Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Energy Resilience”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Project Planning for Community Resilience: Aquinnah and Chilmark, Massachusetts

This report presents the findings of an energy system planning study for the towns of Aquinnah and Chilmark, MA, on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, conducted under the U.S. Department of Energy ETIPP program. The study used the DER-CAM model to optimize the deployment of PV and battery microgrids to enhance energy resilience against power outages, particularly winter storms. Key findings show that PV is highly cost-effective and delivers net annual savings. However, due to limited rooftop space and low winter solar output, PV and battery storage alone cannot support the full critical load during outages. Solutions incorporating conventional backup generators were found to be more economically viable for achieving 100% critical load support.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Community-Engaged Energy Transition Planning in Holyoke

The overarching motivation of this project is to provide stakeholder-engaged research and education to enable a clean, equitable, and resilient energy transition. Presently, low-income communities and people of color are disproportionately burdened by environmental harm, while also being routinely left out of planning processes and benefits from infrastructure improvements. The Energy Transition Institute (ETI) addresses these issues in three ways: community engagement, educating diverse future leaders, and cutting-edge research. As municipalities across the Commonwealth plan their transition to a climate-friendly energy system, research from ETI will advance technical and social understanding of heating electrification, energy storage, demand flexibility, reliability and resiliency of power distribution infrastructure, with attention to equity. This will benefit surrounding communities, cities and towns across Massachusetts, and the global research community

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Admissible Powertrain Alternatives for Heavy-Duty Fleets: A Case Study on Resiliency and Efficiency

Heavy-duty vehicles dominate global freight movement and primarily rely on fossil-derived diesel fuel. However, fluctuations in crude oil prices and evolving emissions regulations have prompted interest in alternative powertrains to enhance fleet energy resiliency. This study paired real-world operational data from a large commercial fleet with high-fidelity vehicle models to evaluate the potential for replacing diesel internal combustion engine (ICE) trucks with alternative powertrain architectures. The baseline vehicle for this analysis is a diesel-powered ICE truck. Alternatives include ICE trucks fueled by bio- and renewable diesel, compressed natural gas (CNG) or hydrogen (H 2 ), as well as plug-in hybrid (PHEV), fuel cell electric (FCEV), and battery electric vehicles (BEV). While most alternative powertrains resulted in some payload capacity loss, the overall fleetwide impact was negligible due to underutilized payload capacity for the specific fleet considered in this study. For sleeper cab trucks, CNG-powered trucks achieved the highest replacement potential, covering 85% of the fleet. In contrast, H 2 and BEV architectures could replace fewer than 10% and 1% of trucks, respectively. Day cab trucks, with shorter daily routes, showed higher replacement potential: 98% for CNG, 78% for H 2 , and 34% for BEVs. However, achieving full fleet replacement would still require significant operational changes such as route reassignment and enroute refueling, along with considerable improvements to onboard energy storage capacity. Additionally, the higher total cost of ownership (TCO) for alternative powertrains remains a key challenge. This study also evaluated lifecycle impacts across various fuel sources, both fossil and bio-derived. Bio-derived synthetic diesel fuels emerged as a practical option for diesel displacement without disrupting operations. Conversely, H 2 and electrified powertrains provide limited lifecycle impacts under the current energy scenario. This analysis highlights the complexity of replacing diesel ICE trucks with admissible alternatives while balancing fleet resiliency, operational demands, and emissions goals. These results reflect a US-based fleet’s duty cycles, payloads, GVWR allowances, and an assumption of depot-only refueling/recharging. Applicability to other fleets and regions may differ based on differing routing practices or technical features such as battery swapping.

BEV↗
DOE OSTI2026

Feasibility Analyses for the Microgrid of the Mountain in the Cordillera Central Region of Puerto Rico

Distributed energy resource (DER) development can benefit communities through improvement of access to reliable electricity and a resilient energy system. Many place-specific considerations must be accounted for when designing electrical systems with co-located generation and loads. This paper presents an overview of four studies focusing on different aspects for regional DER development in the Cordillera Central region of Puerto Rico, including a grid and load stability study with the introduction of solar energy generation, microgrid design based on the solar resource in the area, resilience considerations during power outage scenarios, and qualitative risk aspects for components in the microgrid. Additionally, a conceptual substation microgrid analysis is conducted using the Microgrid Design Toolkit (MDT) to evaluate trade-offs between cost and energy availability, providing insights into optimal design strategies. A microgrid resilience assessment is performed using the Resilient Nodal Cluster Analysis Tool (ReNCAT) to identify critical loads and evaluates their accessibility during outages, emphasizing the importance of community needs. Finally, a qualitative risk assessment utilizing Hazard and Operability Analysis (HAZOP) methods highlights potential hazards and mitigations for microgrid components, ensuring robust system design and operation.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

