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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 307 records · Page 17
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Rethinking agrivoltaic incentive programs: A science-based approach to encourage practical design solutions

Agrivoltaic systems are promising solutions to address global food and energy challenges by combining agriculture and solar photovoltaics. However, the lack of appropriate regulations to define and guide their implementation constrains the growth of agrivoltaic systems in the U.S. This study uses a shading and radiation tool to evaluate an existing agrivoltaic incentive program that defines agrivoltaic designs based on shading reduction limits and panel height requirements. Our analysis indicates that structuring policy requirements around shading, and not light availability, may lead to an underestimation of crop suitability by neglecting diffuse radiation. Furthermore, we show that agrivoltaic systems can avoid increasing panel height if policy acknowledges use-case scenarios where farming only occurs between rows. In light of these insights, this study proposes two key policy recommendations: (1) benchmark crop suitability based on daily light integral (DLI) requirements for a shade-intolerant crop selected to represent a prevalent crop in the region, and (2) include an incentive scenario where agriculture is only required between rows. Furthermore, these two recommendations can potentially incentivize designs that are practical and closer in cost to conventional solar farms, thereby accelerating the adoption of cost-effective agrivoltaic systems.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Design and optimization of a modular hydrogen-based integrated energy system to maximize revenue via nuclear-renewable sources

Here, this paper demonstrates a novel modular distributed framework that uses optimal energy-dispatching strategies to enable greater flexibility and profitability in nuclear-renewable integrated energy systems (NR-IES). Hydrogen is used as a commodity in this framework since its production can improve grid stability and system operational flexibility, decarbonize heavy industry, and create an additional revenue stream for electricity generators, particularly nuclear power plants with high operational expenses. The proposed solution addresses the challenges associated with merging multiple software and services from various domains by using functional mock-up units (FMU) to co-simulate diverse subsystems designed in various platforms. The tightly coupled integrated energy system (IES) is optimized to maximize revenue by utilizing the deep reinforcement learning (DRL) technique to make smart dispatching decisions based on variable electricity prices and the availability of renewable energy. Proximal policy optimization (PPO) algorithm is used in training and testing the DRL agent. Over a period of 120 days, the proposed hydrogen-based IES framework showed about 10% revenue boost compared to a non-hydrogen generating baseline IES while also providing an easily-adoptable framework which can help to improve the flexibility of future generation nuclear power plants.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Resilience Valuation and Planning for Solar and Storage on Critical Infrastructure

This case study report documents the City's project evolution and the entrepreneurial ways through which the City approached the questions of how solar and storage could support their resilience efforts and how to value and pay for solar-plus-storage systems. This report documents how and why the City of Reno came to the specific conclusion to integrate solar and storage into their Public Safety Center retrofit project and apply for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) funding. (The City of Reno applied for and was awarded FEMA BRIC funding in January 2021; leveraging work that was underway in this project.) This report provides an overview for other local governments to draw inspiration from when considering how to prioritize community values and pursue multi-stakeholder dialogue around resilient energy solutions. The City of Reno's experience can serve as a starting point for other communities interested in valuing the resilience benefits of solar and storage.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Accelerating Clean Energy @Scale: Place-Based Solutions

Customized, holistic energy modeling and analysis is conducted across a wide range of geospatial scales -- from global to local. We will describe the value and importance of local, place-based solutions, particularly, how scientific insights, decision support, and technical assistance based on integrated, customized modeling and analysis, and in-depth stakeholder engagement can assist communities in translating their ambitions into implementable action plans.

clean energy↗
DOE OSTI2024

B-Biz: Building Business Network

The Building Business Network (B-Biz) aims to provide high-performance building technology solutions to underserved customers by collaborating with local small businesses that provide and service high-performance building technologies in communities with the lowest rates of adoption.

