Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “renewable energy planning”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Data and Tools for Energy Planning and Analysis

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) creates widely used data and tools to facilitate energy system planning and analysis. These software tools have been developed for complex research problems and perfected over real-world applications and laboratory validations. Some tools are award winners, others are open-source data explorers, and all are rigorously designed to empower decision-makers with accurate and accessible information. This software selection shows how NREL resources can help stakeholders achieve a clean, just, and resilient energy transformation.

data↗
DOE OSTI2024

Tangible Solutions for Grid Operation Upgrade

Many countries worldwide are setting clean energy targets to decarbonize the energy sector and add higher wind and solar capacities. Given their distributed nature, variable renewable energy (VRE) assets can have unique grid integration considerations, and require grid operation practices to be modernized. When transitioning to higher renewable energy levels, many system operators configure a dedicated renewable energy desk to manage renewable energy resource operation in the system control center. Further, system operation planning is conducted with VRE and load forecasting to enable reliable real-time system operation. NREL has partnered with many system operators in the region to identify appropriate technology and grid modernization solutions. NREL and partners from system operators in the region will present on the challenges and some solutions that have been applied and share best practices such as energy management system upgrades, VRE forecasting framework, grid flexibility improvements, and staff training.

emerging economies↗
NASA NTRS1982

Assessment Planning and Evaluation of Renewable Energy Resources: an Interactive Computer Assisted Procedure

Adaptation and derivation were used to develop a procedure for assessing the availability of renewable energy resources on the landscape while simultaneously accounting for the economic, legal, social, and environmental issues required. Done in a step-by-step fashion, the procedure can be used interactively at the computer terminals. Its application in determining the hydroelectricity, biomass, and windpower in a 40,000 acre study area of Western Massachusetts shows that: (1) three existing dam sites are physically capable of being retrofitted for hydropower; (2) each of three general areas has a mean annual windspeed exceeding 14 mph and is conductive to windpower; and (3) 20% of the total land area consists of prime agricultural biomass while 30% of the area is prime forest biomass land.

Aston, T. W.↗
DOE OSTI2021

FY 2021 Site Sustainability Plan

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Fiscal Year 2021 Site Sustainability Plan details the laboratory's current performance status relative federal mandates and goals pertaining to water, waste, fleet, and energy management; clean and renewable energy; green buildings; acquisition and procurement; measures, funding, and training; electronic stewardship; and organizational resilience. It also provides a road map for future site planning and development that support NREL's commitment to business operations that 1) demonstrate the incorporation of clean energy practices and 2) promote the development of a sustainable and resilient campus while growing greater technological capabilities to advance the national renewable energy marketplace.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Ramping Up the Ramping Capability: India's Power System Transition

The Indian power system is going through a period of transformation with plans for renewable energy to be integrated at a large scale over the next decade. Increasing thrust is being given to flexible operation of existing generating resources. Ramping is one of the key attributes of flexibility. With implementation of national level security constrained economic dispatch (SCED), the national power system operator of India (POSOCO) has started to observe occasional constraints in ramping capability obtained from generators under SCED, which could get further aggravated with more variable renewable energy (VRE). This paper focuses on complexities of ramping and the challenges with high shares of renewables in the Indian context.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

IRES Microgrid Energy Integration Report Version 1.0

This report presents technical information and guidance for the planned Integrated Renewable Energy System (IRES) microgrid project. This deployment of the microgrid and its associated assets was initiated in the beginning of 2022 at the Marine and Coastal Research Laboratory (MCRL) facility of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)-Sequim, Washington. The information in the report is organized under two main focus areas: electrical power interface, or interconnection, information of planned IRES assets; and communication and control interface, or interoperability, information of the planned IRES assets. The information will provide technical input for the development of the IRES microgrid controller technical specification, and also provide input for PNNL’s evaluation of adequacy of the electrical service infrastructure at MCRL to support the IRES project and help identify any gaps that will require facility-based upgrades. From an R&D aspect, this study and report will build on PNNL’s research and development work relating to energy storage (ES) codes and standards (C&Ss), including hybrid systems, performed on behalf of the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) ES. The current state of C&Ss for advanced technologies and their application, including microgrid-based technology is limited. For cases where formal standards issued by recognized Standards Developing Organizations do not yet exist, guidance is provided based on emerging best practices, including industry-group references that can be leveraged for microgrid technology which is in its early stages of development and use.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Using multiple high-resolution datasets to benchmark the energy exascale earth system model (E3SM) for renewable resource assessment

