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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 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Board on Earth Sciences and Resources and Its Activities

The National Academies’ Board on Earth Sciences and Resources (BESR) and its standing committees provide an ongoing forum for advancing the understanding and communication of Earth sciences and resource topics, including emerging topics and innovative techniques. BESR activities help to provide evidence-based information to members of the executive and legislative branches of the federal government, the private sector, states and tribes, academia, non-governmental organizations, and the public to support decision-making. BESR and its standing Committee on Solid Earth Geophysics (COSEG), also supported by this award, fulfill this role through development and administration of consensus studies, as well as workshops and other convening activities related to the Earth sciences; overseeing selected activities of the Board’s standing committees, such as disciplinary meetings and webinars; and communicating, sharing information, and providing opportunities for interaction and exchange among technical and non-technical stakeholders. The core support received from DOE helps BESR and COSEG maintain a central body of volunteer experts and National Academies staff who can respond to pressing needs and requests from federal sponsors and other members of the Earth science community, to maintain the health and relevance of the Earth sciences discipline, and to provide the Earth science community with a privileged interface to the government to support scientific and engineering advances and decision making related to Earth sciences and engineering. Initiation and oversight of Earth science activities at the National Academies is an enduring function of the BESR and COSG that helps to ensure development and completion of projects and activities that are responsive to the needs of sponsors and the broader Earth science and research enterprise.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Regime Characterization of Offshore Wind Resource Using Unsupervised Learning

Predictability of wind resource conditions is critical for offshore wind design and operations. While many studies of extreme wind conditions focus on specific events such as low-level jets or ramps, these rely on threshold definitions that limit generality. Here we present a data-driven framework that combines principal component analysis (PCA), self-organizing maps (SOM), and k-means clustering to classify wind resource conditions as typical and anomalous from climatological data. Anomalies are defined not by fixed thresholds but by flagging samples located far from SOM node centers inside the baseline SOM structure. This reframes extremes as rare ebents and hence, likely difficult to anticipate by numerical weather prediction models. We applied this approach to 23 years (2000–2022) of hourly profiles from the NOW-23 hindcast model at the Humboldt Wind Energy Area. Classification is conducted on a feature space consisting of 10 m wind speed and direction, bulk shear and veer across 30–270 m, and a low-level jet index. Dimensionality reduction is achieved through PC. A 2 × 3 OM lattice trained on the PCA vectors identified six baseline regimes spanning weak to strong flow states. High quantization-error profiles are identified and re-clustered into four anomalous regimes. The baseline regimes exhibited clear seasonal and diurnal cycles. Meanwhile, the anomalous regimes represented <10 % of all hours but showed distinct combinations of speed, shear, and veer, when compared to the baseline regimes. Anomalous regimes are typically short-lived (~few hours), yet their transitions can lead to hub-height wind changes of −18 to +9 m s -1 . For a representative 15 MW turbine, these shifts imply rapid swings in capacity factor from near-full output to negligible generation. Validation with lidar buoy data showed 51% agreement in SOM labels across ~6,000 overlapping hours, with most mismatches confined to adjacent speed classes. HRRR comparisons further revealed that anomalous regimes were disproportionately associated with forecast biases exceeding 5 m s -1 . Together, these results reframe extremes in offshore wind from absolute maxima or minima to weather states that are difficult to anticipate from models.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Distributed Energy Resource Interconnection Roadmap

Adopting strategic reforms to DER interconnection can help reduce interconnection delays, fairly allocate costs, improve transparency and equity, and support efficient and strategic investment in distribution and sub-transmission grids that can accommodate a rapidly evolving energy landscape. The Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange envisions this roadmap and its transmission system companion volume as collaborative resources to facilitate continued stakeholder discussions, problem-solving, and innovation as the U.S. works together to enable simpler, faster, and fairer interconnection of clean energy resources all while enhancing the reliability, resiliency, and security of our electric grid.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Unified Universal Control and Coordination of Inverter-Based Resources, and Validation for a PV + Battery Hybrid Plant

