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DOE OSTI2021

The evolving role of geothermal energy for decarbonizing the United States

Geothermal energy is often referred to as a niche technology that is too localized, too small or too expensive to make much of a difference in how renewable energy will be supplied in a fully decarbonized future. As a result, geothermal energy has been undervalued in terms of what it could provide to complement, rather than compete with, electricity generation from wind, solar photovoltaic, concentrating solar power and other renewables. Geothermal energy systems are fully dispatchable and can provide baseload or load-following electric power or heat suitable for a wide range of applications including supplying district heating for communities and cities, and heating and cooling of individual buildings. The focus of our study is on the potential of utilizing geothermal energy for providing heat for buildings and industry at lower temperatures, a substitute for the combustion of fossil fuels. Because heating represents about 20% (20 EJ per year) of the annual primary energy consumption in the U.S.—with most of it coming from burning natural gas, oil and/or propane in furnaces—deploying geothermal heating on a national scale could have a significant impact on lowering carbon emissions. In heating-dominated states in the U.S. Northern Tier, heating often is among the largest contributors to the state's carbon footprint. This review begins with a discussion of the motivation and rationale behind considering geothermal as a key low-carbon heating option for the U.S. The study summarizes the U.S. geothermal resource and describes the applications and main engineering components of using geothermal energy for heating and cooling, electric power generation, and co-generation using district heating, geothermal heat pumps, and power conversion with steam flashing and organic Rankine plants. Environmental benefits and impacts are described. An extensive discussion of geologic and thermal-hydraulic aspects of the subsurface is included in the review because of their critical role in determining reservoir designs at specific sites to ensure sufficient productivity that is both safe and economically viable. Models for estimating levelized costs of district heating are used to show how costs are affected by reservoir performance, infrastructure capital costs, and financial parameters. Here, the review concludes with an assessment of technical subsurface issues associated with reservoir performance and the economic requirements for providing geothermal heating in district heating systems at a sufficient scale to have an impact on decarbonizing the U.S.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2022

Ecosystems and Networks Integrated with Genes and Molecular Assemblies (ENIGMA). Final report

The goal of the Stahl lab is to use a combination of isotopic, genomic, and activity-based analyses in the field, of selected field isolates, and defined synthetic communities to identify sources and sinks of different nitrogen species in the field, focusing on the FRC at the ORNL. The most general research objective is to characterize variants in the pathway for denitrification among field isolates and synthetic microbial assemblies as a foundation for predicting the biotic and abiotic controls of nitrogen and carbon transformations in the field. Specifically, we have focused on characterizing environmental controls of nitrous oxide emissions, an important greenhouse gas and ozone depleting molecule. Studies have mapped the flux of nitrous oxide and controlling genetic elements within the FRC subsurface, indicating the importance of different enzyme variants in nitrous oxide production and consumption in controlling surface emissions. We have developed methods to quantify and catalog the isotopic signatures imparted on nitrous oxide by different nitrous oxide reductase variants in isolated organisms and model synthetic communities. We have developed methods to quantify and catalog the nitrous oxide affinity of field relevant isolates and their biomass yield when respiring nitrous oxide on different carbon substrates. We continue to expand the collection of field-relevant microbial isolates within ENIGMA by focused enrichment and isolation from field material. These objectives have been facilitated by the development of new technologies, including: 1) the development of a multiplexed automated optical density measurement system for quantifying growth kinetics of microorganisms dependent on gaseous substrates in monoculture or gas exchange in synthetic communities and 2) the development of a microcalorimetric analysis format to quantify the impact of environmental stress on microbial maintenance energy. Since field relevant processes are mediated by assemblies of organisms interacting with each other and their local environment, we have also collaborated with other ENIGMA investigators on the assembly and characterization of synthetic communities. These studies have evaluated the role of organisms lacking a complete pathway for denitrification in the control of field processes, measuring process rates of assemblies of organisms that individually lack the full denitrification pathway but mediate the complete denitrification when growing together. These efforts have so far resulted in the publication of 18 peer reviewed papers ranging from ecological and physiological drivers of pathway optimization to field-scale process characterization.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2024

