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This document presents the subcommittee’s overarching and domain-specific findings and recommendations for the next decade, identified by consensus across the full BERAC subcommittee and experts interviewed for this assessment.
Hydropower is a well-established industry that has been largely contributing to the global generation of clean and renewable energy for more than a century. In the United States in 2021, it accounted for 30% of all renewable energy generation and 6.1% of the total energy portfolio. Hydropower technology and designs have been optimized throughout the years, but manufacturing of hydropower components still relies heavily on traditional methods and materials. Changes in global energy production systems and international supply chain issues are inspiring the manufacturing sector to reconsider their processes. Similarly, the hydropower industry is facing manufacturing challenges stemming from well-known maintenance issues, environmental impact mitigations, and changes in operations. These challenges, along with continued innovation in new hydropower and pumped storage development and modernization of the fleet, present an opportunity for advanced manufacturing and materials (AMM) to provide immense value to the hydropower industry. In support of the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), this report aims to characterize the current and emerging manufacturing-related challenges in US hydropower and to identify the high-impact opportunities in AMM that could address these challenges. The results highlighted in this report were collected through literature review, individual stakeholder interviews, and an in-person workshop organized at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory Manufacturing Demonstration Facility that brought together hydropower industry stakeholders, advanced manufacturing R&D, and the government.
Building-sited solar photovoltaics (PV) could play a key role in decarbonizing the building sector either through racked and mounted PV or through Building-integrated PV (BIPV). BIPV is installed into the building envelope itself, with solar cells and/or modules forming the outer layer of a building structure, thus transforming a single-purpose structure into one that serves the dual purposes of the building envelope and electricity. BIPV can be applied to building roofs, facades, awnings, pergolas, windows, skylights, balustrades, and other external surfaces. Given BIPV products vary widely, the focus of this research is residential roofing integrated PV (RIPV), where solar is incorporated into or otherwise replaces the roofing material. Previous research suggests that residential RIPV could reduce customer acquisition, labor, supply chain, and equipment costs. These products have yet to realize these cost savings and deployment remains significantly less than conventional rooftop PV as a relative share of the addressable market in the US. One potential barrier to broader residential roofing integrated PV deployment may be higher costs relative to conventional rooftop PV, primarily because the design and installation of these products is still evolving. Here, we explore residential RIPV cost-reduction opportunities by analyzing installation processes. Our study documents residential RIPV installations at 2 reroofing sites and the equivalent of 9 new construction sites in California through a methodology known as time and motion study. We also conducted interviews with subject-matter experts to identify barriers and solutions to maximize these products' market penetration. Our time and motion study breaks the RIPV installation process into four steps: 1) staging, unloading, and roof preparation; 2) fire resistant underlayment(s) (synthetic material laid between roof shingles and roof deck); 3) flashings and PV installation; and 4) wiring and monitoring. We measure the time required for each step in terms of worker-hours, representing an hour of labor from a single worker. We further normalize process time by dividing worker-hours by kilowatt (kW) of system capacity. The most time-intensive step was flashings and PV installation, taking around 2.4 worker-hours per kW on average and accounting for around 60% of the process time for an average installation. The total installation process took on average about 6.4 and 3.5 worker-hours per kW at the reroofing sites and new construction sites, respectively. For comparison, a previous time and motion study documented a time of 6.9 worker-hours per kW for conventional rooftop PV. The shorter RIPV installation times are consistent with previous studies suggesting that RIPV could be installed faster than conventional rooftop PV. The time and motion results and feedback from interviewees provide insights into potential residential RIPV cost reduction opportunities. Several interviewees suggested that these products would be more efficient if PV installation was more fully integrated into the roofing/construction industries, which currently use separate supply chains and skillsets. Further integration could reduce supply chain delays and labor force redundancies. Future research could explore specific ways to integrate these industries to help realize the cost savings potential of RIPV.
As Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) adoption efforts mature, SBOM sharing continues to occur, but no single solution or set of solutions have become ubiquitous. The purpose of this report is to enumerate and describe the different parties and phases of the SBOM sharing lifecycle and assist readers in choosing suitable SBOM sharing solutions based on the amount of time, resources, subject-matter expertise, effort, and access to tooling that is available to the reader to implement a phase of the SBOM sharing lifecycle. The SBOM sharing lifecycle consists of the Discovery, Access, and Transport of an SBOM and this report details these individual phases and how an SBOM goes from author to the consumer. This report also details how potential enrichment activities may be performed on an SBOM to create a new product before or after it has been shared. The concept of a sophistication classification for SBOM sharing solutions is concurrently introduced with a focus on the inclusion or lack of certain features and effort associated with their implementation. Examples of low, medium, and high-sophistication solutions are provided; however, these examples and associated categorizations should not be seen as a qualitative judgment meant to push the reader towards a particular adoption strategy since sharing solutions are chosen based on the unique needs of the user. This report does recommend the SBOM community consider how to make current and future sharing solutions interoperable with each other as well as more automated methods to facilitate sharing and broader SBOM adoption. This report also highlights an SBOM sharing survey results obtained from interviews with stakeholders to understand the current SBOM sharing landscape. The categorized results of the survey suggest that SBOMs are currently transported directly to the receiver through email or similar informal communication mechanisms or alternatively the SBOM resides on a repository available to consumers. In addition to these transport methods, this report captures industry efforts to create private sharing solutions and services that can store and transport enrichment data and may use higher sophistication features that are cloud-based or using distributed ledger technologies.
With South Korea’s electricity demand expected to grow 30% by 2035, transitioning to clean energy resources will be critical in reducing the electric sector emissions and achieving national climate goals. Rapid technological improvements can help keep costs low and maintain grid reliability, if Korea’s government takes a coordinated approach to the clean energy transition. This policy brief identifies key barriers to Korea’s shift toward clean energy, based on the authors’ companion report (A Clean Energy Korea by 2035: Transitioning to 80% Carbon-Free Electricity Generation ), interviews with experts, and the most recent data and literature. It then explores policy solutions for overcoming these technological, economic, and institutional barriers, and suggests market transformation strategies to speed the adoption of clean energy technologies. Amid ongoing cost and technological improvements in wind, solar, and energy storage, advancing this report’s recommended policy actions with maximum coordination among government officials can meaningfully accelerate Korea’s clean energy transition.
Site operations at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) resulted in the release of oxidized chromium, Cr(VI), into Sandia Canyon from cooling tower effluent from 1956 until 1972. The chromium traveled with the surface water approximately 3 miles downstream before migrating below ground surface. Chromium concentrations exceed 50 μg/L in the upper portion of the aquifer. Another LANL groundwater plume of concern is associated with RDX (Royal Demolition Explosives, 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine). Between 1951 and 1996, RDX was released to the mesa-top facilities' process water outfall, adjacent and underlying soils, and alluvial sediments, along with surface water in Cañon de Valle. Between 2000 and 2010, two remedial actions were deployed, removing much of the near-surface RDX, however, recharge due to precipitation has transported RDX into the perched-intermediate zone and into the regional aquifer. The report documents an independent technical review by scientists from the Department of Energy (DOE) Network of National Laboratories for Environmental Management and Stewardship (NNLEMS) to provide recommendations for potential near term actions to address and optimize remediation for both the Cr(VI) and RDX plumes. The proposed near-term remedial actions include design of pump and treat systems for Cr(VI) and monitoring and study for natural attenuation for RDX. The review assesses existing data, conceptual and numerical modeling, and it recommends a technical integration process to support identifying and implementing strategic, effective and efficient remedies. The DOE Environmental Management Los Alamos Field Office (EM-LA) and their cleanup contractor Newport News Nuclear-BWTX, LLC Los Alamos (N3B) provided the information required for the review. Interviews were also conducted with regulators to obtain the full spectrum of technical, regulatory and scientific perspectives. The independent review team was impressed by the capabilities, experiences, innovativeness, and insightfulness of the technical representatives from both the regulator, the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) and N3B. Incorporation of vadose zone flow pathways in the conceptual site model (CSM) and configuring the numerical modeling for the site was generally state-of-the-practice (or better). This could be considered state-of-the-art by addressing uncertainties related to spatial extent of hydraulic windows. The reviews from the regulators were thorough and often provided useful concepts for consideration and future/study resolutions. The overarching consensus recommendation of independent review team is that the LANL groundwater plumes should be addressed in context of the emerging "management of complex sites" paradigm.
