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DOE OSTI2023

2023 SAGE-Camp Report

The 7 th Summer Physics Camp for Young Women was successfully held in person in 2023 from June 5 th to 16 th at the New Mexico School for the Arts in Santa Fe, NM at Hilo Intermediate School in Hawaii. This year’s camp was dedicated to the topic of Energy Security and was made possible thanks to the strong collaboration of Los Alamos, Sandia and Hawaii teams and the logistical and financial support of Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico Consortium, SAGE- Moore Foundation, LANL Foundation, ACS, IEE, APS four corners, N3B, Hawaii Museum of Science and Technology, New Mexico School for the Arts (NMSA) and Tech Source. The camp mobilized more than 120 volunteers who made the camp a success. The camp is free of charge to the students and included free lunch and snacks for the busy brains to have plenty of energy, also included all materials needed for the hands-on activities (like drone building, crystal structure, solar panels, wind turbine fabrication, soldering, coding etc) and also a stipend for students who attended for the full two weeks and for two educators and two student mentors in NM. The camp offered 32 high school students from New Mexico and 8 from Hawaii a unique opportunity to explore science topics and meet a broad range of role model professionals across STEM fields including astrophysics, cybersecurity, Energy fields, space science, engineering, biophysics, environmental science, robotics, computer science, nuclear engineering, radiological science, physics and chemistry. With nearly 120 volunteers who came mainly from Los Alamos National Laboratory (66%) and Sandia national laboratories (18%), two funded educators from NM, Dr. Weldon Beauchamp and Dr. Ellee Cook, and two educators from Hilo, Dr. Pascale Creek Pinner and LeAnn Ragasa, the camp was educationally sound and extremely varied. The collaboration with school educators is critical for the goal of this camp to not only impact students' lives but also improve STEM education in NM and Hawaii. The ultimate goal of the camp is to increase higher education aspirations of students, empower them to consider careers in STEM and learn more about the opportunities available to them in our local colleges and DOE National Laboratories. In addition, the camp also hired 2 past students as student mentors, Megan Odom and Elisea Jackson, who currently attend NMSA and were students at the camp in 2022 when it was virtual. The in-person camp which aims at empowering under-represented minorities in STEM in our community received more than 52 applications this year from all over NM and 8 applications from Hawaii. Our selection criteria are based on diversity, equity and inclusion, and students for whom the camp can be a life-changing opportunity are given a chance to attend the camp. During COVID, the camp was held virtually and gave the opportunity to students from remote areas in NM and Hawaii to attend from their homes. This year, fantastic families supported students everyday even when home was in remote areas in NM like Lea county, Sandoval county, Bernalillo or Mora county. The organizers hope next year they can offer a residential option for students from remote areas.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Envisioning the Future Renewable and Resilient Energy Grids—A Power Grid Revolution Enabled by Renewables, Energy Storage, and Energy Electronics

Today’s power grids are facing tremendous challenges because of the ever-increasing power demand, system complexity, infrastructure cost, knowledge base, and policy and regulatory issues to achieve supply–demand power balance and resiliency with respect to more frequent extreme weather events and cyberattacks. It is particularly challenging when the transition toward 100% intermittent renewable energy sources is considered. Many countries are calling for building up more transmission and distribution lines to increase power delivery capacities. This article is an attempt to answer two urgent questions: Is more transmission and distribution infrastructure really needed to meet the increasing power demand? What kind of future grid infrastructure should we envision and build? This article attempts to answer these questions and proposes the concept of community-centric asynchronous renewable and resilient energy grids. By clearly differentiating the concepts of grid resilience and reliability, the importance of building resilient power electronics’ devices and robust system-level control algorithms to achieve 100% renewable energy integrated resilient grids is presented. To identify the shortcomings and propose advancements, power electronics’ technologies are categorized using the proposed concepts of natural source frequencies (NSf), energy storage, direct energy conversion/control and fault protection (DeCaFp), and high-efficiency energy consumption and buffering (heECaB) technology. The ability of networked microgrids to greatly reduce power outages and power system restoration time is demonstrated by leveraging robust decentralized and centralized control algorithms, identified through a comprehensive literature review. Future research areas are proposed to further enhance grid stability, controllability, cybersecurity, and protection against faults in the presence of 100% renewable sources by leveraging the advanced capabilities of NSf, DeCaFp, and heECaB devices and system-level control algorithms.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Why are Lead Iodide‐Based Perovskite Precursor Inks Yellow?

