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

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At least 757 records · Page 42
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2013

NASA Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resource High Resolution Meteorology Data For Sustainable Building Design

A primary objective of NASA's Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resource (POWER) project is to adapt and infuse NASA's solar and meteorological data into the energy, agricultural, and architectural industries. Improvements are continuously incorporated when higher resolution and longer-term data inputs become available. Climatological data previously provided via POWER web applications were three-hourly and 1x1 degree latitude/longitude. The NASA Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) data set provides higher resolution data products (hourly and 1/2x1/2 degree) covering the entire globe. Currently POWER solar and meteorological data are available for more than 30 years on hourly (meteorological only), daily, monthly and annual time scales. These data may be useful to several renewable energy sectors: solar and wind power generation, agricultural crop modeling, and sustainable buildings. A recent focus has been working with ASHRAE to assess complementing weather station data with MERRA data. ASHRAE building design parameters being investigated include heating/cooling degree days and climate zones.

Chandler, William S.↗
DOE OSTI2013

2012 Renewable Energy Data Book [Book]

This Renewable Energy Data Book for 2012 provides facts and figures in a graphical format on energy in general, renewable electricity in the United States, global renewable energy development, wind power, solar power, geothermal power, biopower, hydropower, advanced water power, hydrogen, renewable fuels, and clean energy investment.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2015

Tall Tower Wind Energy Monitoring and Numerical Model Validation in Northern Nevada

The main objectives of this project were to conduct a tall-tower and sodar field campaign in complex terrain, investigate wind properties relevant to wind energy assessment, and evaluate high-resolution models with fixed and adaptive grid structures. Two 60-m towers at Virginia Peak ridges near Washoe Valley, Nevada, were instrumented with cup and vane anemometers as well as sonic anemometers, and an acoustic sounder (hereafter sodar) was installed near one of the towers. The towers were located 2,700 m apart with a vertical distance of 140 m elevation between their bases. Each tower had a downhill exposure of rolling complex terrain, with the nearby valley floor 3,200 m to the west and 800 m below the summit. Cup anemometers were installed at both towers at 20, 40, and 60 m, wind vanes at 20 and 60 m, and sonic anemometers at 20 and 60 m. The sodar measurements were nominally provided every 10 m in vertical distance from 40 to 200 m with the quality of the data generally decreasing with height. Surface air temperature, atmospheric pressure, and radiation measurements were conducted at 1.5 m AGL at both of the towers. Although the plan was to conduct a 1-year period of data collection, we extended the period (October 5, 2012 through February 24, 2014) to cover for possible data loss from instrument or communication problems. We also present a preliminary analysis of the towers and sodar data, including a detailed inventory of available and missing data as well as outliers. The analysis additionally includes calculation of the Weibull parameters, turbulence intensity, and initial computation of wind power density at various heights.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

What can surface wind observations tell us about interannual variation in wind energy output?

The past decade of wind power growth was supported by capacity factor improvements and associated cost reductions. But are higher capacity factors a technology success story or, as suggested by recent research, has the influence of technology been overstated by ignoring positive surface wind speed trends? The answer could influence estimates of wind energy's cost and even future deployment rates. We find that US surface wind speed observations imply a 2.6% improvement in capacity factors from 2010 to 2019. Yet newer vintages of wind plants have recorded capacity factors that are ~25% larger than plants built close to 2010. It follows that technological factors and improved site quality, not higher wind speeds, drove most of the improvement in capacity factors. Additionally, we match hundreds of meteorological stations to nearby (< 25 km) wind plants and compare annual estimated generation, based on a function of surface wind speed observations, to annual recorded generation. Researchers rely on this publicly available surface data because measurements co-located with wind plants are generally considered proprietary. Our analysis addresses a research gap: interannual variation in observed surface wind speeds is rarely compared to observed data at wind plant locations and turbine heights. We find that despite its common use for this purpose, generation estimates based on publicly available surface observational data provide a poor proxy for interannual variability in recorded wind generation. These findings suggest that caution is generally needed when researchers use surface wind speed measurements to investigate long-term wind energy trends.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Stable Adaptive Inertial Control of a Doubly-Fed Induction Generator

