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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Distributed Wind Market Report: 2021 Edition

The U.S. Department of Energy’s annual Distributed Wind Market Report provides stakeholders with market statistics and analysis along with insights into market trends and characteristics. By providing a comprehensive overview of the distributed wind market, this report can help guide future investments and decisions by industry, utilities, federal and state agencies, and other interested parties. This report provides key information to help stakeholders understand and access market opportunities and inform distributed wind industry research and development needs.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Distributed Wind Market Report: 2022 Edition

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) annual Distributed Wind Market Report analyzes distributed wind projects of all sizes to provide stakeholders with market statistics and analysis along with insights into market trends and characteristics. By providing a comprehensive overview of the distributed wind market, this report can help guide future investments and decisions by industry, utilities, federal and state agencies, and other interested parties. This report provides key information to help stakeholders understand and access market opportunities and inform distributed wind industry research and development needs.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Offshore Wind Market Report: 2024 Edition

The Offshore Wind Market Report: 2024 Edition provides detailed information on the U.S. and global offshore wind energy industries to inform policymakers, researchers, and analysts about technology, economic, and market trends. The report provides the status of more than 322 operating offshore wind energy projects in the global fleet through Dec. 31, 2023, as well as the broader global pipeline of projects in various development stages. To provide current information and discussion on the emerging offshore wind industry in the United States, this report tracks significant U.S. domestic progress and events from Jan. 1, 2023, to May 31, 2024.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Distributed Wind Market Report: 2024 Edition

The annual Distributed Wind Market Report provides stakeholders with market statistics and analysis along with insights into market trends and characteristics for wind technologies used as distributed energy resources. This report presents the distributed wind market from 2003 through 2023. Key findings with respect to installed capacity, deployment trends, customer types, incentives, policies, installed costs and performance, and the future outlook are presented.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Status and prospects of lithium iron phosphate manufacturing in the lithium battery industry

Abstract Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO 4 , LFP) has long been a key player in the lithium battery industry for its exceptional stability, safety, and cost-effectiveness as a cathode material. Major car makers (e.g., Tesla, Volkswagen, Ford, Toyota) have either incorporated or are considering the use of LFP-based batteries in their latest electric vehicle (EV) models. Despite LFP’s well-researched status as a cathode material, it is expected to fulfill additional demands in electric vehicle applications, such as fast-charging capabilities, wide temperature range adaptability, and higher energy density. This perspective examines the LFP supply chain, synthetic approaches, manufacturing processes, market trends, recent advancements, and evolving demands to better understand its future role in the EV market. Graphical abstract

Lu, Yanying↗
DOE OSTI2020

Automatic Fault Detection & Diagnostics: Residential Market Analysis

This report provides an overview of the market potential for automated fault detection and diagnostics (AFDD) in the residential sector, focusing on embedded AFDD in central air conditioners (CAC) and air-source heat pumps (ASHP) as well as the use of smart diagnostic tools to ensure quality installation of CAC/ASHP equipment. The contents include background on AFDD, stakeholder engagement efforts, a technology assessment of AFDD and smart diagnostic tools, residential CAC and ASHP market trends, a characterization of the CAC and ASHP installed base, a synopsis of utility provider programs, and market barriers.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Distributed Wind Market Report: 2022 Edition

The 2022 edition of the Distributed Wind Market Report provides stakeholders with statistics and analysis of the distributed wind market— which includes power from wind turbines installed near where the power will be used—along with insight into market trends and characteristics. The report analyzes distributed wind projects of all sizes and details the U.S. small wind market for the 2021 calendar year.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Technology Scouting Report: Reliability Implications of Recent PV Module Technology Trends

This webinar links recent and anticipated PV module technology trends - such as the transition to n-type cells, increasing module sizes, and new encapsulants - with potential increases and reductions in reliability risk. Market trends are drawn from industry data and projections, and corresponding reliability implications are synthesized from interviews with researchers and industry experts. The webinar is an interim step toward developing a technology scouting report.

forecast↗
DOE OSTI2022

Distributed Wind Project Database

The PNNL research team continually collects cost, incentive, generation, and customer data from turbine manufacturers, operations and maintenance providers, state and federal agencies, and other stakeholders for distributed wind projects installed in the United States. These data are critical for identifying trends, opportunities for growth, and prioritizing investments for both WETO and industry stakeholders. Making this information available allows interested parties to better understand distributed wind market trends and characteristics.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Production of Fischer-Tropsch Synfuels at Nuclear Plants

