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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 577 records · Page 32
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Enhanced Component Performance Study: Turbine Driven Pumps 1998–2022

This report presents an enhanced performance evaluation of turbine driven pumps (TDPs) at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. The data used in this study are based on the operating experience failure reports from calendar year 1998 through 2022 as reported in the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) Industry Reporting and Information System (IRIS). The TDP failure modes considered for standby systems are fail to start (FTS), fail to run (FTR) for one hour of operation (FTR=1H), FTR after one hour of operation (FTR>1H), and for normally running systems FTS and FTR. An eight hour unreliability estimate is also calculated and trended. The component reliability estimates and the reliability data are trended for the most recent 10 year period while yearly estimates for reliability are provided for the entire study period. No increasing trends were identified for TDPs for the most recent 10 year period: The following decreasing trends were identified for TDPs for the most recent 10 year period: • Standby TDP FTR>1H failure rate • Normally running TDP FTR failure rate • Standby TDP unavailability • Standby MDP total unreliability (8-hour mission) • Standby TDP frequency of start demands (demands per reactor year) • Standby TDP frequency of FTR=1H hours (hours per reactor year) • Standby TDP frequency of FTR>1H events (failures per reactor year) • Normally running TDP frequency of start demands • Normally running TDP frequency of run hours • Normally running TDP frequency of FTR events.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Potential Heating Energy and Cost Savings of Dual Fuel Heat Pump Controls as a Residential Building Equipment Retrofit in the U.S.

This study investigated the energy and cost savings potential by modeling a dual fuel heat pump system with its control for a residential building in (5A) cold climate in U.S. The simulation analysis showed that the application of the DFHP system and its control to the target building can save the heating energy by 42% over a gas furnace system (baseline system). Although the HP-only system can save more heating energy (i.e.,53%) over the baseline system than DFHP system does, the DFHP with its control demonstrated the higher cost savings when a time of use electricity rate was considered.

Dual Fuel Heat Pump, Control, Residential Building↗
DOE OSTI2024

Numerical Modeling and Optimization of the iProTech Pitching Inertial Pump (PIP) Wave Energy Converter (WEC) (Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number: CRD-22-22968)

This work generated a first-of-its-kind automated workflow to couple time-domain simulations of wave energy converters written in one software language with a set of design generation and evaluation scripts written in another software language. This automated workflow used an existing optimization package to analyze the sensitivity of different design parameters on the power output of a specific WEC, iProTech’s Pitching Inertial Pump (PIP). Geometric, inertial, and power take-off variables were all varied and optimized to find values that produced the highest amount of power generated over varying wave conditions. The findings on these parameter sensitivity studies are used to inform future design iterations of the PIP WEC. Including more design variables in the optimizations will only increase computational run time and further software development is needed to analyze a larger optimization.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2025

ComStock Measure Scenario Documentation: Reduced Thermostat Setbacks for Heat Pumps

This report provides documentation of a measure for the End Use Savings Shapes project, which consists of analysis of different energy efficiency and renewable energy measures on the commercial building stock, using NREL's ComStock tool. The measure consists of a reduction in thermostat setbacks for air-source heat pump RTUs.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Evaluating Air-Source Heat Pumps with Distributed Energy Resources in REopt

This training introduces attendees to NREL's REopt(R) web tool and its capabilities in evaluating air-source heat pumps (ASHP) alongside distributed energy resources (DERs). Designed for energy managers, facility operators, and sustainability managers, this session will explore how REopt provides techno-economic analysis to assess the financial viability of ASHP while identifying synergies with solar PV and battery storage. Participants will gain practical insights into using REopt to optimize energy strategies, reduce costs, and improve site resilience.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2026

Pumped Storage Hydropower Resource and Deployment Potential

There is growing interest in deploying new pumped storage hydropower (PSH) to meet grid needs for flexibility, reliability, and resiliency. This presentation describes how NLR resource assessment, cost modeling, and capacity expansion modeling are used to identify technical and economic PSH deployment potential and support industry decision-making on PSH investments. NLR's open data and tools demonstrate the vast technical potential of PSH on the order of 80 TW, and modeling shows economic PSH deployment under an attractive cost-value proposition.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Opportunities in Hydropower and Pumped Storage Hydropower