A challenge faced by metal halide perovskite (MHP) photovoltaics is scaling up solution deposition processes to realize rapid and inexpensive manufacturing. The challenge lies in completely understanding and controlling solution speciation, nucleation, and self-assembly of iodoplumbate complexes during solvent evaporation as the liquid transforms into gels and solids. An accurate description of solution species, at all points in the transformation, is a prerequisite to design robust and reliable processes. Here, in this study, the common assumption that initial monoplumbate solution species typically invoked (e.g., [PbI 6 ] 4− ) are certainly not the origin of optical absorbance at >400 nm wavelengths is disproved, as are many large particles of common “intermediate” iodoplumbate phases with face- or edge-sharing connectivity. Instead, a new perspective is offered, involving (partially) corner-sharing iodo(poly)plumbates (>1 Pb 2+ per complex) that experience highly dynamic chemical environments. It is outlined how the MHP field would benefit by elucidating these phenomena. Future work is required to determine the size and kinetic behavior of polyplumbate species, and contextualize these findings in relation to broader trends in materials chemistry beyond MHPs. Ultimately, a complete explanation for the solution speciation, optical absorbance signatures, and the color of MHP precursor inks remains an open challenge to the community.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2021

Collaborative Research: Improved Efficiency and Coupling of the Radiation Code in the ACME Earth System Model (Final Report)

The complexity of radiative transfer, its importance to the exchange of energy in the climate system, and its high computational cost establishes importance of an accurate and efficient radiative transfer parameterization for climate simulation. Previous work by the proposing team at AER led to the development of the radiation code, RRTMG, which has been widely accepted by the global modeling community as a fast and accurate advancement over the previous generation of radiation codes. It has been in use in the NCAR CESM for many years, and it has been implemented in the initial version the DOE E3SM model. However, its computational cost remains high relative to other components in part due to its complexity and to its inefficient use of modern optimization strategies, and this project helped address this limitation for the code’s application in E3SM. Under other funding, the Investigators of this project led an effort to develop a high-performance broadband radiation code, called RTE+RRTMGP, which is a completely restructured code that will take advantage of modern computational capabilities to enhance its performance while retaining the strengths and accuracy of the original code. Designed to perform over a range of computer architectures, RTE+RRTMGP makes extensive use of Fortran 2003 features to improve both its efficiency and its use of memory. RTE+RRTMGP is expected to be adopted in the next generation of RTE+RRTMGP. This project allowed for advancements to the code’s computational capabilities and adding new and enhanced features. This included revising RTE+RRTMGP to run on GPU processors, analysis of and improvements to the code’s timing, modifying the gas optics in RRTMGP to increase the code’s accuracy, extensive validation of computed fluxes, heating rates and forcings, generating a cloud optical property and vertical sampling capabilities for RTE+RRTMGP, implementing a fast and accurate longwave scattering capability, and groundwork for the inclusion of a capability to specify solar variability. Many of the accomplishment in this project necessitated significant collaboration with the E3SM development team. The result of this project was optimization of a key physical component (radiative transfer calculations) of E3SM, directly supporting E3SM’s overarching global modeling objectives. More broadly, this project provided overall advancements in the use of radiative transfer calculations in atmospheric modeling and simulation, particularly for climate.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2024

A model to separate conduction and radiation in high temperature laser flash measurements for semi-transparent materials