This paper proposes a stable adaptive inertial control scheme of a doubly-fed induction generator. The proposed power reference is defined in two sections: the deceleration period and the acceleration period. The power reference in the deceleration period consists of a constant and the reference for maximum power point tracking (MPPT) operation. The latter contributes to preventing a second frequency dip (SFD) in this period because its reduction rate is large at the early stage of an event but quickly decreases with time. To improve the frequency nadir (FN), the constant value is set to be proportional to the rotor speed prior to an event. The reference ensures that the rotor speed converges to a stable operating region. To accelerate the rotor speed while causing a small SFD, when the rotor speed converges, the power reference is reduced by a small amount and maintained until it meets the MPPT reference. The results show that the scheme causes a small SFD while improving the FN and the rate of change of frequency in any wind conditions, even in a grid that has a high penetration of wind power.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2019

The potential for battery energy storage to provide peaking capacity in the United States

Providing peaking capacity could be a significant U.S. market for energy storage. Of particular focus are batteries with 4-h duration due to rules in several regions along with these batteries' potential to achieve life-cycle cost parity with combustion turbines compared to longer-duration batteries. However, whether 4-h energy storage can provide peak capacity depends largely on the shape of electricity demand. Under historical grid conditions, beyond about 28 GW nationally the ability of 4-h batteries to provide peak capacity begins to fall. We find that the addition of renewable generation can significantly increase storage's potential by changing the shape of net demand patterns; for example, beyond about 10% penetration of solar photovoltaics, the national practical potential for 4-h storage to provide peak capacity doubles. Furthermore, the impact of wind generation is less clear and likely requires more detailed study considering the exchange of wind power across multiple regions.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Detection and Deterrent System in Reducing Golden Eagle Fatalities at Operational Wind Facilities

The Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute (REWI) was appointed as the prime awardee of DOE award number DE-EE0007883 to lead a team of scientists, wind developers, and technology manufacturers toward the overarching goal of evaluating the effectiveness of the current DTBird system in minimizing the risk of golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) and other large soaring raptors from approaching the rotor-swept zone (RSZ) of operating wind turbines. As part of this goal, the team set out to 1) quantify the expected reduction in collision risk for golden eagles from operation of the detection and deterrence modules in a manner that supports the approach used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to assess and credit facility operators for their efforts to minimize predicted collision fatalities and 2) provide information to help improve the technology to maximize its effectiveness. DTBird is an automated detection and audio deterrent system created by the Spanish company Liquen, designed to discourage birds from entering the RSZ of spinning wind turbines. The system uses cameras to automatically detect airborne targets of interest, records each such event in an online database, and triggers a warning signal (loud sound) if the tracked object has moved close to the turbine. If the object moves even closer to the RSZ, a more aggressive dissuasion signal is broadcast. To meet our objectives, the team conducted a two-year experiment at the Goodnoe Hills wind facility in Washington state, in which 14 turbines were outfitted with DTBird units. Daily, each DTBird-equipped turbine was randomly assigned to a control or treatment group. Treatment turbines operated with DTBird running as intended—broadcasting warning or deterrent signals when DTBird detected a target within range. On control turbines, no sound signals were broadcast if a moving target triggered the DTBird system. The team also flew unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) designed to coarsely mimic the general size, weight, and coloration of golden eagles in programmed flight transects across DTBird detection ranges to quantify DTBird’s ability to detect intended targets and to evaluate factors that influence the probability of detection and DTBird’s response distances. Additionally, the team evaluated the behavioral responses of in situ eagles exposed to spinning turbines alone (visual and sound influences) versus spinning turbines plus broadcasted DTBird audio deterrents, to estimate the effectiveness of deterrence by the DTBird system. The data and results from these investigations were combined with those from a pilot study conducted at the Manzana Wind Power Project in California to better evaluate DTBird’s effectiveness across different landscapes.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Condition Monitoring of Wind Turbine Planetary Gearboxes Under Different Operating Conditions

