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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Exploring the Impact of Near-Term Innovations on the Technical Potential of Land-Based Wind Energy

Land based wind may play a critical role in reaching emissions reductions goals and high renewable contribution scenarios with capacity expansion modeling results estimating over 1 terawatt of land-based wind by 2035 to reach 100% clean electricity. Deployment of land-based wind at this magnitude may require significant investments in transmission infrastructure and will require significant land area for new wind and transmission. Cost reductions via technological advancements in wind turbine design, construction, and maintenance will have a major role in enabling the scale of deployment required. Since 1998, the levelized cost of wind energy has fallen by over 60% due to improvements in capacity factors, advancements in turbine controls, and cost reductions in installation, operation, and maintenance. These cost reduction pathways, generally referred to as wind technology "innovations", have enabled significant increases in the capacity and electric generation share of wind power in the United States. Nevertheless, achievements of past wind innovations have not led to widespread wind deployment outside of high wind speed geographies. This study evaluates the potential of near-term innovations to expand the geographic range of economically viable land-based wind power production in the United States. Many challenges to future deployment of wind power can be associated with increasing concentration in high-wind areas. As more wind power is deployed in these same areas, it is likely that residential and regulatory resistance to further deployment will increase, access to transmission will diminish, and options for distant companies and governments with renewable energy goals will remain limited. Therefore, this analysis aims to emphasize the potential for innovations to enable land-based wind in regions with limited wind deployment and with lower wind resource and better access to transmission.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Equitable Electrification Analysis for Existing Buildings in Richmond, CA [Slides]

Since June 2022, NREL has provided technical assistance in the form of research and analysis in order to support the City of Richmond in identifying strategies to equitably transition its existing buildings from reliance on natural gas to clean electricity. Building on data from the ResStock and ComStock tools, the analysis looked at the potential impacts of building envelope and electrification improvements on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, residential utility bills, jobs and employment, and indoor air quality. This presentation summarizes the findings from that research and analysis.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2023

Compact and Low-cost Microinverter for Residential Systems

Concerns regarding climate change from the use of fossil fuels have expedited the growth of renewable energy sources. One such form of renewables, solar energy, is already playing and will continue to play a major role in meeting U.S clean energy targets. Expanding solar power usage in residential networks is a critical step in the decarbonization and clean electricity movement. To achieve a carbon-free grid by promoting solar power to the general public, an aggressive cost reduction in solar power systems is essential. The power density of the equipment used in the solar power system is necessary to solve the challenges of solar power installation. This project aims to research, explore, and assess the possibility of reducing the microinverter cost and volume to achieve the next generation microinverters (NGMs) targets for residential solar photovoltaic applications.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Grid Cost and Total Emissions Reductions Through Mass Deployment of Geothermal Heat Pumps for Building Heating and Cooling Electrification in the United States

This report presents the results of a study on the potential grid impacts of national-scale mass deployment of geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) coupled with weatherization in single-family homes (SFHs) from 2022 to 2050. GHPs are a technology readiness level 10, commercially available technology across the United States. This study is an impact analysis only; installed costs and available land areas for installing GHPs are not accounted for in determining their estimated deployment. The three scenarios studied were (1) continuing to operate the grid as it is today (the Base scenario), (2) a scenario to reach 95% grid emissions reductions by 2035 and 100% clean electricity by 2050 (the Grid Decarbonization scenario), and (3) a scenario in which the Grid Decarbonization scenario is expanded to include the electrification of wide portions of the economy, including building heating (the Electrification Futures Study or EFS scenario). The analysis team modeled each of these three scenarios with and without GHP deployment to a large percentage of US building floor space. In all cases, deployment of approximately 5 million GHPs per year demonstrated system cost savings on the grid, consumer fuel cost savings through eliminated fuel combustion for space heating, and CO 2 emission reductions from avoided on-site fuel combustion—and, in the case of the Base scenario, CO 2 emissions reductions from the electric power sector. GHPs have traditionally been viewed as a building energy technology. The most notable result of this study, however, is the demonstration that GHPs coupled with weatherization in SFHs are primarily a grid cost reduction tool and technology that, when deployed at a national scale, also substantially reduces CO 2 emissions, even in the absence of any other decarbonization policy.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Simulate Wind Loading on RUTE SunTracker: Cooperative Research and Development (Final Report)

