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At least 505 records · Page 28

U.S. State Renewables Portfolio & Clean Electricity Standards: 2023 Status Update [Slides]

This report provides an overview and status update on U.S. state renewables portfolio standards (RPS) and has been expanded from previous editions to also cover 100% clean electricity standards (CES) adopted by a growing number of states. The report, published in slide-deck form along with accompanying data files, describes recent legislative revisions, key policy design features, compliance with interim targets, past and projected impacts on clean electricity development, and compliance costs. The 2023 edition presents historical data through year-end 2022 and projections out to 2050. Key trends from this edition of the report include the following: -Evolution of state RPS and CES programs: States continue to refine and revise their RPS policies, often by adopting higher targets and/or broader CES policies. Among the 29 states plus DC with an RPS, 16 states have RPS targets of at least 50% of retail sales, and 17 states have a 100% CES or RPS target. -Historical impacts on renewables development: Roughly half of all growth in U.S. renewable electricity (RE) generation and capacity since 2000 is associated with state RPS requirements, though that percentage has declined in recent years, representing 30% of all U.S. RE capacity additions in 2022. Within some regions, particularly the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, RPS policies play a more central role in motivating RE growth. -Future RPS and CES demand and incremental needs: RPS and CES policies will require roughly 300 terawatt-hours (TWh) of additional clean electricity supply by 2030 and 800 TWh by 2050, requiring total U.S. non-hydro RE generation to reach 28% of electricity sales by 2050 (compared to 17% today). This amounts to roughly one-quarter of EIA’s projected RE growth through 2050. -RPS target achievement to-date: States have generally met their interim RPS targets in recent years, with only a few exceptions reflecting unique, state-specific issues. Most CES targets are not yet in force. -Renewable energy certificate (REC) pricing trends: Prices for NEPOOL Class I RECs remained at roughly $\$40$ /MWh over the past year, just below alternative compliance payment (ACP) rates in the larger state markets, while PJM Tier I REC prices continued to rise, reaching $\$30$ /MWh by year-end. Prices for solar RECs (or SRECs) remained relatively stable, and continue to exhibit wide variation across states, with the highest prices ($\$200-450$ /MWh) in NJ, MA, and DC. -RPS compliance costs: RPS compliance costs average roughly 3.5% of retail electricity bills across RPS states, though vary widely from state to state, with the highest costs (8-12% of retail bills) in states with solar carve-outs and high SREC prices.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

An electromechanical actuation system for an expendable launch vehicle

A major effort at the NASA Lewis Research Center in recent years has been to develop electro-mechanical actuators (EMA's) to replace the hydraulic systems used for thrust vector control (TVC) on launch vehicles. This is an attempt ot overcome the inherent inefficiencies and costs associated with the existing hydraulic structures. General Dynamics Space Systems Division, under contract to NASA Lewis, is developing 18.6 kW (25 hp), 29.8 kW (40 hp), and 52.2 kW (70 hp) peak EMA systems to meet the power demands for TVC on a family of vehicles developed for the National Launch System. These systems utilize a pulse population modulated converter and field-oriented control scheme to obtain independent control of both the voltage and frequency. These techniques allow an induction motor to be operated at its maximum torque at all times. At NASA Lewis, we are building on this technology to develop our own in-house system capable of meeting the peak power requirements for an expendable launch vehicle (ELV) such as the Atlas. Our EMA will be capable of delivering 22.4 kW (30 hp) peak power with a nominal of 6.0 kW (8 hp). This system differs from the previous ones in two areas: (1) the use of advanced control methods, and (2) the incorporation of built-in-test. The advanced controls are essential for minimizing the controller size, while the built-in-test is necessary to enhance the system reliability and vehicle health monitoring. The ultimate goal of this program is to demonstrate an EMA which will be capable of self-test and easy integration into other projects. This paper will describe the effort underway at NASA Lewis to develop an EMA for an Atlas class ELV. An explanation will be given for each major technology block, and the status of each major technology block and the status of the overall program will be reported.