Digitally enhanced services for wind power could reduce Operations and Maintenance costs as well as the Levelised Cost Of Energy. Therefore, there is a continuous need for advanced monitoring techniques which can exploit the opportunities of Internet of Things and Big Data Analytics. The heart of wind turbines is an epicyclic gearbox and rolling element bearings are often responsible for machinery stops. The vibration signatures of bearings are rather weak compared to other components. As a result a number of signal processing techniques have been proposed, focusing towards accurate and early fault detection with limited false alarms and missed detections. In Envelope Analysis an envelope of the vibration signal is estimated usually after filtering around a frequency band. Different tools, such as Kurtogram, have been proposed to select the optimum filter parameters. Monitoring techniques have reached a mature level for steady speed and load operating conditions. On the other hand, under chaniging operating conditions, it is still unclear whether the change of the monitoring indicators is due to the change of the machinery's health or due to the change of operating parameters. Recently, the authors have proposed a new tool called IESFOgram, based on Cyclic Spectral Coherence for the automatic selection of the filtering band. In this paper, the performance of the tool is evaluated on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory wind turbine gearbox vibration condition monitoring benchmarking data set which includes various faults with different levels of diagnostic complexity as well as various speed and load operating conditions.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Review and Future Perspective of Central Receiver Design and Performance

Concentrating solar power (CSP) technology provides a commercial solar option to the utility-scale electricity market. CSP is unique in its ability to include low-cost thermal storage; thus, it can generate electricity when the sun is not available and dispatch electricity to meet varying load requirements. Within the suite of CSP technologies, the central receiver design represents the state-of-the-art technology, promising low cost, high performance, and dispatchable energy production. Current total capacity of central receiver plants worldwide is about 1.0 gigawatt (electric) with operating plants in Spain and the United States, as well as projects under construction in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. Central receiver technology has been under development since the 1950s, and a variety of central receiver designs have been explored. A distinguishing feature is the heat transfer medium. Central receiver designs exist that use dense fluids, gases, and solid particles in this role. Water/steam and molten salt receivers have been adopted in current commercial plants and are often coupled with a steam-Rankine power cycle with an operating temperature of less than 600 degrees C. Many new central receiver concepts, such as the volumetric air, supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2), solid particle, and liquid-metal receiver designs, are under active research and development (R&D). New designs target operating temperatures generally higher than 700 degrees C-800 degrees C -- and even above 1000 degrees C -- so that higher-performance power cycles such as the sCO2-Brayton cycle or air-Brayton/steam-Rankine combined cycle can be used to promote greater overall system efficiency. Central receiver thermal storage provides dispatchability unavailable from variable-output renewables such as solar photovoltaic and wind power. Case study analysis of the California grid shows that there is a limit on the amount of non-dispatchable renewable generation that the grid can accommodate, beyond which overgeneration, spillage, and instability may occur. Energy storage may well become a necessity in some areas in order to maintain reliability. Next-generation central receiver technologies will have higher operating temperatures and additional features that allow higher-efficiency power generation and deliver other cost-performance advantages. The underlying innovations will come from areas such as multi-physics modeling, high-temperature materials, novel power cycles and heat exchanger designs, and collector field sensing and performance monitoring technologies. Technology innovation is expected to improve the cost and performance of central receiver designs. To deliver value as a generation and storage option, central receiver technology must also be supported by flexible and robust financial models and comprehensive energy and ancillary service markets justifying the capital-intensive investment. Progress in these areas will position CSP central receiver technology for future deployment.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

2018 Cost of Wind Energy Review

This report uses representative utility-scale projects to estimate the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for land-based and offshore wind power plants in the United States. Data and results detailed here are derived from 2018 commissioned plants. Analysis detailed here relies on recent market data and state-of-the-art modeling capabilities to maintain an up-to-date understanding of wind energy cost trends and drivers. This report represents the eighth annual installment and is intended to provide insight into current component-level costs as well as a basis for understanding variability in LCOE across the country.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

2017 Cost of Wind Energy Review

This report uses representative utility-scale projects to estimate the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for land-based and offshore wind power plants in the United States. Data and results detailed here are derived from 2017 commissioned plants. More specifically, analysis detailed here relies on recent market data and state-of-the-art modeling capabilities to maintain an up-to-date understanding of wind energy cost trends and drivers. This annual report represents the seventh installment and is intended to provide insight into current component-level costs as well as a basis for understanding variability in LCOE across the country.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Effectively using multifidelity optimization for wind turbine design

