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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

AI-Driven Smart Community Control for Accelerating PV Adoption and Enhancing Grid Resilience

Rapid deployment of residential photovoltaic (PV) systems helps decarbonize our electricity supplies, but under certain circumstances, high-penetration PV may pose challenges to the electrical distribution grid. In a project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Energy Technologies Office and Building Technologies Office, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and its partners studied how flexible building loads and battery storage, when coordinated at home-level and community-level scales, can be used to address those challenges and enhance grid resilience. In this webinar, we will discuss the methodology, simulation and field pilot results, insights from partners, and lessons learned from the project.

artificial intelligence↗
DOE OSTI2024

Alaska Hydrogen Opportunities Report

This inaugural report on Alaska's hydrogen energy opportunities introduces key themes for developing a hydrogen economy in Alaska, establishes a baseline understanding of Alaska's infrastructure and resources relevant to hydrogen, and contextualizes this baseline in terms of national and global initiatives focused on hydrogen. This report could be further developed into a hydrogen roadmap or a statewide hydrogen strategy in the future. The driving group behind this report, the Alaska Hydrogen Working Group, was formed in 2022 to address the increasing interest in hydrogen energy opportunities in Alaska. As of December 2023, there were nearly 200 members representing industry, government, academia, communities, tribal entities, and interested citizens from both inside and outside Alaska. Since its inception, the group has met monthly to discuss issues of interest and to share insights and questions. One task is to synthesize Alaska's hydrogen energy opportunities and potential into a report. This task not only reflects grassroots interest but also responds to objectives outlined in Alaska Statewide: Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy 2022-2027 (Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development, 2022), one of which is to develop and implement a hydrogen roadmap for Alaska. The goals of this report are to enhance knowledge and information sharing, spur innovation and investment that could help transform Alaska's energy systems, and identify economic and workforce development opportunities across the state. Following the elements of the hydrogen economy outlined in the U.S. National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap, published in June 2023, this report explores the production, storage/delivery, and end-use options in evolving markets for Alaska, both within and outside the state. It also outlines key opportunities to identify and develop infrastructure investments, policy and regulatory frameworks, future research and demonstration priorities, economic and investment considerations, and workforce programs. These goals and opportunities are intended to support a statewide hydrogen energy economy that is equitable, diverse, environmentally just, and supportive of Indigenous rights and value systems.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2025

EMPOWERED Distributed Energy Resources Permit Accelerator Pilot

This report summarizes the EMPOWERED Distributed Energy Resources (DER) Permit Accelerator Pilot project. Its primary objective was to streamline the design, installation, permitting, and inspections of targeted Distributed Energy Resource (DER) solutions. Streamlining these processes is critical to strengthening and accelerating the adoption of DER solutions nationwide. Moreover, streamlined processes help expedite the clean energy transition and expand energy resilience by improving understanding and capability among key stakeholders like property owners, code officials, and the general workforce. The project team accomplished this by developing and deploying a set of design and permitting guides for simple DER solutions, which they rolled out via a permitting pilot program. The project team developed nine permitting and inspection guides for simple DER solutions, as follows: 1. Single-Family and Duplex: Electric Vehicle Service Equipment (EVSE), and Storage, Solar + Storage (each in two code cycles) 2. Multi-family and Office: EVSE, Storage, Solar + Storage (each in two code cycles) 3. A permitting process guide to support the implementation of the permitting guides. The guides cover key code requirements via plan review and field inspection checklists for code officials and building owners to follow to streamline the permitting and inspections process for DER solutions. Following the development of the initial set of guides, the project team formed two cohorts, each made up of four jurisdictions, to participate in the Permit Accelerator Pilot. Each cohort received training and technical assistance to support them in incorporating the guides into use. The project successfully engaged jurisdictions in two disparate US regions: Chelsea, Somerville, Natick, and Norwood in metro Boston; and Pima County, Town of Gilbert, Flagstaff, and Sedona in Arizona. Feedback gathered from the project was valuable in refining the guides to better address jurisdictional needs. After the pilot period, the project team developed final versions of the guides based on extensive feedback from the cohorts and from external technical peer review. Feedback included needs and barriers related to implementation, as well as detailed technical improvements from external peer review. The final guides were presented in a series of webinars with a national reach, with 192 attendees from 35 states in the live session of the final webinar, and the final guides are posted online and available for use nationwide. Key findings: • The most receptive jurisdictions were those adjacent to other jurisdictions that had already adopted similar initiatives. The least receptive jurisdictions were those in the midst of adopting new code cycles. • The most common barrier to jurisdictional adoption of new guidelines were internal administrative and process delays, more so than technical barriers. • The main technical barrier to adoption proved to be the concern of fire hazard risks posed by energy storage systems. There is some apprehension in the code enforcement community about the safety of the batteries. Education coordinated with fire and safety services will help alleviate concerns and increase confidence in the acceptance of innovative technologies. • Opportunities to further leverage and advance the guides and related resources include outreach, education, and jurisdictional support; updates to the resources to align with code cycle changes and local requirements; and advancements supporting emerging technologies.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Building the Next Generation Through 20 Years of Solar Decathlon: From Collegiate Prize to Multifaceted Clean Energy Workforce Program: Preprint