DOE supported research suggests that gross primary productivity (GPP) is largely underestimated by global earth system models [Welp et al., 2011], reflecting the persistent challenge in extrapolating from local-scale GPP observations to global-scale earth system models. This poor understanding of GPP at large spatial scales is of particular concern in tropical forests. In tropical forests, some earth systems models forecast a powerful feedback between a warming climate and a decline in GPP resulting in forest dieback. While this simulated feedback is intensely debated, we lack robust large-scale constraints on GPP that are needed to resolve this debate. In particular, carbon dioxide measurements provide valuable information on net carbon flux, but not on the gross flux associated with GPP. Here we conducted a study of regional-to-global scale GPP using atmospheric carbonyl sulfide to provide a new constraint on GPP mechanisms in earth system models. Our project activities integrated modeling, in situ measurement, and remote sensing techniques to resolve GPP for the Amazon as well as global scale trends. The results of this work included initiating airborne carbonyl sulfide monitoring in the Amazon, training for postdocs and graduate students at a Hispanic Serving Institution, fundamental advances in carbonyl sulfide budgets [e.g. Hilton et al., Nature Climate Change, 2017], and high-profile publications that focused on GPP trends for the Amazon [Stinecipher et al., GRL, 2022] and global historical GPP trends [Campbell, et al., Nature, 2017]. Based on the suggestion of our DOE program manager, we published a state-of-the-science commentary to the scientific community on GPP monitoring with COS [Campbell et al., EOS, 2017] which was selected as the cover story. DOE support was acknowledged in all reports. The importance of this research to understanding climate change was communicated to the general public through community seminars (Rotary, Public Libraries, State Parks), an op-ed (SF Chronicle), and interviews in the mass media including two stories in the New York Times (4/5/17; 7/30/18), one of which was especially widely read after it was featured in the New York Time’s Quote of the Day.
In this pilot project, the feasibility around the creation, management, and deployment of derivative datasets as a potential new class of intellectual property was explored. The objective of these derivative datasets was to address environmental, industrial, and commercial challenges in a novel way that could provide additional impact based on the research performed at PNNL. As a result of efforts in FY2021, two new derivative datasets were created using newly created code that would enable the facile creation of additional derivative datasets of varying complexity and integration from pre-existing and published originating datasets. In addition, the process workflows were documented, detailing how the creation, management, and deployment of the derivative datasets could integrate with existing processes within PNNL. Finally, exploratory interviews with industry allowed for the scoping of future collaboration and commercialization opportunities around derivative datasets.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory provided technical assistance to the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff to examine how Duke Energy’s Integrated System Operations Planning (ISOP) framework interacts with other electricity planning processes in South Carolina. While this report was prepared for the South Carolina ORS, the information contained herein may be useful to audiences in other states who are interested in IDP, including public utility commissions, state energy offices, other state agencies, utilities, and stakeholders. The report discusses how to access the ISOP process diagram created for the report, provides observations about Duke Energy’s ISOP from our interviews and review of publicly available materials; and assesses ISOP, based on best practices for integrated distribution planning.
This paper identifies and evaluates issues in traditional resource adequacy (RA) assessment practices, and how adjusting these practices may affect and depend on existing institutional arrangements for planning and procurement. The paper proposes a technical-institutional roadmap that would allow regulators in vertically-integrated jurisdictions and system planners and operators in restructured jurisdictions to revise RA practices across a range of components. First, we compile a critical review of current RA assessment practices based on (1) interviews with RA practitioners and (2) a review of recent technical literature. We find that (i) RA may need to expand beyond capacity adequacy to ensure energy adequacy – relevant for energy-limited resources such as storage – and potentially some form of ancillary service adequacy (e.g. enough ramping-up and ramping-down capability in the system); (ii) chronological hourly simulations for all hours in the year are the current best practice; (iii) metrics and models used do not reflect economic criteria in system operation and loss of load; and (iv) there is a need to improve representation of weather dependencies and weather data. Second, we review planning and RA reports for several private and public entities that plan generation and/or transmission infrastructure in the continental U.S. to look for existing practices involving resilience assessments. We find no systematic treatment of the costs of extreme weather and other hazards, the benefits of resilience, and resilience metrics in planning analyses and no systematic treatment of resilience metrics, methods, and outcomes for resource adequacy purposes. Third, we create a technical framework for probabilistic RA assessment and use it to study how key choices about how to model power system operations affect the values that are obtained for RA metrics. We find that (i) non-economic dispatch schemes that ignore economic objectives can lead to accurate RA assessments when coordinated with detailed operational strategies; (ii) multi-year data is critical to capture a wide variety of system conditions; (iii) not incorporating transmission limits into RA assessment could lead to substantial underestimation of traditional “expected value” RA metrics; and (iv) new RA metrics that capture event-specific shortfall characteristics should be used as supplements to traditional metrics. Finally, we examine RA assessments and use this information to propose a guide of evolving industry standards for resource adequacy assessments in resource planning and transmission planning. We report minimum, best, and frontier practices for temporal resolution of assessments, metrics and targets, weather data, load forecasting, characterization of variable renewable resources, characterization of transmission and market transactions, RA modeling and integration with planning processes, and capacity accreditation.
