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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2012

NREL Quickens its Tech Transfer Efforts

Innovations and 'aha' movements in renewable energy and energy efficiency, while exciting in the lab, only truly live up to their promise once they find a place in homes or business. Late last year President Obama issued a directive to all federal agencies to increase their efforts to transfer technologies to the private sector in order to achieve greater societal and economic impacts of federal research investments. The president's call to action includes efforts to establish technology transfer goals and to measure progress, to engage in efforts to increase the speed of technology transfer and to enhance local and regional innovation partnerships. But, even before the White House began its initiative to restructure the commercialization process, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory had a major effort underway designed to increase the speed and impact of technology transfer activities and had already made sure its innovations had a streamlined path to the private sector. For the last three years, NREL has been actively setting commercialization goals and tracking progress against those goals. For example, NREL sought to triple the number of innovations over a five-year period that began in 2009. Through best practices associated with inventor engagement, education and collaboration, NREL quadrupled the number of innovations in just three years. Similar progress has been made in patenting, licensing transactions, income generation and rewards to inventors. 'NREL is known nationally for our cutting-edge research and companies know to call us when they are ready to collaborate,' William Farris, vice president for commercialization and technology transfer, said. 'Once a team is ready to dive in, they don't want be mired in paperwork. We've worked to make our process for licensing NREL technology faster; it now takes less than 60 days for us to come to an agreement and start work with a company interested in our research.' While NREL maintains a robust patent portfolio, often companies are looking to do more than just license a technology. These relationships are invaluable in successfully moving technologies from NREL to the marketplace. 'We may generate new and potentially valuable innovations, but our commercialization partners do the heavy work of building a successful business around our technology,' Farris said. Tools such as CRADAs (Cooperative Research and Development Agreements) allow NREL to continue working with companies to refine and develop technologies. And, working with businesses is an area where NREL excels. NREL is responsible for one quarter of the CRADAs in the DOE system. 'When you look at the results of our CRADA program, you can demonstrate that we are actively engaged with companies in collaborating on research and moving technologies to market,' Farris said. NREL is first among DOE labs with 186 active CRADAs. And last year, NREL also was first with the number of new CRADAs signed. 'Part of the success in our working with industry goes back to NREL's mission to grow and support new industries,' Farris added. 'NREL has basic research capabilities, but we are never going to be the ultimate producer of a commercial product. That is the role of the private sector.' Farris also credits the advocacy and support that the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at DOE provides for these technology transfer activities. 'EERE's support is critical to our success,' Farris said. To assist the private sector in moving a technology from the lab to the manufacturing line, NREL has a number of programs in place to give that first, or even final, nudge toward commercialization. For instance, the Commercialization Assistance Program helps startups overcome technical barriers by granting free access to 40 hours of work at the lab. Through the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, NREL also helps clean energy businesses develop strong links with the financial community, as well as other key stakeholders in the commercialization process. In March, NREL formally opened the Colorado Center for Renewable Energy and Economic Development a cooperative program with the state of Colorado designed to bring together stakeholders and service providers that support the growth of cleantech companies. CREED currently is working with more than 25 stakeholders - governmental partners, universities, industry associations, venture capital organizations and small businesses - to improve the access these groups have to technologies developed at NREL and to provide services such as classes and workshops for entrepreneurs. When it comes to bringing together cleantech stakeholders, NREL's Industry Growth Forum is the marquee event. At the forum, clean energy entrepreneurs have the opportunity to present their business cases to an expert panel of investors and energy executives. Companies that have presented have raised $3.4 billion in funding to date.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2011

Thermal Processing Techniques to Improve Metal Sulfide Mixed Alcohol Catalyst Performance

Research over several decades by several institutions has shown that alkali-promoted metal sulfide catalysts are capable of producing mixed alcohols from syngas with high selectivity and yield. Unfortunately, process models suggest that syngas to mixed alcohol processes, and especially thermochemical biomass to mixed alcohol processes, require improvements to sulfide catalyst activity and/or selectivity for acceptable economics. These improvements, if incremental, cannot result in increased process complexity, capital expenditure, or catalyst costs. It is well accepted among catalyst researchers that thermal processing techniques like calcining and reduction can have profound effects on the properties and performance of finished catalysts, and that small variations in thermal processing do not usually affect the overall cost of the catalyst. Metal sulfide catalysts are no exception but surprisingly, little attention has been given to the effects of thermal treatment on bulk metal sulfide mixed alcohol catalysts. This presentation will discuss how parameters like temperature, dwell time, metal ratios, and purge gas affect the performance and physical properties of K-Co/Mo catalysts.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2011

National Lab Uses OGJ Data to Develop Cost Equations

For the past 30 years, the Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ) has published data on the costs of onshore and offshore oil and gas pipelines and related equipment. This article describes the methodology employed and resulting equations developed for conceptual capital cost estimating of onshore pipelines. Also described are cost trends uncovered during the course of the analysis.