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, initiated in 2002 as a collegiate competition that challenges student teams to design and build high-performance, low-carbon buildings powered by renewables, has always been about developing students to be the next generation of buildings professionals. As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Solar Decathlon in 2022, this paper highlights its evolution from a singular prize to a multi-faceted platform preparing the broader buildings workforce to address the challenges of climate change. The original program challenged students to design and construct a residence. To improve the accessibility of the competition, the Design Challenge -- a 1-2 semester design-only competition-- was added to the Solar Decathlon platform. The Solar Decathlon has also scaled globally with events in Europe, the Middle East, China, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and India. In 2021, the Solar Decathlon broadened its reach once again by introducing Solar Decathlon Pro, a zero-energy design practicum for professional architects and engineers. This paper utilizes participation data, surveys, alumni profiles, project submissions, and more to understand how changes to the program have expanded program reach to minority-serving institutions, environmental justice communities, and impacted the building industry's capacity to construct high performance and zero energy buildings. As one of the oldest federal government prizes, the Solar Decathlon offers a roadmap for dramatically increasing prize impact and demonstrates that it continues to push boundaries to tackle decarbonization and environmental justice.

build↗
DOE OSTI2026

HelioScope Energy Performance Modeling Validation: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-17-00685

HelioScope is a unique solar design and energy performance modeling tool that bridges the worlds of research and industry, bringing the most rigorous methods from the performance modeling community to thousands of solar developers of all backgrounds. However, many financial institutions and municipalities are hesitant to accept the energy production modeling results of HelioScope (including shading losses) in place of costly, time-intensive, and/or redundant methods due to lack of vetting from a respected institution like NREL. We expect that the proposed validation exercises will give municipalities and financial institutions the comfort needed to incorporate HelioScope into their operations, thereby significantly reducing the needs of existing and potential HelioScope users' to otherwise obtain information that HelioScope produces automatically. Folsom Labs was selected for a Small Business Voucher from the U.S. Department of Energy for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to validate the performance of HelioScope’s simulation engine against measured PV system performance.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

LA100 Equity Strategies. Chapter 10: Household Transportation Electrification

The LA100 Equity Strategies project integrates community guidance with robust research, modeling, and analysis to identify strategy options that can increase equitable outcomes in Los Angeles' clean energy transition. This chapter focuses on residential electric vehicle (EV) incentive programs and multimodal electrified transportation services as means to increase equity in household transportation electrification. Specifically, NREL modeled EV adoption and affordability under business-as-usual and enhanced low-income incentives scenarios and transportation-related energy burdens under multimodal electric travel scenarios, including shared EVs, e-bikes, and improved transit services. Based on our analysis and community guidance, we identified strategies for 1)?increasing equity in new and used light-duty EV adoption and EV charging infrastructure distribution, focused on household used EV ownership and home charging access and 2) affordable, time-efficient, and equitable multimodal electrified transportation options, specifically considering the non-vehicle-owning population. Research was guided by input from the community engagement process, and associated equity strategies are presented in alignment with that guidance.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

PIVOT: Powering the Transformation of the Global Energy Economy - 2023 JISEA Annual Report

The 2023 JISEA Annual Report describes accomplishments from the past year at the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis, which is powering the transformation of the global energy economy. 2022 was filled with high-impact work in supply chain analysis, industrial decarbonization, sustainable communities, and more. This year, JISEA also launched the Green Computing Catalyzer and welcomed the American-Made program to the center.

catalyzer↗
DOE OSTI2022

Preface to special topic: The High Repetition Rate Frontier in High-Energy-Density Physics

High-repetition-rate (HRR) experiments can collect large datasets with high temporal, spatial, and/or parametric resolution or large numbers of repeat measurements for statistics. HRR experiments also enable new experimental designs, including active feedback control loops and novel diagnostics, that can improve the reproducibility as well as the quantity of measurements. Together, these attributes make HRR experiments ideal for performing high-quality repeatable science. Until recently, these techniques have not been applied to high-energy-density–physics (HEDP) experiments, which are typically restricted to repetition rates of a few per day. However, recent advancements in lasers, pulsed-power drivers, target fabrication, and diagnostics are starting to change this fact, opening an exciting new frontier of HRR HEDP experiments. A mini-conference on this subject at the 2021 meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics brought together members of this growing community. As a result, the “High Repetition Rate Frontier in High-Energy-Density Physics” special topic in Physics of Plasmas highlights current progress in this exciting area.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Status and Trends in the U.S. Voluntary Green Power Market (2021 Data)

