SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “technology performance level”

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.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

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

At least 451 records · Page 25

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2020

Wave Prediction using X-Band Radar (Final Summary Report)

Model Predictive Control (MPC) is the best controls framework available to wave energy today. It allows for the maximization of energy yield from a WEC system while respecting various constraints and losses in the system. This type of constrained optimization is a critical capability for the techno-economic optimization of WEC devices and is difficult to do effectively with causal controls frameworks. MPC requires a future prediction of wave excitation forces, requiring wave prediction on a future time horizon of up to 30 seconds. The future horizon required is highly dependent on the WEC and PTO type available. To our knowledge no-one has been able to implement MPC on a WEC device at sea, due to the fact that phase-resolved wave-prediction is not a capability that has been sufficiently developed to date. The key objectives of this project are focused on developing “industry-ready” wave prediction technology building blocks that can be applied to a wide range of different wave energy conversion topologies. Our collaborative work with device developers has demonstrated that the level of improvement attainable for any particular device is heavily dependent on the device and PTO topology chosen. The range of annual average power capture improvements is on the order of 10% to over 100%. However, the important aspect is that we can get within about 10% of theoretical upper limits even when considering errors in the wave prediction and more importantly, we can optimize performance while respecting various constraints such as motion amplitude or peak structural loads. The combination of improved performance while limiting structural loads has a net effect of reducing the levelized cost of energy from these emerging technologies and allows us to design control laws that meet an economic optimum. Efforts under a previous project on controls has focused on developing a set of wave-prediction algorithms that work by leveraging a network of wave sensing measurement buoys that are equipped with real-time telemetry. The present work is focusing primarily on using X-band radar to measure the wave-field around the WEC to predict the future excitation forces on the structure and combining the measurements of these different sources to create improvements in the wave-prediction accuracy.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

NASA NTRS1972

An out-of-core version of a six cell heat-pipe heated thermionic converter array

A thermionic system concept is described which incorporates a heat-pipe cooled fast spectrum reactor and six-cell thermionic converter modules located in the space radiator. Much of the technology being developed for the in-core thermionic reactor concept is directly applicable to this out-of-core concept, particularly the fuel and converter development activity. The major technology extension required is in the area of heat-pipes for cooling the reactor and carrying thermal energy from the reactor station to the converters. The performance characteristics of an out-of-core thermionic system at power levels between 40 and 70 kWe are summarized, the adaptation of in-core technology to the out-of-core concept is described and applicable heat-pipe technology programs now underway are discussed.

Kroeger, E. W.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Flight Deck Technologies to Enable NextGen Low Visibility Surface Operations

Many key capabilities are being identified to enable Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), including the concept of Equivalent Visual Operations (EVO) . replicating the capacity and safety of today.s visual flight rules (VFR) in all-weather conditions. NASA is striving to develop the technologies and knowledge to enable EVO and to extend EVO towards a Better-Than-Visual operational concept. This operational concept envisions an .equivalent visual. paradigm where an electronic means provides sufficient visual references of the external world and other required flight references on flight deck displays that enable Visual Flight Rules (VFR)-like operational tempos while maintaining and improving safety of VFR while using VFR-like procedures in all-weather conditions. The Langley Research Center (LaRC) has recently completed preliminary research on flight deck technologies for low visibility surface operations. The work assessed the potential of enhanced vision and airport moving map displays to achieve equivalent levels of safety and performance to existing low visibility operational requirements. The work has the potential to better enable NextGen by perhaps providing an operational credit for conducting safe low visibility surface operations by use of the flight deck technologies.