Laser flash analysis (LFA) is a widely used technique in the scientific and industrial communities for measuring the thermal diffusivity and conductivity of materials. However, traditional fitting methods based solely on heat conduction do not account for radiation heat transfer in transparent and semi-transparent materials, which becomes significant at high temperatures. In this study, we have developed a coupled radiation-conduction model that considers the optical properties of materials to accurately extract thermal diffusivity from LFA measurements. We conducted LFA measurements on fused silica glass samples of varying thicknesses and within the temperature range of 25 to 1000 °C and fitted the data with the model. Since the coupled model requires optical properties as input parameters, which are often unavailable for new materials, we have also proposed a modified transparent model. Compared to the coupled model, results from the modified transparent model generally overestimate thermal conductivity, but the errors are acceptable in silica glass with small thickness. Here, we also investigated the applicability of the modified transparent model with materials of different optical properties.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

How to GIWAXS: Grazing Incidence Wide Angle X‐Ray Scattering Applied to Metal Halide Perovskite Thin Films

Abstract The frequency of reports utilizing synchrotron‐based grazing incident wide angle X‐ray scattering (GIWAXS) to study metal halide perovskite thin films has exploded recently, as this technique has proven invaluable for understanding several structure‐property relationships that fundamentally limit optoelectronic performance. The GIWAXS geometry and temporal resolution are also inherently compatible with in situ and operando setups (including ISOS protocols), and a relatively large halide perovskite research community has deployed GIWAXS to unravel important kinetic and dynamic features in these materials. Considering its rising popularity, the aim here is to accelerate the required learning curve for new experimentalists by clearly detailing the underlying analytical concepts which can be leveraged to maximize GIWAXS studies of polycrystalline thin films and devices. Motivated by the vast range of measurement conditions offered, together with the wide variety of compositions and structural motifs available (i.e., from single‐crystal and polycrystalline systems, to quantum dots and layered superlatices), a comprehensive framework for conducting effective GIWAXS experiments is outlined for different purposes. It is anticipated that providing a clear perspective for this topic will help elevate the quality of future GIWAXS studies—which have become routine—and provide the impetus required to develop novel GIWAXS approaches to resolve unsettled scientific questions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2021

Land use and turbine technology influences on wind potential in the United States

As clean energy ambitions have expanded, critically evaluating renewable energy supply has become increasingly important to the energy research community and stakeholders. This study examines the onshore wind resource potential for the conterminous United States and its sensitivity to siting constraints and turbine technology innovation. We compile localized regulatory information and use high-resolution data to present multiple siting regimes covering relatively constrained to unconstrained potentials. Our efforts reveal high sensitivity to these variables and sizable uncertainty in the overall wind energy resource potential. Specifically, we find that siting constraints may shift the total capacity available to commercial wind energy by 2.3–15.1 TW. Furthermore, our results illustrate that technology advancement could require larger setbacks from buildings and infrastructure, reducing the total available capacity potential by 20% relative to estimates using current technology, but that this reduction is largely offset by increased generation such that the net effect on generation is 1%. The observed sensitivity to and uncertainty resulting from the variables we analyze suggest there is value in continued study and development of increasingly sophisticated approaches to characterizing wind resource potential.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2021

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Primary Power Large-Scale Pilot Plant