This data book provides certain data behind figures and tables found in the NREL presentation "Status and Trends in the Voluntary Market (2021 Data)." These data reflect estimates based on the best available data. Excluded Data This data book excludes data for certain figures using confidential survey data or purchased data for which NREL does not own the rights. In particular, renewable energy certificate (REC) price data are not included in this data book Rounding: Some estimates may be slightly inconsistent across tabs due to estimate rounding Citation for the data: E. O'Shaughnessy and J. Heeter. 2022. Status and Trends in the Voluntary Market. Golden, CO: NREL. For more information: contact Jenny Heeter (jenny.heeter@nrel.gov). For more information on voluntary green power markets see NREL's resources at https://www.nrel.gov/analysis/green-power.html. Acronyms CCA Community choice aggregation MWh Megawatt hour PPA Power purchase agreement RECs Renewable energy certificate

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Designing Resilient Communities: A Consequence-Based Approach for Grid Investment Report Series (Final Report)

As part of the project “Designing Resilient Communities (DRC): A Consequence-Based Approach for Grid Investment,” funded by the United States (US) Department of Energy’s (DOE) Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC), Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) partnered with a variety of government, industry, and university participants to develop and test a framework for community resilience planning focused on modernization of the electric grid. This report provides a summary of the development, description, and demonstration of the resulting Resilient Community Design Framework.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Quantum information meets high-energy physics: input to the update of the European strategy for particle physics

Some of the most astonishing and prominent properties of Quantum Mechanics, such as entanglement and Bell nonlocality, have only been studied extensively in dedicated low-energy laboratory setups. The feasibility of these studies in the high-energy regime explored by particle colliders was only recently shown and has gathered the attention of the scientific community. For the range of particles and fundamental interactions involved, particle colliders provide a novel environment where quantum information theory can be probed, with energies exceeding by about 12 orders of magnitude those employed in dedicated laboratory setups. Furthermore, collider detectors have inherent advantages in performing certain quantum information measurements and allow for the reconstruction of the state of the system under consideration via quantum state tomography. Here, we elaborate on the potential, challenges, and goals of this innovative and rapidly evolving line of research and discuss its expected impact on both quantum information theory and high-energy physics.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2021

Microbial Community Characteristics Largely Unaffected by X-Ray Computed Tomography of Sediment Cores

X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanning is used to study the physical characteristics of soil and sediment cores, allowing scientists to analyze stratigraphy without destroying core integrity. Microbiologists often work with geologists to understand the microbial properties in such cores; however, we do not know whether CT scanning alters microbial DNA such that DNA sequencing, a common method of community characterization, changes as a result of X-ray exposure. Our objective was to determine whether CT scanning affects the estimates of the composition of microbial communities that exist in cores. Sediment cores were extracted from a salt marsh and then submitted for CT scanning. We observed a minimal effect of CT scanning on microbial community composition in the sediment cores either when the cores were examined shortly after recovery from the field or after the cores had been stored for several weeks. In contrast, properties such as sediment layer and marsh location did affect microbial community structure. While we observed that CT scanning did not alter microbial community composition as a whole, we identified a few amplicon sequence variants (13 out of 7,037) that showed differential abundance patterns between scanned and unscanned samples among paired sample sets. Our overall conclusion is that the CT-scanning conditions typically used to obtain images for geological core characterization do not significantly alter microbial community structure. We stress that minimizing core exposure to X-rays is important if cores are to be studied for biological properties. Future investigations might consider variables, such as the length and energy of radiation exposure, the volume of the core, or the degree, to which microbial communities are stressed as important factors in assessing the impact of X-rays on microbes in geological cores.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Controlled-Environment Agriculture and the Geography of Food, Energy and Water Resilience in the United States

USDA guidelines call for an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption in U.S. households to promote healthier diets. Access to fresh fruits and vegetables are especially lacking in food deserts and food swamps (characterized by a prevalence of food that is highly processed and lacking in nutritional value). Adoption of the recommended healthy diet, which more than doubles the consumption of fruits and vegetables, would have a wide variety of health benefits and would reduce the land footprint of U.S diets. However, adopting a healthy diet would increase phosphate and nitrogen impacts associated with fertilizers and pesticides and would significantly increase freshwater consumption and energy use because of the resource intensity of field cultivation of fruits and vegetables. The majority of these crops are grown in just a few states, including California and Arizona, which are increasingly impacted by climate change. In addition, rural communities are rapidly becoming food deserts, while food produced in these areas is transported long distances to market. In recent years, highly intensified controlled environment (CE) agricultural systems, (i.e., vertical farming) have been developed to provide fresh food closer to consumers. Fruits and vegetables, many of which are amenable to CE culture, occupy a uniquely impactful segment of the food supply-chain, including their value in improving nutrition for vulnerable communities. The objective of this work is to elucidate the location dependency of the energy and water impacts of adoption of distributed CE farming for an important portion of the food system.