The United States is accelerating its shift toward a renewable energy system. However, renewable resources, which harness energy from the Earth system, are susceptible to both present-day climate variability and future climate change. For example, variations in regional climate can alter renewable energy production patterns and site viability. The use of high-resolution climate model projections can therefore facilitate and may be critical to long-term planning of renewable energy investments. However, climate models must first be validated for renewable resource assessment. This research employs multiple high-spatiotemporal-resolution datasets to assess the capability of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Exascale Earth System Model version 2 North American Regionally Refined Model (E3SMv2-NARRM) for predicting multi-year climatological values of solar and wind energy capacity factors in the continental U.S., with a focus on regional and seasonal variability. Present-day E3SMv2-NARRM simulations are compared with reported utility-scale production data obtained from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). In addition, E3SMv2-NARRM data are evaluated against non-climate benchmark models from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, including the Wind Integration National Dataset Toolkit and the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB), as well as three wind energy datasets from PLUSWIND. Our analysis indicates that solar capacity factors from E3SM closely match those from the NSRDB dataset. However, both datasets tend to overestimate values by 10% in comparison to EIA data. Furthermore, biases in wind capacity factors within E3SM are notably pronounced in the West Coast regions, where the seasonal cycle diverges from EIA data.

Energy forecasting, Capacity factor, Renewable ene↗
DOE OSTI2024

An Overview of Renewable Energy Desk Activities for Power Grid Operations and Planning

This document summarizes how grid operators can address gaps in their planning and operations to maintain reliability as they pursue clean energy goals. When transitioning to higher renewable energy levels, many system operators configure a dedicated renewable energy desk to manage variable renewable energy resource operation. Establishing such a desk in the control room can be a key step in the modernization effort. A renewable energy desk in a control room is a specialized hub focused solely on monitoring, predicting, and managing the influx of energy from renewable sources.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY,POWER TRANSMI↗
DOE OSTI2026

Three-Dimensional Grid Visualization for Planning Activities: A Dubai Case Study

National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), in collaboration with the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and Infra-X, has undertaken the Energy Visualization Analysis Project. The aim of this project is to enhance analytical and 3D visualization capabilities for distribution network planning and renewable energy integration. As modern grid continues to evolve with large-scale solar PV deployment and emerging distributed energy resources (DERs), the ability to effectively analyze, visualize, and communicate complex grid behaviors has become increasingly critical. The project focuses on developing empirical use cases based on real distribution feeder data and engineering workflows, ensuring the outcomes are directly aligned with operational environment. Through time-series power flow simulations and nodal hosting capacity analysis, the study quantifies the impacts of high PV penetration on voltage and thermal limits within representative 11 kV feeders. These analyses identify specific nodes and conditions where DER integration challenges arise. Furthermore, a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) optimization algorithm was applied to determine the optimal size and placement of storage systems that can mitigate network constraints and enhance hosting capacity. The comparative results between base-case and BESS-augmented scenarios clearly demonstrate improvements in network stability and load management efficiency. In parallel, the NLR team developed an immersive 3D visualization framework, enabling interactive exploration of grid simulations using commodity head-mounted display (HMD) systems. This framework transforms conventional 2D simulation data into spatially intuitive visual environments - allowing engineers to analyze feeder conditions, PV hosting potential, and BESS effects in real time. This report represents the first foundational phase in establishing a visualization-driven analytical ecosystem. It provides a methodological foundation for data integration, visualization architecture, and simulation-based decision support, paving the way for large-scale adoption of immersive visualization across DEWA's Smart Grid Initiative, R&D activities, and future network resilience studies.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Average and Marginal Capacity Credit Values of Renewable Energy and Battery Storage in the United States Power System