The Interplay Between Climate and Urban Expansion on Building Energy Demand in Morocco

Understanding building energy demand is critical for addressing climate uncertainty challenges and ensuring sustainable urban growth. This study develops a building energy demand (BED) model to explore how climate variation and urban expansion affect residential and commercial space heating and cooling demands in Morocco for three scenarios, namely, 2005, 2018, and 2018 + 1.5 °C. The results show that coastal cities have lower heating and cooling needs due to the oceanic influence, while interior cities require significantly higher heating demand per-unit-floorspace. Between 2005 and 2018, urban growth increased total heating and cooling demand by 218.8 GWh, particularly in northern and coastal regions, despite per-unit-floorspace reductions in milder climates and improved building efficiency in 2018. Residential heating remains the dominant energy use, though commercial demand is significant in urban centers. Under the 2018 + 1.5 °C hypothetical scenario, heating demand across Morocco declines by 335.8 GWh compared to 2018, with urban areas amplifying this trend. Meanwhile, cooling demand increases slightly by 44.4 GWh, with major cities experiencing relative increases of up to 50%. These findings highlight a trade-off where reduced winter heating needs are partly offset by increased summer cooling demands in densely urbanized areas. In conclusion, the study identifies key urban hotspots for targeted interventions, emphasizing the need for energy-efficient building designs, climate-adaptive urban planning, and resilient energy management strategies to sustainably address shifting seasonal energy patterns.

Morocco↗
DOE OSTI2024

A hierarchical framework for aggregating grid-interactive buildings with thermal and battery energy storage

The behind-the-meter (BTM) thermal and battery energy storage can help improve energy efficiency, reduce energy costs, and enhance energy resilience, particularly in rural areas and for disadvantaged communities. Aggregating numerous BTM energy storage systems can act as a price influencer with a significant source of load shifting and peak demand reduction. An integrated and scalable control mechanism is required to effectively utilize energy storage systems and flexible building loads to maximize the economic benefits, considering various distribution system constraints. Here, this paper presents an innovative hierarchical coordination framework for energy storage and flexible load in buildings, considering various factors such as electricity prices, thermal comfort, and distribution system modeling and constraints. At the upper level, a distribution system operator optimizes the power flow to minimize its power procurement costs from the electricity wholesale market, while at the lower level, aggregators determine the optimal dispatch of battery and thermal energy storage systems in multiple buildings on behalf of end-users to minimize operating costs according to the power prices. These problems are solved using a game-theoretic approach through negotiations between the distribution system operator and aggregators as a bi-level decision model. Simulation case studies have been performed for a test distribution network with a number of building end-users using energy storage systems to quantify the performance of aggregators. The results demonstrate that the proposed strategy can reduce peak load for a reliable electricity distribution network while saving electricity bills for customers.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Resilience Valuation and Planning for Solar and Storage on Critical Infrastructure

This case study report documents the City's project evolution and the entrepreneurial ways through which the City approached the questions of how solar and storage could support their resilience efforts and how to value and pay for solar-plus-storage systems. This report documents how and why the City of Reno came to the specific conclusion to integrate solar and storage into their Public Safety Center retrofit project and apply for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) funding. (The City of Reno applied for and was awarded FEMA BRIC funding in January 2021; leveraging work that was underway in this project.) This report provides an overview for other local governments to draw inspiration from when considering how to prioritize community values and pursue multi-stakeholder dialogue around resilient energy solutions. The City of Reno's experience can serve as a starting point for other communities interested in valuing the resilience benefits of solar and storage.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Strategies for Flood Resilience and Grid Investment Among Iowa's Electric Distribution Utilities