Burrows, Linda M.↗

ESI-FTICR-MS Analysis of Organic Matter during Incubations with Nitrogen Addition, Teller Road Site, Seward Peninsula, Alaska

This dataset contains the results of the molecular characterization of water-extractable organic matter collected during soil microcosm incubations of tundra soil. The microcosms contained soil collected in April 2017 from the NGEE Arctic Teller Road Site at mile marker 27 (TL_MM27) near Intensive Site 9 (“Toeslope”) and Intensive Site 5 (“Plateau”). The incubations were conducted under an atmosphere of N2 at 8°C for 55 days, with or without addition of ammonium chloride (NH4Cl). Soils were extracted with deionized water and extracted using Bond Elut PPL cartridges prior to analysis. Molecular characterization was performed using electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (ESI- FTICR-MS). Two data files are provided with this dataset. The first is the summary, by soil type and treatment, of the mass spectrometry results for formulas (as a % of the total) containing C, H, and O only, and with N, S, and other elements. These formulas were then grouped into nine biochemical classes of compounds based on O:C and H:C ratios. The second file provides soil sample characteristics and the processed high-resolution mass spectrometry results by soil type and treatment.The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a 10-year research effort (2012-2022) to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research.The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska.Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy’s Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Validation of the Radiometric Stability of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder

It has been widely accepted that an infrared sounder in low polar orbit is capable of producing climate quality data, if the spectral brightness temperatures have instrumental trends of less than 10 mK/yr. Achieving measurement stability at this level is not only very demanding of the design of the instrument, it is also pushes the state of art of measuring on orbit what stability is actually achieved. We discuss this using Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) L1B data collected between 2002 and 2011. We compare the L1B brightness temperature observed in cloud filtered night tropical ocean spectra (obs) to the brightness temperature calculated based on the known surface emissivity, temperature and water vapor profiles from the ECMWF ReAnalysis (ERA) and the growth rates of CO2, N2O and Ozone. The trend in (obs-calc) is a powerful tool for the evaluation of the stability of the 2378 AIRS channels. We divided the channels into seven classes: All channels which sound in the stratosphere (at pressure levels below 150 hPa), 14 micron CO2 sounding, 4 micron CO2 P-branch sounding, 4 micron CO2 R-branch sounding, water vapor sounding, shortwave surface sounding and longwave surface sounding. The peak in the weighting function at 1050 hPa separates sounding and surface channels. The boundary between shortwave and longwave is 5 microns. Except for the stratosphere sounding channels, the remaining six groups have (obs-calc) trends of less than 20 mK/yr. The longwave surface channels have trends of 2 mK/yr, significantly less than the 8 mK/yr trend seem in the shortwave window channels. Based on the design of the instrument, trends within a group of channels should be the same. While the longwave and shortwave trends are less than the canonical 10 mK/yr, the larger trend in the shortwave channels could be an artifact of using the pre-launch determined calibration coefficients. This is currently under evaluation. The trend in (obs-calc) for the non-surface sounding channels, in particular for stratosphere sounding and upper tropospheric water channels, is dominated by artifacts created in calc, most likely due to changes in the ERA Ozone and water vapor. Based on this argument the best estimate of the trend for the channels within a channel group is given by the surface sensitive channels within the group. Based on this consideration we estimated the trend of all AIRS longwave channels as 2 mK/yr, while the shortwave channels have a trend of 8 mK/yr.