The United States electrical power generation fleet encompasses a wide range of technologies, ranging from traditional combustion-based power generation, to nuclear power, to renewable energy. While the distribution of these assets continues to shift due to economic and regulatory influences, coal combustion continues to be a key part of the US energy portfolio. Despite the relative maturity of coal combustion technology, improvements in overall fuel-to-power efficiency and generation flexibility are still possible and will improve both the economic and environmental factors of coal combustion. Echogen Power Systems proposes to lead a world-class team including the University of Missouri, Electric Power Research Institute and Louis Perry Associates in the design, construction and operation of a 10MWe coal-fired supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO 2 ) large-scale pilot. This transformational technology uses sCO 2 as a working fluid instead of water to achieve high thermodynamic efficiencies that can significantly exceed advanced steam-Rankine cycles. Further, the compact nature of sCO 2 turbomachinery offers capital cost and footprint advantages, and the low maintenance of a water-free power cycle can significantly reduce operation and maintenance (O&M) costs over conventional steam-Rankine systems. Recent integration studies of sCO 2 with coal combustion power plants highlight the significant improvements in plant efficiency that sCO 2 can offer relative to even advanced steam Rankine cycles. At commercial scales, coal-sCO 2 plant net efficiency is predicted to be 39-44.0% (HHV), or 10-20% higher output than conventional steam-Rankine systems, which will significantly improve the competitiveness of coal-fired generation. This proposal builds upon projects previously funded by the Department of Energy, including DE-FE0025959 (High-Efficiency Thermal Integration of Closed Supercritical CO 2 Brayton Power Cycles with Oxy-Fired Heaters) and DE-NE0008470 (Conceptual Design for sCO 2 Power Cycle Test Facility). An appropriately-scaled and properly designed and operated pilot project is essential to overcome the natural risk-aversion of the power generation industry and project financing community. The 10 MWe coal-fired sCO 2 pilot power plant proposed herein will reduce the technical and economic risk of this transformational technology, enabling commercial deployment at the conclusion of the project. For the second phase of this project, Echogen lead a team that completed and refined the pilot system conceptual system and key component designs resulting in the completion of a front-end-engineering-design (FEED) study, completed the NEPA review process, completed the permitting process for construction and operation, refined the techno-economic analysis of the proposed system at commercial scale and received commitments for Phase III cost share. The end result of the program will be to demonstrate the technical and economic superiority of the sCO 2 power cycle for coal-fired operation. Major risk elements will have been retired with sufficient operation at high power to enable the power generation industry to move forward with the first commercial deployment of this transformational system.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

DOE OSTI2024

Interplay of coulomb and exciton–phonon coupling controls singlet fission dynamics in two pentacene polymorphs

Pentacene is an important model organic semiconductor in both the singlet exciton fission (SF) and organic electronics communities. We have investigated the effect of changing crystal structure on the SF process, generating multiple triplet excitons from an initial singlet exciton, and subsequent triplet recombination. Unlike for similar organic semiconductors that have strong SF sensitive to polymorphism, we find almost no quantitative difference between the kinetics of triplet pair (TT) formation in the two dominant polymorphs of pentacene. Both pairwise dimer coupling and momentum-space crystal models predict much faster TT formation from the bright singlet excited state of the Bulk vs ThinFilm polymorph, contrasting with the experiment. GW and Bethe–Salpeter equation calculations, including exciton–phonon coupling, reveal that ultrafast phonon-driven transitions in the ThinFilm polymorph compensate the intrinsically slower purely Coulomb-mediated TT formation channel, rationalizing the similarity in observed rates. Taking into account the influence of subtle structural distinctions on both the direct and phonon-mediated SF pathways reveals a predictive capability to these methods, expected to be applicable to a wide variety of molecular crystals.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Decision support for United States—Canada energy integration is impaired by fragmentary environmental and electricity system modeling capacity

