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DOE OSTI2021

Phenomenon Identification and Ranking Table Analysis for Thermal Energy Storage Technologies Integration with Advanced Nuclear Reactors

This report provides an overview of the Phenomena Identification and Ranking Table (PIRT) analysis of thermal energy storage (TES) systems for possible integration with various types of advanced nuclear power plants (NPPs). Advanced NPPs will potentially need to operate in environments where power generation flexibility is more highly valued than the stability or baseload generation capability for conventional demand curves. TES systems would enable NPPs to respond nimbly to market variability and could also position advanced NPPs to participate differently in restructured markets, thus further enhancing their economic competitiveness. TES systems could also benefit the electric grid by eliminating the need for peaking plants, as well as by improving the economic performance of baseload NPPs. While TES technologies afford a unique opportunity to address many of these challenges, the applicability of these systems is also complicated by the fact that various advanced NPPs are designed differently, each with its own temperature range, size, operating fluids, and operating conditions. Hence, TES systems face significant barriers to investment, as more information on their compatibility and performance metrics is needed to quantify the advantages provided by each, as well as the challenges these technologies might face if coupled with a particular type of advanced NPP. This report explores the possibility of integrating a wide variety of TES technologies with various categories of advanced NPPs, based on their operating characteristics. To help users and developers decide which TES technology is best suited to a particular category of advanced NPPs, this research developed a PIRT of 10 TES systems that could potentially be coupled with advanced NPPs, which themselves are divided into nine categories based on their operating conditions. Each advanced NPP category is evaluated for compatibility with the 10 TES systems by assembling and discussing a database of information concerning 10 engineering questions (defined herein in as figures of merit [FOMs]), such as: technology readiness level (TRL), temperature compatibility, energy density, size, cycle frequency, ramp time, realignment frequency, geographic needs, environmental impact, and interventions. By assembling a database of information concerning the TES technologies’ compatibility with various advanced NPP systems, this study can help developers acquaint themselves with a particular TES technology before choosing to build a new integrated installation.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Evaluation of Nuclear Spent Fuel Disposal in Clay-Bearing Rock - Process Model Development and Experimental Studies (M2SF-21SN010301072)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Evaluation of Nuclear Spent Fuel Disposal in Clay-Bearing Rock - Process Model Development and Experimental Studies

The DOE R&D program under the Spent Fuel Waste Science Technology (SFWST) campaign has made key progress in modeling and experimental approaches towards the characterization of chemical and physical phenomena that could impact the long-term safety assessment of heat-generating nuclear waste disposition in deep clay/shale/argillaceous rock. International collaboration activities such as heater tests and postmortem analysis of samples recovered from these have elucidated key information regarding changes in the engineered barrier system (EBS) material exposed to years of thermal loads. Chemical and structural analyses of sampled bentonite material from such tests has as well as experiments conducted on these are key to the characterization of thermal effects affecting bentonite clay barrier performance and the extent of sacrificial zones in the EBS during the thermal period. Thermal, hydrologic, and chemical data collected from heater tests and laboratory experiments has been used in the development, validation, and calibration of THMC simulators to model near-field coupled processes. This information leads to the development of simulation approaches (e.g., continuum vs. discrete) to tackle issues related to flow and transport at various scales of the host-rock and EBS design concept. Consideration of direct disposal of large capacity dual-purpose canisters (DPCs) as part of the back-end SNF waste disposition strategy has generated interest in improving our understanding of the effects of elevated temperatures on the EBS design. This is particularly important for backfilled repository concepts where temperature plays a key role in the EBS behavior and long-term performance. This report describes multiple R&D efforts on disposal in argillaceous geologic media through development and application of coupled THMC process models, experimental studies on clay/metal/cement barrier and host-rock (argillite) material interactions, molecular dynamic (MD) simulations of water transport during (swelling) clay dehydration, first-principles studies of metaschoepite (UO 2 corrosion product) stability, and advances in thermodynamic plus surface complexation database development. Drift-scale URL experiments provides key data for testing hydrological-chemical (HC) model involving strong couplings of fluid mixing and barrier material chemical interactions. The THM modeling focuses on heater test experiments in argillite rock and gas migration in bentonite as part of international collaboration activities at underground research laboratories (URLs). In addition, field testing at an URL involves in situ analysis of fault slip behavior and fault permeability. Pore-scale modeling of gas bubble migration is also being investigated within the gas migration modeling effort. Interaction experiments on bentonite samples from heater test under ambient and elevated temperatures permit the evaluation of ion exchange, phase stability, and mineral transformation changes that could impact clay swelling. Advances in the development, testing, and implementation of a spent nuclear fuel (SNF) degradation model coupled with canister corrosion focus on the effects of hydrogen gas generation and its integration with Geologic Disposal Safety Assessment (GDSA). GDSA integration activities includes evaluation of groundwater chemistries in shale formations.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