CO2↗

Cryogenic aspects of a 20 MW class low-temperature superconducting generator for the renewables industry

In this paper we give a progress update on the cryogenic design for cooling a 20 MW class, partially superconducting generator with stationary field coils for offshore wind renewables industry [1-2]. This is a continuation of an earlier program on a 10 MW system dating back ten years. Whereas this new power rating increase leads to a radial diameter expansion of the superconducting field coils from 4 to > 9.5 m, it maintains the axial length. We show the design based on this scaled up with enlarged diameter. The field coil size increase asks for higher cooling power that leads to a bigger cold box size to accommodate the cryocoolers. In the design, as many as 8 cryocoolers can be accessed and serviced from the nacelle that houses the main cryogenic components. A typical thermal load balance sheet with all components is given and compared against the available cryocooler cooling power at different operating conditions. Due to the cryocoolers’ local point of contact cooling within the nacelle, the temperature gradient of the thermal shield that fully encloses the cold mass with its embedded field coils needs to be balanced out to minimize the heat burden on the field coils. This requires additional analytical efforts and implementation of further design features. The extended nacelle houses the cold box with its cryogenic infrastructure. The interface for the envisaged cryogenic pushbutton closed-loop circulating system remains invisible, requires no handling of cryogenic liquids and is hermetically closed. The field coil diameter increase also leads to a greater initial helium gas storage volume. In addition, it requires higher initial room temperature fill pressure within the toroidal helium vapor storage tanks and in cooling tubes connecting to the cryocoolers. The toroidal helium gas tanks are thermally coupled with the thermal shield so that helium convection inside the storage tank can improve heat transfer and reduce the temperature gradient of the thermal shield. Besides those heat transfer challenges, additional mechanical strain within this large structure is exerted on the torque tubes during initial cooldown and when energizing field coils. Some of those design challenges are quite unexpected, leading to novel workarounds in order to maintain the chosen cooling strategy. Finally, we assess those design limitations in view of further cryogenic scalability with emphasis on manufacturability and assembly.

cryogenics↗

Comparison of NACA 0012 Laminar Flow Solutions: Structured and Unstructured Grid Methods

In this paper we consider the solution of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations for a class of laminar airfoil flows. The principal objective of this paper is to demonstrate that members of this class of laminar flows have steady-state solutions. These laminar airfoil flow cases are often used to evaluate accuracy, stability and convergence of numerical solution algorithms for the Navier-Stokes equations. In recent years, such flows have also been used as test cases for high-order numerical schemes. While generally consistent steady-state solutions have been obtained for these flows using higher order schemes, a number of results have been published with various solutions, including unsteady ones. We demonstrate with two different numerical methods and a range of meshes with a maximum density that exceeds 8 × 106 grid points that steady-state solutions are obtained. Furthermore, numerical evidence is presented that even when solving the equations with an unsteady algorithm, one obtains steady-state solutions.

Swanson, R. C.↗

High-Power Performance of a 100-kW Class Nested Hall Thruster

Operations of a three-channel 100-kW class nested Hall thruster at total power levels from 5 to 102 kW and discharge currents from 16 to 247 A were successful. The thruster was operated in all seven available channel combinations at discharge voltages of 300, 400, and 500 V and at current densities that were 0.60 and 0.95 of the nominal value. Additional test points were also collected at 1.20 the nominal current density. The thruster was throttled through a total of forty-six unique operating conditions. At each condition, thruster performance was measured using a high-power thrust stand designed to measure up to 8 N of thrust. From these thrust measurements, specific impulse and efficiency were calculated. All seven channel combinations showed similar performance at a given discharge voltage and current density. The largest thrust recorded was 5.42 N at 99 kW, 400 V discharge voltage. Total efficiency values 0.54 to 0.67, and total specific impulse ranged from 1800 seconds to 2650 seconds. Discharge current oscillations were also measured. Generally these oscillations increased on the inner and middle channels during multi-channel mode but stayed roughly a constant fraction of the channel discharge current for the outer channel in both single- and multi-channel operation. We also found that the thrust of the three channels firing together was not significantly higher than the sum of each channel _ring individually, a result that differs from what was found previously for nested Hall thrusters.