Prinzel, Lawrence (Lance) J., III↗

NASA NTRS2011

Performance Testing of a Liquid Metal Pump for In-Space Power Systems

Fission surface power (FSP) systems could be used to provide power on the surface of the moon, Mars, or other planets and moons of our solar system. Fission power systems could provide excellent performance at any location, including those near the poles or other permanently shaded regions, and offer the capability to provide on demand power at any time, even at large distances from the sun. Fission-based systems also offer the potential for outposts, crew and science instruments to operate in a power-rich environment. NASA has been exploring technologies with the goal of reducing the cost and technical risk of employing FSP systems. A reference 40 kWe option has been devised that is cost-competitive with alternatives while providing more power for less mass anywhere on the lunar surface. The reference FSP system is also readily extensible for use on Mars, where it would be capable of operating through global dust storms and providing year-round power at any Martian latitude. Detailed development of the FSP concept and the reference mission are documented in various other reports. The development discussed in this paper prepares the way for testing of the Technology Demonstration Unit (TDU), which is a 10 kWe end-to-end test of FSP technologies intended to raise the entire FSP system to technology readiness level (TRL) 6. The Early Flight Fission Test Facility (EFF-TF) was established by NASA s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) to provide a capability for performing hardware-directed activities to support multiple in-space nuclear reactor concepts by using a nonnuclear test methodology. This includes fabrication and testing at both the module/component level and at near prototypic reactor components and configurations allowing for realistic thermal-hydraulic evaluations of systems. The liquid-metal pump associated with the FSP system must be compatible with the liquid NaK coolant and have adequate performance to enable a viable flight system. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) was tasked with the modeling, design, and fabrication of an ALIP suitable for the FSP reference mission. A prototypic ALIP was fabricated under the direction of INL and shipped to MSFC for inclusion in the Technology Demonstration Unit (TDU), a quarter-scale end-to-end reactor simulator system that is scheduled for testing at NASA-GRC. Before inclusion in the TDU, the ALIP was tested in the ALIP test circuit (ATC), which is a rig developed and operated at MSFC for the specific purpose of providing accurate quantification of liquid metal pump performance. Data showing the pump performance curves (pressure, flowrate, and pump efficiency) are presented for various operating power levels, demonstrating the full performance envelope of the pump.

Polzin, Kurt↗

NASA NTRS2015

EBF3 Design and Sustainability Considerations

Electron beam freeform fabrication (EBF3) is a cross-cutting technology for producing structural metal parts using an electron beam and wire feed in a layer-additive fashion. This process was developed by researchers at NASA Langley to specifically address needs for aerospace applications. Additive manufacturing technologies like EBF3 enable efficient design of materials and structures by tailoring microstructures and chemistries at the local level to improve performance at the global level. Additive manufacturing also facilitates design freedom by integrating assemblies into complex single-piece components, eliminating flanges, fasteners and joints, resulting in reduced size and mass. These same efficiencies that permit new design paradigms also lend themselves to supportability and sustainability. Long duration space missions will require a high degree of self-sustainability. EBF3 is a candidate technology being developed to allow astronauts to conduct repairs and fabricate new components and tools on demand, with efficient use of feedstock materials and energy.

Taminger, Karen M. B.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Evaluation of High-Temperature Fabrics for Improved Performance of Seals and Thermal Barriers

Hypersonic and space flight applications continue to push material demands of component-level technologies such as high-temperature seals and thermal barriers. NASA Glenn Research Center continues to develop and evaluate materials and coatings as well as thermal barrier designs for these applications. Experimental test data is presented for two different sheath fabrics that were evaluated in full thermal barrier assemblies through compression and wear testing at elevated temperatures, as well as flow testing at ambient temperature.

Seals↗

DOE OSTI2024

Transforming nanoscale VO 2 (B) into a scalable sodium-ion electrode

The intermittent nature of renewable energies requires highly reliable grid-level energy storage approaches. A critical consideration in developing this technology is the areal capacity which determines battery performance and influences the cost of battery technology. Of related importance is finding new ways of developing scalable electrodes. In recent years, three-dimensional (3D) printing of conductive scaffolds has emerged as an alternative to overcome the scalability limitations of commercial tape cast electrodes. The research carried out in the current study demonstrates a successful scalability pathway for nanoscale VO 2 (B), a desirable cathode for sodium-ion batteries which has a nano-flower morphology with a crystallite size < 20 nm. By electrodepositing VO 2 (B) onto a graphene aerogel scaffold, we were able to achieve mass loading of over 100 mg·cm −2 and still possess an areal capacity of 10 mAh·cm −2 at a current density of 5 mA·cm −2 . Moreover, after 1000 cycles, these electrodes retained 75% to 80% of their initial capacity. Even at high loading levels, the electrodeposited VO 2 (B) exhibits pseudocapacitive material signatures such as a box-like voltammetry response, linear galvanostatic response, and no phase change upon lithiation. The scalability of the VO 2 (B) electrode is demonstrated in a series of experiments which show the areal capacity to scale upon increase in both mass loading and electrode thickness, with only small changes in specific capacity. Furthermore, this study establishes that nanoscale materials can be scaled up to achieve thick electrodes without compromising their electrochemical properties.