02 PETROLEUM↗
DOE OSTI2011

The Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors

The Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) is a DOE Energy Innovation Hub for modeling and simulation of nuclear reactors. It brings together an exceptionally capable team from national labs, industry and academia that will apply existing modeling and simulation capabilities and develop advanced capabilities to create a usable environment for predictive simulation of light water reactors (LWRs). This environment, designated as the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA), will incorporate science-based models, state-of-the-art numerical methods, modern computational science and engineering practices, and uncertainty quantification (UQ) and validation against data from operating pressurized water reactors (PWRs). It will couple state-of-the-art fuel performance, neutronics, thermal-hydraulics (T-H), and structural models with existing tools for systems and safety analysis and will be designed for implementation on both today's leadership-class computers and the advanced architecture platforms now under development by the DOE. CASL focuses on a set of challenge problems such as CRUD induced power shift and localized corrosion, grid-to-rod fretting fuel failures, pellet clad interaction, fuel assembly distortion, etc. that encompass the key phenomena limiting the performance of PWRs. It is expected that much of the capability developed will be applicable to other types of reactors. CASL's mission is to develop and apply modeling and simulation capabilities to address three critical areas of performance for nuclear power plants: (1) reduce capital and operating costs per unit energy by enabling power uprates and plant lifetime extension, (2) reduce nuclear waste volume generated by enabling higher fuel burnup, and (3) enhance nuclear safety by enabling high-fidelity predictive capability for component performance.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2012

Impacts of Wind and Solar on Fossil-Fueled Generators: Preprint

High penetrations of wind and solar power will impact the operations of the remaining generators on the power system. Regional integration studies have shown that wind and solar may cause fossil-fueled generators to cycle on and off and ramp down to part load more frequently and potentially more rapidly. Increased cycling, deeper load following, and rapid ramping may result in wear-and-tearimpacts on fossil-fueled generators that lead to increased capital and maintenance costs, increased equivalent forced outage rates, and degraded performance over time. Heat rates and emissions from fossil-fueled generators may be higher during cycling and ramping than during steady-state operation. Many wind and solar integration studies have not taken these increased cost and emissions impactsinto account because data have not been available. This analysis considers the cost and emissions impacts of cycling and ramping of fossil-fueled generation to refine assessments of wind and solar impacts on the power system.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2010

Illuminating the Pecking Order in Off-Grid Lighting: A Demonstration of LED Lighting for Saving Energy in the Poultry Sector

The Lumina Project and Lighting Africa conducted a full-scale field test involving a switch from kerosene to solar-LED lighting for commercial broiler chicken production at an off-grid farm in Kenya. The test achieved lower operating costs, produced substantially more light, improved the working environment, and had no adverse effect on yields. A strategy using conventional solar-fluorescent lighting also achieved comparable yields, but entailed a six-fold higher capital cost and significantly higher recurring battery replacement costs. Thanks to higher energy and optical efficiencies, the LED system provided approximately twice the illumination to the chicken-production area and yet drew less than half the power.At the study farm, 3000 chickens were grown in each of three identical houses under kerosene, fluorescent, and LED lighting configurations. Under baseline conditions, a yearly expenditure of 1,200 USD is required to illuminate the three houses with kerosene. The LED system eliminates this fuel use and expense with a corresponding simple payback time of 1.5 years, while the solar-fluorescent system has a payback time of 9.3 years. The corresponding reduction in fuel expenditure in both cases represents a 15percent increase in after-tax net income (revenues minus expenses) across the entire business operation. The differential cost-effectiveness between the LED and fluorescent systems would be substantially greater if the fluorescent system were upsized to provide the same light as the LED system. Providing light with the fluorescent or LED systems is also far more economical than connecting to the grid in this case. The estimated grid-connection cost at this facility is 1.7 million Kenya Schillings (approximately 21,250 USD), which is nearly six-times the cost of the fluorescent system and 35-times the cost of the LED system.The LED system also confers various non-energy benefits. The relative uniformity of LED lighting, compared to the fluorescent or kerosene lighting, reduced crowding which in turn created a less stressful environment for the chickens. The far higher levels of illumination also created a better environment for the workers, while eliminating the time required for obtaining fuel and maintaining kerosene lanterns. An additional advantage of the LED system relative to the solar fluorescent system was that the former does not require a skilled technician to carry out the installation. The portable LED system lighting layout is also more easily adjusted than that of the hardwired fluorescent systems. Furthermore, switching to the LED system avoids over one metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions per house on an annual basis compared to kerosene. There is high potential for replication of this particular LED lighting strategy in the developing world. In order to estimate the scale of kerosene use and the potential for savings, more information is needed on the numbers of chickens produced off-grid, as well as lighting uses for other categories of poultry production (egg layers, indigenous broilers ). Our discovery that weight gain did not slow in the solar-fluorescent house after it experienced extended lighting outages beginning on day 14 of the 35-day study suggests that conventional farming practices in Kenyan broiler operations may call for more hours of lighting than is needed to achieve least-cost production.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Offshore Wind Plant Balance-of-Station Cost Drivers and Sensitivities (Poster)