Hall, Scott J.↗

Searching for Chips of Kuiper Belt Objects in Meteorites

The Nice model [1&2] describes a scenario whereby the Jovian planets experienced a violent reshuffling event approx.3:9 Ga the giant planets moved, existing small body reservoirs were depleted or eliminated, and new reservoirs were created in particular locations. The Nice model quantitatively explains the orbits of the Jovian planets and Neptune [1], the orbits of bodies in several different small body reservoirs in the outer solar system (e.g., Trojans of Jupiter [2], the Kuiper belt and scattered disk [3], the irregular satellites of the giant planets [4], and the late heavy bombardment on the terrestrial planets approx.3:9 Ga [5]. This model is unique in plausibly explaining all of these phenomena. One issue with the Nice model is that it predicts that transported Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) (things looking like D class asteroids) should predominate in the outer asteroid belt, but we know only about 10% of the objects in the outer main asteroid belt appear to be D-class objects [6]. However based upon collisional modeling, Bottke et al. [6] argue that more than 90% of the objects captured in the outer main belt could have been eliminated by impacts if they had been weakly-indurated objects. These disrupted objects should have left behind pieces in the ancient regoliths of other, presumably stronger asteroids. Thus, a derived prediction of the Nice model is that ancient regolith samples (regolith-bearing meteorites) should contain fragments of collisionally-destroyed Kuiper belt objects. In fact KBO pieces might be expected to be present in most ancient regolith- bearing meteorites [7&8].

Zolensky, M. E.↗

An Approach to Evaluating the Impact of Small-Core Turbofan Technologies on Engine and Aircraft Performance

NASA’s Hybrid Thermally Efficient Core (HyTEC) project aims to accelerate the development of small-core turbofan engine technologies to enable a fuel burn reduction of 5 to 10 percent for next-generation aircraft, compared to 2020s best-in-class technology. This paper presents a demonstration of methods for evaluating the potential performance impact of small-core engine technologies developed under Phase 1 of the HyTEC project. The approach involves model-based systems analysis, where small-core innovations are integrated into baseline turbofan and aircraft systems models, creating a notional vision system. Performance of the vision system is examined at both the engine and vehicle level. The examined performance metrics include: engine bypass ratio, overall pressure ratio, high pressure compressor exit corrected mass flow, and aircraft fuel burn. The CFM LEAP-1B28 and Boeing 737 MAX 8 are chosen as the baseline state-of-the-art systems. Preliminary results map a design space for the small-core vision system and quantify the distinct effects of technologies on the key metrics.

Michael A Bennett↗

An Approach to Evaluating the Impact of Small-core Turbofan Technologies on Engine and Aircraft Performance

NASA’s Hybrid Thermally Efficient Core (HyTEC) project aims to accelerate the development of small-core turbofan engine technologies to enable a fuel burn reduction of 5 to 10 percent for next-generation aircraft, compared to 2020s best-in-class technology. This paper presents a demonstration of methods for evaluating the potential performance impact of small-core engine technologies developed under Phase 1 of the HyTEC project. The approach involves model-based systems analysis, where small-core innovations are integrated into baseline turbofan and aircraft systems models, creating a notional vision system. Performance of the vision system is examined at both the engine and vehicle level. The examined performance metrics include: engine bypass ratio, overall pressure ratio, high pressure compressor exit corrected mass flow, and aircraft fuel burn. The CFM LEAP-1B28 and Boeing 737 MAX 8 are chosen as the baseline state-of-the-art systems. Preliminary results map a design space for the small-core vision system and quantify the distinct effects of technologies on the key metrics.

Michael Bennett↗

Two Spacers, One Perovskite: Integrating Ruddlesden–Popper and Dion–Jacobson Halide Perovskites

Hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites are a rapidly developing class of materials due to their desirable properties for optoelectronic applications such as their ease of synthesis, solution-processable film formation, tunable band gap, strong photoluminescence, good charge carrier mobilities, and high defect tolerance. Here, we present a novel 2D perovskite motif that seamlessly integrates the structural elements from both Ruddlesden–Popper and Dion–Jacobson halide perovskites. We demonstrate the incorporation of two different organic spacer cations in an ordered manner in 5 novel 2D perovskite iodide materials. Both a cyclic diammonium cation 3-(aminomethyl)piperidinium (3AMP) and a linear alkyl monoammonium cation (Cn = C n H 2n+4 N, n = 4–8) are present in distinct alternating layers, making the new series (Cn) 2 (3AMP)[PbI 4 ] 2 . The crystallization of these materials was optimized through careful temperature control to obtain precise crystal structures via single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) which confirmed the presence of the two cations in distinct layers. The influence of the two spacers on optical properties including the band gaps and photoluminescence spectra are found to more closely resemble (3AMP)PbI 4 than (Cn) 2 PbI 4 , which can be attributed to the amount of distortion imposed by the 3AMP spacer on the lead iodide layers. The findings are supported by density functional theory calculations. The strong photoelectric response of solution-processed thin films shows the potential of these materials in photodetectors or photovoltaics. This unprecedented amalgamation of RP–DJ in (Cn) 2 (3AMP)[PbI 4 ] 2 in a structurally ordered fashion suggests a potential vastly underexplored phase space of 2D perovskites in which there are chemically different spacers in distinct layers of the structure, providing an additional parameter to tune perovskite properties.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Conceptual design of a high reactive-power ferroelectric fast reactive tuner

We present a novel design of a ferroelectric fast reactive tuner (FE-FRT) capable of modulating mega-VAR reactive power on a submicrosecond timescale. The high reactive power capability of our design extends the range of applications of reactive tuners to numerous applications. We present a detailed analytical model of the performance of a megawatt-class reactive power device and benchmark it against finite-element method eigenmode and frequency domain electromagnetic simulations. We introduce new features, including an annulus design for the ferroelectric capacitors and capacitive window coupling to the cavity. We consider thermal design issues and nonlinear effects in the ferroelectric. The model covers several configurations, allowing control of the frequency of superconducting and normal-conducting cavities in a variety of applications and frequencies. We calculate that the FE-FRT designed should be capable of handling around 0.45 MVAR of reactive power with around 3 kW of resistive losses, providing a frequency tuning range of 8 kHz in an example of 400 MHz cavity geometry. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Nonequilibrium in a low power arcjet nozzle

Emission spectroscopy measurements were made of the plasma flow inside the nozzle of a 1 kW class arcjet thruster. The thruster propellant was a hydrogen-nitrogen mixture used to simulate fully decomposed hydrazine. The 0.25 mm diameter holes were drilled into the diverging section of the tungsten thruster nozzle to provide optical access to the internal flow. Atomic electron excitation, vibrational, and rotational temperatures were determined for the expanding plasma using relative line intensity techniques. The atomic excitation temperatures decreased from 18,000K at a location 3 mm downstream of the constrictor to 9,000K at a location 9 mm from the constrictor, while the molecular vibrational and rotational temperatures decreased from 6,500K to 2,500K and from 8,000K to 3,000K, respectively, between the same locations. The electron density measured using hydrogen H line Stark broadening decreased from about 10(exp 15) cm(-3) to about 2 times 10(exp 14) cm(-3) during the expansion. The results show that the plasma is highly nonequilibrium throughout the nozzle, with most relaxation times equal or exceeding the particle residence time.

Zube, Dieter M.↗

GOLEM: GOld standard for Learning and Evaluation of Motifs

Motifs are distinctive, recurring, widely used idiom-like words or phrases, often originating from folklore, whose meaning is anchored in a narrative and have a significance as communicative devices across a wide range of media, including news, literature, and propaganda. Many motifs concisely imply a large constellation of culturally relevant information, and their broad usage suggests their cognitive importance as touchstones of cultural knowledge. As such, their detection is a step towards culturally aware natural language processing. We present GOLEM (GOld standard for Learning and Evaluation of Motifs) a dataset of English news articles, opinion pieces, and broadcast transcripts annotated for motific information. The dataset identifies 25,737 motif candidates across 34 motif types drawn from three cultural or national groups: Jewish, Irish, and Puerto Rican. The dataset contains 2,024,141 words split into 25,737 text snippets drawn from 8,073 articles. Each motif candidate is labeled according to a scheme which identifies the type of usage (motific, referential, eponymic, or unrelated), resulting in 1,743 actual motific instances in the data. Annotation was performed by individuals identifying as members of each group and achieved a Fleiss’ kappa (?) of > 0.55. In addition to the data, we demonstrate that classification of the candidate type is a challenging task for Large Language Models (LLMs) using a few-shot approach; recent models such as T5, FLAN-T5, GPT-2, and Llama 2 (7B) achieved a performance of 41% accuracy at best, where the majority class accuracy is 41% and the average chance accuracy is 27%. These data will support development of new models and approaches for detecting (and reasoning about) motific information in text.