additive manufacturing↗

NASA NTRS2013

SpiderFab(TradeMark):Process for On-Orbit Construction of Kilometer-Scale Apertures

The SpiderFab effort investigated the value proposition and technical feasibility of radically changing the way we build and deploy spacecraft by enabling space systems to fabricate and integrate key components on-orbit. Weeveloped an architecture for a SpiderFab system, identifying the key capabilities, and detailed two concept implementations of this architecture, one specialized for fabricating support trusses for large solar arrays, and the second a robotic system capable of fabricating spacecraft components such as antenna reflectors. We then performed analyses to evaluate the value proposition for on-orbit fabrication, and in each case found that the dramatic improvements in structural performance and packing efficiency enabled by on-orbit fabrication can provide order-of-magnitude improvements in key system metrics. For phased-‐array radars, SpiderFab enables order-of-magnitude increases in gain-per-stowed-volume. For the New Worlds Observer mission, SpiderFab construction of a starshade can provide a ten-fold increase in the number of Earth-like planets discovered per dollar. For communications systems, SpiderFab can change the cost equation for large antenna reflectors, enabling affordable deployment of much larger apertures than feasible with current deployable technologies. To establish the technical feasibility, we identified methods for combining several additive manufacturing technologies with robotic assembly technologies, metrology sensors, and thermal control techniques to provide the capabilities required to implement a SpiderFab system. We performed proof-of-concept level testing of these approaches, in each case demonstrating that the proposed solutions are feasible, and establishing the SpiderFab architecture at TRL-3. Further maturation of SpiderFab to mission-readiness is well-suited to an incremental development program. Affordable smallsat demonstrations will prepare the technology for full-scale demonstration that will unlock the full potential of the SpiderFab architecture by flight qualifying and validating an on-orbit fabrication and integration process that can be re-used to reduce the life-cycle cost and increase power, bandwidth, resolution, and sensitivity for a wide range of NASA Science and Exploration missions.

Hoyt, Robert↗

NASA NTRS2003

Qualifying the Sunpower M87N Cryocooler for Operation in the AMS-02 Magnetic Field

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-02 (AMs-02) experiment uses a superfluid helium dewar to cool a large superconducting magnet. The outer vapor-cooled shields of the dewar are to be held at 80 K by four Sunpower M87N cryocoolers. These cryocoolers have magnetic components that might interact with the external applied field generated by the superconducting magnet, thereby degrading the cryocoolers' performance. Engineering models of the Sunpower M87 have been qualified for operation in a magnetic environment similar to the AMs-02 magnetic environment. Although there was no noticeable performance degradation at field levels that were comparable to AMs-02 field levels, there appears to be a small performance degradation at higher field levels. It was theorized that there were three possible issues related to these performance losses at high magnetic fields: i) induced piston rubbing on the cylinder wall due to forces and torques on the linear motor due to the applied magnetic fields; ii) Magnetic hysteretic and/or eddy current damping of the balancer due to its motion in the applied magnetic fields; iii) Inductance losses in motor due to the applied magnetic field. The experiments conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) cyclotron facility in June 2002 were designed to test these. Tests were performed over a range of field levels that were lower, comparable, and higher than the field levels that the cryocoolers will experience in the AMs-02 operating environment. This paper describes the experiments and the inferences derived from them.

Mustafi, Shuvo↗

NASA NTRS2012

The Effect of Rotor Cruise Tip Speed, Engine Technology and Engine/Drive System RPM on the NASA Large Civil Tiltrotor (LCTR2) Size and Performance

A multi-year study was conducted under NASA NNA06BC41C Task Order 10 and NASA NNA09DA56C task orders 2, 4, and 5 to identify the most promising propulsion system concepts that enable rotor cruise tip speeds down to 54% of the hover tip speed for a civil tiltrotor aircraft. Combinations of engine RPM reduction and 2-speed drive systems were evaluated. Three levels of engine and the drive system advanced technology were assessed; 2015, 2025 and 2035. Propulsion and drive system configurations that resulted in minimum vehicle gross weight were identified. Design variables included engine speed reduction, drive system speed reduction, technology, and rotor cruise propulsion efficiency. The NASA Large Civil Tiltrotor, LCTR, aircraft served as the base vehicle concept for this study and was resized for over thirty combinations of operating cruise RPM and technology level, quantifying LCTR2 Gross Weight, size, and mission fuel. Additional studies show design sensitivity to other mission ranges and design airspeeds, with corresponding relative estimated operational cost. The lightest vehicle gross weight solution consistently came from rotor cruise tip speeds between 422 fps and 500 fps. Nearly equivalent results were achieved with operating at reduced engine RPM with a single-speed drive system or with a two-speed drive system and 100% engine RPM. Projected performance for a 2025 engine technology provided improved fuel flow over a wide range of operating speeds relative to the 2015 technology, but increased engine weight nullified the improved fuel flow resulting in increased aircraft gross weights. The 2035 engine technology provided further fuel flow reduction and 25% lower engine weight, and the 2035 drive system technology provided a 12% reduction in drive system weight. In combination, the 2035 technologies reduced aircraft takeoff gross weight by 14% relative to the 2015 technologies.