Residential photovoltaic (PV) costs have fallen consistently for over a decade (Ardani et al. 2018). DOE has subsequently developed a new residential PV cost target for 2030 of $0.05/kilowatt hour (SETO 2023). Ardani et al. (2018) conclude that integrated roofing and PV (RIPV) products may be key to achieving the residential target for both new construction and retrofit residential PV. In RIPV, the PV product is incorporated into or replaces the roofing material. RIPV systems can use conventional crystalline or thin-film technologies, may be aesthetically attractive alternatives to traditional racked and mounted PV systems, and may increase building property values (Cook et al. 2023). These products also have the potential to provide customer acquisition, labor, and equipment cost savings over traditional, racked and mounted residential rooftop PV and several companies have recently introduced integrated roofing and PV (RIPV) products (Cook et al. 2023). In 2022, Tesla was the market leader, representing 94% of RIPV capacity installed in 2022 through its Solar Roof offering, while GAF Energy and its Timberline Solar product was second capturing 3% (Feldman et al. 2023). In this project, NREL analyzed three research questions: (1) How do current RIPV products compare to racked and mounted PV in terms of costs, install times and processes? (2) How are RIPV products installed and are there opportunities for cost savings? (3) What are the key barriers to expanding market opportunities for integrating solar and roofing products? In this project, we explored residential RIPV cost reduction opportunities by analyzing installation processes. Our study documented residential RIPV installations at two reroofing sites (20.52 kilowatts) and the equivalent of nine new construction sites (71.75 kW) in California through a methodology known as time and motion study. We also conducted 15 interviews with subject-matter experts to identify barriers and solutions to maximize these products' market penetration.
The U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Los Alamos Field Office (NA-LA), is pursuing the decommissioning and demolition (D&D) of facilities contaminated with high-explosives residues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (Laboratory or LANL). This effort affects nine facilities associated with high-explosives and detonator research, development, and storage: Technical Area (TA) 8 Facility 32 (TA-08-0032), TA-11-0036, TA-22-0016, TA-22-0023, TA-22-0025, TA-22-0035, TA-37-0006, TA-37-0009, and TA-37-0020. All nine facilities proposed for D&D have been evaluated for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and determined eligible. NA-LA previously requested the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) to concur with the NRHP-eligibility determinations of these nine properties presented in four reports: (1) TA-08-0032 was determined eligible for listing in the NRHP in the report, From Ranching to Radiography: An Assessment of Historic Buildings at Anchor West Site (TA-8), Vol. 1 (McGehee et al. 2008a). The SHPO concurred with this eligibility determination on November 26, 2008. (2) TA-11-0036 was determined eligible for listing in the NRHP in the report, ESA Division’s Five-Year Plan: Consolidation and Revitalization at Technical Areas 3, 8, 11, and 16, Vol. 1) (McGehee et al. 2003). The SHPO concurred with this eligibility assessment on June 22, 2003. (3) TA-22-0016, TA-22-0023, TA-22-0025, and TA-22-0035 were determined eligible for listing in the NRHP in the report, DX Division’s Facility Strategic Plan: Consolidation and Revitalization at Technical Areas 6, 8, 9, 14, 15, 22, 36, 39, 40, 60, and 69, Vol. 1 (McGehee et al. 2005a). The SHPO concurred with these eligibility determinations on April 18, 2006. (4) TA-37-0006, TA-37-0009, and TA-37-0020 were determined eligible for listing in the NRHP in the report, High Explosives and the Nuclear Stockpile: An Assessment of Historic Buildings at Magazine Area C (TA-37), Vol. 1 (McGehee et al. 2008b). The SHPO concurred with these eligibility determinations on April 17, 2008. In a letter dated January 24, 2020, NA-LA acknowledged that the D&D of these nine NRHP-eligible facilities was an adverse effect that requires resolution through mitigation. NA-LA proposed the use of standard mitigation practices as defined in the Programmatic Agreement (PA) among the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, Los Alamos Field Office, the New Mexico State Historic Preservation Office, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Concerning Management of the Historic Properties at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico. The PA states that adverse effects to NRHP-eligible buildings and structures will be resolved according to the standard practices defined in Part II, Section 10, of the Laboratory’s Cultural Resources Management Plan, A Plan for the Management of the Cultural Heritage at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico (Purtzer et al. 2019), and Section 2.B of Appendix D of the PA itself. The standard practice documentation package includes the following components: (1) Interior and exterior photography and production of archival-quality digital photographs; (2) Documentation and curation of historically significant equipment and artifacts; (3) A list of all known drawings for the property; (4) Reduced-scale reproductions of selected drawings for the property; (5) A location map that shows the location of the property relative to the entire Laboratory property; (6) Reproduction of historical TA maps; (7) A TA map that depicts the footprint of each eligible and non-eligible facility; and (8) An expanded historic context that uses oral-history interviews, if available. On March 3, 2020, the SHPO concurred with the adverse effect determination and the mitigation plan. The documentation package, as previously described, is provided in Volumes 1 and 2 of this report.