As deployment of renewable resources and storage continue to significantly grow in the coming decades, these technologies will play increasingly important roles in maintaining power systems' resource adequacy. Few analyses so far offer comprehensive comparisons of forward-looking average and marginal capacity credits of variable renewable energy and storage in the U.S. interconnections across a wide range of possible futures. To fill this research gap, we quantify the average and marginal capacity credits of solar PV, onshore and offshore wind, and batteries between 2026 and 2050 across the U.S power systems to examine the temporal trends, spatial patterns, and trade-offs between these two capacity accreditation approaches. Across technologies, capacity credits of solar PV most clearly follow downward trends over time, reflecting the significant rise in solar PV generation share as the grid decarbonizes. While battery storages' generation shares also rise significantly over time, their capacity credits always remain stably high due to their capabilities to be dispatched strategically during critical periods to maintain reliability. On the other hand, capacity credits of wind technologies in general follow slight upward trends as their generation shares level off. There are strong spatial variabilities of both average and marginal capacity credits across technologies, but capacity credits of solar PV displaying the most obvious spatial patterns with high capacity credits concentrating in wind-rich, solar-poor regions in SPP, PJM, and MISO, suggesting potential reliability benefits of interconnection-wide planning for renewable energy deployments. Additionally, except for offshore wind, average capacity credits of all other renewable technologies tend to be higher than their marginal capacity credits, indicating that existing renewable resources tend to be accredited higher than new resources at almost any time.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Scalable Energy System Expansion Under Uncertainty Using Multi-Stage Stochastic Optimization

The intermittent nature of renewable energy sources poses challenges for electrical grids. This is due to the variable and uncertain nature of the power output from these resources. These features of renewable generation are more relevant to energy system planning as grids reach higher penetration levels of renewable energy. We present approaches for energy system planning based on scalable computational approaches which enable explicit consideration of operational uncertainties in the planning process. Using multi-stage stochastic programming and the progressive hedging algorithm, we compute energy system expansion decisions on modified versions of the RTS-GMLC test system.

electrical↗
DOE OSTI2020

Energy Options Analysis Project (Final Report)

This Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria (BRB) Energy Options Analysis Project provides a rigorous and comprehensive near-term renewable energy implementation plan that aligns with the BRB’s long term strategic vision of “zero net annual utility energy consumption.” Final recommendations were arrived at by following four key project phases:A gas and electricity load assessment was conducted for all existing buildings using historic consumption data, and projected loads of new or anticipated buildings using building designs. A renewable energy resource assessment was conducted that estimated the gross generation potential of solar and wind, constrained to areas that could potentially be developed. Other renewable generation technologies were not considered feasible to meet the loads of the BRB. Demand-side efficiency and fuel switching opportunities were identified that can reduce electrical and gas consumption. These opportunities were not integrated into the load assessment in order to provide a conservative implementation plan, but are recommended to be pursued in order to cost-optimize projects during a feasibility assessment. A strategic vision advisory committee was organized and consulted when iterating on the viability of possible projects. These project phases resulted in finalizing the following three solar PV projects for the near term, which also lay the foundation for a future community-scale or multiple-facility microgrid for added resiliency. Additional solar PV on the hillside south of the Tish-Non Community Center. Solar plus battery storage microgrid at the Pump & Play fuel station. Solar PV at the Casino.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Bias Characterization, Vertical Interpolation, and Horizontal Interpolation for Distributed Wind Siting Using Mesoscale Wind Resource Estimates