A case study analysis was performed to evaluate nuclear-powered synthetic fuel production in the midwestern United States (U.S.). A Fischer-Tropsch (FT) fuel synthesis plant design was used as the basis for the analysis. The FT plant design was configured to produce a product slate consisting of diesel fuel, jet fuel, and motor gasoline blend stocks from carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and hydrogen (H 2 ) feedstocks. The CO 2 feedstock for the FT plant was assumed to be sourced from biorefineries in the region around a Midwest light water reactor (LWR) nuclear power plant (NPP). The analysis specifies that power from the LWR is used to produce H 2 via high-temperature steam electrolysis and to operate the FT synfuel production plant. Capital costs were estimated for the FT plant while capital costs for the electrolysis plant were based on previous Idaho National Laboratory (INL) studies. In addition to labor and maintenance costs for the FT and electrolysis plants, operating costs also include the costs for CO 2 feedstock transport. An analysis was performed to determine the cost of transporting CO 2 from the distributed biorefinery sources to the centralized fuel synthesis plant as a function of the synfuel plant capacity and corresponding CO 2 demand. The primary revenue streams are associated with sales of the synthetic fuel products. The synthetic fuel products will likely follow the same market trends as the conventional fuel products. The synfuel price data was thus based on projections made by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2021 Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) for conventional fuel products minus federal and state taxes, as well as marketing and distribution costs. The economic analysis also considered cases that included and excluded revenues from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) clean hydrogen production tax credit (PTC) of $\$ $3.00/kg for the first ten years of operation. The economic analysis calculated the net present value (NPV) for cases involving steady-state synfuel production for comparison with the NPV for a business-as-usual case in which NPP continues to sell only electric power to the grid. A synfuel production “Reference Case” was considered in addition to sensitivity cases in which the plant capacity, electricity price, and synthetic fuel product prices were perturbed. The synfuel production Reference Case considered a scenario in which the electrolysis and synfuel plants utilized a combined electrical load of 1000 megawatt electrical (MWe) from the LWR with the balance of the LWR power output being sold to the electric grid. The economic analysis suggests that the synfuel production Reference Case evaluated in this analysis would lead to considerable economic potential for near-term deployment of a nuclear-based synfuel production plant. Specifically, the economic analysis suggests that the deployment of a 1000 megawatt (MW) nuclear-powered synfuel plant could result in a NPV increase of approximately $\$ $1.7 billion for a case with no clean synfuel price premium relative to conventional petroleum fuels when accounting for the additional revenues from the 2022 IRA clean hydrogen PTCs of $\$ $3/kg. Sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the effect of perturbation of selected model input parameters on the NPV for the synfuel production Reference Case. The sensitivity analysis indicates that the plant capacity has the largest impact on the differential NPV, with a smaller synfuel production capacity resulting in a decrease in revenue when a larger fraction of the power from the NPP is sold to the grid and a smaller fraction of the power is used to produce synthetic fuel products. The synfuel product pricing has the next largest impact on the differential NPV, with lower synfuel prices resulting in decreased NPV from decreased synfuel sales revenue while higher synfuel prices result in increased NPV from increased synfuel sales revenue. Electricity pricing has a smaller effect on the NPV than the fuel sales price since, in the Reference Case, most of the energy from the NPP is used for synfuel production and a smaller amount of the system revenues are associated with electrical power sales. However, the electricity price sensitivity does indicate that the Synfuel Integrated Energy System (IES) would have a greater NPV than the business-as-usual case (e.g., grid power sales only) when electricity market prices are low, suggesting that synfuel production could provide a strategy for decreasing the economic risks to NPPs posed by a loss of revenues attributed to falling electricity market prices.

10 SYNTHETIC FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Integrated Risk-Informed Condition Based Maintenance Capability and Automated Platform: Technical Report 1

Due to continuing global energy market trends, driven heavily by the abundant preserves of natural gas, there is an immediate need to reduce costs associated with operation and maintenance (O&M) for the current domestic nuclear power industry and for future reactor developments. This is to ensure that nuclear power generation remains an economically competitive and viable option in the energy market. O&M costs include labor-intensive preventive maintenance (PM) programs, which involve manually-performed inspection, calibration, testing, and maintenance of plant assets at periodic frequency and time-based replacement of assets, irrespective of their condition. This has resulted in an expensive, labor-centric business model to achieve high capacity factors. Fortunately, there are technologies (advanced sensors, data analytics, and risk assessment methodologies) that can enable the transition from a labor-centric business model to a technology-centric business model. The technology-centric business model will result in a significant reduction of PM activities, laying the foundation for real-time condition assessment of plant assets, reducing overall labor and part costs. To enable this transition, PKMJ Technical Services LLC is partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (operated by the Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC) and the Public Services Enterprise Group (PSEG) Nuclear, LLC in the Integrated Risk-Informed Condition-Based Maintenance Capability and Automated Platform Project. In this report, the configuration of a digital cloud platform using Microsoft Azure is discussed, data from the PSEG Salem Nuclear Generating Station Units 1 & 2 are imported into a digital cloud platform, and the data is used for an evaluation of several key areas: cost impact analysis, risk-informed model development, and preventive maintenance strategy optimization. First, the cost impact analysis reviews which plant assets are potential good candidates for condition-based monitoring. Next, INL utilized the data in their local environment to develop the risk-informed model; which provides estimates of failure rates and probability of failures of assets based upon their past performance. The developed model is performed on assets selected from the cost impact analysis. Lastly, engineers assess the preventive maintenance strategy for the selected assets at PSEG against maintenance strategies in the nuclear industry for similar assets to potentially identify acceptable justification for the extension of current maintenance frequencies.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Power market models for the clean energy transition: State of the art and future research needs