Robuck, Mark↗

NASA NTRS2018

Low Power Radioisotope Conversion Technology and Performance Summary

This work presents a summary of low-power radioisotope-based power sources. This includes systems that use direct energy conversion from radioactive decay such as betavoltaics and systems that convert heat generated by the isotope decay. These types of power systems have terrestrial and space-based applications. Their main application is to provide low levels of power in remote environments where long life and reliability are the main objectives. This work looked at the potential performance of these types of systems and the range of output power they can achieve. Also considered was the amount of power that could be achieved from these different conversion technologies, while remaining under the critical limit acceptable for space flight without the need for special handling and controls. This is of interest for space missions where low power levels can be used for operating sensors or other devices, but the expense associated with the incorporation of radioactive material above this critical level would be cost prohibitive.

Colozza, Anthony J.↗

DOE OSTI2024

Conceptual Design of Neutron Sensor Qualification Device

The Advanced Sensors and Instrumentation Program at Idaho National Laboratory has been formulating strategies to qualify sensors for use in nuclear environments, particularly in irradiation experiments and advanced reactors. When qualifying neutron sensors for use in high-temperature environments, the wide range of neutron flux levels and representative energy spectra presents significant challenges. This paper discusses the development of the Neutron Sensor Qualification Device (NQD), which is designed to test neutron sensors in high temperature controlled environments with known neutron spectra, addressing the spatial and spectral complexities of neutron fluxes in reactor cores. The proposed NQD will be situated in the exposure room at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, thus affording a unique capability to expose sensors to high neutron and gamma fluxes. To achieve thermal control, the device will utilize a radiation-hardened tube furnace, accommodating multiple sensors and neutron activation dosimetry wires. Titanium, iron, and cobalt dosimeter wires are chosen from the American Society for Testing and Materials and International Reactor Dosimetry and Fusion File libraries as references for providing energy-dependent fluence measurements. The design ensures precise sensor positioning to minimize mutual shielding and flux perturbation, which are evaluated via Monte Carlo N particle Transport Code (MCNP) simulations. These simulations have informed the development of guidelines on sensor placement within the NQD. The NQD is essential to the qualification of neutron sensors for advanced reactor technologies. It enables controlled testing of a statistically significant number of sensors, thereby supporting assessments of sensor performance across various neutron flux levels and temperatures. This paper highlights the detailed planning for the NQD prototype, along with its inaugural irradiation (scheduled for fiscal year [FY] 2025). The results from this initial testing will be fundamental in evaluating the device’s performance and establishing measurement uncertainty for in-pile neutron sensor measurements.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

NASA NTRS1980

Technology requirements for future Earth-to-geosynchronous orbit transportation systems. Volume 2: Technical results

Technologies either critical to performance of offering cost advantages compared to the investment required to bring them to usable confidence levels are identified. A total transportation system is used as an evaluation yardstick. Vehicles included in the system are a single stage to orbit launch vehicle used in a priority cargo role, a matching orbit transfer vehicle, a heavy lift launch vehicle with a low Earth orbit delivery capability of 226, 575 kg, and a matching solar electric cargo orbit transfer vehicle. The system and its reference technology level are consistent with an initial operational capability in 1990. The 15 year mission scenario is based on early space industrialization leading to the deployment of large systems such as power satellites. Life cycle cost benefits in discounted and undiscounted dollars for each vehicle, technology advancement, and the integrated transportation system are calculated. A preliminary functional analysis was made of the operational support requirements for ground based and space based chemical propulsion orbit transfer vehicles.