Flooding poses a growing threat to Iowa's electric distribution system, yet utilities face significant data and modeling challenges in planning effective resilience investments. This report provides a foundational assessment of how distribution utilities in Iowa, investor-owned, municipal, and cooperative, approach resilience planning, with a focus on flood risk. It combines hazard characterization, review of state and utility practices, and application of NLR's Energy Resilience Analysis for Distribution Systems (ERAD) and Capacity Expansion Decision Support for Distribution Networks (CADET) tools. Using FEMA floodplains, Iowa Flood Center depth grids, and utility infrastructure data, the analysis quantifies asset exposure, simulates outage risks, and evaluates resilience strategies such as pole hardening, undergrounding, and substation protection. Results indicate that while feeder-level upgrades provide incremental benefits, the most significant reductions in outage risk are achieved through targeted substation interventions. The report highlights key data gaps, such as limited elevation data and fragility functions, and underscores the need for probability-weighted investment frameworks to address both frequent and catastrophic flood events. These insights aim to support utilities, state agencies, and federal partners in prioritizing resilience investments that safeguard Iowa's electric grid against future flooding.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Model America - 2022 Arizona Building Energy Simulation Results from ORNL's AutoBEM

This dataset contains energy simulation outputs using ORNL's AutoBEM, covering the summer months (June 1st to August 31st) (named by "county_name.csv") and full-year periods (in output_all_year.zip) for each county in Arizona, USA. The data package includes simulation results such as basic energy metrics and anthropogenic emissions estimates. Files are provided in .csv. These data were generated to analyze the impact of weather conditions on energy use and emissions across urban and rural environments in Arizona, aiming to support research on urban heat islands, energy efficiency, and building retrofitting strategies. The source data for this work include NASA POWER weather datasets and computational models run using AutoBEM (i.e., an automated, large-scale energy simulation tool leveraging OpenStudio/EnergyPlus). This dataset can assist researchers, urban planners, and policymakers in developing climate-resilient energy systems and understanding anthropogenic contributions to local environments.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

BESSIE: Battery & Energy Storage Supply Chain Analysis, Mitigation Deployment, and Tools

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) and their associated power electronic interfaces are key components to delivering clean and more resilient energy, providing much-needed fast-ramping, emergency discharge, generation, and operations support to the electric grid. These services have grown to be invaluable over the past ten years and will soon be an irreplaceable element of energy delivery. The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) strives to address these challenges through a strategic approach to supply chain risk assessment and mitigation for BESS and related digital energy equipment through the BESSIE project under the Center for Securing Digital Energy Technology. Recognizing that decreasing dependence on a foreign supply chain will take significant time and investment, BESSIE’s focus is strategically addressing battery supply chain risks by pairing short-term steps to operate securely through today’s risks with long-term steps to shape the supply chain over the coming years.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Energy efficiency and thermal resilience analysis for row houses using representative building energy models

Row houses, a prevalent medium-density urban archetype, were popularized during industrial era to accommodate the working class in the U.S. cities. Today, many of these structures are deteriorating, exacerbating the energy cost for residents with limited economic resources. Moreover, many households that lack Air Conditioning (AC) are vulnerable to extreme summer heat, an issue expected to worsen in the future. Energy-efficient retrofits can help mitigate these challenges. However, current literature provides limited insight into how existing building energy codes impact the energy efficiency and thermal resilience of row houses in current and future weather scenarios. This study provides a detailed method to address this gap by employing calibrated representative energy models of row houses as a baseline, and evaluating the annual energy savings and summertime thermal safety improvements from code compliant retrofits under current and future typical weather conditions. Using Baltimore City as a case study, results show that under current weather, retrofitting row houses yields significant energy savings along with notable thermal resilience improvements. The end unit row house realizes higher energy savings, whereas the interior unit experiences greater thermal resilience improvement after retrofitting. In future, retrofitted row houses can still save energy, but residents will face numerous hours of fatal indoor temperatures without AC in summer. Additionally, findings reveal stark zone-wise variations in thermal safety, and elevated humidity risks in certain zones post-retrofit, emphasizing the need for zonal retrofit strategies and better natural ventilation strategies.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Overcoming Resilience Challenges on the Outer Banks of North Carolina