Hydropower and pumped storage hydropower (PSH) are established technologies with a long-standing presence in the United States, but the industry remains dynamic with an active relicensing pipeline and growing interest in PSH to provide large-scale energy storage and grid services. NLR has developed a range of tools, data, and analysis that supports the evaluation of hydropower and PSH opportunities, complementing other DOE-supported efforts in this space. This presentation initiates a conversation around the future of hydropower and PSH and how it can inform the National Academy of Sciences investigation of possible DOE-supported regional energy-water technology pilots.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Making Small-Volume Heat Pump Water Heaters Larger: A Design Framework for Integrated Phase Change Material Heat Exchangers

Those that use electricity for water heating, the majority use resistive elements rather than heat pump water heaters (HPWHs), the latter of which use 60-70% less energy than the former. One major barrier to wider HPWH adoption is the added equipment required, which prevents current 50-80-gallon tanks on the market from fitting into smaller utility closets sized for 30-40 gallons, such as those found in manufactured housing. Additionally, these smaller HPWHs tend to underperform relative to their larger counterparts. One solution that addresses both space and performance concerns is thermal energy storage, and in particular, phase change materials (PCMs). PCMs have been studied extensively in building envelope and HVAC systems, but remain a nascent technology in residential water heating. While water itself has a uniquely high energy storage capacity, PCMs have an even higher energy storage density, thus providing the potential to elevate the performance of 40-gallon HPWHs to that of 50-gallon or larger tanks. This research is part of a larger project that seeks to utilize thermal energy storage to enable decarbonized water heating in low-income communities. In this study, we outline the design process used to produce novel PCM heat exchangers for use in small-volume HPWH tanks, including the identification of design constraints and performance targets relevant to real-world applications. In order to ensure optimal PCM utilization and tank storage capacity, we focus here on co-maximizing surface area and PCM volume in the heat exchangers; therefore, this research targets triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) lattices. TPMS lattices boast enhanced heat transfer capabilities compared to traditional heat exchanger geometries and offer highly tailorable designs; thus, they pair well with the growing field of additive manufacturing, or 3D printing. Starting with a suite of TPMS lattices, we demonstrate a systematic approach for narrowing down feasible designs that comply with identified constraints while meeting PCM performance objectives.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Methods for Assessing Opportunities for Ring Dam Pumped Storage Hydropower

There is growing interest in new pumped storage hydropower (PSH) deployment to provide a range of grid flexibility, reliability, and resiliency services under an evolving and uncertain future power sector. The National Laboratory of the Rockies develops open PSH resource assessment and cost modeling tools to help evaluate PSH deployment opportunities, and this report describes expansions to those tools to consider an additional PSH system configuration - ring-dam reservoirs built on flat topographical features that are constructed from roller-compacted concrete material. This reservoir type is common among current PSH proposals and requires new methods to identify sites with this reservoir geometry throughout the United States and characterize the associated dam cost. Cost characterization for ring dam reservoirs required collecting historical dam cost data for earthen, rockfill, and roller-compacted concrete dams and regressing equations that relate costs between alternative materials. The ring dam site identification algorithm follows a 5-step procedure to identify circular geometry reservoirs. Once ring dam reservoirs are identified, they are then paired with potential dry-gully reservoirs, and the full set of potential paired reservoirs is cost-optimized to produce a least-cost set of potential PSH sites with no overlapping reservoirs. The resulting analysis found 1,663 ring-dam to dry-gully systems in the contiguous United States that are lower cost than any overlapping dry-gully to dry-gully systems, 29 in Alaska, and none in Hawaii or Puerto Rico. These systems constitute 1.5 TW of capacity in the contiguous United States and nearly 29 GW in Alaska, demonstrating that under suitable topography and head, ring-dam systems can provide cost-effective PSH opportunities. The greatest density of these opportunities are found in the intermountain west where there are mesas and flat land at bases of mountain ranges, but continued work could incorporate additional site characteristics or consider more complex reservoir shapes to find additional PSH deployment opportunities.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Challenges and Opportunities for Electric Utility Modeling and Asset Valuation Frameworks: Case Study on Valuing New Pumped Storage Hydropower