Abstract. Wind turbines are complex multidisciplinary systems that are challenging to design because of the tightly coupled interactions between different subsystems. Computational modeling attempts to resolve these couplings so we can efficiently explore new wind turbine systems early in the design process. Low-fidelity models are computationally efficient but make assumptions and simplifications that limit the accuracy of design studies, whereas high-fidelity models capture more of the actual physics but with increased computational cost. This paper details the use of multifidelity methods for optimizing wind turbine designs by using information from both low- and high-fidelity models to find an optimal solution at reduced cost. Specifically, a trust-region approach is used with a novel corrective function built from a nonlinear surrogate model. We find that for a diverse set of design problems – with examples given in rotor blade geometry design, wind turbine controller design, and wind power plant layout optimization – the multifidelity method finds the optimal design using 38 %–58 % of the computational cost of the high-fidelity-only optimization. The success of the multifidelity method in disparate applications suggests that it could be more broadly applied to other wind energy or otherwise generic applications.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Implications of a PTC Extension on U.S. Wind Deployment

This analysis explores the potential effects of wind production tax credit expiration and various extension scenarios on future wind deployment with the Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS), a model of the U.S. electricity sector. The analysis does not estimate the potential implications on government tax revenue associated with the PTC. Key findings include: Under a scenario in which the PTC is not extended and all other policies remain unchanged, wind capacity additions are expected to be between 3 and 5 GW per year from 2013-2020; PTC extension options that ramp-down from the current level to zero-credit by year-end 2022 appear to be insufficient to support deployment at the recent historical average; Extending the PTC at its historical level may provide the best opportunity to support deployment consistent with recent levels across a range of potential market conditions; it therefore may also provide the best opportunity to sustain wind power installation and manufacturing sector at current levels.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Offshore Wind in the US Gulf of Mexico: Regional Economic Modeling and Site-Specific Analyses

The goal of this study is to assess offshore wind energy resources in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and to quantify its technical and economic potential in order to inform Federal and GOM state strategic energy planning over the next decade. The objectives are to: describe site-specific and regional benefits and challenges of deploying offshore wind in the GOM and discuss the current research to mitigate challenges; review and quantify the wind resource capacity and energy potential in the GOM region for each GOM state including state and federal waters, distance from shore, and water depth; perform geospatial regional economic assessments of levelized cost of energy (LCOE), levelized avoided cost of energy (LACE), and net value (Section 3.4.2); evaluate three representative hypothetical locations for site-specific analysis; perform a high-level assessment of local supporting infrastructure availability, including existing services (e.g., fabrication facilities, vessels, ports) and possible grid connection options; assess the regional economic impacts of a 600 megawatt (MW) offshore wind power plant installed at a representative site in the GOM.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Forecasted Dynamic Line Ratings for Regional Transmission Lines

This report was prepared for the Wind Energy Technology Office for the FY 2022, quarter 3 deliverable. This details the use of forecasted dynamic line rating as an improvement over static rating for three transmission lines in three regions of interest. A selection of wind plants across Idaho, the Columbia River Gorge and offshore wind in the NYSERDA territory were modeled for their concurrent cooling effects for dynamic line rating. Regional transmission lines for the wind plant interconnections were determined and a CFD domain was created to determine local wind flows over the lines. A dynamic line rating for each of the lines was calculated for both weather observation data and HRRR model forecast data. The comparison of peaks in the wind power production were compared to the DLR peaks. It was determined that for shorter regional transmission lines, the effect of concurrent cooling that commonly occur with gen-tie lines were still valid. Concurrent cooling effects drop as the length of the regional transmission lines increase in distance from the wind plants. In addition, the accuracy of the forecasted ampacity to the weather observation data for ampacity was assessed. In general, the accuracy was best for the INL region with the NOAA-maintained sites. The Columbia River Gorge and Long Island sites showed similar levels of accuracy for the forecasted DLR. The accuracy levels were around 11% for the INL region, 15% for Columbia River Gorge and 7% for New York Long Island. The higher error for the Columbia Gorge region is likely due to the sparse availability of weather stations available, whereas both the INL site and Long Island are well instrumented.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2013

2011 Renewable Energy Data Book (Revised) (Book)

This Renewable Energy Data Book for 2011 provides facts and figures on energy in general, renewable electricity in the United States, global renewable energy development, wind power, solar energy, geothermal power, biopower, hydropower, advanced water power, hydrogen, renewable fuels, and clean energy investments.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