RUTE produces and delivers efficient, sustainable structural foundation systems for the wind and solar industries, instrumental in the effort to lower the cost of clean electricity and reduce CO2. RUTE's SunTracker is a high-clearance agrivoltaic solar array. The system uses raised cables, providing support with less materials and cost. These cables can provide tracking for increased energy generation and greater revenue, allowing the land beneath to be used for other means simultaneously. RUTE provided data files that NREL will use to perform computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to characterize and predict wind loading on the 6x6 RUTE SunTracker photovoltaic (PV) array. Varying both the panel orientations and wind speeds provides information on how the array can manage a variety of weather conditions. These results, in turn, inform RUTE's design and construction of these arrays.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

A Hot‐Swappable, Fault‐Tolerant, Modular Power Converter System for Solar Photovoltaic Plants

The performance metrics of the state-of-the-art commercial solar inverters, such as system cost, operation and maintenance (O&M) cost, service life, reliability, maintainability, and power density are much lower than the target metrics needed to achieve SunShot’s 2030 levelized cost of energy (LCOE) goals. To overcome the shortcomings of the existing solar inverters, this project proposed a novel Hot-Swappable, Fault-Tolerant, Modular Power Converter (HSFT-MPC) concept for solar photovoltaic (PV) plants and proved the concept through the design, fabrication, and laboratory test validation of a single-phase HSFT-MPC prototype. The HSFT-MPC has the following distinct advantages over the state-of-the-art: 1) elimination of harmonic/ electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter in the inverter stage due to the novel topology, 2) lower system cost and higher power density due to the modular design, elimination of harmonic/EMI filter, and lower cooling requirement, 3) higher efficiency due to lower switching frequencies, 4) higher reliability and longer (50 years) service life due to simpler cooling and fault tolerance capability, 5) easier installation, lower O&M cost, and improved maintainability due to the modular design and hot-swappable power electronic building blocks (PEBBs), and 6) improved manufacturability due to the modular design. This project developed a single-phase HSFT-MPC prototype with 25kW nominal output power, 2.4kV, 60Hz nominal AC output, lower than 5% AC output voltage total harmonic distortion, over 5 kW/L inverter power density, and 99.4% inverter peak efficiency, being tolerant to failure of single and multiple PEBBs, and capable of hot swapping of the failed PEBB(s). The HSFT-MPC enables uninterruptable operation of the solar PV plant when failure of single or multiple PEBBs or PV modules occurs. Compared with the existing solar inverters in the market, the HSFT-MPC is expected to reduce the inverter failure-caused downtime and energy losses of solar PV plants by more than 60% and 50%, respectively. Project findings have been presented at major conferences in the field and published in peer-reviewed papers, which added new knowledge to the field of power electronics for solar PV systems. A minicourse on Solar PV Systems was developed for outreach activities. The minicourse will help attract young individuals to the renewable energy profession which has a significant talent shortage. The HSFT-MPC is expected to overcome all of the shortcomings of the state-of-the-art solar inverters in terms of cost, efficiency, service life, reliability, maintainability, and manufacturability targets needed to achieve SunShot’s 2030 LCOE goals. Therefore, the proposed HSFT-MPC concept has the great potential to disrupt the current solar inverter market. This project created a pathway towards industry adoption of the HSFT-MPC to help achieve 50-year service life solar PV systems. Since the solar PV plants using the HSFT-MPC will feature with higher reliability, longer service life, and easier maintenance, they are particularly useful for the rural areas with underserved populations that demand reliable and affordable clean electricity. The outcomes of the project have the strong potential to address national needs in the field of renewable energy to reduce CO 2 emissions from the electricity sector, reduce imports of energy from foreign sources, and improve energy security, efficiency, and sustainability. Since electricity is used in almost all of society’s sectors, the outcomes of the project will benefit various sectors of society and economy.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

GRACE Final Technical Report

The GRACE project (Grid that is Risk-Aware for Clean Electricity) was a five-year research initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency- Energy (ARPA-E) under the PERFORM program. Led by Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment, with contributions from The Ohio State University, North Carolina State University, Dartmouth College, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the project addressed a fundamental challenge in grid management: conventional software plans for a single most-likely outcome and relies on reserves as a buffer, leaving utilities poorly equipped for the growing variability introduced by renewable energy. GRACE demonstrated a better approach: explicitly representing thousands of plausible future scenarios and choosing operating schedules that perform well across all of them.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Innovative Accident Tolerant Fuel Materials May Help Extending the Life of Light Water Reactors: A Perspective