As renewable energy deployment grows, hybrid power plants (HPPs) combining photovoltaic (PV) and battery systems must evolve to offer both energy and grid stability services. These systems typically include a mix of grid-following (GFL) and grid-forming (GFM) inverters, presenting unique coordination and control challenges. This Department of Energy–funded project developed and validated a Unified Universal Control and Coordination (UUCC) framework for such PV + battery hybrid plants, enabling seamless and stable operation, including ultrafast black start, autonomous synchronization, and robust frequency and voltage regulation, under different grid conditions. The project significantly advanced the understanding of inverter-based resource (IBR) control by developing and validating three complementary system-level approaches for hybrid GFL/GFM operation: 1. A combined Virtual Resistance (VR)-based GFL and Virtual Oscillator Control (VOC)-based GFM method, where each inverter type is governed by a specialized control strategy. Together, these achieve stable, fast-response coordination, eliminating inrush current and enabling smooth black start and grid synchronization across a wide range of grid strengths. 2. A Deadbeat-based UUCC strategy, which uses discrete-time, switching-cycle-level control for both GFL and GFM inverters. This approach replaces traditional PI/PLL control with a control parameter-free, high-bandwidth framework that supports stable LVRT and instantaneous synchronization under all conditions. 3. A benchmark comparison with Siemens’ commercial GFM microgrid controller, which provided a fast baseline platform. The commercial approach decoupled v & f control was implemented on a commercial microgrid controller.The baseline commercial benchmark helped highlight superior transient response and black start performance offered by the deadbeat and VOC approaches. These technical contributions offer substantial improvements over conventional inverter control schemes, which often rely on slow phase-locked loop (PLL)-based synchronization, require careful control parameters tuning, and prone to unstable in weak grids with GFL inverters and in stiff grid with GFM inverters therefore challenging for hybrid GFL+GFM under all grid conditions. The deadbeat-based UUCC framework enables simpler, faster, and more robust operation of hybrid IBR systems using wide-bandgap (WBG) devices such as SiC power semiconductors. The rapid expansion of hybrid distributed energy resources (DERs), including residential and commercial PV-BESS installations such as Tesla Powerwall, PV with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability, and other integrated configurations, presents complex operational challenges for medium-voltage radial distribution feeders. These networks are subject to frequent disturbances such as faults, switching operations, rapid reclosing sequences, and feeder reconfigurations, all of which introduce dynamic stress on IBRs. In addition, planned feeder segmentation and deliberate islanding for resilience will require DERs that can autonomously perform blackstart, establish voltage and frequency references, and resynchronize with the main grid. The advanced deadbeat-based UUCC control and blackstart functionalities developed in this project directly address these requirements, enabling decentralized and autonomous operation of inverter-dominated DERs in distribution systems under a wide range of fault and reconfiguration scenarios. From a public benefit perspective, these innovations enable more reliable and cost-effective integration of renewable energy into distribution networks. The ability to autonomously black start and stabilize grids under varying grid conditions support accelerates recovery from outages and support decentralized resilient energy systems. By reducing system complexity and improving performance, this project lays critical groundwork for future inverter-dominated power grids that are clean, reliable, and accessible to all.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Oakridge Geothermal Resources Assessment

Through the Communities Local Energy Action Program (LEAP), NREL provided technical assistance to a coalition of stakeholders from Oakridge, Oregon. The coalition included community-based non-profit organizations, the city government, the local utility, and others. Technical assistance provides analysis and information to support Oakridge stakeholders with their goals to increase energy reliability and resilience in the community, while promoting economic development. The Geothermal Resource Assessment provides technical analysis related to the geothermal resource in the Oakridge area, possible technology applications, and information related to further geothermal exploration. Technical analysis includes a review of a previous geothermal study conducted for Oakridge, thermal modeling to estimate reservoir temperatures, and technoeconomic simulation of a combined heat and power application in the Oakridge area.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Standards Library for Distributed Energy Resources

This presentation was presented at the Aggregation and Grid Security Workshop - held on June 17-18, 2025, at NREL in Golden, Colorado. The goal of the two-day workshop was to address the critical cybersecurity challenges for the future electric grid. This presentation overviews the evolution and need for harmonized distributed energy resource standards and a new distributed energy resource standards library.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

A Cultural Resource Survey of 110.55 Acres at the Coyote Test Field, Sandia National Laboratories, Kirtland Air Force Base, Bernalillo County, Albuquerque, New Mexico

This report presents the results of a Section 110 cultural resource survey of Sandia National Laboratories’ (Sandia) 9930 and 9939 Complexes, in the Coyote Test Field (CTF), located on lands permitted to the Department of Energy (DOE) by the Department of Defense (DOD), Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB), Bernalillo County, Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Sandia Field Office (DOE/NNSA SFO) and National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, in accordance with Section 110 and Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and its implementing regulations 36 C.F.R. Part 800, states that every federal agency must establish their own historic preservation program for the identification, evaluation, and protection of historic properties and to ensure that historic preservation is fully integrated into the ongoing programs of federal agencies. Sandia’s Cultural Resources Program (CRP) establishes areas of potential effects based upon projected Sandia mission needs. Some of these areas have no immediate undertakings planned but are in areas where undertakings can happen at a future date.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Distributed Mafic Rock Resources for Carbon Mineralization in Arizona

