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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 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Report series: finding of effect and mitigation documentation for the mercury solar photovoltaic array and battery energy storage system, area 23, nevada national security site, nye county, nevada

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office (NNSA/NFO) proposes to install solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation arrays and an associated battery energy storage system (BESS) for the town of Mercury at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) in Nye County, Nevada (Figure 1). The purposes of the development of this facility are to support long-term efforts to modernize Mercury and to provide energy-resilient infrastructure and address climate adaptation needs. Because it is within the boundary of the Mercury Historic District (MHD), it is subject to the terms of the Programmatic Agreement Between the National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office and the Nevada State Historic Preservation Officer Regarding Modernization and Operational Maintenance of the Nevada National Security Site, at Mercury in Nye County, Nevada (hereafter referred to as the Mercury PA). An identification and evaluation report prepared for this undertaking determined that a contributing element to the MHD, the Mercury airstrip (26NY15777), is within the APE (Haynes 2024). The Mercury airstrip was developed following the closure of Camp Desert Rock in 1957 and used until late 1963 or 1964 when the Camp Desert Rock Airport was renovated, and the Mercury Bypass road constructed. The town of Mercury and the immediate surrounding area have been determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) as the MHD (SHPO Resource No. D230) under Criteria A and C for its importance in supporting nuclear testing and scientific research from 1951 through 1992 (Reed 2019). Originally recorded in 2016, 26NY15777 was determined individually not eligible for listing in the NRHP because it lacked sufficient integrity to convey its significance (Palmer 2016). It was subsequently determined in 2018 to be a contributing element of the MHD in an architectural survey of the district (Palmer 2018) and identified in Appendix C of the Mercury PA as a Category I contributing element. However, as per Stipulation IV.B.2, because the airstrip had already been formally evaluated and determined not to be individually eligible for the NRHP in consultation with the SHPO, this categorization was an error. NNSA/NFO reported this to the SHPO in Haynes 2024 and the SHPO concurred on June 11, 2024 (Reed). Accordingly, the airstrip is a Category II Property for the purposes of complying with the Mercury PA. The Mercury airstrip is a historic property for the purposes of compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and subject to the stipulations of the Mercury PA.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2021

A Novel Three-Phase Oak Ridge AC / AC Converter for Wireless Mobility Energy Storage System (WMESS) Connectivity

In this study, a novel three-phase Oak Ridge ac to ac converter is introduced for wireless mobility energy storage system (WMESS) applications for grid support or ancillary service applications. The proposed topology can be used in bidirectional operation between ac grid and ac terminals of energy storage (output of the ESS inverter) by accomplishing unity power factor. Inherent merit of the technology is that it can directly merge ac input 60 Hz grid frequency with the high frequency by superimposing them with the Oak Ridge Converter (ORC) and through the wireless coils. Theoretical and simulation results are provided for 10 kW output power. The functionality of the proposed three-phase system is demonstrated with the coupling coils separated by 6 inches of air gap with the input / output of 277 V AC,RMS . The system overall design is presented, and simulation results demonstrate achieving 3% current total harmonic distortion (THD) and 0.99 power factor (PF) at full load of 10 kW wireless power transfer.

Asa, Erdem↗
DOE OSTI2025

Economic Analysis of Battery Energy Storage Systems Incorporating Uncertain Battery Model

A high-fidelity battery model is essential for precise economic analysis of battery energy storage systems (BESSs), but these models are computationally intensive. Heuristic models offer computational efficiency but compromise the accuracy of economic analysis results. We assess the impact of errors in heuristic battery models on economic analysis by utilizing open-circuit voltage (OCV) measurements from battery experiments.

Choi, Hyungjin [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-↗
DOE OSTI2021

Reactive Transport Modeling of Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage System at Stockton, NJ

This is the modeling data (input/output files of TOUGHREACT 4.10) used to simulate the reactive transport processes of the Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) operations at Stockton University, NJ. Readme.txt lists all the files. TOUGHREACT 4.10 requires to reproduce the modeling output. The modeling data in this submission is related to the Aquifer Injection for Energy Storage purposes outlined in "Reactive Transport Modeling of Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage System at Stockton, NJ During Seasonal Operations".