The NSRC’s much-anticipated documentary, Oppenheimer: Science, Mission, Legacy, will premiere for Lab staff later this summer at the NSSB auditorium, and then be made available online. Speakers at the premiere will include film creator and primary producer Dave Tietmeyer (Multimedia Services, CEA-MP), Senior Historian Alan Carr (WRS-NSCMS), and NSRC Director Brye Steeves (WRS-DO). The film was entirely produced by the NSRC and Laboratory staff and will commemorate former director J. Robert Oppenheimer and his endeavors. Much of the material and several scenes featured in the film are based on collections from the Manhattan Project era and interviews with today’s Lab staff and Oppenheimer experts.
Nearly one-third of residences in the U.S. are multi-unit dwellings (MUDs), e.g., apartments and condominiums, and MUDs with five or more units account for approximately 45% of rental households. While 80% of EV charging takes place at home, less than 5% of home charging takes place at MUDs. With public electric vehicle (EV) charging still underdeveloped, lack of access to reliable home charging is a major barrier to EV adoption for MUD residents. Challenges to siting electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) at MUDs include the high upfront cost of EVSE installation, physical and/or electrical infrastructure constraints, a lack of clear incentives for property managers to invest in installing EV charging for tenants, and a limited number of EV charging service providers that offer solutions adapted to the unique needs of MUDs. Through award DE-EE0008473 from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE), Energetics, and Forth, along with a diverse team of partners, led a three-year project to address barriers to EV charging at MUDs by developing an online toolkit geared toward residents, homeowner associations (HOAs), and property managers. The project, referred to as Vehicle Charging Innovations – Multi-Unit Dwellings (VCI-MUD project), engaged stakeholders across the country to identify real and perceived barriers to EV charging at MUDs and explored innovative technologies that attempt to alleviate the identified barriers. Over the course of three and a half years, the project conducted 60 interviews with industry stakeholders, compiled findings in an easy-to-use toolkit, and disseminated the toolkit across national, regional, state, and local channels. Key findings and outcomes of the VCI-MUD project include: Identifying six primary barriers to the installation of EV charging at MUDs; Developing five fact sheets and eight case studies highlighting innovative charging solutions to address barriers, including real-world operational and financial data; Developing a user-friendly, online empowerment toolkit with five important points for “making your pitch” to support EV charging to assist residents, property managers, building managers, and HOAs explore options for MUD charging. The VCI-MUD online toolkit was designed with replicability in mind. It includes general tools and guides to evaluate EV charging demand, gauge readiness for EV charging installation, and develop actionable plans. The fact sheets and case studies highlight the diversity of emerging MUD EV charging solutions, featuring different geographic and structural installation scenarios and providing interested parties with a menu of options, rather than prescribing a one-size-fits-all solution. The following resources are included in the toolkit to provide MUD stakeholders with all the information needed to navigate EV charging installation at their MUD location: Empowerment Toolkit – Easy-to-read FAQ overview, stakeholder roles and responsibilities, and additional resources for MUD EV charging installations; Charging Basics – Glossary of terms and descriptions of charging features, installation and operating expenses; EV Charging Survey Templates – Resident-to-Resident, Property Manager-to-Resident and HOA-to-Resident template letters with pre-populated template questions; Technology Selection Tool – Charging barrier fact sheets and case study examples; Installation Checklist – Submittal document requirements for EVSE installations; MUD Building Self-Evaluation Survey – Self-guided evaluation of potential barriers to EV charging installation at MUD locations; Curbside Resources – Case studies and fact sheets for curbside charging options; Find a Certified Electrician – Approved list of certified EV charging installers; “Right-to-Charge” State Legal References – Legal requirements for charging equipment at MUD locations. The online toolkit was promoted extensively in the final six months of the project and will continue to be disseminated by the Clean Cities Coalitions and other partners after the end of the VCI-MUD project to encourage, support, and demonstrate viable solutions for vehicle charging infrastructure in MUDs.