As power systems around the world are rapidly evolving to achieve decarbonization objectives, it is crucial that power system planners and operators use appropriate models and tools to analyze and address the associated challenges. This paper provides a detailed overview of the properties of power market models in the context of the clean energy transition. We review common power market model methodologies, their readiness for low- and zero-carbon grids, and new power market trends. Based on the review, we suggest model improvements and new designs to increase modeling capabilities for future grids. The paper highlights key modeling concepts related to power system flexibility, with a particular focus on hydropower and energy storage, as well as the representation of grid services, price formation, temporal structure, and the importance of uncertainty. We find that a changing resource mix, market restructuring, and growing price uncertainty require more precise modeling techniques to adequately capture the new technology constraints and the dynamics of future power markets. In particular, models must adequately represent resource opportunity costs, multi-horizon flexibility, and energy storage capabilities across the full range of grid services. Moreover, at the system level, it is increasingly important to consider sub-hourly time resolution, enhanced uncertainty representation, and introduce co-optimization for dual market clearing of energy and grid services. Likewise, models should capture interdependencies between multiple energy carriers and demand sectors.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
NASA NTRS1994

Database tomography for commercial application

Database tomography is a method for extracting themes and their relationships from text. The algorithms, employed begin with word frequency and word proximity analysis and build upon these results. When the word 'database' is used, think of medical or police records, patents, journals, or papers, etc. (any text information that can be computer stored). Database tomography features a full text, user interactive technique enabling the user to identify areas of interest, establish relationships, and map trends for a deeper understanding of an area of interest. Database tomography concepts and applications have been reported in journals and presented at conferences. One important feature of the database tomography algorithm is that it can be used on a database of any size, and will facilitate the users ability to understand the volume of content therein. While employing the process to identify research opportunities it became obvious that this promising technology has potential applications for business, science, engineering, law, and academe. Examples include evaluating marketing trends, strategies, relationships and associations. Also, the database tomography process would be a powerful component in the area of competitive intelligence, national security intelligence and patent analysis. User interests and involvement cannot be overemphasized.

Kostoff, Ronald N.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Hybrid Power Purchase Agreements for Flexible 24/7 Energy Delivery – A Comprehensive Review of Current Practices and Research Pathways

Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) are becoming increasingly preferred among large energy consumers, such as data centers, to secure cost-effective energy and meet accelerating demand growth. Traditionally, variable renewable energy (VRE)-based PPAs operate on a pay-as-produced basis, balancing supply and demand for a relatively longer duration (e.g., annually). However, the focus is shifting toward matching supply and demand on an hourly basis to fully meet energy needs. This shift requires the integration of flexible energy resources, such as hydropower, thermal generation, and energy storage, to complement VRE sources like wind and solar, forming the foundation for 24/7 PPA. This work contributes by: (i) reviewing emerging market trends and current practices in PPA procurement, supported by data on PPA prices and technology portfolios; (ii) synthesizing the existing literature on modeling approaches for contract pricing, quantities, hybrid resource procurement, and risk management in 24/7 PPA design, while identifying key research gaps; and (iii) proposing an integrated 24/7 PPA design framework along with two contracting mechanisms from the perspectives of both PPA providers and consumers. The proposed framework highlights critical modeling challenges, risk-allocation issues, and future research opportunities for 24/7 PPA design.