DOE OSTI2023

Coregistered positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) and X-ray computed tomography (CT) for engineering flow measurements

Increasingly, fully 3D experimental measurements of flow in complex engineering geometries are required to validate computational fluid dynamics models that support and inform reactor design and licensing. One barrier to such measurements is the complexity of typical reactor components and subsequent lack of optical access in these systems. To overcome this, the deployment of coregistered positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) and X-ray computed tomography (CT) is explored for flow measurement in reactor thermal hydraulic components and model (scaled) systems. Through this methodology, fully 3D flow information (via PEPT) and detailed internal geometry (via CT) are captured in opaque systems such as pipes, rod bundles, packed beds, etc. The reconstructed flow field and geometry can then be overlain to reveal detailed flow features around internal structures within a given test section. This is enabled through the use of a combined preclinical PET/CT scanner with overlapping PET and CT fields of view. Such measurements are useful for characterizing flow inside such intricate nuclear thermal hydraulic components as core geometries and heat exchangers, among others, and providing valuable 3D validation data for CFD models. In this work, basic tests of this 3D flow/geometry mapping are presented, and the implications of such measurements are discussed. Further, preliminary measurements are made with both point sources and flow in a simple pipe flow geometry to evaluate the capabilities of this technique. PEPT and CT features are coregistered with up to 0.1 mm precision, and pipe flow mean velocity and Reynolds stresses are reconstructed with similar accuracy to previous PEPT demonstrations. The utility of PEPT/CT is shown herein, and suggestions for future measurements are made.

3D flow measurement↗

DOE OSTI2023

Evaluation of Nuclear Spent Fuel Disposal in Clay-Bearing Rock - Process Model Development and Experimental Studies

This report represents the milestone deliverable M2SF-23SN010301072 “Evaluation of Nuclear Spent Fuel Disposal in Clay-Bearing Rock - Process Model Development and Experimental Studies” The report provides a status update of FY23 activities for the work package Argillite Disposal work packages for the DOE-NE Spent Fuel Waste Form Science and Technology (SFWST) Program. Clay-rich geological media (often referred as shale or argillite) are among the most abundant type of sedimentary rock near the Earth’s surface. Argillaceous rock formations have the following advantageous attributes for deep geological nuclear waste disposal: widespread geologic occurrence, found in stable geologic settings, low permeability, self-sealing properties, low effective diffusion coefficient, high sorption capacity, and have the appropriate depth and thickness to host nuclear waste repository concepts. The DOE R&D program under the Spent Fuel Waste Science Technology (SFWST) campaign has made key progress (through experiment, modeling, and testing) in the study of chemical and physical phenomena that could impact the long-term safety assessment of heat-generating nuclear waste disposition in clay/shale/argillaceous rock. International collaboration activities comprising field-scale heater tests, field data monitoring, and laboratory-scale experiments provide key information on changes to the engineered barrier system (EBS) material exposed high thermal loads. Moreover, consideration of direct disposal of large capacity dual-purpose canisters (DPCs) as part of the back-end SNF waste disposition strategy has generated interest in improving our understanding of the effects of elevated temperatures on the engineered barrier system (EBS) design concepts. Chemical and structural analyses of sampled bentonite material from laboratory tests at elevated temperatures are key to the characterization of thermal effects affecting bentonite clay barrier performance. The knowledge provided by these experiments is crucial to constrain the extent of sacrificial zones in the EBS design during the thermal period. Thermal, hydrologic, mechanical, and chemical (THMC) data collected from heater tests and laboratory experiments have been used in the development, validation, and calibration of THMC simulators to model near-field coupled processes. This information leads to the development of simulation approaches to assess issues on coupled processes involving porous media flow, transport, geomechanical phenomena, chemical interactions with barrier/geologic materials, and the development of EBS concepts. These lines of knowledge are central to the design of deep geological backfilled repository concepts where temperature plays a key role in the EBS behavior, potential interactions with host rock, and long-term performance in the safety assessment.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2020