BTO↗
DOE OSTI2022

Optimal economic dispatch policy for prosumer with energy storage considering self-consumption demand

This paper analyzed the effects of self-consumption demand on the joint economic dispatch of prosumers (energy consumers who are also producers), particularly for prosumers with both energy storage and distributed energy sources (DERs). Studies in the existing literature on the economic dispatch scheduling policy of energy storage, mostly from the perspective of electricity merchants, do not address the impacts of self-consumption demand. However, due to the intermittent and high levels of uncertainty regarding DERs generation and the dynamic demand of the prosumer, production and consumption are not always simultaneous; there are two possible scenarios in each period depending on whether DERs generation can meet prosumers' self-consumption or not. Incorporating the self-consumption demand will pose modeling challenges since these two scenarios cannot occur simultaneously in each period, and different scenarios require different decisions for prosumers. Further, this paper analyzed the two scenarios separately to find the optimal storage scheduling strategy, and the results were combined to get the optimal global solution. We focused on prosumers' economic decision-making while considering self-consumption demand and the physical constraints of a battery based on dynamic programming. Our study showed that the feasible state of charge (SOC) range of storage can be segmented into several sub-ranges by SOC reference points under the above two scenarios. As a result, a prosumer's optimal scheduling can be uniquely and conveniently selected based on the sub-ranges within which the current SOC falls. The results, therefore, provided multistage decision-making guidance for prosumers with energy storage.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Artificial-intelligence-driven shot reduction in quantum measurement

Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) provides a powerful solution for approximating molecular ground state energies by combining quantum circuits and classical computers. However, estimating probabilistic outcomes on quantum hardware requires repeated measurements (shots), incurring significant costs as accuracy increases. Optimizing shot allocation is thus critical for improving the efficiency of VQE. Current strategies rely heavily on hand-crafted heuristics requiring extensive expert knowledge. This paper proposes a reinforcement learning (RL)-based approach that automatically learns shot assignment policies to minimize total measurement shots while achieving convergence to the minimum of the energy expectation in VQE. The RL agent assigns measurement shots across VQE optimization iterations based on the progress of the optimization. This approach reduces VQE's dependence on static heuristics and human expertise. When the RL-enabled VQE is applied to a small molecule, a shot reduction policy is learned. The policy demonstrates transferability across systems and compatibility with other wavefunction Ansätze. In addition to these specific findings, this work highlights the potential of RL for automatically discovering efficient and scalable quantum optimization strategies.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2026

Defining Infrastructure Feasibility for Hub-Scale Offshore Atlantic Carbon Storage in the Northeastern United States

In the Northeast U.S., deep rock formations along the Atlantic outer continental shelf may have the potential to sequester 150–1136 million metric tons of CO2. However, the design and infrastructure necessary to develop offshore carbon storage in this region is not well defined because there has been little oil and gas exploration and no commercial production. Consequently, an infrastructure feasibility design was completed for a hub-scale offshore CO2 storage system along the Northeast U.S. Atlantic. The design included development of a detailed, site-specific geological model for a location near the Great Stone Dome geological structure in the Baltimore Canyon Trough off the coast of Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey. A field injection system topology design was completed to portray a design with eight wells in two clusters connected by central manifolds. Reservoir simulations were completed for the injection system that showed the hub may be able to inject 17 million metric tons (MMT) of CO2 per year for thirty years, but injection rates varied substantially across the eight wells. A CO2 pipeline design determined feasible routes from the east coast shoreline to the injection field. Finally, the CO2 injection system design included subsea injection trees, manifolds, and power umbilicals. This is the first study to define large-scale carbon storage design and infrastructure options for the offshore Atlantic, which can help to progress this region towards field characterization and early-mover deployment for future decarbonization in the region.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Creating a Research Enterprise Framework for Transdisciplinary Networking to Address the Food–Energy–Water Nexus