When I joined the US ITER project for my internship, the ITER Organization (IO) in France had started working on rebaselining – changing major aspects of the scope, schedule, and/or cost. My main task at US ITER was to interview US ITER, ORNL, ITER Organization (IO), ASDEX, WEST, and Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) staff. I reviewed with them the proposed changes in the rebaselining, listened to their concerns and comments, took notes, and asked questions. To become familiar with the IO’s proposed rebaseline, I analyzed reports, studies, presentations, and graphs. I also attended conferences and webinars, both domestic and international. I compiled all the information and contrasting opinions into one presentation to present to US ITER staff.
Data Science Infrastructure (DSI) Project offers a standardized but flexible way of storing data and associated metadata to support AI/ML and data intensive scientific workflows: Establish requirements via use case interviews; Develop DSI framework to support flexible, secure, and accessible data stores tailored to researcher needs; Augment existing institutional frameworks for code management, performance testing and file indexing via automated DSI interfaces; Deploy DSI framework to support key use cases in collaboration with domain scientists.
District energy systems supplied by geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) have been deployed across the United States for both heating and cooling end uses. To better understand their performance and potential, the geothermal research team at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory analyzed cost and performance of five existing GHP-based district energy systems in the United States. The five systems selected are Ball State University in Indiana, Colorado Mesa University in Colorado, Miami University in Ohio, West Union in Iowa, and Whisper Valley in Texas. The necessary information, including district size, operation period, GHP performance, and costs, was collected through literature review and interviews. The survey results indicated the five systems studied consist of geothermal borehole field(s) and ground loop(s) connected to central loop. While the GHPs were in central plants at Ball State University and Miami University, the central loops at Colorado Mesa University, West Wood, and Whisper Valley were connected through service lines to individual heat pumps in each building. Our analysis indicates the systems have been operating reliably and cost-effectively and contributed to a reduction in carbon emissions.
This project was part of the Cyclotron Road program, which supports scientific entrepreneurs in their efforts to commercialize novel technologies with potential to address energy, manufacturing and climate related issues. The participants' technology is a lightweight cellular material system which could be applied to a range of products and markets and offer benefits of reduced weight, cost, waste, and carbon footprint. The objective of the project was to investigate potential opportunities and de-risk technical and market barriers in pursuit of successful commercialization. This project’s purpose was to find market pathways and technical roadmaps for commercializing the lightweight cellular material technology. The main problems to overcome are the risks in both tech and market. On the technical side, performance, weight, cost and speed of manufacturing, and other scaleup problems needed to be addressed. On the market side, the challenges included finding product/market fit, developing business models and go to market strategies, and developing commercial relationships within various industries. Our approach typically started with market analysis, in order to identify potential applications where our technology could solve problems and address pain points. To do this, we performed customer discovery, interviewing hundreds of industry stakeholders along all parts of the value chain for a given product or industry. From here, we would develop technoeconomic models which combined aspects of numerical modeling for structural and mechanical performance based on criteria from customers or industry guidelines such as stiffness, strength, weight, and other physical properties. Then, this would be combined with detailed cost models to translate the engineering solution into a manufacturable, scalable product. The challenge here was to have equal or better performance at lower cost and higher speed than existing solutions.