SolSmart 101 Webinar

SolSmart is a United States Department of Energy funded program assisting local governments across the country to cut red tape and reduce the barriers to solar. This webinar provided information on the SolSmart program, including the types of communities that have received designation from the program, areas where the program provides technical assistance, and the designation/review process.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2021

Characterizing manufacturing wastewater in the United States for the purpose of analyzing energy requirements for reuse

This paper seeks to inform an improved understanding of the energy tradeoff associated with on-site manufacturing water reuse in the United States from a lifecycle perspective, in part by developing an analytical framework for understanding when this tradeoff for reuse is beneficial. We survey the literature to assess the current state of reuse and its motives and barriers in the United States, before synthesizing information from publicly available EPA data on contaminants in US manufacturing wastewaters and technologies for treating them. Using the available data, we derive a set of “ubiquitous contaminants” among the top ten in terms of mass discharged in more than half of US manufacturing subsectors (NAICS 31–33) according to EPA permit data. We also present information on proven treatment trains and their energy requirements. We then compare water quality requirements for specific contaminants in reclaimed water to those characteristic of wastewater streams currently being discharged from manufacturing plants into surface waters to highlight sectors with reuse opportunities that could require little cost to realize, such as primary metals and, to a lesser extent, petroleum and coal products. We conclude by highlighting data limitations that need to be rectified before applying the framework more broadly and discussing how these data gaps could be filled. Better understanding the relationship between energy and water in the context of on-site manufacturing water reuse would allow manufacturers to improve resiliency by reducing regulatory, physical, and reputational risks while lessening their footprint on local watersheds.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2021

Oregon Rivers Characterization Tool

DHS’s Regional Resiliency Assessment Program (RRAP) undertook the Oregon State Transportation Systems RRAP project between 2018-2021 to assess the seismic vulnerabilities of the state’s transportation system to a Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquake (CISA 2021). The project primarily focused on the effects of a CSZ earthquake on the mobility of emergency response efforts into the region. In the event that bridges located at crucial river crossings fail during a CSZ earthquake, rivers will become natural barriers affecting the ability to support response and recovery efforts. The characteristics of rivers (e.g., width, depth, and flow) are critical data to inform planning for the recovery of transportation systems across river barriers and determine reopening times following a CSZ earthquake. As part of the transportation system assessment, an Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) project team developed a River Characterization Tool (RCT) to quantify the physical characteristics of the river system in Oregon, which can be used to inform a system-level analysis of transportation recovery and reopening times. This report mainly discusses approaches, methods, development, and applications of the RCT. The use of the river data generated from this tool for a system-level analysis of transportation recovery is discussed in the Oregon Transportation Systems RRAP Resiliency Assessment report (CISA 2021). The primary goal of the RCT is to generate statewide dataset of widths, depths, and flows for all rivers across Oregon to assess the effects of river barriers on emergency response and recovery efforts following a CSZ earthquake. The RCT leverages remote sensing data that multispectral sensors collect from satellites, employs a deep learning model to characterize river predictions, and computes river channel geometric dimensions with hydraulic relationships and river predictions. The entire process of river characterization is automated and implemented through the RCT.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2020

Microgrids in Emerging Markets - Private Sector Perspectives

This quick read assesses the barriers and opportunities for private sector entry into microgrid development. Information presented in this paper is based on qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods to provide an empirical understanding of barriers to private sector clean energy investment in emerging markets.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2021