Urbanization, population growth, and the accelerating consumption of food, energy, and water (FEW) resources bring unprecedented challenges for economic, environmental, and social (EES) sustainability. It is imperative to understand the potential impacts of FEW systems on the realization of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the world transitions from natural ecosystems to managed ecosystems at an accelerating rate. A major obstacle is the complexity and emergent behavior of FEW systems and associated networks, for which no single discipline can generate a holistic understanding or meaningful projections. We propose a research enterprise framework for promoting transdisciplinarity and top-down quantification of the interrelationships between FEW and EES systems. Relevant enterprise efforts would emphasize increasing FEW resource accessibility by improving coordinated interplays across sectors and scales, expanding and diversifying supply-chain networks, and innovating technologies for efficient resource utilization. This framework can guide the development of strategic solutions for diminishing the competition among FEW-consuming sectors in a region or country, and for minimizing existing inequalities in FEW availability when a sustainable development agenda is implemented.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Closing transdisciplinary collaboration gaps of food-energy-water nexus research

The nexus of food, energy, and water (FEW) systems is key to ensuring global sustainability in the face of climate change, population growth, and urbanization. To address FEW resources inequity among different regions and countries, transdisciplinary research networking becomes increasingly important for tackling this intractable, complex grand challenge. In contrast to interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary research, transdisciplinary research emphasizes the interactions of scientific, cognitive, and social factors from a top-down view. Intellectual and strategic integrations entail weaving scientific, socioeconomic, and political perspectives together into a new convergence model and fostering a shared vision and comparable assessment, though these goals might not be realistically achievable in the short term. This article summarizes major barriers to transdisciplinary research on FEW nexus grand challenges and possible solutions to be implemented at multiple levels of distinct social systems. Implementation of the solutions relies on not only top-down incentives of governments but also bottom-up initiatives of academic communities and individual researchers. The relevance of shared interests and visions between the research communities and the public is emphasized.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Considerations for Distributed Energy Resource Integration in Puerto Rico: DOE Multi-Lab Grid Modeling Support for Puerto Rico; Analytical Support for Interconnection and IEEE Std 1547-2018 National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Task 3.0)

To ensure the sustainable long-term recovery of Puerto Rico's electric power grid from hurricanes María and Irma and to build capacity to manage future potential natural disasters in the most secure and resilient way, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) convened experts from multiple national laboratories to develop a comprehensive set of data, models, analytic tools, and studies, considering inputs from a wide variety of stakeholder groups, to support technically sound recommendations for Puerto Rico's energy investment decisions. A resilient electric grid is vital to Puerto Rico's security, economy, and way of life, and it will provide the foundation for essential services that people and businesses on the island rely on every day. This report shows progress for a grid modeling task under the DOE-sponsored project that is a collaboration among the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and other national laboratories. In Phase 1 of the multilab effort to support Puerto Rico's recovery, NREL provided the utility company Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) recommendations for a new framework of interconnection standards to accelerate the integration of utility-scale, transmission-connected renewable electrical generation and energy storage that ensure cross-technology compatibility and enable high deployment levels without compromising grid reliably, safety, or security. This Phase 2 report focuses on the interconnection of distributed energy resources (DERs) to the electric distribution system in Puerto Rico. This report is intended to familiarize the reader with Puerto Rico's distribution infrastructure and operational practices and procedures that are relevant to DER interconnection. The report also provides considerations for streamlining the interconnection process given the expected increase in deployments resulting from Puerto Rico's renewable portfolio standard (RPS) goal of 100% renewables by 2050. Accordingly, the report identifies considerations and concerns associated with the increase in intermittent generation, strategies for DER interconnection best practices, and the potential use of the latest technological solutions identified in the latest revision of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1547-2018 interconnection standard.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Case Study of the City of Reno: Resilience Valuation and Planning for Solar and Storage on Critical Infrastructure

This case study report documents the City of Reno's efforts to quantify the value of resilience and the entrepreneurial ways through which the City approached the questions of what role solar and storage could play in their resilience efforts and how to value and pay for solar-plus-storage systems. It documents how and why the City of Reno came to the specific conclusion to integrate solar and storage into their Public Safety Center retrofit project and apply for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) funding. This report provides an overview for other local governments to draw inspiration from when considering how to prioritize community values and pursue multi-stakeholder dialogue around resilient energy solutions. The City of Reno's experience can serve as a starting point for other communities interested in valuing the resilience benefits of solar and storage.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Illuminating Agrivoltaics at NREL