Much like their counterparts in utility-scale wind energy, developers of industrial, small-scale and distributed wind turbine deployments need to understand and accurately characterize the wind resource to properly assess the power generation and financial ramifications during siting and planning. National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s WIND (Wind Integration National Dataset) Toolkit (WTK) provides a best-in-class wind resource dataset generated using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. This dataset includes parameters such as the wind speed, wind direction, and temperature at various heights, plus atmospheric stability near the surface. This data is available at 2-km spatial resolution and five-minute temporal resolution across 7 years, from 2007 to 2013 through a publicly accessible API interface. The Tools Assessing Performance (TAP) project seeks to extend this dataset to allow long term resource estimates and leverage it to better equip distributed wind equipment manufacturers, owner-operators, and installation professionals with better tools for practical siting applications. In this report, we present the results from our investigation within the TAP project focused on characterization of bias in WTK-based wind speed estimates and evaluation of vertical and horizontal interpolation techniques. We discuss the tradeoffs between different techniques and their combinations, as well as describe the lower bounds we determine for the studied validation errors. While the specific estimates we present are specific to WTK and the validation dataset we have chosen for this investigation (NREL's Wind Resource Meteorological Database), the overall analysis and the studied techniques are general enough to be applied to a broader set of wind datasets, both simulation-based and observational.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Nuclear-Renewable-Storage Systems: Enhancing Planning and Operations of Integrated Energy Systems

Nuclear-renewable-storage integrated energy systems (IES) are multi-carrier energy systems that include not only electricity but also other forms of demands. Because individual IES components must observe their thermo-physical limits, including ramp rates, start-up, and shut-down time, we formulate operations of the IES as an optimization model by minimizing the total operations costs subject to physical limits of all constituent components. In addition, we develop a data-driven approach to improve the computational performance of the economic dispatch model by using reinforcement learning, where an agent is rewarded by meeting demands and penalized otherwise when shifting to the next state.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Guest Editorial: Special Issue on recent advancements in electric power system planning with high-penetration of renewable energy resources and dynamic loads

The goal of this Special Issue is to present the state-of-the-art methodologies developed for expansion planning of all segments of the modern power systems, characterized by separated businesses, high penetration of renewable resources and new load types, as well as by application of technologically advanced solutions.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

High-Resolution Synthetic Solar Irradiance Sequence Generation: An LSTM-Based Generative Adversarial Network

The rapid growth of renewable energy resources penetration is bringing more challenges to power system planning and operation. Relevant renewable energy integration studies, such as the capability and dynamic performance of inverter-based resources' primary frequency response and fast frequency response, require high-resolution renewable generation output data that are representative of renewable energy resources. This paper focuses on creating synthetic but realistic solar irradiance data and proposes a long short-term memory-based generative adversarial network to generate high-resolution (second-level) solar irradiance sequences from low-resolution (minute-level) measurements. Combined with a classifier to recognize the solar irradiance patterns, the proposed model is trained using multi-loss functions to accurately capture the temporal correlations among both high-resolution and low-resolution sequences. Verification of the proposed approach is performed on the data set of the Oahu Solar Measurement Grid collected through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The results of the case studies demonstrate the proposed approach's capability to capture the statistical characteristics of different solar irradiance patterns and to generate high-quality synthetic solar irradiance sequences in high resolution.

dynamic scheduling↗
DOE OSTI2021

Chapter 9: Impact of Variable Renewable Energy Sources on Bulk Power System Planning and Operations

Wind and solar photovoltaics (PV) have experienced remarkable growth in recent years, with many consequent benefits within and outside of power systems. At the same time, wind and solar PV have unique characteristics relative to the historically dominant dispatchable technologies like coal, gas, and nuclear power plants that have required and will continue to require changes in power system planning and operations. This chapter discusses planning and operational challenges of integrating wind and solar PV into bulk power systems. We first present the key characteristics of wind and solar PV that differentiate it from conventional technologies, such as variable and uncertain electricity generation, asynchronous interconnection to the power system, and near-zero marginal costs. We then link these characteristics to power system planning and operational challenges at low through high wind and solar penetrations. Finally, we discuss near- and long-term solutions to those challenges, such as diversifying the generation mix and wind and solar fleets, improving system flexibility, diversifying ancillary service products, and integrating generation and transmission planning.

bulk power system↗