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BESS Digital Assurance, Supply Chain Risk Management, and Emerging Regulation Session Two

The TADA BESS Supply Chain Workshops are designed to equip participants with the knowledge and tools necessary to address the evolving challenges at the intersection of battery energy storage systems (BESS), cybersecurity, and supply chain vulnerabilities. The workshops emphasize the application of Cyber-Informed Engineering (CIE) principles using INL’s procurement guide and the CIE-BAT tool. Attendees will develop risk-based security strategies and actionable compliance roadmaps tailored to their BESS projects. Additionally, the program fosters a collaborative network of practitioners and provides guidance on navigating emerging regulatory requirements, including FEOC rules under the OBBB framework, to assess and enhance organizational readiness. A comprehensive exploration of BESS cybersecurity supply chain risks, systematic vendor risk assessment through the BESS Procurement Guide, and practical application of the INL SCRM Chatbot for enhanced supply chain resilience. This is Session 2 of 3. (Full Version)

25 - ENERGY STORAGE↗

Clean Energy for the Battery-to-EV Supply Chain: A Roadmap for Indonesia - Summary Brief

Indonesia has a unique opportunity to support the clean energy transition, enhance energy security, and spur economic growth with local battery manufacturing, bridging from the material supply all the way to pack designs and, ultimately, the manufacturing of electric cars. Following the elevation of United States and Indonesia relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, leaders of both countries highlighted the importance of Net Zero World support for Indonesia's energy transition, including collaboration on low-carbon battery supply chains. In support of this agreement, Net Zero World has partnered with Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and other Indonesian partners to chart actionable steps for establishing a clean, resilient battery supply chain and circular economy. This partnership aims to position Indonesia as a regional leader in clean energy and can help attract investment in the domestic battery and electric vehicle (EV) sectors.

batteries↗

A National Roadmap for Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings

The way electricity is generated and consumed in the US is quickly changing, including in terms of the rapid growth in variable power generation resources and the need for large-scale investments to replace aging infrastructure and modernize the grid. Buildings that coordinate electricity use with grid conditions are a flexible and cost-effective resource to address the evolving power system challenges. Outfitted with smart technologies, GEBs are energy-efficient buildings with smart technologies characterized by the active use of distributed energy resources to optimize energy use for grid services, occupant needs and preferences, and cost reductions in a continuous and integrated way. In doing so, GEBs can play a key role in promoting greater affordability, resilience, environmental performance, and reliability. The report finds that, over the next two decades, GEBs could deliver between $100 and $200 billion in savings to the US power system and cut CO 2 emissions by 80 million tons per year by 2030, or 6% of total power sector CO 2 emissions. The report also provides 14 recommendations for addressing the top barriers to overcome barriers to GEB adoption and deployment.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Activating Opportunity Zones for Rapid Solar+Storage Deployment in Low Income Communities (Final Report)

Millions of Texans choose their own power provider, giving them the option to have low-cost and even renewable energy delivered through their retail electric plan. However, Texans with less disposable income often pay more for electricity and have limited access to green energy and emergency backup power even though the costs of solar and wind power are at record lows and continue to decline. The Powered for Good initiative aimed to help deliver clean, affordable, 100% renewable electricity to low-income households in Texas’s Competitive Retail Areas, where households can choose their electricity provider. Objectives: The primary goal of this project was to develop and validate one or more affordable solar+storage products (i.e., priced less than of $0.14/kWh) that Retail Electricity Providers (REP) can offer to LI households. The team achieved three objectives: 1. Investigate how to best reduce electricity costs and increase availability of emergency power for LI customers; 2. Build momentum for, and facilitate an approach to, a Texas-based pilot deployment of such solar+storage products, with a goal of greatly expanding this approach to a large segment of the LI population in Texas; 3. Provide the structural framework, finance model, and roadmap to potentially increase investment of solar+storage projects in LI communities across U.S. states when modified to meet their state-specific laws and regulations. The team evaluated the market of viable solutions for low-income Texans through interviews and focus groups with professionals and residents with lived experience. The team then piloted a low-cost retail electric product. Following the pilot, the team developed educational materials, including fact sheets, a Go Green Save Green interactive guide, and an Electricity Bill Analysis Tool. The team is now working to increase power resilience and reduce energy insecurity with micro solar and storage in partnership with local entities in the Harris County area. Key Findings: Informed by Powered for Good research, including the experiences on Texas residents and electricity system experts, the Powered for Good team developed a pilot that was implemented by Energy Well Texas, a new company formed in late 2020. The pilot featured a combination of a 100% clean residential energy offering delivered through the electrical grid plus a selection of batteries, lights and a solar panel that provided participants with varying levels of backup power. For the 8 customers who submitted previous bills, the Energy Well Texas pilot reduced energy bills by about 30%. In Houston, residents earning less than 30% of Area median Income (AMI) spend an average 13% of their income on energy or about $1,555 per year. Repeating the pilot results for these residents could yield $466 in savings per customer or about 4% of their income. While this will not end energy poverty, it is a big step toward that goal. The Powered for Good and Energy Well Texas teams are currently planning their post-pilot phase of service offerings.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Challenges and Roadmap for Solar-Thermal Desalination