In this talk, we will provide an overview of the INSPIREing work being done in the agrivoltaics field at NREL. We will focus on the modeling aspects of agrivoltaics, discussing key assumptions and metrics that guide research, and main open concerns from the community. We will innovative solutions implement at NREL for modeling, and ongoing experiments for shading and irradiance modeling. We will conclude with a look at the future steps necessary to advance this particular area of agrivoltaics.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Decarbonizing Medium- & Heavy-Duty On-Road Vehicles: Zero-Emission Vehicles Cost Analysis

We simulate adoption and energy consumption of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) in the medium and heavy duty (MD/HD) sector. With continued improvement in ZEV technologies, total-cost-of-driving parity with conventional vehicles is achievable by 2035 for all MD/HD vehicle classes. Two technological solutions – battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are viable in multiple market segments, offering alternative pathways for decarbonization. In this scenario, ZEV sales reach 99+% by 2045 and 42% by 2030. 80% of the MD/HD stock transitions to ZEVs by 2050, reducing CO2 emissions by 69% from 2019. Disparities in adoption rate and vehicle usage between vehicle classes and between short and long-haul applications highlight opportunities for targeted policies (to reduce emissions it is critical to understand what vehicles transition to ZEV, not just how many vehicles). Results are highly sensitive to assumed fuel prices, technology improvement trajectories, adoption decision-making, and assumptions about future freight demand and vehicle use.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2021

A Circular Economy for Lithium-Ion Batteries Used in Mobile and Stationary Energy Storage: Drivers, Barriers, Enablers, and U.S. Policy Considerations

As large-format battery energy storage (BES) capacity increases in the United States, so will the volume of spent lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) (Bade 2019). Estimates based on a 10-year lifetime assumption found that the volume of LiBs that have reached the end of their utility for electric vehicle (EV) applications could total two million units (four million metric tons) annually by 2040 in the United States (Richa et al. 2014; Ai and Borucki 2018). Although there is currently no publicly available decommissioning or end-of-life (EoL) projection for stationary BES systems, the U.S. energy storage market is expected to grow from an annual deployment of 523 megawatts in 2013 to 7.3 gigawatts in 2025 (Wood MacKenzie and ESA 2020; Wesoff 2020). Despite potential secondary market opportunities and the potential benefits associated with the reuse/recovery of LiB material, anecdotal evidence suggests that in the United States most decommissioned LiBs from EVs are landfilled or otherwise disposed of (Steward et al. 2019; Salim et al. 2019; CPUC 2019; DTSC 2019d; NREL 2019b; Jacoby 2019; DOE 2019). The reuse of large-format LiBs is not at commercial scale and to date consists of only a handful of U.S.-led pilot projects. Similarly, less than 5% of LiBs from EVs are sent to recycling facilities in the United States (Steward et al. 2019; Jacoby 2019; America Made 2019; Patel 2017). As awareness of current practices grows, and the demand for critical LiB materials increases, U.S. industry stakeholders, regulators, and policymakers are starting to (1) consider solutions to drive and enable environmentally sustainable materials management decisions and behaviors and (2) identify barriers to a circular economy for LiBs (Figure 1). Circular economy principles (Figure 1) attempt to transition from a “take-make-consume-dispose” linear economic system to a circular system that allows for the long life, high performance, and the reuse/recovery of products and materials (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2016). We begin this report by summarizing drivers, barriers, and enablers to a circular economy for LiBs used in mobile and stationary BES systems in the United States. We then report on our analysis of federal and state regulatory considerations that may impact the reuse/recovery and disposal of LiBs, and potential civil and criminal liabilities associated with noncompliance. We conclude by highlighting state policies and initiatives in the United States that expressly address reuse/recovery and disposal of large-format LiBs. Our results are based on legal and literature-based research and interviews with mobile and stationary BES industry stakeholders, regulators, and policymakers. While this report addresses stationary BES, as well as mobile BES, much of the information and experience with LiB decommissioning and EoL material management is derived from the increasing management of spent EV LiBs in the United States.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Integrating renewable energy into mining operations: Opportunities, challenges, and enabling approaches