Asset valuation by electric utilities is becoming increasingly difficult in the rapidly changing electric sector. Rapid deployment of variable generation and inverter-based storage systems along with uncertain demand growth, climate, policies, and other factors create a challenging environment for understanding the value proposition of a new potential asset. This report describes an effort between the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and three U.S. Department of Energy laboratories to perform a detailed review of utility modeling and analysis practices for asset valuation and identify challenges and opportunities for advancing its methods into the future. It focuses on a case study of new potential pumped storage hydropower (PSH) because of growing interest in new PSH capacity to provide energy balancing, firm capacity, and a range of ancillary services. Staff from the DOE labs conducted systematic interviews about current practices in capacity expansion modeling, production-cost modeling, hydrological modeling, and transmission stability modeling while also discussing how scenario analysis is conducted and how models and data are integrated. The effort resulted in a set of model, integration, and scenario recommendations that could be valuable to TVA, other utilities, system operators, and other stakeholders conducting integrated grid analysis. Individual model recommendations suggest exploring computational tradeoffs with detail and resolution across spatiotemporal structure, supply- and demand-side details, transmission overlays, market interactions, and ancillary services. Automated processes to pass data between models and conduct larger scenario suites could also enhance valuation practices by enabling a more consistent study of asset value across a broader range of uncertain future grid conditions where PSH could be particularly valuable. TVA and other industry stakeholders can learn from and adapt applied research-grade methods developed by DOE laboratories and other research institutions to improve decision making and accelerate progress towards a reliable, economic, sustainable energy system.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

ComStock Measure Documentation: Variable-Speed Pumps

Building on the 3-year End-Use Load Profiles project to calibrate and validate the U.S. Department of Energy's ResStock and ComStock models, this work produces national data sets that enable cities, states, utilities, and other stakeholders to answer a broad range of questions regarding their commercial building stock. ComStock is a highly granular, bottom-up model that uses various data sources, statistical sampling methods, and advanced building energy simulations to estimate the annual subhourly energy consumption of the commercial building stock across the United States. The "baseline" model intends to represent the U.S. commercial building stock as it existed in 2018. The methodology of the baseline model is discussed in the ComStock Reference Documentation. The goal of this work is to develop energy efficiency and demand flexibility measures that cover market-ready technologies and study their mass adoption impact on the baseline building stock. "Measures" refers to various "what-if" scenarios that can be applied to buildings. The results for the baseline and measure scenario simulations are published in public data sets that provide insights into building stock characteristics, operational behaviors, utility bill impacts, and annual and sub-hourly energy usage by fuel type and end use. This report describes the modeling methodology for a single ComStock measure scenario - variable speed pumps - and briefly introduces key results. The full public data set can be accessed on the ComStock data lake or via the Data Viewer at comstock.nlr.gov. The public data set enables users to create custom aggregations of results for their use case (e.g., filter to a specific county or building type).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2026

Dual Purpose – Heating & Cooling – Thermal Battery for Flexible and Energy-Efficient Heat Pump Systems

The integration of heat pumps with thermal energy storage (HP-TES) systems is gaining attention as a viable solution for managing peak building demand driven by immense cooling and heating loads. With growing reliance on renewable energy sources, thermal energy storage offers an excellent opportunity to mitigate mismatches in thermal load between energy supply and demand. The use of phase-change material (PCM) TES is especially promising, as PCMs offer significant latent energy storage capacity with smaller temperature glides in smaller volumes compared to other TES technologies. However, challenges arise because current HP-TES architectures can load-shift only cooling or heating, not both, requiring two systems and thus doubling cost, weight, and footprint. Furthermore, current research efforts lack specific tools and techniques to advance integrated systems from concept design to end-user application, focusing on only discharge performance. To address these challenges, this research proposes a dual-mode (heating and cooling) integrated HP-TES system that uses room-temperature PCM-TES as a high-temperature heat source in heating mode and a low-temperature heat sink in cooling mode, thereby reducing temperature lifts and compressor power. Design criteria for PCM-TES heat exchangers were developed, balancing thermal-hydraulic performance with practical constraints such as available building space and weight requirements along with PCM selection considerations such as shipping conditions, moisture exposure, and number of available cycles. A detailed transient model for HP-TES systems was developed to enable rapid annual performance assessments in any US climate zone.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Corral Summit Pumped Storage Hydropower Hybrid: Site Suitability Assessment