One of the main sources of clean electricity in the civilian power grid comes from light water reactors (LWRs). Some of these LWRs are being decommissioned prematurely because they may not be economically sustainable. It is proposed that the use of accident-tolerant fuel concepts may enable for LWR plant operation extension by making them safer and more economically competitive to operate. For example, the use of iron-chromium-aluminum (FeCrAl) alloys for the cladding of the fuel would not only reduce the risk of catastrophic reaction between the cladding and its environment in the case of a loss of coolant accident situation but also, for example, allow for higher fuel burnup during normal plant operation.

Materials Science↗
NASA NTRS2004

Solid oxidized fuel cells seals leakage setup and testing

As the world s reserves of fossil fuels are depleted, the U.S. Government, as well as other countries and private industries, is researching solutions for obtaining power, answers that would be more efficient and environmentally friendly. For a long time engineers have been trying to obtain the benefits of clean electric power without heavy batteries or pollution-producing engines. While some of the inventions proved to be effective (i.e. solar panels or windmills) their applications are limited due to dependency on the energy source (i.e. sun or wind). Currently, as energy concerns increase, research is being carried out on the development of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC). The United States government is taking a proactive role in expanding the technology through the Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA) Program, which is coordinated by the Department of Energy. into an electrical energy. This occurs by the means of natural tendency of oxygen and hydrogen to chemically react. While controlling the process, it is possible to harvest the energy given off by the reaction. SOFCs use currently available fossil fuels and convert a variety of those fuels with very high efficiency (about 40% more efficient than modem thermal power plants). At the same time they are almost entirely nonpolluting and due to their size they can be placed in remote areas. The main fields where the application of the fuel cells appears to be the most useful for are stationary energy sources, transportation, and military applications. structure and materials must be resolved. All the components must be operational in harsh environments including temperatures reaching 800 C and cyclic thermal- mechanical loading. Under these conditions, the main concern is the requirement for hermetic seals to: (1) prevent mixing of the fuel and oxidant within the stack, (2) prevent parasitic leakage of the fuel from the stack, (3) prevent contamination of the anode by air leaking into the stack, (4) electrically isolate the individual cells within the stack, and (5) mechanically bond the cell components. The sealing challenges are aggravated by the need to maintain hermetic boundaries between the different flow paths within the fuel cell throughout cycled operation. Within the timeframe of my tenure, the main objective is to assist in building a state-of-art test facility.

Bastrzyk, Marta B.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Novel Space-based Solar Power Technologies and Architectures for Earth and Beyond

Research, development and studies of novel space-based solar power systems, technologies and architectures for Earth and beyond are needed to reduce the cost of clean electrical power for terrestrial use and to provide a stepping stone for providing an abundance of power in space, i.e., manufacturing facilities, tourist facilities, delivery of power between objects in space, and between space and surface sites. The architectures, technologies and systems needed for space to Earth applications may also be used for in-space applications. Advances in key technologies, i.e., power generation, power management and distribution, power beaming and conversion of beamed power are needed to achieve the objectives of both terrestrial and extraterrestrial applications. Power beaming or wireless power transmission (WPT) can involve lasers or microwaves along with the associated power interfaces. Microwave and laser transmission techniques have been studied with several promising approaches to safe and efficient WPT identified. These investigations have included microwave phased array transmitters, as well as laser transmission and associated optics. There is a need to produce "proof-of-concept" validation of critical WPT technologies for both the near-term, as well as far-term applications. Investments may be harvested in near-term beam safe demonstrations of commercial WPT applications. Receiving sites (users) include ground-based stations for terrestrial electrical power, orbital sites to provide power for satellites and other platforms, future space elevator systems, space vehicle propulsion, and space to surface sites. This paper briefly discusses achieving a promising approach to the solar power generation and beamed power conversion. The approach is based on a unique high-power solar concentrator array called Stretched Lens Array (SLA) for both solar power generation and beamed power conversion. Since both versions (solar and laser) of SLA use many identical components (only the photovoltaic cells need to be different), economies of manufacturing and scale may be realized by using SLA on both ends of the laser power beaming system in a space solar power application. Near-term uses of this SLA-laser-SLA system may include terrestrial and space exploration in near Earth space. Later uses may include beamed power for bases or vehicles on Mars.