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

A Medium Voltage Three-Stage Power Converter Topology for Distribution Grid Scale Energy Storage Systems

This work proposes a three-stage converter topology with a medium frequency isolation transformer for direct integration of energy storage systems into medium voltage distribution grids. The distributed architecture of the topology, using standard AC/DC converters, has been developed with the aim of plug-and-play capability and voltage and power scalability. The medium frequency transformer facilitates improved power density, while its 20:1 voltage translation capability enables the use of limited voltage level (500 Vdc) of the commercially available batteries. This paper presents the topology structure and details how it can be scaled to reach the full range of the distribution grid voltages and the required power levels. A transformer design for 500 Hz rated frequency is discussed. The control scheme of the converter equipped with voltage support, frequency support, and black start capabilities is also presented. Control hardware-in-the-loop results using OPAL-RT, with converter switching models connected to a weak IEEE-4 node test feeder modified for the aforementioned grid services, are provided to show the topology feasibility.

Chinthavali, Madhu Sudhan↗
DOE OSTI2021

Branching Dueling Q-Network Based Online Scheduling of a Microgrid With Distributed Energy Storage Systems

This letter investigates a Branching Dueling Q-Network (BDQ) based online operation strategy for a microgrid with distributed battery energy storage systems (BESSs) operating under uncertainties. Additionally, the developed deep reinforcement learning (DRL) based microgrid online optimization strategy can achieve a linear increase in the number of neural network outputs with the number of distributed BESSs, which overcomes the curse of dimensionality caused by the charge and discharge decisions of multiple BESSs. Numerical simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Thermal Response of a Packed Bed Thermal Energy Storage System upon Saturated Steam Injection Using Distributed Temperature Sensing

The effectiveness of a thermal energy storage (TES) system is typically characterized with the help of thermal stratification or temperature gradients along the direction of heat injection, which is typically the flow direction of heat transfer fluid. The steepness of temperature gradients are a direct indicator of the effectiveness or efficiency of the heat storage or dispatch process. The temperature gradient evolution along the packed bed of ceramic particles upon saturated steam injection is presented in this work. Distributed temperature sensing based on optical frequency domain reflectometry was deployed in a packed bed of ceramic particles to capture the thermal front evolution in the axial direction. The physical processes accompanying steam injection in packed beds are complex due to phase change, transitioning two-phase flow, and changes in condensate accumulation. Therefore, the variation of thermal response of the TES system for various steam injection flow rates was experimentally studied using a high-resolution distributed temperature sensing system in a chemically inert alumina particle-packed bed. Distinct zones of different heat transfer modes were observed during the steam injection experiments. A distinct conduction zone, evident from diffuse thermal fronts, was observed at low flow rates, and these thermal gradients became sharper as the flow rate increased. The diffuse thermal fronts in the heat storage media suggest a low exergy efficiency of the TES system, as energy losses started initiating before a significant fraction of the bed was saturated with steam.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Experimental Analysis of Salt Hydrate Latent Heat Thermal Energy Storage System With Porous Aluminum Fabric and Salt Hydrate as Phase Change Material With Enhanced Stability and Supercooling

Phase change materials (PCMs), especially salt hydrates possess high volumetric energy storage capacity in their transition temperature range. These materials are used in applications where it is necessary to store thermal energy due to temporary load shift between demand and availability. Thus, possible applications are HVAC, recovery of waste heat, and defense thermal management. Despite salt hydrates potential, the practical feasibility of latent heat storage with salt hydrates is limited due to low power rating, supercooling, phase segregation, and long-term stability. Its low power rating and long-term stability limits its application in most applications. This work experimentally validates the stability and thermal performance of a compact heat exchanger charged with salt hydrate during melting and freezing. The compact heat exchanger was designed with fins on both the heat transfer fluid (HTF) and salt hydrate PCM side. The thermal performance of the latent heat thermal energy storage system (LHTESS) was evaluated for various operating conditions. The results show that LHTESS could achieve an average heat transfer coefficient of 124 and 87 W/(m2 K) during melting and solidification, respectively. The stability of the system in suppressing supercooling was validated over 800 cycles with nucleating agent and active homogenous nucleation techniques. The supercooling was reduced to 3 °C with zinc hydroxyl nitrate as nucleating agent and less than 1 °C with the active homogenous nucleation technique. The LHTESS showed less than 6% degradation in energy storage capacity over 800 cycles.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Integrated Thermal Energy Storage System for Air-Conditioners with Phase-Change Composites