Caluori, V. A.↗

NASA NTRS2021

On-demand Command and Control of ASTERIA with Cloud-based Ground Station Services

ASTERIA (Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics) was a 6-unit CubeSat technology demonstration mission that deployed from the International Space Station on November 20th, 2017. After successfully completing its 90-day primary mission that demonstrated arcsecond-level line-of-sight pointing and focal plane thermal stability for exoplanet detection, it entered an extended mission performing onboard software demonstrations to mature technology both in space and on the ground. One of the technologies was a completely cloud-based ground system leveraging Amazon Web Services (AWS) Ground Station service.Announced in December 2018 and launched in May 2019, AWS Ground Station is a fully managed ground station service that aims to reduce the overhead associated with developing and maintaining ground system infrastructure throughout the mission lifecycle. AWS Ground Station makes available the suite of features required for any ground system in support of low-Earth orbit (LEO) and medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite operations on-demand and without setting up or maintaining long-term contracts. Charges are incurred on a per-minute basis for antenna usage during scheduled tracks. Support is available for S-band uplink and downlink, along with X-band narrowband and wideband downlink. Missions that use the service may reserve tracks with any licensed AWS Ground Station antennas located across each service region and have direct access to any AWS services in support of mission operations.The cloud-based architecture built around the AWS Ground Station service greatly enhanced ASTERIA mission operations by enabling end-to-end pass automation, on-demand contact scheduling and contingency planning, along with more efficient data downlink through station availability and station-to-station handovers. It incorporated open-source software, particularly NASA's AMMOS Instrument Toolkit (AIT) and Open Mission Control Technologies (OpenMCT), along with the AWS application programming interfaces (API) to the Ground Station, Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3) services. After showcasing operability in August 2019, the team continued using and improving this novel ground system architecture until the end of mission in December 2019. This paper describes the cloud-based ground system, how it was designed, tested, and evaluated with an in-orbit spacecraft, the operational capabilities that it enabled, along with lessons learned and recommendations for future missions.

Fesq, Lorraine↗

NASA NTRS2021

On-demand Command and Control of ASTERIA with Cloud-based Ground Station Services

ASTERIA (Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics) was a 6-unit CubeSat technology demonstration mission that deployed from the International Space Station on November 20th, 2017. After successfully completing its 90-day primary mission that demonstrated arcsecond-level line-of-sight pointing and focal plane thermal stability for exoplanet detection, it entered an extended mission performing onboard software demonstrations to mature technology both in space and on the ground. One of the technologies was a completely cloud-based ground system leveraging Amazon Web Services (AWS) Ground Station service. Announced in December 2018 and launched in May 2019, AWS Ground Station is a fully managed ground station service that aims to reduce the overhead associated with developing and maintaining ground system infrastructure throughout the mission lifecycle. AWS Ground Station makes available the suite of features required for any ground system in support of low-Earth orbit (LEO) and medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite operations on-demand and without setting up or maintaining long-term contracts. Charges are incurred on a per-minute basis for antenna usage during scheduled tracks. Support is available for S-band uplink and downlink, along with X-band narrowband and wideband downlink. Missions that use the service may reserve tracks with any licensed AWS Ground Station antennas located across each service region and have direct access to any AWS services in support of mission operations. The cloud-based architecture built around the AWS Ground Station service greatly enhanced ASTERIA mission operations by enabling end-to-end pass automation, on-demand contact scheduling and contingency planning, along with more efficient data downlink through station availability and station-tostation handovers. It incorporated open-source software, particularly NASA's AMMOS Instrument Toolkit (AIT) and Open Mission Control Technologies (OpenMCT), along with the AWS application programming interfaces (API) to the Ground Station, Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3) services. After showcasing operability in August 2019, the team continued using and improving this novel ground system architecture until the end of mission in December 2019. This paper describes the cloud-based ground system, how it was designed, tested, and evaluated with an inorbit spacecraft, the operational capabilities that it enabled, along with lessons learned and recommendations for future missions.