Decarbonizing desalination systems requires combining renewable energy technologies with desalination systems. Solar thermal desalination, which combines a thermal desalination system (e.g., distillation, multistage flash, etc.) with a concentrated solar system is attractive in geographic regions with an abundance of saline water and solar energy. However, the high economic cost and low efficiency limits its adoption. This review provides an overview of the techno-economic, materials, and performance challenges that need to be overcome to realize solar-desalination. The review describes the four most prominent pathways for overcoming thermodynamic and cost limitations present in current systems. Specifically, methodologies and approaches such as direct solar evaporation structures, low-cost thermal energy storage, solar cogeneration schemes for power and desalination, and solar hybrid desalination are discussed. Furthermore, these strategies can enable solar thermal desalination technologies that are resilient to intermittent solar energy.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Assessing the New Home Market Opportunity: Case Study and Cost Modeling for Solar and Storage in 2030

Residential solar and storage markets are growing in the United States. With approximately 1 million new homes constructed every year, this represents a significant opportunity for solar and storage installations. Some homebuilders have begun to build new homes with solar and storage included as a standard offering. It is not clear how solar and storage is incorporated into the new construction process and at what cost. Further, it is unclear what barriers or opportunities exist to scale this model nationwide. To fill this gap in the literature, this research conducts a case study of Mandalay Homes' new solar and storage community in Arizona to gather lessons learned. From this foundation, we further generate a set of pathways to reduce install costs and expand solar and storage market penetration in this sector. To model existing and 2030 solar and storage costs, we use the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) bottom-up cost model. This modeling is further informed by 12 interviews conducted with new home builders, solar contractors, and other subject matter expert organizations. Our case study analysis generated three key considerations for other homebuilders including: 1. Educating local permitting, inspection, and in some cases utility officials on solar and storage products, designs, and code compliant building practices may be required. The need for education may decline as more local governments and utilities review and approve solar and storage projects. 2. Incorporating solar and storage systems into the homebuilding process can add complexity and related coordination challenges. This does not need to result in home construction delays, but can result in costly contractor "dry runs" to construction sites. 3. Deploying solar and storage at the time of new construction has significant economies of scale, which can improve the value proposition of the systems. The case study, extant literature, and interviews were used to model both existing and future solar and storage installation costs at time of new construction. Here, we find three key cost reduction opportunities relating to solar and battery storage hardware, customer acquisition, and overhead. If future contractors can maximize the cost reduction opportunities outlined here, residential new construction costs could decline by 8 - 25% by 2030, depending on the modeled scenario. Though we expect costs to decline through 2030, it is unclear which of these scenarios may ultimately appear. Interviewees further identified a variety of barriers across each cost category that could temper the savings shown here. At the same time, interviewees described several pathways to scale the new construction solar and storage market, beyond installation cost savings. Interviewees confirmed that changes in finance, rate design, resilience policies, deployment mandates, and DER aggregation could all support more market adoption than seen today. These findings suggest that there are significant opportunities to expand new construction markets and this research can serve as a baseline to assess progress in this segment through 2030.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Roadmap for the future of extreme wildfire events

