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At least 163 records · Page 9

GaAs-based superlattice photocathodes manufactured using MOCVD provide spin polarization > 90% and quantum efficiency > 1%

Spin-polarized electron beams are important for nuclear physics research performed at electron accelerators. Over many years, beam polarization has increased significantly, from 35% provided by unstrained bulk GaAs, to ~ 75% using single strained-layer GaAs, to ~ 90% using strained-superlattice GaAs photocathodes grown using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Commercial vendors once provided high-polarization photocathodes but today there is little interest in supporting this small market. Here, we report successful results fabricating high polarization GaAs/GaAsP superlattice photocathodes using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), a method dismissed by some as not providing sufficient control of layer thickness and uniformity. The best samples provide spin polarization greater than 90% and quantum efficiency (QE) exceeding 2%, with QE enhanced using a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) incorporated into the structure. Together, these quantities represent some of the best results ever reported for high polarization photocathodes. Enhanced QE via DRB is very important for future work at CEBAF/Jefferson Lab because it will simplify the production of polarized electron beams at milliampere current needed for a polarized positron source.

Poelker, Matt↗

Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program: Technical and Economic Considerations for Uprate of Existing Nuclear Reactors with Cogeneration

The United States nuclear reactor fleet consists of 63 pressurized water reactors and 31 boiling water reactors and is a pivotal component in the nation's energy infrastructure, supplying approximately 97 GW e of clean power. With the country's commitment to decarbonization by 2050, these reactors are not only instrumental in decarbonizing the electricity grid but also play a critical role in decarbonizing industrial processes, producing clean fuels, and scaling up CO 2 removal. This report delves into the potential for power uprates in the existing fleet to contribute to these decarbonization efforts, focusing on the expansion of capacity for applications such as hydrogen production and carbon capture and sequestration. Building on previous research, the report explores regional market demands for hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide, financial implications of oxygen and CO 2 sales from high-temperature steam electrolysis systems, and the potential for direct air capture systems paired with uprated nuclear plants.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Research to Address Technical Barriers to Expanded Markets for Biodiesel and Biodiesel Blends (CRADA Final Report)

NREL and the Clean Fuels Alliance America (CFAA) will work cooperatively to assess the effects of biodiesel blends on the performance of modern diesel engines. This work will include research to understand the impact of biodiesel blends on the operation and durability of particle filters and NO x control sorbents/catalysts, to quantify the effect on emission control systems performance, and to understand effects on engine component durability. This research was performed at NREL Renewable Fuels and Lubricants (REFUEL) laboratory (an engine testing laboratory) as well as at third party labs paid directly by CFAA with NREL as part of the project management team. Also, research to develop appropriate ASTM standards for biodiesel quality and stability was conducted in NREL’s bench scale fuel chemistry laboratory. The cooperative project involved laboratory testing and research at NREL using biodiesel from a variety of sources and in collaboration with a broad range of other stakeholders. In addition, NREL will work with NBB to set up an Industrial Steering Committee to design the scope for the various tasks and to provide technical oversight to these projects. NREL and NBB will cooperatively communicate the study results to as broad an audience as possible. This research benefits the public by expanding markets for a domestically produced low-carbon intensity fuel for use in diesel engines.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Research Priorities and Opportunities in U.S. Wholesale Electricity Markets: Market Design under Deep Decarbonization

This report contributes to the body of literature by reviewing key challenges for competitive wholesale electricity market design in deeply decarbonized power systems and establishing potential solutions and associated research needs. We provide a long-term perspective on ways in which competitive wholesale electricity markets can evolve to ensure that they still operate efficiently throughout the transition to a deeply decarbonized future. In this report, we use the term “deep decarbonization” to refer broadly to systems that generate nearly all their electricity from zero-carbon or carbon-neutral resources, while recognizing that there are many potential configurations of such systems. We also stress that many of these issues will arise to varying degrees as systems move toward full decarbonization, even if they are not truly 100% carbon-free.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

The Role of Concentrating Solar-Thermal Technologies in a Decarbonized U.S. Grid

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Solar Futures Study explores the roles solar energy technologies could play in the future U.S. energy markets under different scenarios. This report discusses the role of concentrating solar-thermal (CST) technologies in those future scenarios with an emphasis on concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP), which refers to converting thermal energy to electricity. The report begins with an overview of the CSP resource and market status. Next we discuss the results from the grid-scale capacity planning modeling under future scenarios considered in the Solar Futures Study, focusing on the results for CSP and presenting several sensitivity model results not discussed in the main report. We then discuss likely CST research and industry directions over the next decade. Finally we discuss three potential future markets for CST beyond electricity generation -- industrial process heat, solar fuels production, and electric thermal energy storage.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Research Priorities and Opportunities in U.S. Wholesale Electricity Markets: Market Design under Deep Decarbonization

