10.5 to 40.0 eV. The close-coupling equations for this process are solved in five different exchange approximations: exact two-electron exchange terms, no orthogonality; exact two-electron exchange terms, orthogonality; semiclassical exchange terms, no orthogonality, with barrier term; semiclassical exchange terms, no orthogonality, no barrier term; and semiclassical exchange terms, orthogonality, with barrier term. The purpose is to judge the reliability of the semiclassical exchange approximation for electronic excitation of molecules by electron impact at intermediate energies. The results are compared with recent theoretical estimates for the same process.

Weatherford, C. A.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Grid Integration of Renewable Energy and Energy Storage

Grid integration of renewable energy and energy storage requires forward-looking planning process, and increased emphasizes on reliability, resilience, and equity. Power-electronics based energy generation including solar, wind, distributed energy resources (DERs), and various types of grid-tied energy storage and emerging loads, are reshaping grid operator's understanding on interconnection level performance and responses. This paper will present the ongoing work at PNNL related to power electronics R&D, energy modeling and analysis, and a wide spectrum of grid stability studies and technologies in support of grid integration of renewable energy and energy storage.

Power Electronics, grid integration of renewable e↗
DOE OSTI2021

Hierarchal framework for integrating distributed energy resources into distribution systems

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for providing a hierarchical framework for integrating distributed energy resources into power distribution systems. In one example of the disclosed technology, a method implemented with an aggregation server includes receiving a respective utility function associated with each of at least two of a plurality of distributed energy resources representing an amount of energy produced or consumed by the respective associated distributed energy resource as a function of energy price, producing an aggregated utility function associated with the plurality of distributed energy resources based on the received utility functions, transmitting the produced aggregated utility function to a coordinator, receiving a clearing value from the coordinator, and transmitting the received clearing value to each of the plurality of distributed energy resources.

Lian, Jianming↗
NASA NTRS1981

Evaluation of integral exposure energy load on aural analyzer of miners

The individual exposure integral noise load on workers before the beginning of hearing impairment was determined for a group of 20 male miners who had worked with drilling equipment and harvesters for 8 to 20 years before the onset of the disability. Results show that the total exposure energy load of about 4 kw x h sq m, obtained by miners in the examined group, resulted in occupational injury to the auditory organ (cochlear neuritis) in 75% of the cases. The equivalent energy level of noise computed according to the date of total energy load is roughly 99 db A, which significantly exceeds the permissible amount of 85 db A. There is a correlation (r = 0.77) between the integral exposure energy noise on the aural analyzer in the degree of increase in the total threshold for the mean speech range.

Kornilov, A. N.↗
DOE OSTI2022

ARIES: NREL Off-Road Decarbonization and Energy Systems Integration Workshop - Challenges and Opportunities

This presentation about ARIES was given at the NREL Off-Road Decarbonization and Energy Systems Integration Workshop - Challenges and Opportunities. ARIES was designed to fill a significant gap: there is no research platform that can support the nation's transition to a decarbonized energy system. ARIES will demonstrate and de-risk a future energy system with more than 50% renewable generation by 2030, that is just, affordable, flexible, clean, secure, resilient, and reliable, even in the off-road transportation sector.

ARIES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Integrated energy-water-land nexus planning to guide national policy: an example from Uruguay

Despite broad consensus on the benefits of a nexus approach to multi-sector planning, actual implementation in government and other decision-making institutions is still rare. This study presents an approach to conducting integrated energy-water-land (EWL) planning, using Uruguay as an example. This stakeholder-driven study focuses on assessing the EWL nexus implications of actual planned policies aimed at strengthening three of Uruguay's key exports (beef, soy, and rice), which account for more than 40% of total national export revenue. Five scenarios are analyzed in the study: a reference scenario, a climate impacts scenario, and three policy scenarios. The three policy scenarios include measures such as increasing the intensity of beef production while simultaneously decreasing emissions, increasing irrigated soybean production, and improving rice yields. This study supplements previous sector-specific planning efforts in Uruguay by conducting the first stakeholder-driven integrated multi-sector assessment of planned policies in Uruguay using a suite of integrated modeling tools. Key insights from the study are: as compared to a reference scenario, improving beef productivity could lead to cropland expansion (+30%) and significant indirect increases in water requirements (+20%); improving rice yields could lead to increases in total emissions (+3%), which may partially offset emissions reductions from other policies; expanding irrigated soy could have the least EWL impacts amongst the policies studied; and climate-driven changes could have significantly less impact on EWL systems as compared to human actions. The generalizable insights derived from this analysis are readily applicable to other countries facing similar multi-sector planning challenges. In particular, the study's results reinforce the fact that policies often have multi-sector consequences, and thus policies can impact one another's efficacy. Thus, policy design and implementation can benefit from coordination across sectors and decision-making institutions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Contech to Accelerate Cleantech: Seeding Emerging Innovation Programs for Construction Productivity and Energy Efficiency Integration; Preprint