The renewable energy transition is leading to increased electricity trade between the United States and Canada, with Canadian hydropower providing firm lower-carbon power and buffering variability of wind and solar generation in the U.S. However, long-term power purchase agreements and transborder transmission projects are controversial, with two of four proposed transmission lines between Quebec, Canada and the northeast U.S. cancelled since 2018. Here, we argue that controversies are exacerbated by a lack of open-source data and tools to understand tradeoffs of new hydropower generation and transmission infrastructure in comparison to alternatives. This gap includes impacts that incremental transmission and generation projects have on the economics of the entire system, for example, how new transmission projects affect exports to existing markets or incentivize new generation. We identify priority areas for data synthesis and model development, such as integrating linked hydropower and hydrologic interactions in energy system models and openly releasing (by utilities) or back-calculating (by researchers) hydropower generation and operational parameters. Publicly available environmental (e.g. streamflow, precipitation) and techno-economic (e.g. costs, reservoir size,) data can be used to parameterize freely usable and extensible models. Existing models have been calibrated with operational data from Canadian utilities that are not publicly available, limiting the range of scientific and commercial questions these tools have been used to answer and the range of parties that have been involved. Studies conducted using highly resolved, national-scale public data exist in other countries, notably, the United States, and demonstrate how greater transparency and extensibility can drive industry action. Improved data availability in Canada could facilitate approaches that (1) increase participation in decarbonization planning by a broader range of actors; (2) allow independent characterizations of environmental, health, and economic outcomes of interest to the public; and (3) identify decarbonization pathways consistent with community values.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2020

Outcomes of the DOE Workshop on Atmospheric Challenges for the Wind Energy Industry

The U.S. Department of Energy-funded Mesoscale-to-Microscale Coupling (MMC) project team planned and conducted a virtual Workshop on Atmospheric Challenges for the Wind Energy Industry on October 19 and 20, 2020. The goal of the workshop was to forge a dialog with the community, including industry representatives, on how modeling tools are currently being used, the present active atmospheric modeling research in support of wind energy, and required advancements in capabilities and technology to continue to advance wind energy deployment. The workshop was planned in collaboration with an industry advisory panel that included representatives from wind power plant developers, turbine manufacturers, and companies that provide resource assessment and forecasting services. The format of the workshop included panels from government research sponsors, visionaries from industry, and mixed panels of researchers discussing research status and needs. A shared keynote presentation from the Technical University of Denmark experts anchored the second day of the workshop. An emphasis was placed on understanding the research needs in the offshore environment. In addition, breakout opportunities were provided each day. On the first day, the breakout discussions addressed predesigned questions configured to elicit participants’ thoughts on needed research directions. The second-day breakouts treated three important technical topics through a combination of presentations and group conversations. Each workshop participant chose their breakout preference from among downscaling details, modeling for turbines, and using artificial intelligence for atmospheric modeling. The discussions were robust and productive. The outcomes of the workshop include archiving a series of recommendations from industry and the research community on research directions required to further advance wind energy deployment. Discussions confirmed the need for high-fidelity modeling but that there are specific areas of applicability and other areas where the time and cost of computation is prohibitive. In those cases, the high-fidelity models can inform low-order models that are more practical for real-time or widely deployed applications. Industry must consider the financial cost of performing more expensive modeling approaches, but industry engineers and researchers are using these approaches where there appears to be a return on investment. An emerging type of low-order model is based on machine learning (ML). Participants confirmed that there are many atmospheric phenomena that need to be modeled better, including low-level jets, cold air outbreaks, land-sea induced circulations, diurnal variability, thin stable boundary layers, dynamic changes such as from frontal passage, interaction of wakes and blockage, and more. For the offshore environment, there is wide agreement that some level of ocean-wave-atmospheric coupling is necessary to capture variations in rotor-level winds needed to plan and operate offshore wind plants. Another recurring recommendation is that more observations are needed, particularly for the offshore environment. Those observations should consider the needs for model improvement, both for physically based models and for ML models. Observations must capture atmospheric profiles of variables that are important to understanding and modeling atmospheric and oceanic phenomena that impact boundary layer winds. Models must be validated with data and the uncertainty quantified, particularly those that are sensitive to initial and boundary conditions. Finally, a repeated request was to consider the holistic needs of hybrid plants of wind, solar, and storage resources because those types of plants are likely to be the wave of the future. In addition, industry wishes to understand impacts of the resource under a changing climate for long-term planning.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2022

Countdown to perovskite space launch: Guidelines to performing relevant radiation-hardness experiments