With Balance of System (BOS) costs contributing up to 70% of the installed capital cost, it is fundamental to understanding the BOS costs for offshore wind projects as well as potential cost trends for larger offshore turbines. NREL developed a BOS model using project cost estimates developed by GL Garrad Hassan. Aspects of BOS covered include engineering and permitting, ports and staging, transportation and installation, vessels, foundations, and electrical. The data introduce new scaling relationships for each BOS component to estimate cost as a function of turbine parameters and size, project parameters and size, and soil type. Based on the new BOS model, an analysis to understand the non-turbine costs associated with offshore turbine sizes ranging from 3 MW to 6 MW and offshore wind plant sizes ranging from 100 MW to 1000 MW has been conducted. This analysis establishes a more robust baseline cost estimate, identifies the largest cost components of offshore wind project BOS, and explores the sensitivity of the levelized cost of energy to permutations in each BOS cost element. This presentation shows results from the model that illustrates the potential impact of turbine size and project size on the cost of energy from US offshore wind plants.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Understanding Wind Power Costs: The Value of a Comprehensive Approach (Presentation)

The evolution and maturity of the wind industry have often been assessed by considering changes in key metrics including capital costs, capacity factor, turbine pricing, and in some cases electricity sales data. However, wind turbines and plants represent a complex system optimization problem and each of these metrics, in isolation, fails to tell the complete story of technological progress and industry advancement. By contrast, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) provides a more comprehensive and nuanced perspective on industry trends. LCOE can be used to analyze the effect of individual changes (by holding other variables constant) or to understand the complex interactions that might occur for example between turbine costs and productivity. Moreover, LCOE offers a reflection of the total production costs and required revenue for wind plants. This presentation provides examples of how a narrow focus on individual industry metrics can provide inaccurate representations of industry trends while also demonstrating how LCOE captures the array of critical industry variables to provide a greater level of insight.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2012

Southeastern Power Administration 2012 Annual Report

Dear Secretary Moniz: I am pleased to submit Southeastern Power Administration’s (Southeastern) fiscal year (FY) 2012 Annual Report for your review. This report reflects our agency’s programs, accomplishments, operational, and financial activities for the 12-month period beginning October 1, 2011, and ending September 30, 2012. This past year, Southeastern marketed approximately 5.4 billion kilowatt-hours of energy to 487 wholesale customers in 10 southeastern states. Revenues from the sale of this power totaled about $263 million. With the financial assistance and support of Southeastern’s customers, funding for capitalized equipment purchases and replacements at hydroelectric facilities operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) continued in FY 2012. Currently, there are more than 214 customers participating in funding infrastructure renewal efforts of powerplants feeding the Georgia-Alabama-South Carolina, Kerr-Philpott, and Cumberland Systems. This funding, which totaled more than $71 million, provided much needed repairs and maintenance for aging projects in Southeastern’s marketing area. Drought conditions continued in the southeastern region of the United States this past year, particularly in the Savannah River Basin. Lack of rainfall strained our natural and financial resources. Power purchases for FY 2012 in the Georgia-Alabama-South Carolina System totaled approximately $29 million. About $8 million of this amount was for replacement power, which is purchased only during adverse water conditions in order to meet Southeastern’s customer contract requirements. Southeastern’s goal is to maximize the benefits of our region’s water resources. Competing uses of these resources will present another challenging year for Southeastern’s employees. With the cooperation and communication among the Department of Energy (DOE), preference customers, and Corps, I am certain Southeastern is positioned to meet these challenges in the future. We are committed to providing reliable hydroelectric power to preference customers, which ultimately serve more than 12 million consumers in the southeast. Sincerely, Kenneth E. Legg Administrator