Howell, Joe T.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Advanced Energy Conversion Technologies and Architectures for Earth and Beyond

Research, development and studies of novel space-based solar power systems, technologies and architectures for Earth and beyond are needed to reduce the cost of clean electrical power for terrestrial use and to provide a stepping stone for providing an abundance of power in space, i.e., manufacturing facilities, tourist facilities, delivery of power between objects in space, and between space and surface sites. The architectures, technologies and systems needed for space to Earth applications may also be used for in-space applications. Advances in key technologies, i.e., power generation, power management and distribution, power beaming and conversion of beamed power are needed to achieve the objectives of both terrestrial and extraterrestrial applications. There is a need to produce "proof-ofconcept" validation of critical WPT technologies for both the near-term, as well as far-term applications. Investments may be harvested in near-term beam safe demonstrations of commercial WPT applications. Receiving sites (users) include ground-based stations for terrestrial electrical power, orbital sites to provide power for satellites and other platforms, future space elevator systems, space vehicle propulsion, and space surface sites. Space surface receiving sites of particular interest include the areas of permanent shadow near the moon s North and South poles, where WPT technologies could enable access to ice and other useful resources for human exploration. This paper discusses work addressing a promising approach to solar power generation and beamed power conversion. The approach is based on a unique high-power solar concentrator array called Stretched Lens Array (SLA) applied to both solar power generation and beamed power conversion. Since both versions (solar and laser) of SLA use many identical components (only the photovoltaic cells need to be different), economies of manufacturing and scale may be realized by using SLA on both ends of the laser power beaming system in a space solar power application. Near-term uses of this SLA-laser-SLA system may include terrestrial and space exploration in near Earth space. Later uses may include beamed power for bases or vehicles on Mars. Strategies for developing energy infrastructures in space which utilize this technology are presented. This dual use system produces electrical energy efficiently from either coherent light, such as from a highly coherent laser, or from conventional solar illumination. This allows, for example, supplementing solar energy with energy provided by highly coherent laser illumination during periods of low solar illumination or no illumination. This reduces the need for batteries and alternate sources of power. The capability of using laser illumination in a lowest order Gaussian laser mode provides means for transmitting power optically with maximum efficiency and precision over the long distances characteristic of space. A preliminary receiving system similar to that described here, has been produced and tested under solar and laser illumination. A summary of results is given.

Howell, Joe T.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Wind Energy Supply Chain Fact Sheet

Wind energy is essential to achieving the Biden Administration’s goals of a 100% clean electricity sector by 2035 and 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. On February 24, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a deep dive assessment of the land-based and offshore wind supply chains in the United States today, highlighting challenges and opportunities for strengthening these supply chains to help achieve the Administration’s goals and create U.S. jobs and economic opportunity.

wind, offshore, supply chain, DOE, fact sheet↗
DOE OSTI2024

Impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act on Consumer Energy Expenditures

The Inflation Reduction Act introduced or expanded a suite of federal tax credits for clean electricity generation and customer adoption of electric (and other highly efficient) end-use equipment. These incentives are expected to drive changes in both the electricity generation mix and demand for electricity (especially for space heating and light-duty vehicles), which are highly interconnected. In this session, Caitlin Murphy, Group Manager and Senior Analyst in NREL's Strategic Energy Analysis Center, will present findings from her team's recent state-level analysis on the combined effects of various IRA incentives on customer expenditures for electricity, natural gas, and gasoline. She will present and explain the regional variations observed in their analysis, based on interactions between end-use equipment cost and performance and projections for future energy prices.

air source heat pump↗
DOE OSTI2025

Thermal Systems Modeling for Integration of Industrial Processes with Advanced Nuclear

Applying combined heat and power concepts to advanced nuclear reactors can enable increased nuclear utilization in the future clean economy, as well as provide safe and reliable clean energy to industrial systems. Analyses have been performed to evaluate the integration of nuclear energy with industrial processes for both clean electricity production and providing process heat for direct use to reduce emissions in the production of chemical commodities. The key research question that needs to be answered is: "What are the prospective approaches for integrating nuclear-generated heat energy into non-electric applications that can facilitate combined heat and power operations by advanced nuclear reactor systems?" This presentation will highlight several case studies showing conceptual designs for thermal delivery systems to integrate small modular reactor (SMR) process steam and electricity with industrial processes including oil refining, hydrogen production, and methanol production.

hydrogen↗
DOE OSTI2023

Clean Energy and Microgrid Opportunities to Make Electricity Affordable, Reliable, and Clean in New Orleans

The City of New Orleans, Louisiana, is participating in the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Communities Local Energy Action Program (LEAP) Pilot, which is supporting 24 communities across the United States in their efforts to transition to clean energy to improve energy reliability, lower energy costs, and strengthen local economies. Communities LEAP is specifically open to low-income, energy-burdened communities that are also experiencing either direct environmental justice impacts, or direct economic impacts from a shift away from historical reliance on fossil fuels.