Thermal energy storage (TES) is a promising solution to store and dispatch energy and shave peak electric load, reducing the operational cost of HVAC systems. We present results of a TES system using phase-change materials (PCM) integrated with an air conditioner. The proposed system uses an organic PCM (tetradecane) encapsulated within compressed expanded natural graphite foams referred to as phase-change composite. The graphite foam encapsulates the PCM eliminating the need for expensive storage vessels, reduces installation costs, and provides higher thermal conductivity that can lead to faster charge/discharge rates. Two serpentines, multi-pass circuits, operating as a heat source and a sink, exchange heat to and from the phase-change composite. These two circuits are embedded in multiple slabs of this material. The "charge" circuit contains the refrigerant that is directly coupled to a vapor compression system, and the "discharge" circuit removes heat from an airstream and releases it into the PCM composite through a water-glycol liquid coupling. This configuration allows for multiple modes of operation depending on the state of charge of the thermal energy storage module, the building air-conditioning load, and the current electricity and demand charges. This flexible operation allows variable air volume capacity control without the need to have a variable capacity refrigeration system. We developed a 21 kW-hr (6 RT-hr) prototype TES system coupled with a commercial air-conditioner to characterize the component-and system-level performance.

air-conditioning↗
DOE OSTI2024

Revenue Analysis for Energy Storage Systems in the United States

In this work we evaluate the potential revenue from energy storage using historical electricity prices, forward-looking projections of hourly electricity prices, and actual reported revenue. This analysis examines the impact of storage characteristics, specifically duration and round-trip efficiency, as well as locational elements of storage revenue within the current and projected U.S. power system. Figure ES-1 illustrates the revenue for a 1 MW storage system in seven market regions with durations range from 1 hour to 12 hours using both historical and forward-looking price data. The historical analysis covers more than 500 price nodes for each market region, while the forward-looking analysis includes balancing areas under different 10 scenarios of the electricity generation mix. The results indicate that the revenues consistently increase with duration, though the marginal value declines as duration grows. Moreover, the range of revenue depends on the system's operational location, and the electricity generation mix changes for future years. This range also widens with increased durations. In addition, the sensitivity analysis of round-trip efficiency reveals that as efficiency improves, system revenue increases, though the value of better round-trip efficiency declines as at higher efficiency levels.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Development of copper thiolate organometallic compound as thermal sensitive coating for energy storage system safety

Safety and reliability are primary concerns for the deployment of lithium-ion batteries, especially in electric vehicles (EV) and larger-scale energy storage systems (ESS). Current technology in battery management systems (BMS) includes cell voltage monitoring and positioning temperature sensors in selected locations. For a system with hundreds to thousands of individual batteries, single-point temperature monitoring is inadequate to detect hot spots and cell overheating, which could lead to thermal runaway. Here, we have developed a temperature-sensitive copper-thiol compound that can be directly coated onto battery pouch foils to enable early detection of thermal runaway. Upon reaching specific temperatures, this compound releases a sulfur-containing detectable gas, which can be identified using chemically specific gas sensors to trigger an early warning signal. Such a signal propagate through air offers broad signal coverage and enables a more comprehensive approach to large-area temperature monitoring. The Cu-ethanethiol coating is designed to release volatile gases when the substrate surface temperature exceeds 70 °C, with continuous outgassing as the temperature increases. The compound is composed of Cu, S, Cl, hydrocarbons and trace amounts of oxygen. Upon heating, the oxidation state of Cu(I) transitions to Cu (II), accompanied by gas release. Thermogravimetric analysis coupled with mass spectrometry correlated well with the onset of gas release temperature and emission of sulfur-containing volatile gases. Additionally, an acrylic overcoat is applied to enhance the adhesion of the thermally sensitive compound film to the battery pouch foil. This coating is expected to offer an additional safety layer for ESS, alerting possible thermal runaway events before a failure occurs, thereby allowing sufficient time to implement a mitigation plan.