Ex-situ carbon mineralization is a process by which CO2 is reacted with alkaline silicate minerals and rocks to produce stable carbonate materials, which can be used for other industrial processes. Arizona, U.S.A., hosts abundant surficial mafic rocks in three young volcanic fields, Geronimo-San Bernardino, San Francisco, and Springerville, and other distributed locations throughout the state. We created a Mafic Rock Resource Inventory (MRRI) that categorizes geochemical, physical, and textural characteristics of a diverse suite of surficial mafic rock samples and provide a benchmark reaction dataset parameterizing the temperature, pressure, and pH conditions best suited ex-situ mineralization in different rock types. MRRI data is publicly available online via a map-viewer. We establish two reaction condition sets, varied in temperature, pressure, and pH, where crystal-rich and glassy rocks reach maximum reaction extent and different carbonate phases are formed. Systematic ex-situ mineralization experiments on 21 diverse rock types show trends in geochemical, mineralogical, and reactivity behavior and establish maximum effective capture capacity. From this, scoria cones in three Arizona volcanic fields have a ~62 Gt effective CO₂ storage capacity with one of the fields having a ~42 Gt storage capacity in lava flows. Reactivity results have applications to alkaline mafic rock resources exposed globally, including producing additional effective storage capacity estimates and scaled commercialization of mafic rock ex-situ mineralization, should reaction extents be improved through advances in mineralization techniques. MRRI data were used to create a Direct Air Capture to Mineralization (DACM) systems model, technoeconomic analysis, and life-cycle assessment. These documents are presented as three appendices.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2026

A Simulation Resource Team for Innovative Fusion Concepts

This project created a shared simulation resource for innovative fusion concepts at the University of Rochester, built around the FLASH, TriForce, OSIRIS, and OSHUN codes. Many promising fusion approaches are too complex to evaluate by experiment alone yet building a custom simulation capability from scratch for each new concept is expensive and slow. The BETHE Simulation Resource Team addressed this problem by developing and validating a flexible set of numerical tools, which were then applied across three major concept areas: plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion, staged Z pinches, and field-reversed configurations. The team assisted three concept teams and carried out independent analyses of all three concepts.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Super-Resolution for Renewable Energy Resource Data with Wind from Reanalysis Data and Application to Ukraine

With a potentially increasing share of the electricity grid relying on wind to provide generating capacity and energy, there is an expanding global need for historically accurate, spatiotemporally continuous, high-resolution wind data. Conventional downscaling methods for generating these data based on numerical weather prediction have a high computational burden and require extensive tuning for historical accuracy. In this work, we present a novel deep learning-based spatiotemporal downscaling method using generative adversarial networks (GANs) for generating historically accurate high-resolution wind resource data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting Reanalysis version 5 data (ERA5). In contrast to previous approaches, which used coarsened high-resolution data as low-resolution training data, we use true low-resolution simulation outputs. We show that by training a GAN model with ERA5 as the low-resolution input and Wind Integration National Dataset Toolkit (WTK) data as the high-resolution target, we achieved results comparable in historical accuracy and spatiotemporal variability to conventional dynamical downscaling. This GAN-based downscaling method additionally reduces computational costs over dynamical downscaling by two orders of magnitude. We applied this approach to downscale 30 km, hourly ERA5 data to 2 km, 5 min wind data for January 2000 through December 2023 at multiple hub heights over Ukraine, Moldova, and part of Romania. With WTK coverage limited to North America from 2007–2013, this is a significant spatiotemporal generalization. The geographic extent centered on Ukraine was motivated by stakeholders and energy-planning needs to rebuild the Ukrainian power grid in a decentralized manner. This 24-year data record is the first member of the super-resolution for renewable energy resource data with wind from the reanalysis data dataset (Sup3rWind).

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Integration of GOES Data for Solar Resource Assessment of the Contiguous United States

The National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB), produced by the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), provides high-resolution solar resource data for the contiguous United States (CONUS) using Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) East and West observations. This study evaluates the integration of multi-satellite data within the GOES-East/West overlap regions, where conventional longitude-based selection methods often produce an artificial boundary seam. Our results demonstrate that an advanced blending algorithm, which incorporates sun-satellite scattering angles and satellite viewing zenith angles, improves NSRDB accuracy and creates a spatially continuous dataset. Validation against ground-based irradiance measurements reveals reductions in both percentage error (PE) and normalized Root Mean Square Error (nRMSE), particularly in the central United States. The dynamical integration of multi-satellite data provides a robust foundation for more precise modeling of solar resource and improved spatiotemporal analysis of solar ramp across the CONUS.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Merefa Community Microgrid: Supporting Distributed Energy Resource Deployment in Ukraine