motif, culture, natural language, artificial intel↗

Modeling structural damping for solids having distinct shear and dilatational loss factors

For steady state time harmonic problems (rigid format 8), the NASTRAN program as currently configured treats internal structural damping through the introduction of a single structural element damping coefficient that typically is viewed as the ratio of the complex to real modulus of elasticity. For problems dealing with two or three dimensional dynamic linear viscoelasticity (e.g. a Kelvin-Voigt viscoelastic model), the present NASTRAN capability cannot directly handle this situation wherein two independent damping coefficients are required to properly model the dissipation phenomenon. A technique is presented whereby the user can adapt the standard versions of NASTRAN (without resorting to either DMAP and/or FORTRAN coding changes) for the purpose of treating this class of problem.

Kalinowski, A. J.↗

The Component Packaging Problem: A Vehicle for the Development of Multidisciplinary Design and Analysis Methodologies

This report summarizes academic research which has resulted in an increased appreciation for multidisciplinary efforts among our students, colleagues and administrators. It has also generated a number of research ideas that emerged from the interaction between disciplines. Overall, 17 undergraduate students and 16 graduate students benefited directly from the NASA grant: an additional 11 graduate students were impacted and participated without financial support from NASA. The work resulted in 16 theses (with 7 to be completed in the near future), 67 papers or reports mostly published in 8 journals and/or presented at various conferences (a total of 83 papers, presentations and reports published based on NASA inspired or supported work). In addition, the faculty and students presented related work at many meetings, and continuing work has been proposed to NSF, the Army, Industry and other state and federal institutions to continue efforts in the direction of multidisciplinary and recently multi-objective design and analysis. The specific problem addressed is component packing which was solved as a multi-objective problem using iterative genetic algorithms and decomposition. Further testing and refinement of the methodology developed is presently under investigation. Teaming issues research and classes resulted in the publication of a web site, (http://design.eng.clemson.edu/psych4991) which provides pointers and techniques to interested parties. Specific advantages of using iterative genetic algorithms, hurdles faced and resolved, and institutional difficulties associated with multi-discipline teaming are described in some detail.

Fadel, Georges↗

Primordial black holes and magnetic fields in conformal neutrino mass models

Sufficiently strong and long-lasting first-order phase transitions can produce primordial black holes (PBHs) that contribute substantially to the dark matter abundance of the Universe, and can produce large-scale primordial magnetic fields. Here, we study these mechanisms in a generic class of conformal U(1)' models that also explain active neutrino oscillation data via the type-I seesaw mechanism. We find that phase transitions that occur at seesaw scales between 10 4 GeV and 10 11 GeV produce gravitational wave signals (from the dynamics of the phase transition and from the decay of cosmic string loops) at LISA/ET that can be correlated with microlensing signals of PBHs at the Roman Space Telescope, while scales near 10 11 GeV can be correlated with Hawking evaporation signals at future gamma-ray telescopes. LISA can probe the entire range of PBH masses between 1 × 10 -16 M ⊙ and 8 × 10 -11 M ⊙ if PBHs fully account for the dark matter abundance. For Z' masses between 40 TeV and 10 4 TeV, and 10 TeV right-handed neutrinos, helical magnetic fields can be produced with magnitudes ≳ 0.5 pG and coherence lengths ≳ 0.008 Mpc, above current blazar lower bounds.

cosmological phase transitions↗