In 2024, Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) initiated a technical-assistance project to support Cat Creek Energy, LLC, (CCE) in evaluating site suitability for the proposed Corral Summit Pumped Storage Hydropower (PSH) project in south-central Idaho near Mackay Reservoir. The Corral Summit facility incorporates battery storage and photovoltaic (PV) solar arrays in a Trybrid configuration to deliver large-volume long-duration (LVLD) storage solutions for rural electric cooperatives in eastern Idaho. The evaluation process focused on determining the most-suitable location for the upper reservoir of the PSH system, guided by a comprehensive assessment framework spanning multiple categories, including physical characteristics, environmental constraints, building infrastructure, regulatory constraints, cultural resources and sensitivity, social factors, and power market and grid integration. Each site was analyzed based on a ranking scale (0–1), which scores ranging from “severely disfavored” to “highly favored,” allowing detailed comparisons of site-specific conditions. Categories such as hydraulic head, utilities corridor, land ownership, and transmission-grid limitations emerged as key contributors to the overall assessment. Site 2 (Idaho Trust) demonstrated a slight advantage over Site 1 (Bureau of Land Management) primarily due to favorable outcomes in regulatory constraints, building infrastructure, and power-market integration. However, Site 1 outperformed Site 2 in factors related to physical characteristics and social factors. The report emphasizes the need for further evaluation of both sites before clear determination of which site is preferred, due to the limited information available on either site at the time of this report. Key areas of evaluation to clearly define the preferred site are ecological impacts, cultural-resource surveys, and economic-feasibility assessments. For successful project execution, recommended follow-up actions include seismic and geotechnical surveys, groundwater and habitat monitoring, regulatory reviews of water rights and right-of-way agreements, cultural engagement with local tribal governments, and enhanced stakeholder strategies. These efforts will ensure the Corral Summit Trybrid facility meets local energy needs while balancing environmental, social, and regulatory responsibilities.

13 - HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Enhanced Component Performance Study: Motor Driven Pumps 1998-2024

This report presents an enhanced performance evaluation of motor-driven pumps (MDPs) at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. The data used in this study are based on the operating experience failure reports from calendar year 1998 through 2024 as reported in the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) Industry Reporting and Information System (IRIS). The MDP failure modes considered for standby systems are fail to start (FTS), fail to run (FTR) for one hour of operation (FTR=1H), FTR after one hour of operation (FTR>1H), and for normally running systems FTS and FTR. An eight-hour unreliability estimate is also calculated and trended. The component reliability estimates and the reliability data are trended for the most recent 10-year period while yearly estimates for reliability are provided for the entire study period.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Enhanced Component Performance Study: Turbine-Driven Pumps 1998-2024

This report presents an enhanced performance evaluation of turbine driven pumps (TDPs) at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. The data used in this study are based on the operating experience failure reports from calendar year 1998 through 2024 as reported in the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) Industry Reporting and Information System (IRIS). The TDP failure modes considered for standby systems are fail to start (FTS), fail to run (FTR) for one hour of operation (FTR=1H), FTR after one hour of operation (FTR>1H), and for normally running systems FTS and FTR. An eight hour unreliability estimate is also calculated and trended. The component reliability estimates and the reliability data are trended for the most recent 10 year period while yearly estimates for reliability are provided for the entire study period. No increasing trends were identified for TDPs for the most recent 10 year period.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2026

ResStock Measure Documentation: Heat Pump Water Heater

This report is part of a series describing different ResStock measures. "Measures" refers to energy efficiency retrofits that can be applied to buildings during modeling. This documentation covers the “Heat Pump Water Heater” measure upgrade methodology and briefly discusses key results.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