Perovskite photovoltaics (PVs) are under intensive development for promise in terrestrial energy production. Soon, the community will find out how much of that promise may become reality. Perovskites also open new opportunities for lower cost space power. However, radiation tolerance of space environments requires appropriate analysis of relevant devices irradiated under representative radiation conditions. We present guidelines designed to rigorously test the radiation tolerance of perovskite PVs. We review radiation conditions in common orbits, calculate nonionizing and ionizing energy losses (NIEL and IEL) for perovskites, and prioritize proton radiation for effective nuclear interactions. Low-energy protons (0.05-0.15 MeV) create a representative uniform damage profile, whereas higher energy protons (commonly used in ground-based evaluation) require significantly higher fluence to accumulate the equivalent displacement damage dose due to lower scattering probability. Furthermore, high-energy protons may "heal" devices through increased electronic ionization. These procedural guidelines differ from those used to test conventional semiconductors.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Hydrogen Energy Storage System at Borrego Springs Towards an H2 Enabled 100 Renewable Microgrid

San Diego Gas & Electric's Borrego Springs Microgrid is one of the largest microgrids in the USA, serving 2500 residential customers, 300 commercial and industrial customers, and has a peak demand of approximately 14 MW. This microgrid is located at the end of a long transmission line, and is subjected to extreme weather events like storms, wildfires, and flooding, which frequently cause grid outages. The microgrid currently relies on 3.65 MW of diesel-powered generators to provide grid-forming services during these outages, which results in greenhouse gas and criteria pollutant emissions. However, the microgrid has access to approximately 37 MW of installed solar generation and struggles with overgeneration and curtailment. 1.5 MW/4.5 MWh of grid-scale batteries have been installed to capture some the overgeneration and provide resiliency, but a longer-duration low-greenhouse gas emission energy storage solution is needed. In our project, the team will evaluate in the lab and demonstrate in the field a grid-forming fuel cell inverter that can provide grid-forming services while utilizing hydrogen's energy storage scalability. We will first utilize NREL's Renewable Energy Integration and Optimization (REopt) platform to perform analyses on future microgrid scenarios that use hydrogen assets to reduce or eliminate the need for diesel backup generators. We will then evaluate the grid-forming inverter through power hardware-in-the-loop and controller hardware-in-the-loop experiments at ARIES, and de-risk the field deployment and operation of hydrogen assets in the microgrid setting. Finally, this project will demonstrate the operation of the fuel cell inverter and updated microgrid controller by operating in grid-forming mode in the Borrego Springs microgrid.

Borrego Springs↗

DOE OSTI2022

Designing Hydropower Flows to Balance Energy and Environmental Needs (HydroWIRES Topic A Final Project Report)

Hydropower is expected to play a new role in the US electricity grid as more variable renewable energy sources like wind and solar come online. Wind and solar generation increase fluctuations in electrical supply increasing the value of flexible generation sources that can quickly ramp generation up and down. The flexible generation hydropower can provide as well as the ancillary services (e.g., frequency and voltage regulation and reserves, black start capability) it provides for balancing and stabilizing the power grid are predicted to be of increased value in these future grid scenarios. Yet, the flexibility of hydropower may come with environmental costs due to up- and down-ramping of hydropower plants (i.e., quickly increasing or decreasing generation flows, respectively) which may strand fish, dewater or scour fish nests, alter habitat, or create unsafe recreational conditions that may be unacceptable to participants in the hydropower regulatory process. These types of environmental impacts are often mitigated through environmental flow requirements that specify minimum or maximum flow releases, or ramp-rates changes allowed at a hydropower facility. While it is not currently known to what degree electrical grid reliability could be affected by environmental flow requirements, gaining a better understanding of these interactions before the grid becomes more deeply decarbonized can help define what policy, regulation, or infrastructure may be needed to support the clean energy transition. As the future grid will rely on hydropower to provide both flexibility and robust environmental protections, the analyses and tools described in this report are centered on making mechanistic linkages between energy and the environment in hydropower systems. This understanding of energy-environment linkages can provide the foundational understanding needed to quantitatively assess the trade-offs between the increased generation flexibility that hydropower will be expected to provide and the environmental impacts of this flexibility. This report seeks to provide an objective foundation for building future science and tools that can be used by a broad spectrum of the hydropower community that is involved in licensing or environmental regulatory proceedings tasked with balancing energy and environmental objectives through flow management.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI1991