A conceptual design is described for a community microgrid in Ukraine. Microgrid resources include solar photovoltaics, battery energy storage, and conventional natural gas fueled reciprocating engine generators. The conceptual architecture was informed by the microgrid developer, NREL subject matter experts, and the application of REopt, an NREL-developed software tool created for identification of least-cost combination of resources for achieving cost savings, resilience, and renewable energy goals. This fact sheet is a summary of a previously published technical report; see NREL/TP-7A40-89527, which includes conceptual architecture, estimates of key summary financial metrics, and sequence of operations.

battery storage↗
DOE OSTI2025

Unlocking America's Abundant Marine Energy Resources

NREL Marine Energy One-Pager: A resource designed for use during NREL campus visits - especially with high-profile guests - as well as at events in Washington, D.C., when engaging with the new administration, and for displays at WPTO or lab booths. The U.S. holds vast untapped marine energy resources - wave, tidal, river, and ocean currents - that can strengthen grid resilience, support coastal communities, and advance energy independence. NREL leads innovation in this space through advanced modeling tools, patented technologies, and world-class testing facilities. NREL's simulation platforms, like OpenFAST and SAM, help reduce development time and risk. Patented devices such as PKelp and FlexWEC demonstrate flexible, resilient approaches to energy capture. At Flatirons Campus, NREL offers motion simulation, structural testing, wave tanks, and megawatt-scale microgrid emulation via the ARIES platform. These capabilities help developers refine and validate devices before in-water trials. With upcoming open-water testing at PacWave and strong partnerships, NREL is accelerating the path to commercialization - positioning the U.S. as a global leader in marine energy innovation.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Optimizing Energy Use in Pulp & Paper with DOE’s Energy Intensive Industries Resources

The U.S. pulp and paper industry is the third-largest energy consumer in manufacturing, accounting for roughly 10% of sector energy use. Improving energy efficiency reduces operating costs and strengthens competitiveness. To support this effort, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), through Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), launched the Energy Intensive Industries (EII) Initiative. A two-year pilot across 45 industrial sites identified more than 4 trillion Btu/year in potential energy savings. This presentation outlines plans for a follow-up technical assistance program tailored to pulp and paper mills. Available resources include a cost-savings scoping tool, implementation planning guidance, and technical support for applying advanced methods such as Pinch Analysis for integrated process-utilities optimization. The session introduces key Pinch Analysis principles and highlights case studies demonstrating measurable improvements. ORNL also seeks industry feedback on barriers to efficiency improvements, including technology gaps and resource needs. DOE’s broader objective is to accelerate productivity and economic competitiveness across U.S. energy-intensive industries.

Kamath, Dipti [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000278739994)↗
DOE OSTI2026

The Myth of Fungible FTE: A Quantitative Assessment of Matrixed Resource Allocation

Matrix organizations allow scientific facilities to share specialized personnel across projects, operations, maintenance, and strategic initiatives. Nominal staffing allocations, however, may not capture the schedule consequences of fragmented individual commitments, limited access to specialist groups, and intermittent availability of key decision makers. We developed a stochas- tic, daily-time-step simulation of a hypothetical medium-sized accelerator-facility project com- prising sequential phases and parallel tasks. Each task requires role-specific work measured in FTE-days. Ordinary personnel may be unavailable because they contribute concurrently to other institutional activities, while designated key roles have independently specified daily un- availability probabilities. An organization-wide priority factor scales the number of people from each functional group who can effectively contribute to the project. It is interpreted as a composite proxy for project access and workforce fragmentation across competing commit- ments. We examined project completion time as a function of this factor and Project Lead unavailability using 100 Monte Carlo runs per condition. Increasing priority factor from 0.1 to 1.0 reduced median completion time from 1708.5 days (interquartile range 1681.5–1735.25) to 390 days (interquartile range 379–399). At priority factor = 0.1, increasing Project Lead unavailability from 0.5 to 0.9 increased median completion time from 1713.5 days (interquartile range 1691–1733.25) to 4,417 days (interquartile range 4271.75–4550.5). The model quantifies the commonly expected sensitivity of project schedules to fragmented resource commitments and limited coordination availability. Within this model, the results also indicate a possible threshold regime in which small increases in workforce availability yield only modest sched- ule improvements until sufficient capacity becomes accessible, after which project performance improves sharply. With further validation and calibration, this quantitative framework could support resource-allocation decisions during initial project planning and subsequent schedule rebaselining.

Bai, Mei [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SL↗
DOE OSTI2025

Fundamentals of Resource Adequacy for Modern Power Systems

This webinar covers and introduction to power system resource adequacy, examining definitions, metrics, an overview of probabilistic methods, incentives and capacity credits, storage modeling, and evolving practices.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