Fesq, Lorraine↗

NASA NTRS2006

Implementing Access to Data Distributed on Many Processors

A reference architecture is defined for an object-oriented implementation of domains, arrays, and distributions written in the programming language Chapel. This technology primarily addresses domains that contain arrays that have regular index sets with the low-level implementation details being beyond the scope of this discussion. What is defined is a complete set of object-oriented operators that allows one to perform data distributions for domain arrays involving regular arithmetic index sets. What is unique is that these operators allow for the arbitrary regions of the arrays to be fragmented and distributed across multiple processors with a single point of access giving the programmer the illusion that all the elements are collocated on a single processor. Today's massively parallel High Productivity Computing Systems (HPCS) are characterized by a modular structure, with a large number of processing and memory units connected by a high-speed network. Locality of access as well as load balancing are primary concerns in these systems that are typically used for high-performance scientific computation. Data distributions address these issues by providing a range of methods for spreading large data sets across the components of a system. Over the past two decades, many languages, systems, tools, and libraries have been developed for the support of distributions. Since the performance of data parallel applications is directly influenced by the distribution strategy, users often resort to low-level programming models that allow fine-tuning of the distribution aspects affecting performance, but, at the same time, are tedious and error-prone. This technology presents a reusable design of a data-distribution framework for data parallel high-performance applications. Distributions are a means to express locality in systems composed of large numbers of processor and memory components connected by a network. Since distributions have a great effect on the performance of applications, it is important that the distribution strategy is flexible, so its behavior can change depending on the needs of the application. At the same time, high productivity concerns require that the user be shielded from error-prone, tedious details such as communication and synchronization.

James, Mark↗

NASA NTRS1990

Determination of washout performance of various monochrome displays under simulated flight ambient and solar lighting conditions

The aircraft cockpit ambient lighting simulation system (ACALSS) has been developed to study display readability and associated pilot/vehicle performance effects in a part-task simulator cockpit. In the study reported here, the ACALSS was used to determine the illumination levels at which subjects lose the ability to maintain aircraft states when using three display technologies as display media for primary flight displays: a standard monochrome EL (electroluminescent) flat-panel, a laboratory-class monochrome CRT, and an enhanced-brightness EL flat-panel. The multivariate statistical technique of modified profile analysis was used to test for performance differences between display devices as functions of illumination levels. The standard monochrome EL flat-panel display began to washout after the 2500 foot-candle level of illumination. The monochrome CRT began to washout after the 5500 foot-candle level of illumination. No performance decrements by increased illumination up to the 12,000 foot-candle level were found for the enhanced-brightness EL flat-panel display. What was not anticipated was that half the subjects would subjectively prefer the CRT over the enhanced-brightness EL, even though their performance errors would have indicated the opposite.

Batson, Vernon M.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Utility-Scale Solar, 2023 Edition: Empirical Trends in Deployment, Technology, Cost, Performance, PPA Pricing, and Value in the United States [Slides]

Berkeley Lab’s “Utility-Scale Solar, 2023 Edition” presents analysis of empirical plant-level data from the U.S. fleet of ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV), PV+battery, and concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) plants with capacities exceeding 5 MWAC (PV plants of 5 MWAC or less, including residential rooftop systems, are covered separately in Berkeley Lab’s companion annual report, Tracking the Sun). Highlights of this year’s update include: -10.4 GWAC of new utility-scale PV capacity came online in 2022, bringing cumulative installed capacity to more than 61.7 GWAC across 46 states. -94% of all new utility-scale PV capacity added in 2022 uses single-axis tracking. -Median installed project costs declined to $\$1.32$/WAC (or $\$1.07$/WDC) in 2022. -Plant-level capacity factors vary widely, from 9% to 35% (on an AC basis), with a sample median of 24%. The report explores drivers of this variation. -Utility-scale PV’s LCOE fell to $\$39$/MWh in 2022 ($\$29$/MWh if factoring in the federal investment tax credit, or ITC). -PPA prices have largely followed the decline in solar’s LCOE over time, but have recently stagnated and even moved slightly higher. Prices from a sample of recent contracts average around $\$20-30$/MWh (levelized) in the West and $\$30-40$/MWh elsewhere in the continental US. -In 2022, solar’s average market value (defined in the report to include only energy and capacity value) rose by 40% to $\$71$/MWh and exceeded average wholesale prices in 4 of the 7 ISOs/RTOs and 11 of 18 other balancing authorities analyzed. -Adding battery storage is one way to increase the value of solar. Our public data file tracks metadata and PPA prices from ~100 PV+battery hybrid projects that are already online or that have secured offtake arrangements. -the end of 2022, there were at least 947 GW of utility-scale solar power capacity within the interconnection queues across the nation, 456 GW of which include batteries. For more information, and to explore related interactive data visualizations, go to utilityscalesolar.lbl.gov.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