Background Extreme wildfire events (EWEs) represent a growing threat globally, posing substantial risks to ecosystems, human communities, and infrastructure. Despite increased recognition of their ecological, social, and economic significance, current definitions of EWEs vary widely, reflecting disciplinary biases and regional contexts. This article emerges from an interdisciplinary workshop convened to reassess and refine the definition of EWEs, examine their impacts across ecological and social dimensions, and identify critical knowledge gaps impeding our understanding of these infrequent but important events. Results Our synthesis highlights significant limitations with existing definitions, particularly their reliance on subjective thresholds and their emphasis on extreme fire behavior alone. EWEs encompass a spectrum of complex, multi-dimensional phenomena that extend beyond immediate biophysical characteristics to include cumulative social, economic, and ecological impacts. These impacts often manifest over extended timeframes and include hazardous environmental contamination, severe geomorphic disturbances, ecosystem transformations, and unintended consequences of post-fire management actions. Current wildfire modeling frameworks inadequately capture these compounding factors, particularly the interactions among social systems, ecological conditions, and extreme fire behavior. To overcome these issues, we advocate for an interdisciplinary and context-sensitive approach to defining and studying EWEs. This revised definition emphasizes wildfires exhibiting anomalies in fire behavior, ecological outcomes, or social impacts relative to historically observed baselines, accommodating variability across different geographic regions and ecological settings. Conclusions Adopting an interdisciplinary framework that integrates biophysical and social sciences will enhance the predictive capability of wildfire models and improve resilience planning and response strategies. Filling identified knowledge gaps—such as limited high-quality empirical fire behavior data and insufficient integration of social dynamics into modeling—will better prepare communities and ecosystems to cope with and adapt to EWEs. This inclusive approach underscores the necessity for collaboration across disciplines and sectors, essential to managing extreme wildfires in an era of increasing climatic and ecological uncertainty.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

A Guide for Improved Resource Adequacy Assessments in Evolving Power Systems: Institutional and Technical Dimensions

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.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Hydrogen and Electric Charging Infrastructure for Heavy-Duty Trucks: A Nationally Scalable Megaregion Assessment

Decarbonizing regional and long-haul freight is challenging due to the limitations of battery-electric commercial vehicles and infrastructure constraints. Hydrogen fuel cell medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs) offer a viable alternative, aligning with the decarbonization goals of the Department of Energy and commercial entities. Historically, alternative fuels like compressed natural gas and liquefied propane gas have faced slow adoption due to barriers like infrastructure availability. To avoid similar issues, effective planning and deploying zero-emission hydrogen fueling infrastructure is crucial. This research develops deployment plans for affordable, accessible, and sustainable hydrogen refueling stations, supporting stakeholders in the decarbonized commercial vehicle freight system. It aims to benefit underserved and rural energy-stressed communities by improving air quality, reducing noise pollution, and enhancing energy resiliency. This research also provides a blueprint for replacing diesel in over-the-road Class 8 freight truck applications with hydrogen fueling solutions. The study focuses on the Texas Triangle Megaregion (I-45, I-35, and I-10), the I-10 corridor between San Antonio, TX, and Los Angeles, CA, and the I-5/CA-99 corridors between Los Angeles, CA, and San Francisco, CA. This area represents a significant portion of U.S. heavy-duty freight movement, carrying ~8.5% of the national freight volume. Using the OR-AGENT (Optimal Regional Architecture Generation for Efficient National Transport) modeling framework, the study conducts an advanced assessment of commercial vehicles, road and freight networks, and energy systems. The framework integrates data on freight mobility, traffic, weather, and energy pathways to deliver a region-specific, optimized vehicles powertrain architectures, infrastructure deployment solutions, operational logistics, and energy pathways. By considering all vehicle origin-destination pairs utilizing these corridors and all feasible fueling station location options, the framework's genetic algorithm identifies the minimum number and optimal locations of hydrogen refueling stations, ensuring no vehicle is stranded. It also determines fuel schedules and quantities at each station. A roadmap for station deployment based on multiple adoption trajectories ensures a strategic rollout of hydrogen refueling infrastructure.