In 2021, the Town of Nags Head, located in the Outer Banks region of North Carolina, was among the first cohort of coastal and island communities to participate in the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP), which offers technical assistance and cash awards to competitively selected coastal, remote, and island communities seeking to transform their energy systems and increase their energy resilience. As a barrier island separated from mainland North Carolina, Nags Head experiences impacts from extreme weather events, including power outages, especially during hurricane season. To address challenges, the Nags Head ETIPP team sought to improve the town's disaster resilience by ensuring that critical facilities can remain powered during and after extreme events. With support from experts at Sandia National Laboratories, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and the Coastal Studies Institute, the community team identified the following goals for its participation in ETIPP: 1. Identify and prioritize critical facilities that, when powered during disruptions, support the town's resilience. 2. Analyze the potential for on-site solar photovoltaic (PV) and storage systems at 2-4 prioritized critical facilities owned and/or operated by the town. 3. Analyze the potential for interconnecting solar PV and storage systems at a cluster of public and privately owned facilities into a resilient microgrid. 4. Explore finance options and utility interconnection requirements and compensation mechanisms. 5. Summarize outcomes and next steps for town leadership.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Artificial Intelligence for Enhancing Multiscale Analysis: Buildings Focus

This project aims to develop multi-scale building energy data, potentially improving the representation of the U.S. buildings sector in GCAM-USA, an U.S.-focused human-energy-Earth systems model. Existing building energy datasets are typically limited to national or regional levels, which constrains the ability of models to capture fine-scale human-energy-Earth systems interactions and reduces their relevance for decision-making on issues such as energy security, resilience, and energy planning. By leveraging AI and advanced data integration methods, this work fuses multiple existing datasets to enhance the physical and geographic representation of both residential and commercial building energy use. So far, progress includes processing residential building data, designing the data structure for commercial buildings, and testing AI approaches for integrating datasets and addressing spatial-temporal gaps. This effort can not only advances GCAM-USA’s capability in modeling the buildings sector but also supports broader DOE missions, such as developing digital testbeds, enhancing grid resilience analysis, and improving building–energy system modeling at decision-relevant scales.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

FY25 Laboratory Directed Research and Development Annual Report

Overview The Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program represents a cornerstone of foundational scientific research and development (R&D) at SRNL. It is central to advancing SRNL’s mission areas—National Security, Environmental Stewardship, and Energy Resilience—while aligning with the laboratory’s Strategic Plan to deliver long-term benefits to the Department of Energy (DOE) and other key stakeholders

Taylor, Tammy P. [Savannah River National Laborato↗
DOE OSTI2025

Greenhouse gas emissions reduction strategies that maximize portfolio-wide life cycle cost reduction, resilience, and environmental justice benefits

While strategies to achieve net-zero emissions at an individual site are well understood, new analysis methods are required for organizations seeking to achieve net-zero across multiple facilities, each with concurrent priority goals. At a portfolio level, distinct locations present varied challenges that cannot be addressed through singular solutions, and competing goals can take precedence with the assumption that net-zero emissions strategies deter from energy resilience and cost savings, therefore negatively impacting nearby communities. This study tests these assumptions by analyzing 16 diverse sites (varying in size, climate, and energy use) to identify strategies that reduce emissions and assess the impact these strategies have on life cycle costs, resilience, and communities with environmental justice concerns. Methods were developed to approximate missing information essential to net-zero evaluation. Established methods were augmented to evaluate life cycle costs, resilience, and environmental justice impacts across a set of strategies and accommodate the multi-criteria analyses. Potential benefits from identified strategies were quantified using site characteristics and a set of corresponding metrics. The net-zero analysis found that 11 sites could use on-site strategies to eliminate all but 2% of emissions generated. The remaining emissions can be offset, for instance through sequestration, executed at the portfolio scale. On-site carbon-free energy was found to reduce 51% of emissions across all sites; efficiency reduced 19% of emissions; sequestration 16%; procured carbon-free energy 15%; fuel switching 1.6%; and fleet electrification 1.3%. Building electrification, however, increased emissions by 4.4%. Different strategies also provide cost, resilience, and/or environmental justice benefits—the degree to which varies with individual site conditions. The findings indicate an advantage to considering the strategies as a comprehensive set, which leads to co-benefits, both in the ability to achieve net-zero goals and in advancing other goals. The results present the case for comprehensive advanced planning at the portfolio level to prioritize investments that will balance the minimization of emissions and life cycle cost with the maximization of resilience and environmental justice benefits. The novel methods for evaluation and integration, valuation of benefits, and consideration at the portfolio scale allow organizations to select investments that simultaneously address multiple key priorities.