controlled environment agriculture↗
DOE OSTI2022

Jets and Jet Substructure at Future Colliders

Even though jet substructure was not an original design consideration for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments, it has emerged as an essential tool for the current physics program. We examine the role of jet substructure on the motivation for and design of future energy Frontier colliders. In particular, we discuss the need for a vibrant theory and experimental research and development program to extend jet substructure physics into the new regimes probed by future colliders. Jet substructure has organically evolved with a close connection between theorists and experimentalists and has catalyzed exciting innovations in both communities. We expect such developments will play an important role in the future energy Frontier physics program.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Incorporating energy justice into utility-scale photovoltaic deployment: A policy framework

Utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) installations made up 77 GW (6%) of installed capacity in the United States, as of the end of 2021. This will grow to more than 500 GW by 2050 under a mid-case projection or more than 800 GW if solar costs decline more rapidly. While utility-scale PV is projected to grow rapidly, to date, unlike energy efficiency or distributed PV, utility-scale PV has not been used to provide substantial financial benefits to underserved communities, either through ownership, financing of assets, or direct electricity bill reduction. We assess two mechanisms through which utility-scale PV could benefit underserved communities. We find that while a framework for direct electricity bill reduction can be meaningful to customers, this mechanism falls short of providing restorative justice via wealth creation for minority-owned businesses. In contrast, we find that a framework for procurement of utility-scale PV by public and private entities from PV projects that are financed, owned, and/or developed by minority-owned businesses can provide this restorative justice benefit, and thereby facilitate an equitable energy transition. We conclude with concrete recommendations for new policies and programs to ensure that the benefits of utility-scale PV systems are distributed to underserved communities.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Expanding Solar Research and Generation for a Bright Energy Future (Final Technical Report)

This project supported the construction of an outdoor solar research facility for the primary purpose of characterizing panel and system lifetimes in the northern New England climate which features cold winters and warm, humid summers. The facility is designed to be integrated into future efforts to explore the impacts of the New England climate on energy storage and grid integration, as well as methods to mitigate factors like snow and dust coverage in the industrial and agricultural environment of the Intervale farming community and the McNeil wood-fired power generating station. It will provide year-round renewable energy research opportunities for faculty and students. As renewable energy generation and storage have become research priorities for UVM, for the state of Vermont, and for the United States as a whole, this facility will benefit the public on a broad range of scales.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Navigating Options for Transportation Electrification and Solar Charging: Steps and Lessons Learned in Montana Communities

This document is intended to assist communities who are considering investing in electric transportation. It can assist communities engage stakeholders, prioritize community goals, assess electric transportation options, and navigate complex decisions about deploying zero emission electric transportation in their community. It covers technological, economic and environmental aspects of the transition to electric vehicles (EV), and highlights the specific considerations related to the deployment of renewable energy technologies (e.g., distributed solar) in combination with EV supply equipment (EVSE, e.g., charging stations). There are many important decisions to make and questions for communities to ask themselves as they consider electric vehicle types, charging infrastructure, and electricity generation options. This guide will help communities assess: (1) Which stage in the decision-making process they are in with respect to EV deployment; (2) Questions they can explore to guide their decisions about EV deployment; (3) How to engage key stakeholders on EV deployment options; (4) Tradeoffs and benefits of various electric transportation options and; (5) Synergies of pairing electric vehicle charging and renewable energy generation technologies. The analysis and lessons learned presented in this roadmap are intended to serve as a template and guide for similarly situated communities across the country who want to prepare for and play a role in the electrified transportation future.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Initiatives to Support Renewable Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure

Initiatives to build and manage climate-resilient infrastructure require spatially explicit environmental and climate information. NASA’s vantage point of Earth from space provides valuable observations that, in concert with additional information, can be used to inform both the design and operation of infrastructure that builds resilience to climate stressors. In this presentation, we provide an overview of how NASA Earth science is used to support decision-making associated with climate adaptation and mitigation, with a particular focus on renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure. Much of this work is currently delivered through NASA’s Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resources (POWER) project, which generates high quality solar and meteorological data products that are customized to the needs of user communities. Importantly, these products are delivered through a variety of web-based applications that make it easier for users to access relevant and timely information. We will highlight several examples of how the impact of POWER is scaled via a robust user community and discuss further plans to expand impact. Additionally, this presentation will highlight efforts of the NASA Earth Science Division’s Energy & Infrastructure Applications program to expand collaborative activities with researchers and practitioners that work on renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure.

Allison K Leidner↗