This report provides a comprehensive review of challenges, research needs, and potential solutions for competitive wholesale electricity market design in deeply decarbonized power systems. We provide context regarding how competitive wholesale electricity markets can evolve in a longer-term perspective to ensure that they still operate efficiently throughout the transition to a deeply decarbonized future. We organize the discussion across seven topics: operational reliability, emerging technology integration, adequacy and resilience, price formation, interactions across transmission and distribution systems, transmission planning, achieving clean energy objectives, and challenges associated with cost-effectively achieving clean energy objectives. In each section we first identify key associated challenges before proposing a set of corresponding solutions and research needs.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Status and Trends in the U.S. Voluntary Power Market: 2023 Data

Voluntary green power, for this report, refers to renewable energy procurement by retail electricity customers above what is otherwise provided by load-serving entities. This report is part of an annual series of reports synthesizing trends in the U.S. voluntary green power market. In 2023, about 9.7 million retail electricity customers procured about 319 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of voluntary green power (Figure ES-1), representing a 17% increase over sales in 2022. Estimated voluntary green power market sales represented about 44% of non-hydropower renewable energy sales and about 8% of all U.S. retail electricity sales in 2023. Most of the remainder of U.S. renewable energy sales reflects renewable energy procured by load-serving entities to comply with state renewable energy mandates, also known as compliance-based procurement. The U.S. voluntary green power market is undergoing a clear shift toward long-term contracts, driven primarily by increasingly ambitious corporate renewable energy procurement targets.

2023↗

Status and Trends in the U.S. Voluntary Power Market: 2024 Data

Voluntary renewable power, for this report, refers to renewable energy procurement by retail electricity customers above what is otherwise provided by load-serving entities. This report is part of an annual series of reports synthesizing trends in the U.S. voluntary renewable power market. In 2024, about 9.2 million retail electricity customers procured about 315 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of voluntary renewable power (Figure ES-1). Estimated voluntary renewable power market sales represented about 45% of renewable energy sales excluding large hydropower and about 8% of all U.S. retail electricity sales in 2024. Most of the remainder of U.S. renewable energy sales reflects renewable energy procured by load-serving entities to comply with state renewable energy mandates.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Towards Commercialization of Hydrophone Flow Shields to Improve Passive Acoustic Data Quality (CRADA 678) (Final Report)

This project performed testing, market research, and manufacturing refinement to ready patent-pending hydrophone flow shields developed at PNNL for commercialization. The flow shields reduce the impact of flow noise on underwater sound recordings in areas of strong flow, like tidal channels or rivers. Flow noise is a challenge in many applications where it is necessary to measure underwater sound, including measuring the sound produced by marine energy converters and monitoring marine mammals. This project addressed several key questions about flow shield performance that are high-priority for potential customers and refined existing manufacturing processes to be scalable for market-level production. Specifically, this project conducted both laboratory and field evaluations of the flow shields to comprehensively evaluate their performance. Overall, the results indicate that the flow shields reduce flow noise by over 20 dB at frequencies below 50 Hz at flow speeds greater than 0.5 m/s and are proven to survive deployments more than 6 months long.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Market Survey of Airborne Small Unmanned Aircraft System Sensors February 2020

Sensors continue to decrease in size and power. This report presents results of a market survey conducted in February 2020 for commercial off-the-self sensors with optimal size, weight, and power to be carried onboard a small unmanned aircraft system. For this report, Sandia National Laboratories considered sensors that can detect an object in three dimensions. The sensors that were researched are broken into three categories: radio detection and ranging sensors, stereo camera sensors, and light detection and ranging sensors.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Informing selection of drugs for COVID-19 treatment through adverse events analysis

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing pandemic and there is an urgent need for safe and effective drugs for COVID-19 treatment. Since developing a new drug is time consuming, many approved or investigational drugs have been repurposed for COVID-19 treatment in clinical trials. Therefore, selection of safe drugs for COVID-19 patients is vital for combating this pandemic. Our goal was to evaluate the safety concerns of drugs by analyzing adverse events reported in post-market surveillance. We collected 296 drugs that have been evaluated in clinical trials for COVID-19 and identified 28,597,464 associated adverse events at the system organ classes (SOCs) level in the FDA adverse events report systems (FAERS). We calculated Z-scores of SOCs that statistically quantify the relative frequency of adverse events of drugs in FAERS to quantitatively measure safety concerns for the drugs. Analyzing the Z-scores revealed that these drugs are associated with different significantly frequent adverse events. Our results suggest that this safety concern metric may serve as a tool to inform selection of drugs with favorable safety profiles for COVID-19 patients in clinical practices. Caution is advised when administering drugs with high Z-scores to patients who are vulnerable to associated adverse events.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Decentralised demand response market model based on reinforcement learning

A new decentralised demand response (DR) model relying on bi‐directional communications is developed in this study. In this model, each user is considered as an agent that submits its bids according to the consumption urgency and a set of parameters defined by a reinforcement learning algorithm called Q‐learning. The bids are sent to a local DR market, which is responsible for communicating all bids to the wholesale market and the system operator (SO), reporting to the customers after determining the local DR market clearing price. From local markets’ viewpoint, the goal is to maximise social welfare. Four DR levels are considered to evaluate the effect of different DR portions in the cost of the electricity purchase. The outcomes are compared with the ones achieved from a centralised approach (aggregation‐based model) as well as an uncontrolled method. Numerical studies prove that the proposed decentralised model remarkably drops the electricity cost compare to the uncontrolled method, being nearly as optimal as a centralised approach.