Sujan, Vivek [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000269882342)↗

In-space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM) State of Play 2022 Edition

The future of spaceflight will yield increasingly more ambitious missions to support civil, national security, and commercial space sectors. Achieving these ambitious missions is not feasible using the traditional paradigm of launching an integrated, fully functioning system on a single launch vehicle. For example, science and human exploration missions will desire payloads that are larger than any foreseeable launch vehicle fairing, national security missions will require persistent assets that are mobile and resilient, and commercial space missions will require cost-effective ways to update to the latest technology on orbit. In-space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM) can vastly expand the performance, availability, and lifetime of space systems compared to the traditional paradigm of launching an asset with no intent to ever touch it again. ISAM capabilities foster an ecosystem that changes the space operations paradigm, creating the foundation for sustainable exploration and serving as a multiplier for other capabilities like space logistics, power generation, and reusability. Previous achievements in ISAM have enabled ambitious human and robotic space missions. NASA’s International Space Station (ISS) operations and maintenance, servicing missions of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV) demonstrate the dramatic operational missions that can be achieved using ISAM capabilities. Many current and upcoming flight demonstrations are advancing areas that will enable the next generation of civil, national security, and commercial space missions. This document describes the current state of ISAM missions, capabilities, and developments. Compiling and organizing the available ISAM capabilities will help mission designers incorporate ISAM technologies into their concepts, create the starting point for technology development plans and roadmaps, and provide technologists a survey of the field they are developing. This document divides the ISAM capabilities into 11 capability areas that describe the functions or activities that would be performed in space using ISAM. This version of the ISAM State of Play is part of a continuing journey to encourage the use of ISAM capabilities in space. Compiling and organizing the current state of ISAM provides a simple resource for those working in the ISAM ecosystem to ensure that the advancements being made build upon the investments of the past. The state of play is ever changing as new capabilities are developed, and this document will be periodically updated to ensure that it is relevant to those who need it in the future.

ISAM↗

Looking to the Future: A Call to Action for Advanced GNC Algorithm Verification and Validation

Future space systems will rely on autonomous Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) functions to efficiently manage safe and precise self-directed operations in uncertain complex environments. Fundamentally, the GNC system plays a key role in mission performance and safety because it computes the ideal trajectory (Guidance), determines the actual trajectory (Navigation), and executes the ideal trajectory (Control) of a vehicle’s position and attitude. Our current GNC systems are highly automated and already have a high degree of complexity. As missions become more ambitious, GNC systems for launch vehicles and space platforms (e.g., spacecraft, probes, and landers) will require higher levels of performance and autonomous operation than previously encountered, for example, this includes GNC for optimizing aerodynamic and/or propulsion performance during planetary entry. This GNC Verification and Validation (V&V) paper highlights concerns with what undoubtedly will be a trend towards increased complexity as fully autonomous GNC systems are developed for future space missions. Clearly, complex GNC systems pose challenges in the prelaunch V&V phase, which is a relatively expensive part of a mission’s life cycle. Essentially the V&V phase is focused on checking that the system effectively meets all the design and operational requirements for the mission. The authors of this paper (i.e., the Inter-Agency Working Group of GNC subject matter experts) focused on this fundamental question over the past few years: Will the GNC engineering community of practice be sufficiently prepared to perform the necessary V&V on evolving GNC architectures that are driven by very demanding requirements for autonomy, resiliency, reconfigurability, adaptability, and mission cost-benefit balance? It is the viewpoint of our Inter-Agency team that the GNC V&V approaches and processes needed to address the next generation of complex GNC systems, which likely will employ various forms of modern GNC technology, are not currently established to the level the community will need in the future. While researchers and practitioners have made some progress in developing new GNC V&V methods for modern GNC systems, a good deal of work remains to be done to codify such methods in a comprehensive and systematic manner. Thus, the Inter-Agency team’s partner organizations [the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the French Aerospace Lab (ONERA), and ISAE-SUPAERO] have conducted preliminary investigations into advancing GNC V&V techniques, which resulted in the identification of the need for education, new V&V tools, and benchmark problems for the GNC community. The necessary proactive steps to be taken to meet the challenges and fill the gaps in GNC V&V are summarized in this paper. The first steps include identifying advanced analysis tools, developing a GNC V&V roadmap, and expanding education and training programs for GNC practitioners. This paper is a call to action and proposes a comprehensive set of recommended actions for all our stakeholders: space agencies, researchers, and industry.

Samir Bennani↗