Recommendations for Establishing Local Rural Electrification Programs Using Photovoltaic Systems [Recomendaciones Para la Implantacidn de Programas Locales de Electrificacidn Rural con Sistemas Fotovoltaicos]

Photovoltaic (PV) technology is becoming one the best options for supplying electricity to rural communities far from electrical networks and which have a small and disperse demand for electricity. As the cost of the technology goes down and its development advances, opportunities for applying it continue to grow. As a result, in the near future we will probably see an increase in massive application programs of this technology in rural Mexico. This document presents some of the most relevant problems needing immediate solution to increase the possibility of success in establishing photovoltaic programs for rural electrification in Mexico. These problems are influenced by economic, technological, engineering, infrastructural, social and political issues. The paper presents the requirements for an industrial center based on PV technology, the accessibility of replacement parts and maintenance service, development of financial solutions, training of the users and introducing norms and technical regulations. The document summarizes the issue of rural electrification in Mexico, emphasizing the low population density in these areas. A brief description is given of photovoltaics showing different configurations that can be utilized for supplying electricity to the rural areas. The issues involved and recommendations for introducing PV systems to the rural area are described.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2022

Residential Energy Efficiency Design Guide for Tribal Lands

Homeowners and renters on tribal lands have historically faced a disproportionate energy burden compared to the United States as a whole. The Indian Health Service (IHS), which serves these communities, strives to meet aggressive energy performance goals when constructing their residential housing. Challenges common in rural locations can hinder progress toward those goals, such as availability of materials, access to specialized labor, and budget constraints. This guide is for architects and builders who aim to incorporate energy efficiency (EE) into their residential designs. This report presents commercially viable energy efficiency packages for a variety of locations and home inputs to help guide home builders in choosing improvements for energy performance. The intention is to provide a diverse set of packages that can be used during the design phase to achieve energy savings compared to a code minimum building design. By presenting a set of diverse options with similar expected energy savings and life-cycle costs, final decisions can be left up to the building designers who can better determine the appropriate package given local costs, materials, and labor availability. Although this guide was developed for IHS projects, it can be used to help designers and construction professionals better make cost-effective choices when a detailed, project-specific building energy analysis is not possible.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2021

Pricing and Energy Trading in Peer-to-Peer Zero Marginal-Cost Microgrids

Efforts to utilize 100% renewable energy in community microgrids require new approaches to energy markets and transactions to efficiently address periods of scarce energy supply. In this paper we contribute to the promising approach of peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading in two main ways: analysis of a centralized, welfare-maximizing economic dispatch that characterizes optimal price and allocations, and a novel P2P system for negotiating energy trades that yields physically feasible and at least weakly Pareto-optimal outcomes. Our main results are 1) that optimal pricing is insufficient to induce agents with batteries to take optimal actions, 2) a novel P2P algorithm to addresses this while keeping private information, 3) a formal proof that this algorithm converges to the centralized solution in the case of two agents negotiating for a single period, and 4) numerical simulations of the P2P algorithm performance with up to 10 agents and 24 periods that show it converges on average to total welfare within 0.1% of the social optimum in on the order of 10s to 100s of iterations, increasing with the number of agents, time periods, and total storage capacity.

batteries↗

DOE OSTI2024

Hydrogen Energy Storage System at Borrego Springs Towards an H2 Enabled 100% Renewable Microgrid

blackstart with fuel cells↗