Single-hole couplings in GaAs/AlGaAs double dots probed with transport and EDSR spectroscopy

Here, we report a detailed study of the tunnel barriers within a single-hole GaAs/AlGaAs double quantum dot device (DQD). For quantum information applications as well as fundamental studies, careful tuning and reliable measurements of the barriers are important requirements. In order to tune a DQD device adequately into the single-hole electric dipole spin resonance regime, one has to employ a variety of techniques to cover the extended range of tunnel couplings. In this work, we demonstrate four separate techniques, based upon charge sensing, quantum transport, time-resolved pulsing, and electron dipole spin resonance spectroscopy to determine the couplings as a function of relevant gate voltages and magnetic field. Measurements were performed under conditions of both symmetric and asymmetric tunnel couplings to the leads. Good agreement was observed between different techniques when measured under the same conditions. The results indicate that even in this relatively simple circuit, the requirement to tune multiple gates and the consequences of real potential profiles result in non-intuitive dependencies of the couplings as a function of the plunger gate voltage and the magnetic field.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2021

Integrating solar energy with agriculture: Industry perspectives on the market, community, and socio-political dimensions of agrivoltaics

Large-scale development of solar-generated electricity is hindered in some regions of the U.S. by land use competition and localized social resistance. One approach to alleviate these coupled challenges is agrivoltaics: the strategic co-location of solar photovoltaics and agriculture. To explore the opportunities and barriers for agrivoltaics, in-depth interviews with solar industry professionals were conducted and findings suggest that the potential for an agrivoltaic project to retain agricultural interests and consequently increase local support for development is the most significant opportunity of dual use solar. Capable of increasing community acceptance, participants expect agrivoltaics to play an important role in future solar endeavors, especially in places where development may be perceived as a threat to agricultural interests. The results further reveal the interconnections among the various dimensions of social acceptance and suggest that the growth of agrivoltaics is contingent on market adoption of the technology through community acceptance and supportive local regulatory environments. As solar photovoltaic systems transcend niche applications to become larger and more prevalent, the dimensions of social acceptance, including the opportunities and barriers associated with each dimension, can help inform decision making to enhance the growth of agrivoltaics and thus photovoltaic development. Here, the findings can help land use planners, solar developers, and municipal governments make informed decisions that strategically and meaningfully integrate agriculture and solar, and in turn provide multiple benefits including the retention of agricultural land, local economic development, and broad adoption of solar energy technologies.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Chemical Process Safety at TRISO-Based, Metal-Based, and Salt-Based Fuel Fabrication Facilities: Technical Assessment and Guidance Assessment

As part of efforts to prepare for potential and ongoing safety reviews for licensing of advanced non-light-water reactor fuel cycles, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) tasked Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to prepare an assessment on the state of knowledge of potential chemical processes at fuel cycle facilities supporting the front end of these fuel cycles, and to assess the associated regulatory guidance. This report provides a technical assessment of chemical process safety considerations to support NRC licensing reviews of fabrication processes for tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) based, metallic-based, and salt-based fuels. The assessments involved collecting publicly available information on the fuel fabrication processes to (i) identify the operational process steps, characteristics and chemicals involved, (ii) identify the physical safety considerations and health safety considerations during licensing reviews of the various process steps, and (iii) collect information to support assessments of severity of accidents and potential mitigative measures to be implemented. The assessment provides a foundational basis on chemical process safety considerations for advanced fuel fabrication activities, although it is recognized that licensing reviews may necessitate design-specific considerations. The specific conditions under which chemical hazards emerge will require process-specific considerations, highlighting the importance of process-informed interpretation. The assessment also determined that exposure guidelines and limits to assess the consequences of acute exposures are limited for some chemicals, although alternative limits and supplementary information from databases or safety data sheets provide sufficient information to evaluate consequences of acute exposures. In addition, it was identified that metallic and salt fuel fabrication processes may involve beryllium, which is an exposure hazard. The regulatory framework for the licensing of advanced fuel cycle facilities, per 10 CFR Part 70 Domestic Licensing of Special Nuclear Material, is deemed robust and flexible to address the chemical safety considerations in this report. A review was conducted on various regulatory guidance and technical basis documents. This included reviewing NUREG-1520, Revision 2, Standard Review Plan for Fuel Cycle Facilities License Applications – Final Report and the process descriptions in Appendix A of NUREG/CR-6410, Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facility Accident Analysis Handbook, to address advanced fuel types. As new fuels will involve process-specific chemical uses, process-specific considerations are provided in this report. Additionally, it is noted that the U.S. Department of Energy protective action criteria database includes Temporary Emergency Exposure Limits (TEELs) for process-specific chemicals. This report provides technical information to support chemical safety assessments of new advanced fuel cycle facilities and identifies technical and safety information to support licensing reviews. No regulatory barriers were identified for the licensing of advanced fuel cycle facilities.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2026