Mining is one of the most energy-intensive industries worldwide. It also provides a critical source of raw materials for the manufacturing, transportation, construction, and energy sectors. Demand for raw materials is projected to increase as the world population grows and many low-income economies become middle-income countries. This growth in mineral demand, coupled with falling mineral ore grade, will likely increase the mining industry’s energy demand, used for activities across exploration, extraction, beneficiation and processing, and refining. At the time of this writing, mine operations are – due to their remoteness – dependent on fossil fuels such as diesel, heavy oils, and coal. In principle, mining could use energy recovery, renewable energy, and carbon capture to supplement, replace, or mitigate the impacts of fossil fuel use. However, a combination of renewable-energy technologies would be required. We explore challenges, opportunities, and enabling approaches to integrate renewable energy technologies into mining operations by examining the literature, including academic work, technical reports, and data produced by international agencies. Here, we find that despite numerous opportunities, technical issues still need to be considered, but solutions can tailor renewables to the mining industry. Further research should focus on identifying specific opportunities, technologies, and implementation strategies across the value chain of a variety of minerals with similar operational procedures.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Shedding light on U.S. small and midsize data centers: Exploring insights from the CBECS survey

As demand for digital services accelerates, the energy and environmental footprint of data centers faces increasing scrutiny. While hyperscale cloud facilities have driven efficiency gains, small and midsize U.S. data centers remain a critical yet underexamined segment with significant untapped potential for energy savings. This study leverages data from the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) to analyze trends in server stocks, computing customers, cooling system adoption and efficiency, and geospatial distribution from 2012 to 2018. Findings reveal a sharp decline in small and midsize data centers, from 1.764 million to 1.398 million, with server counts dropping from 5.177 million to 4.262 million—aligning with the broader shift toward cloud computing. More than 40 % of servers in small data centers and 55 % in midsize data centers are housed in office buildings, and over half of all servers are concentrated in climate zones 5A (cold), 3A (mixed-humid), and 4A (mixed-humid), with the highest densities in metropolitan hubs. While direct expansion units remain the dominant cooling system, a clear transition toward more energy-efficient solutions, particularly air economizers, is evident. By integrating server and cooling system distributions, we estimate Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) for U.S. data centers by size and year. Results show that midsize data centers are more energy-efficient but more water-intensive due to the widespread use of water-cooled chillers. These findings highlight the trade-offs in cooling system selection and provide a critical foundation for policies aimed at enhancing efficiency in an evolving data center landscape.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

Automated Control of Transactive HVACs in Energy Distribution Systems

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems contribute significantly to a building’s energy consumption. In the recent years, there is an increased interest in developing transactive approaches which could enable automated and flexible scheduling of HVAC systems based on the customer demand and the electricity prices decided by the suppliers. Flexible and automated scheduling of the HVAC systems make it a prime source for participation in residential demand response or transactive energy systems. Therefore, it is of significant interest to identify an optimal strategy to control the HVAC systems. Here, reducing the energy cost while keeping the comfort level acceptable to the users, we argue that such a control strategy should consider both the energy cost and user comfort simultaneously. Accordingly, we develop the control strategy through the solution of an optimization problem that balances between the energy cost and consumer’s dissatisfaction. This optimization enables us to solve a decision-making problem through first price prediction and then choosing HVAC temperature settings throughout the day based on the predicted price, history of the price and HVAC settings, and outside temperature. More specifically, we formulate the control design as a Markov decision process (MDP) using deep neural networks and use Deep Deterministic Policy Gradients (DDPG)-based deep reinforcement learning algorithm to find the optimal control strategy for HVAC systems that balances between electricity cost and user comfort.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