Investments in U.S.-based start-ups that focus on advanced building construction technologies to increase construction productivity (contech) surged to approximately $3.1 billion in 2018 (as per Crunchbase data). More recently, emerging programs by government funding agencies, philanthropic foundations, and venture capitalists have been instrumental in supporting contech start-ups for innovations that increase productivity of energy efficiency integration and accelerate clean energy technologies (cleantech) for the buildings sector. These programs include R&D support and funding mechanisms for contech and cleantech. Traditionally, contech and cleantech are considered as two different innovation ecosystems. To enhance and scale up energy efficiency in buildings, creative programs that bring together contech and cleantech are critical. This paper provides a landscape assessment of the "contech-for-cleantech" innovation ecosystem in the U.S. and its impact in accelerating technology readiness and the development pipeline of "contech-for-cleantech". Technologies highlighted are robotics for retrofits, prefabrication of energy-efficient products, and advanced manufacturing of low-carbon net-zero buildings construction. Programs discussed include those led by (1) government funding agencies: American-Made Challenges with prizes like E-ROBOT for retrofits with robotics, (2) philanthropic foundations: Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) that includes focus on energy efficiency and prefabrication, and (3) venture capitalists: Shadow Ventures Green Building Accelerator program which provides funding support to start-ups with ambitious plans for decarbonizing the built environment. This paper will also expand upon robust processes and criteria involved in judging and down-selection of start-ups through vetting and feedback from national lab researchers and industry experts in both cleantech and contech.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NASA NTRS1976

Proton and deuteron double differential cross sections at angles from 10 deg to 60 deg from Be, C, Al, Fe, Cu, Ge, W, and Pb under 558-MeV-proton irradiation

The double differential cross sections for the production of protons and deuterons from targets of Be, C, Al, Fe, Cu, Ge, W, and Pb were obtained at laboratory angles of scatter of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 degrees for 558-MeV incident protons. The position of the quasi-elastic peak, discernible in the cross sections up to approximately 40 degrees, corresponded closely to the theoretical predictions for proton-proton elastic scattering at 558 MeV. The mean ratio of deuteron to proton energy-integrated cross sections was 0.056 + or - 0.008. The dependence of energy-integrated cross sections for both protons and deuterons on target mass number A varied from A to the 1/3 power at 10 degrees to A to the 2/3 power above approximately 30 degrees. The ratio of energy-integrated deuteron cross sections for quasielastic processes to that for reactions yielding a deuteron-pi-meson pair was approximately 10 percent.

Beck, S. M.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Guest Editorial: Planning and operation of resilient distribution system for integrated multi-energy

Resilience is the ability of power systems to prepare for and adapt to low-probability, high-impact incidents and withstand and recover rapidly from disruptions. With the ageing of electricity distribution infrastructure and increasing threats of weather-related incidents and natural disasters, the need to effectively enhance the resilience of the electricity distribution system has become urgent and has attracted worldwide attention. Although there are an increasing number of publications related to enhancing resilience strategies, resilience is an emerging concept in power systems. Existing practices are mostly focused on deploying distributed energy resources (DERs) and microgrids, hardening the existing infrastructures and building redundant capacities. However, from a broader perspective, resilience enhancement of power distribution system is a systematic engineering, involving long-term system planning and upgrading (e.g., deployment of smart grid technologies and intelligent switches), short-term proactive scheduling, real-time robust and resilient control of DERs, and post-event restoration and recovery strategies. Based on this point, this Special Issue in IET Energy System Integration focuses on soliciting the most recent and original technologies, scheduling and control strategies for improving the resilience of power distribution system. Eight papers are presented in this Special Issue, covering various aspects related to resilience enhancement of power distribution system, including fault-tolerant frequency measurement, robust scheduling of integrated electricity and district heating systems, robust control of DERs, efficient methods for safety verification as well as novel graph theory-based approach to restore the distribution systems after multiple simultaneous faults. A brief introduction of these 8 papers is provided below.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Energy Technology Proving Ground Program Plan

New methods of energy production and distribution are required to meet clean energy goals and demands across all U.S. energy sectors. Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL) Integrated Energy Systems (IES) initiative is enabling clean energy research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) activities. To date, IES demonstration programs have been limited by distributed infrastructure and a lack of large-scale facilities to accommodate industry-scale research of Technical Readiness Level (TRL) 6-8 technologies. The IES initiative plans to eliminate these constraints by establishing a new research complex at INL known as the Energy Technology Proving Ground (Proving Ground) to be led by the Energy and Environment Science and Technology Directorate. The Energy and Environment Science and Technology (EES&T) directorate, one of five Idaho National Laboratory (INL) RD&D organizations, focuses on clean energy technologies that anchor the industry-enabling research of the Proving Ground. The Proving Ground will combine diverse clean energy systems into lean integrated test bed of independent multiscale capabilities available to the government and commercial industries to perform research; and will enable INL’s goal of becoming a Net-Zero entity by 2031. This program encompasses existing and new research space at both the in-town Research and Education Campus (REC) and the Arco desert site (the Site). The Proving Ground will support the maturation of IES technologies from TRL 1 through 8 by providing the infrastructure and capabilities needed to sustain a continuum of RD&D from basic science to industry-scale. To establish The Proving Ground and meet INL’s net-zero goals by 2031, nine research program areas have been identified within the IES initiative that require expanded and new capital infrastructure. This program plan provides guidance for establishing the Proving Ground at the Site for plug-and-play pilot testing and proofing of integrated energy system functionality including fission and renewable energy sources for industry driven application platforms.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