Stakeholder Questionnaire on Fish Passage Facilities at U.S. Hydropower Developments

To mitigate the environmental impacts of hydropower dams on fish populations in rivers, fish passage infrastructure may be required by regulatory authorities or recommended by state or federal agencies to allow migratory fish to pass hydropower barriers and complete their life histories. However, information on the location, types, and characteristics of fish passage infrastructure is incomplete at the national scale. This lack of information limits understanding of current fish passage capabilities and hinders efforts to anticipate future passage requirements during project licensing or relicensing. To address this knowledge gap, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory partnered with federal agency and industry stakeholders to create the first national-scale database of fish passage infrastructure at U.S. hydropower developments. As part of this effort, a stakeholder questionnaire was created and deployed to solicit information on fish passage infrastructure, including engineering characteristics, operational schedules, targeted species, and costs. This online questionnaire was designed to allow respondents to provide highly detailed information regarding fish passage capabilities at U.S. hydropower developments as efficiently as possible. The questionnaire improved database coverage and accuracy by providing valuable development- or passage-specific stakeholder knowledge that is not otherwise publicly available. However, questionnaire response rates were low, and stakeholders showed a preference for providing data via the spreadsheet template. This is likely because most stakeholders had high-level knowledge about fish passage existence and type at many features, and few stakeholders had highly detailed, feature-specific knowledge of fish passage infrastructure, cost, operational scheduling, and capabilities. Nonetheless, the development and deployment of the stakeholder questionnaire advanced the project in several fundamental ways, and a similar questionnaire may be valuable for future database expansion via targeted dissemination to stakeholders with confirmed knowledge of detailed fish passage information at specific hydropower projects.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Malcolm: Lowering the Barrier to Entry for Establishing a Secure Cybersecurity Posture

All information is open source.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2021

Mapathons versus automated feature extraction: a comparative analysis for strengthening immunization microplanning

Background: Social instability and logistical factors like the displacement of vulnerable populations, the difficulty of accessing these populations, and the lack of geographic information for hard-to-reach areas continue to serve as barriers to global essential immunizations (EI). Microplanning, a population-based, healthcare intervention planning method has begun to leverage geographic information system (GIS) technology and geospatial methods to improve the remote identification and mapping of vulnerable populations to ensure inclusion in outreach and immunization services, when feasible. We compare two methods of accomplishing a remote inventory of building locations to assess their accuracy and similarity to currently employed microplan line-lists in the study area. Methods: The outputs of a crowd-sourced digitization effort, or mapathon, were compared to those of a machine-learning algorithm for digitization, referred to as automatic feature extraction (AFE). The following accuracy assessments were employed to determine the performance of each feature generation method: (1) an agreement analysis of the two methods assessed the occurrence of matches across the two outputs, where agreements were labeled as “befriended” and disagreements as “lonely”; (2) true and false positive percentages of each method were calculated in comparison to satellite imagery; (3) counts of features generated from both the mapathon and AFE were statistically compared to the number of features listed in the microplan line-list for the study area; and (4) population estimates for both feature generation method were determined for every structure identified assuming a total of three households per compound, with each household averaging two adults and 5 children. Results: The mapathon and AFE outputs detected 92,713 and 53,150 features, respectively. A higher proportion (30%) of AFE features were befriended compared with befriended mapathon points (28%). The AFE had a higher true positive rate (90.5%) of identifying structures than the mapathon (84.5%). The difference in the average number of features identified per area between the microplan and mapathon points was larger (t = 3.56) than the microplan and AFE (t = -2.09) (alpha = 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings indicate AFE outputs had higher agreement (i.e., befriended), slightly higher likelihood of correctly identifying a structure, and were more similar to the local microplan line-lists than the mapathon outputs. These findings suggest AFE may be more accurate for identifying structures in high-resolution satellite imagery than mapathons. However, they both had their advantages and the ideal method would utilize both methods in tandem.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