Communities LEAP↗
NASA NTRS1972

Electrical contacts to ion cleaned n-type gallium arsenide.

The electrical current through silver contacts evaporated onto n-type gallium arsenide is reported as a function of surface treatment. Contacts to untreated gallium arsenide exhibit the expected high resistance. Surface cleaning by argon ion bombardment reduces the resistance by three orders of magnitude. The electrical resistance beyond 850 eV increases rapidly with ion bombardment energy. The resistance minimum at 850 eV is explained semiquantitatively in terms of a balance between cleaning and surface damage.

Walker, G. H.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Wholesale Electricity Markets and Resource Adequacy with High Clean Energy Generation Targets

Wholesale electricity markets are intended to incentivize system generation investments and operations outcomes that meet evolving system needs. In this work, we evaluate the effectiveness of wholesale market structures, rules and policies in achieving system resource adequacy (RA) and clean energy targets in the presence of self-interested generation investors using the Electricity Markets and Investment Suite Agent-based Simulation (EMIS-AS) model. Results highlight that both capacity markets and operating reserve demand curves (ORDCs) can help achieve a reliable system but with different RA compliance timelines and distribution of generation technologies. Structures with capacity markets tend to favor more capital-intensive peaking technologies while reducing wind and solar build-outs due to suppressed energy and clean energy market prices, particularly in the absence of strong clean energy targets. Conversely, ORDCs improve the commitment of available generation units, but this comes at the expense of higher system costs and renewable generation curtailment. We also find that well-calibrated static capacity demand curves can yield similar reliability and total cost compared to capacity market demand curves informed dynamically by resource adequacy while also yielding stable annual capacity prices. Different approaches to formulating ORDC curves can also yield key trade-offs, namely that a more efficient treatment of storage chronology results in lower ORDC curves and prices, yielding less investment and cost but at the expense of reliability. Finally, the effectiveness of wholesale electricity markets in practically achieving very high clean energy generation targets highly depends on the cost-competitiveness of clean energy technologies that can support critical balancing needs across multiple timescales.

capacity expansion↗
DOE OSTI2023

Report on the Creation and Progress of the Hydrogen Regulatory Research Review Group

The current U.S. nuclear generation fleet is increasingly recognized by governmental, scientific, public policy, and industrial communities as having a strategic role in support of the ongoing national transition to a clean energy future. Federal incentives and actions are aligning to expand the role of nuclear power as a viable and more flexible contributor to the evolving national clean energy mix through programs and initiatives such as nuclear power loan guarantees; the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) clean nuclear electrical, steam, and hydrogen incentives; the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, also referred to as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act or BIL); and near term Department of Energy (DOE) funding opportunities related to nuclear based hydrogen hubs and nuclear integrated hydrogen demonstration projects. . Additionally, leveraging clean nuclear electricity and steam is being explored by industries desiring to transition away from carbon-intensive energy sources. Even with all these emerging enablers, notable barriers remain for the widespread adoption of these opportunities within the U.S. nuclear fleet, including the following: • Assurance of the markets for alternate products needed to support decision-making for large capital modification investments • Electric utility mindset and business history centered solely on producing electricity • Design change complexity and regulatory uncertainty associated with plant modifications needed to support alternate product streams The DOE Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Flexible Plant Operations and Generation (FPOG) Pathway is developing options to help U.S. nuclear power plants (NPP) in all these areas to enable NPPs designed for steady baseload operation to integrate with intermittent wind and solar capacity to assure reliable clean energy for the nation. Current and near-term laboratory research is focusing on the technical, regulatory, safety, demonstration, and economic elements in support of improving nuclear plant flexibility through hybrid production of electricity and other non-electric products such as hydrogen and energy arbitrage.

42 ENGINEERING↗