Shafie‐Khah, Miadreza↗

FY 2021 Isolated Grids and Grid-Connected Turbine Reference Systems; Microgrids, Infrastructure Resilience, and Advanced Controls Launchpad (MIRACL)

For individuals, businesses, and communities focused on building resilient electrical grid infrastructure, wind energy can provide an affordable, accessible, and compatible distributed energy resource option that also enhances the capabilities of local grid operations. The Microgrids, Infrastructure Resilience, and Advanced Controls Launchpad (MIRACL) project is a multi-year distributed wind research effort, driven through a partnership between four Department of Energy National Laboratories and industry to develop and improve the planning, design, and operation of wind-centered microgrids to complement solar, energy storage, and other distributed energy resources for grid-tied and isolated operation (U.S. Department of Energy, 2021). This report documents the application of methods developed through the initial three years of the MIRACL project to two real-world distributed wind reference systems. Specifically, the methods demonstrated in this report include 1) a market valuation framework to comprehensively value the services distributed wind can provide and 2) a resilience framework that enables stakeholders to characterize distribution system resilience and compare grid investment decisions from a resilience perspective. Additional methods mentioned in this report include distributed hybrid system design methods for grid resilience, advanced control co-simulation platforms, and power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) models. Preliminary results from these additional methods are presented in this report and will be demonstrated and/or applied to the reference systems in the coming year. The purpose of applying these methods to reference systems is to drive technology transfer of the theories, methodologies, and technologies developed under the MIRACL project and increase the number of referenceable case studies available to stakeholders interested in additional value-added capabilities of wind systems beyond bulk energy supply (i.e. kilowatt-hours).

17 WIND ENERGY↗

GeoRePORT Protocol Volume IV: Socioeconomic Assessment Tool

The GeoRePORT Socioeconomic Assessment Tool provides guidance on how to complete the GeoRePORT Excel-based input spreadsheet. The GeoRePORT Socioeconomic Assessment Tool is designed to report land access, permitting, market, and transmission favorability for geothermal projects.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

Hydropower Investment and Public-Private Ecosystem Assessment

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) commissioned this Report to evaluate the primary challenges in raising investment in medium-sized hydropower and PSH, defined as projects with five (5) to 30 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity, and to understand potential opportunities to increase mobilization of private sector investment in hydropower and PSH projects in the future. Based on stakeholder interviews, a market survey, and industry reports, this Report considers the investment and development trends and future opportunities for five hydropower project types: capacity additions, conduits, PSH (both open and closed loop), non-powered dams (NPDs), and new stream-reach development (NSD).

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Comparing Offshore Wind Energy Procurement and Project Revenue Sources Across U.S. States

The pace of offshore wind energy procurement in the United States has rapidly accelerated in recent years. U.S. states along the Atlantic Coast have set procurement goals for offshore wind energy to meet renewable portfolio standards and serve state policy needs. By the end of 2019, projects with a total capacity of 6.4 gigawatts (GW) had established long-term contracts (or equivalent regulatory requirements) with utility off-takers. The prices established in these contracts since 2017 have been well below expectations from many industry observers, prompting stakeholders to compare price levels across U.S. states and globally. However, comparing procurement prices across projects and jurisdictions is often challenging because of differences in project parameters, support regimes, supply chains, and the applicable tax and regulatory environment. These characteristics provide critical context for understanding project revenue streams, delivery obligations, and risk allocation, which need to be accounted for when comparing across different projects. In combination, variation in these characteristics between projects results in measurable differences in project costs and revenues and, consequently, in different offer bids. In this report, we systematically analyze offshore wind energy support regimes across U.S. states. Because offshore wind energy procurement prices from U.S. projects are often compared not only among states but also with European tenders, this report also provides an overview of support regimes and taxonomy used in European offshore wind markets. The content of this report was derived from a literature review, primarily regulatory filings and summary reports, and 16 interviews with leading industry experts from state agencies, energy sector consultancies, and law practices. The comparison between U.S. states focuses on several dimensions, including statutory authority, solicitation procedures, procurement goals and awards, and the structuring of physical and transactional delivery of energy services.

17 WIND ENERGY↗