Mississippi↗
DOE OSTI2011

Southeastern Power Administration 2011 Annual Report

Dear Secretary Chu: I am pleased to submit Southeastern Power Administration’s (Southeastern) fiscal year (FY) 2011 Annual Report for your review. This report reflects our agency’s programs, accomplishments, operational, and financial activities for the 12-month period beginning October 1, 2010, and ending September 31, 2011. This past year, Southeastern marketed approximately 6.2 billion kilowatt-hours of energy to 489 wholesale customers in 10 southeastern states. Revenues from the sale of this power totaled more than $264 million. With the financial assistance and support of Southeastern’s customers, funding for capitalized equipment purchases and replacements at hydroelectric facilities operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) continued in FY 2011. This funding, which totaled more than $45 million, provided much needed repairs and maintenance for aging projects in Southeastern’s marketing area. Currently, there are more than 214 customers participating in the funding efforts in the Georgia-Alabama-South Carolina, Kerr-Philpott, and Cumberland Systems of projects. Drought conditions continued in the southeastern region of the United States this past year, particularly in the Savannah River Basin. Lack of rain placed strains on our natural and financial resources. Power purchases for FY 2011 totaled approximately $38 million. About $9 million of this amount was for replacement power, which is purchased only during adverse water conditions in order to meet Southeastern’s customer contract requirements. Southeastern’s goal is to maximize the benefits of our region’s water resources. Competing uses of these resources will present another challenging year for Southeastern’s employees. With the cooperation and communication among the Department of Energy (DOE), preference customers, and Corps, I am certain Southeastern is positioned to meet these challenges in the future. We are committed to providing reliable hydroelectric power to preference customers, which ultimately serve more than 12 million consumers in the southeast.

2011↗
DOE OSTI2014

2014 State of Western's Assets

In this report we document the State of Western’s Assets in terms of physical equipment, financial resources, strategic direction, and human capital, both at the organizational and regional levels. We identify the condition of our assets today and share what work we will be doing in these areas in the coming years.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2010

Progress Addressing Safeguards Capability Development Needs through Educational Outreach and Knowledge Management

This paper describes the NGSI Human Capital Development Program's domestic and international activities, and offers specific case studies to exemplify the outcomes and progress achieved in this area over the past several years. The paper highlights the importance of a sustained effort to address the human dimension of safeguards and nonproliferation and to address critical work force issues in the U.S. and abroad.

international safeguards, human capital developmen↗
DOE OSTI2015

RF System Requirements for a Medium-Energy Electron-Ion Collider (MEIC) at JLab

JLab is studying options for a medium energy electron-ion collider that could fit on the JLab site and use CEBAF as a full-energy electron injector. A new ion source, linac and booster would be required, together with collider storage rings for the ions and electrons. In order to achieve the maximum luminosity these will be high-current storage rings with many bunches. We present the high-level RF system requirements for the storage rings, ion booster ring and high-energy ion beam cooling system, and describe the technology options under consideration to meet them. We also present options for staging that might reduce the initial capital cost while providing a smooth upgrade path to a higher final energy. The technologies under consideration may also be useful for other proposed storage ring colliders or ultimate light sources.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Building America Case Study: Rehabilitation of USDA Multifamily Homes, Georgia (Climate Zones 2-4)