Net-Zero Emissions↗
DOE OSTI2024

Pinellas County Clear Sky Assessment Process: Prioritizing Solar + Storage for Resilient Facilities & Communities

The Clear Sky Tampa Bay project was a 15-month collaborative research effort to support solar + storage deployment for community resilience in Florida. The Clear Sky Decision Support Toolkit is a collection of resources designed to support users in conducting solar + storage prioritization and feasibility screening assessments at critical facilities. The Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council worked with four local governments in the region to test and apply the Toolkit. This case study series describes how each partner government used the Toolkit and highlights key insights and lessons learned that other users could follow to replicate the process. Pinellas County applied the Clear Sky Decision Support Toolkit to improve interagency coordination and gather data to analyze solar + storage projects for its critical facilities. This case study examines energy resilience strategies for the Pinellas County Solid Waste-to-Energy Plant. The Toolkit's modular assessment process developed institutional capacity and knowledge within the county and will assist in the research and application of future solar energy projects.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Building Capacity: Solar Photovoltaics Site Assessment and Feasibility Study

While Bhutan is abundant with clean energy hydropower, there are dry months in winter when solar energy could reduce expensive power inputs and bolster Bhutan's energy resilience and independence. As the country explores solar photovoltaic (PV) development as an option to achieve that goal, grid planners and renewable energy experts are partnering with the South Asia Group for Energy (SAGE) to determine the benefits and challenges of building solar energy systems in Bhutan.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Stepping into the Midwest Bioeconomy: Stakeholder Engagement and Geospatial Tools to Assist in Perennial Bioenergy Crop Decision Making and Entrepreneurship

This project, “Ecosystem Services and Farm Entrepreneurship Technical Assistance,” was a three-year project originally planned for FY22–FY24. Due to a late start and a few extensions, it is being completed in early FY25. This project explored opportunities to support the deployment of a bioeconomy with a circular, more sustainable supply chain. Using a tool developed by Argonne to identify agricultural areas suitable for use in the bioeconomy, we sought to create opportunities in the bioeconomy as biomass producers, bioenergy users, and environmental entrepreneurs. We proposed to focus at the beginning on enhancing the tool’s capabilities, while engaging with key stakeholders to improve and expand the tool’s functionality for all potential stakeholders in the bioeconomy. We believe that expanding our tools and technologies, coupled with conversations in agricultural spaces, will be needed as we continue to explore how best to offer farmers whole-of supply-chain opportunities to participate in the bioeconomy. Through this project we have continued to gain a better understanding of the ways in which farmers, landowners, bioenergy users, and environmental entrepreneurs may approach the bioeconomy. In addition, as we improve our analytic toolkit, we can continue to refine our communication and the ways in which we can valuate the bioeconomy. Refining these tools allows us to dive deeper into conversations around plausible policies and drivers for future bioeconomy investment and engagement by stakeholders. By working with farmers and agricultural landowners to enable a sustainable bioeconomy business model, enhance their energy options, and recover resources from their waste streams, this project directly responds to the Bioenergy Technology Office’s (BETO) priorities of building a resilient energy economy. It addresses BETO’s focus on fostering the development and adoption of energy technologies that enable the conversion of waste to energy, efficient land use, and robust job creation. By establishing a technical assistance program that develops capabilities and practices in agricultural areas to implement a bioeconomy future, this program will develop an important linkage between technology being developed at U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories and the agricultural communities of the Midwest. This project focuses on farmers with lower productivity farmland. Because less productive lands create a more difficult revenue stream for conventional crops, these farmers may therefore be more open to alternative agricultural land management regimes. Consequently, the technical assistance program and the methodologies for targeting perennial bioenergy crop application on marginal land provide a distinct opportunity to engage with and invest in the bioeconomy in these economically stressed areas. Stakeholders in this project include farmers and landowners, local conservation organizations (NRCS, SWCS, etc.), universities, non-profit environmental and agricultural entities, farm consultants, environmental regulators, and industry, including the industries working on conversion technologies, anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis, and biochar generation, and the companies interested in trading or purchasing/supporting the valuation of ecosystem services (ES).

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