24/7↗
DOE OSTI2023

Interlaboratory Study: Testing Reproducibility of Solid Biofuels Component Identification Using Reflected Light Microscopy

Considering global market trends and concerns about climate change and sustainability, increased biomass use for energy is expected to continue. As more diverse materials are being utilized to manufacture solid biomass fuels, it is critical to implement quality assessment methods to analyze these fuels thoroughly. One such method is reflected light microscopy (RLM), which has the potential to complement and enhance current standard testing, leading to improving fuel quality assessment and, ultimately, preventing avoidable air pollution. An interlaboratory study (ILS) was conducted to test the reproducibility of biomass fuels component identification using a reflected light microscopy technique. The exercise was conducted on thirty photomicrographs showing biomass and various undesired components (like plastics or mineral matter), which were purposely added (by the ILS organizers) to contaminate wood pellets and charcoal-based grilling fuels. Forty-six participants had various levels of difficulty identifying the marked components, and as a result, the percentage of correct answers ranged from 52.2 to 94.4%. Among the most difficult components to distinguish were petroleum products and inorganic matter. Various reasons led to the misidentification, including insufficient morphological descriptions of the components provided to participants, ambiguities of the nomenclature, limitations of the analytical and exercise method, and insufficient experience of the participants. Overall, the results indicate that RLM has the potential to enhance the quality assessment of biomass fuels. However, they also demonstrate that the petrographic classification used in this exercise requires further refinement before it can be standardized. While a new simplified classification of solid biomass fuels components was created as an outcome of this study, future research is necessary to refine the nomenclature, develop a microscopic morphological description of the components, and verify the accuracy of component identification with a follow-up ILS.

biomass↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Techno-Economic Analysis of a 50MWth Light-Trapping Cavity-Planar Solar Receiver Tower Capital Expenditures and its Cost Mitigation Strategies

To maximize thermal efficiency, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has proposed a light-trapping cavity-planar receiver design intended to capture energy from reradiating surfaces. This system implements a macroscale light trapping mechanism induced by panels with triangular channels, this mechanism allows for elevated temperatures on the receiver panels and in turn the temperature of the HTF; using this design coupled with the implementation of a fluidized particle flow as the HTF, it can be expected for some components to reach a peak working temperature of nearly 1000 degrees C cyclically throughout each day-night cycle. While these temperatures correlate to higher efficiency of the CSP tower they also demand intense thermomechanical properties from the materials used to make the receiver panels. In this analysis, we will list our assumptions to provide clarity on the significance of our calculation. This cost analysis will be conducted using a combination of both case study data and surveying industry to determine costs that are relevant to the current market trends. This analysis represents an early attempt to establish the Capital Expenditures required for a CSP tower of such design to determine the feasibility of implementing such a system in the industry.

concentrated solar power (CSP)↗
DOE OSTI2022

Novel Proppant Logging Technique for Infill Drilling of Unconventional Shale Wells

Summary During the development of an unconventional play, wells are drilled and completed in batches, and depending on the development plans, current and expected energy market trends, as well as other developmental considerations, new wells are drilled and hydraulically fractured later near existing producing laterals. This creates challenges in terms of optimizing resource recovery and reducing interwell communication. A novel approach is proposed that utilizes systematic composite sampling and analysis of drilling mud returns to look for and quantitatively identify sand particles. The workflow involves cleaning, drying, and segregation of samples into sizes of interest to us (size distribution of pumped proppant in offset parent wells). These samples are imaged at a very high resolution and analyzed for grains using characteristic optical imaging properties to classify proppant sand particles using computer vision algorithms. Further analysis, such as elemental compositional analysis, is used to validate the results from the imaging workflow. We present a case study from the Permian Basin, where a new child well was used as a test case to prove this technology at the Hydraulic Fracturing Test Site (HFTS-2) in Delaware Basin. We introduce new proppant parameters that help identify sustained proppant zones vs. localized propped fractures. We have used additional diagnostics and data collected at the test site to validate observations from the proppant log and have successfully interpreted significantly propped vs. unpropped zones. A key finding from this test has been the significant proppant transport distances observed away from parent wells. Observable proppant was found at a lateral distance of approximately 425 m for one set of parent wells and more than 915 m for another set of parent wells. While a major limitation of this technique is the sampling rate, given adequate sampling, the proposed technology represents a systematic and one-of-a-kind interpretation of spatial proppant distribution while drilling infill wells. It provides us with unique opportunities to better understand the current state of the reservoir being targeted, including zones that are likely highly drained relative to others, and how the planned hydraulic fracturing of child wells can be improved.

Energy & Fuels↗
DOE OSTI2021

Informative Background on the Interoperability Requirements in IEEE Std 1547-2018

The intent of this document is to support local authorities governing interconnection requirements in adopting the most current requirements for interconnecting distributed energy resources (DERs) to the electric distribution system, as specified in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standard for Interconnection and Interoperability of Distributed Energy Resources with Associated Electric Power Systems Interfaces (IEEE Std 1547-2018 ). To create interconnection rules that successfully address policy goals, market trends, and technical requirements, electric service regulators need to be well informed of DER integration considerations. Interconnection processes and technical issues often overlap; the two are not easily segregated, and they are often considered and evaluated concurrently within the context of interconnection rulemaking. Accordingly, this document addresses both the technical issues and related process considerations.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