Early warning systems↗
DOE OSTI2021

Deep Reinforcement Scheduling of Energy Storage Systems for Real-time Voltage Regulation in Unbalanced LV Networks with High PV Penetration

The ever-growing higher penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) in low-voltage (LV) distribution systems brings both opportunities and challenges to voltage support and regulation. This paper proposes a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based scheduling scheme of energy storage systems (ESSs) to mitigate system voltage deviations in unbalanced LV distribution networks. The ESS-based voltage regulation problem is formulated as a multi-stage quadratic stochastic program, with the objective of minimizing the expected total daily voltage regulation cost while satisfying operational constraints. While existing voltage regulation methods are mostly focused on onetime- step control, this paper explores a day-horizon systemwide voltage regulation problem. In other words, the size of action and state spaces are extremely high-dimensional and need to be delicately handled. Furthermore, in order to overcome the difficulty of modeling uncertainties and develop a realtime solution, a learn-to-schedule feedback control framework is proposed by adapting the problem to a model-free DRL setting. The proposed algorithm is tested on a customized 6-bus system and a modified IEEE 34-bus system. Simulation results validate the effectiveness and near-optimality of voltage regulation by ESS in comparison with a deterministic quadratic program solution.

Wang, Shengyi↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Frequency Control Method for Islanded Microgrids Using Energy Storage Systems

Islanded microgrids are vulnerable to frequency fluctuations due to the presence of low-inertia distributed energy resources (DERs). Moreover, implementation of both synchronous-based and inverter-based DERs with a significant difference in inertia leads to a power imbalance between generation and consumption during transients. This results in frequency variations which might have severe consequences such as blackouts. This paper develops a control scheme for battery energy storage systems (BESSs) to enhance the dynamic response of islanded microgrids by mitigating the frequency fluctuations. A piecewise linear-elliptic (PLE) droop characteristic is proposed and employed in BESS to achieve a faster power balance between generation and consumption during transients, resulting in enhanced frequency responses. Different case studies are carried out to validate the viability of the proposed approach in improving the dynamics of islanded microgrids.

Pilehvar, Mohsen S.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Economic Analysis of an Electric Thermal Energy Storage System Using Solid Particles for Grid Electricity Storage

As renewable power generation becomes the mainstream new-built energy source, energy storage will become an indispensable need to complement the uncertainty of renewable resources to firm the power supply. When phasing out fossil-fuel power plants to meet the carbon neutral utility target in the midcentury around the world, large capacity of energy storage will be needed to provide reliable grid power. The renewable power integration with storage can support future carbon-free utility and has several significant impacts including increasing the value of renewable generation to the grid, improving the peak-load response, and balancing the electricity supply and demand. Long-duration energy storage (10–100 hours duration) can potentially complement the reduction of fossil-fuel baseload generation that otherwise would risk grid security when a large portion of grid power comes from variable renewable sources. Current energy storage methods based on pumped storage hydropower or batteries have many limitations. Thermal energy storage (TES) has unique advantages in scale and siting flexibility to provide grid-scale storage capacity. A particle-based TES system has promising cost and performance for the future growing energy storage needs. This paper introduces the system and components required for the particle TES to be technically and economically competitive. A technoeconomic analysis based on preliminary component designs and performance shows that the particle TES integrated with an efficient air-Brayton combined cycle power system can provide power for several days by low-cost, high-performance storage cycles. It addresses grid storage needs by enabling large-scale grid integration of intermittent renewables like wind and solar, thereby increasing their grid value. The design specifications and cost estimations of major components in a commercial scale system are presented in this paper. The cost model provides insights for further development and cost comparison with competing technologies.

27 ARPA - Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy↗
DOE OSTI2026

Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) End-of-Performance and Decommissioning Considerations [Slides]

This presentation provides a comprehensive overview of end-of-performance and decommissioning considerations for large-scale Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). It outlines expected system lifespans, midterm assessment needs, and pathways for extending operational life through augmentation or repowering. The presentation details regulatory requirements that govern decommissioning plans, cost estimates, financial assurance mechanisms, and performance obligations across multiple jurisdictions. It further examines end-of-life equipment management, including recycling, waste handling, transportation, and environmental compliance. Designed to support Malawi's electricity-sector institutions, the presentation highlights how planning for decommissioning and environmental stewardship can be integrated early in project development to ensure safe, financially accountable, and environmentally responsible BESS system retirement.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