Rea Ventures Group, LLC, (Rea Ventures) partnered with Southface Energy Institute (Southface) on the rehabilitation of 418 low-income rental multifamily apartments located at 14 different properties in Georgia (Climate Zones 2-4). These 22-year old, individually-metered units were arranged in rowhouse or townhouse style units. Rehabilitation plans were developed using a process prescribed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development program, who partially funded the building upgrades. The USDA is responsible for building, upgrading, and subsidizing housing in rural areas nationwide. In 2012, over $100 million was allocated in grants and loans. Due to the unique financing mechanism as well as long-term ownership requirements, property owners are especially motivated to invest in upgrades that will increase durability and tenant retention. These buildings represent a large stock of rural affordable housing that have the potential for significant energy and cost savings for property owners and tenants. Southface analyzed the energy upgrade potential of one stereotypical property in the Rea Ventures portfolio. This study will provide insight into the most cost-effective, implementable energy efficiency and durability upgrades for this age multifamily housing, having an enormous impact not only on the portfolio of Rea Ventures but on the vast USDA and larger Federal portfolio. Additionally, Southface will identify gaps in the current capital needs assessment process, examine available audit and simulation tools and protocols, and evaluate additional auditor training or certification needs.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2017

Terms, Trends, and Insights: PV Project Finance in the United States, 2017

This brief is a compilation of data points and market insights that reflect the state of the project finance market for solar photovoltaic (PV) assets in the United States as of the third quarter of 2017. This information can generally be used as a simplified benchmark of the costs associated with securing financing for solar PV as well as the cost of the financing itself (i.e., the cost of capital). This work represents the second DOE sponsored effort to benchmark financing costs across the residential, commercial, and utility-scale PV markets, as part of its larger effort to benchmark the components of PV system costs.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Establishing Green Revolving Funds in Healthcare

This case study describes Cleveland Clinic’s use of a $7.5 million Green Revolving Fund, which preserves dedicated financing for energy performance improvements, alleviating budget pressures and avoiding competition with other departments for capital.

green revolving fund, financing, capital, healthca↗
DOE OSTI2012

IAEA coordinated research project on thermal-hydraulics of Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactors (SCWRs)

The Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactor (SCWR) is an innovative water-cooled reactor concept, which uses supercritical pressure water as reactor coolant. It has been attracting interest of many researchers in various countries mainly due to its benefits of high thermal efficiency and simple primary systems, resulting in low capital cost. The IAEA started in 2008 a Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on Thermal-Hydraulics of SCWRs as a forum to foster the exchange of technical information and international collaboration in research and development. This paper summarizes the activities and current status of the CRP, as well as major progress achieved to date. At present, 15 institutions closely collaborate in several tasks. Some organizations have been conducting thermal-hydraulics experiments and analysing the data, and others have been participating in code-to-test and/or code-to-code benchmark exercises. The expected outputs of the CRP are also discussed. Finally, the paper introduces several IAEA activities relating to or arising from the CRP. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2012

ADRIANA project: Identification of research infrastructures for the SFR, within the frame of European industrial initiative for sustainable nuclear fission

Fast neutron reactors have a large potential as sustainable energy source. In particular, Sodium Fast Reactors (SFR) with a closed fuel cycle and potential for minor actinide burning may allow minimization of volume and heat load of high level waste and provide improved use of natural resources (as compared to only 1% energy recovery in the current once-through fuel cycle, with Thermal Reactors, such as EPR). The coordinating action ADRIANA (Advanced Reactor Initiative And Network Arrangement) has been initiated to set up a network dedicated to the construction and operation of research infrastructures in support of developments for the European Industrial Initiative for sustainable nuclear fission. The Project sets these objectives for the following reactor systems and related technologies: Sodium Fast Reactor (SFR), Lead Fast Reactor (LFR), Gas Fast Reactor (GFR, including very high temperature technologies), Instrumentation, diagnostics and experimental devices, Irradiation facilities and hot laboratories, Zero power reactors. Among the fast reactor systems, the sodium cooled reactor has the most comprehensive technological basis as result of the experience gained from worldwide operation of several experimental, prototype and commercial size reactors, since the forties (see Appendix I). This concept is currently considered as the reference, within the European strategy. Innovations are needed to further enhance safety, reduce capital cost and improve efficiency reliability and operability, making the Generation IV SFR an attractive option for electricity production. Currently, in France, a moderate (500 to 600 MWe) power demonstrator named ASTRID (Advanced Sodium Test Reactor for Industrial Demonstration) has been proposed and endorsed by EU. Presently, the reference configuration is a pool concept. General R and D needs have been identified and experimental facilities required to satisfy these needs have been listed for the following domains: material and coolant, thermal-hydraulics and safety, severe accidents, systems and components validation, instrumentation and Education and Training. Then, the contributors have detailed the different types of experimental facilities, existing as well as lacking facilities. A ranking procedure of the facilities has been carried out, then a list of priorities and a road-map for investment has been established. (authors)

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