Hydrogen trapping energetics at BCC iron-helium interfaces

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been performed to assess the trapping and segregation strength of hydrogen (H) to helium (He) interfaces in BCC (Fe) as a function of He density and surface orientation. The He density ranges from 0 to 2 He/V which corresponds to equilibrium bubbles that are expected to form in the structural components in a fusion reactor environment. The DFT calculations consist of a slab of BCC metal and an initial lattice of FCC He. Here, the report on the binding energy of H to these interfaces as well as the migration barriers into and away from the surface, which together provide information on the de-trapping energy for H at He bubbles. It was found that the binding energy of H to He-Fe interfaces decreases with increasing He density. Migration barriers are also modified due to the He density, which are sensitive to the surface orientation as well as the diffusion pathway. These results provide valuable first-principles energetics that are necessary for higher-order, mesoscale models, and provide insight into the extent to which He bubbles may trap tritium in fusion structural materials.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2024

Using Financial Contracts to Facilitate Informal Leases Within a Western United States Water Market Based on Prior Appropriation

The ability to reallocate water to higher-value uses during drought is an increasingly important “soft-path” tool for managing water resources in an uncertain future. In most of the Western United States, state-level water market institutions that enable reallocation also impose substantial transaction costs on market participants related to regulatory approval and litigation. These transaction costs can be prohibitive for many participants in terms of both costs and lengthy approval periods, limiting transfers and reducing allocation efficiency, particularly during drought crises periods. This manuscript describes a mechanism to reduce transaction costs by adapting an existing form of informal leases to facilitate quicker and less expensive transfers among market participants. Instead of navigating the formal approval process to lease a water right, informal leases are financial contracts for conservation that enable more junior holders of existing rights to divert water during drought, thereby allowing the formal transfer approval process to be bypassed. The informal leasing approach is tested in the Upper Colorado River Basin, where drought and institutional barriers to transfers lead to frequent shortages for urban rights holders along Colorado's Front Range. Informal leases are facilitated via option contracts that include adaptive triggers and that define volumes of additional, compensatory, releases designed to mitigate impacts to instream flows and third parties. Results suggest that more rapid reallocation of water via informal leases could have resulted in up to $222 million in additional benefits for urban rights holders during the historical period 1950–2013.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Review of Feasibility and Cost Drivers for Floating Offshore Wind Energy in Washington State

The state of Washington must double its clean electricity supply by 2050 to meet its clean energy goals and comply with the Clean Energy Transformation Act. With more than 6.6 GW of technical resource potential in federal waters where Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has leasing authority, offshore wind energy could play an important role in diversifying Washington State's clean energy mix, reducing dependence on out-of-state energy sources, and helping meet state decarbonization goals. Decision makers need technology-specific information to assist with long-term energy system planning, so the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management requested that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory provide an overview of several drivers of offshore wind energy feasibility and cost in Washington. This study summarizes some of the existing engagement efforts and perspectives on offshore wind energy in the region and quantifies the offshore wind resources in Washington as well as technology costs and performance of potential projects. Furthermore, this report reviews existing grid and port infrastructure and discusses infrastructure needs along with information gaps. This study also explores opportunities and barriers to Washington entities supporting the broader floating offshore wind energy supply chain along the U.S. West Coast. Note that this study is not part of a formal project planning process or official engagement effort, nor does it assess environmental or economic impacts from potential offshore wind energy development.

17 WIND ENERGY↗