The Compelling Need for a Mid-Scale Stellarator Facility

In the pursuit of the goal of commercial fusion as an abundant and safe source of energy, the stellarator is a leading concept with compelling attractiveness and demonstrated performance. In this white paper we, as a community of US researchers from Universities, National Laboratories, and Private Industry, involved in studying the stellarator concept, lay out the programmatic and technical motivation for a new mid-size stellarator research facility in the US. This contribution is complementary to several other whitepapers authored by members of our community which address different mid-scale stellarator aspects. A community based technical facility proposal has been prepared by F. Parra, et al: Flexible Stellarator Physics Facility. Two private stellarator companies have submitted proposals supporting the development of a mid-scale stellarator: Thea Energy (C.P.S. Swanson, et al.), Type One Energy (W. Guttenfelder, et al.).

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

NASA NTRS1981

The small community solar thermal power experiment. Parabolic dish technology for industrial process heat application

Aspects of incorporating a thermal energy transport system (ETS) into a field of parabolic dish collectors for industrial process heat (IPH) applications were investigated. Specific objectives are to: (1) verify the mathematical optimization of pipe diameters and insulation thicknesses calculated by a computer code; (2) verify the cost model for pipe network costs using conventional pipe network construction; (3) develop a design and the associated production costs for incorporating risers and downcomers on a low cost concentrator (LCC); (4) investigate the cost reduction of using unconventional pipe construction technology. The pipe network design and costs for a particular IPH application, specifically solar thermally enhanced oil recovery (STEOR) are analyzed. The application involves the hybrid operation of a solar powered steam generator in conjunction with a steam generator using fossil fuels to generate STEOR steam for wells. It is concluded that the STEOR application provides a baseline pipe network geometry used for optimization studies of pipe diameter and insulation thickness, and for development of comparative cost data, and operating parameters for the design of riser/downcomer modifications to the low cost concentrator.

Polzien, R. E.↗

NASA NTRS2023

Sharks Associated With A Large Sand Shoal Complex: Community Insights From Longline and Acoustic Telemetry Surveys

Offshore sand shoals are a coveted sand source for coastal restoration projects and as sites for wind energy development. Shoals often support unique fish assemblages but their habitat value to sharks is largely unknown due to the high mobility of most species in the open ocean. This study pairs multi-year longline and acoustic telemetry surveys to reveal depth-related and seasonal patterns in a shark community associated with the largest sand shoal complex in east Florida, USA. Monthly longline sampling from 2012–2017 yielded 2,595 sharks from 16 species with Atlantic sharpnose (Rhizoprionodon terraenovae), blacknose (Carcharhinus acronotus), and blacktip (C. limbatus) sharks being the most abundant species. A contemporaneous acoustic telemetry array detected 567 sharks from 16 species (14 in common with longlines) tagged locally and by researchers elsewhere along the US East Coast and Bahamas. PERMANOVA modeling of both datasets indicate that the shark species assemblage differed more across seasons than water depth although both factors were important. Moreover, the shark assemblage detected at an active sand dredge site was similar to that at nearby undisturbed sites. Water temperature, water clarity, and distance from shore were habitat factors that most strongly correlated to community composition. Both sampling approaches documented similar single-species and community trends but longlines underestimated the shark nursery value of the region while telemetry-based community assessments are inherently biased by the number of species under active study. Overall, this study confirms that sharks can be an important component of sand shoal fish communities but suggests that deeper water immediately adjacent to shoals (as opposed to shallow shoal ridges) is more valuable to some species. Potential impacts to these nearby habitats should be considered when planning for sand extraction and offshore wind infrastructure.

Shark Management↗

DOE OSTI2025

Accelerating technology development to monitor and minimize effects from land‐based wind energy on birds and bats

While wind energy is a key sector of domestic energy production for the United States, operation of wind turbines directly and indirectly adversely affects certain species of birds and bats. The cumulative effect of wind turbine strikes can have both biological and regulatory consequences, and, in some cases, delay permitting and construction or affect ongoing operations. Technology can help quantify and minimize these effects, but the pace of development, acceptance, and adoption of technological solutions is slow. Although adopting cost‐effective technologies may reduce negative effects on wildlife and help achieve both energy production and conservation goals, consensus is lacking among developers, regulators, and the conservation community regarding how to define technology effectiveness and acceptance and how to develop a standardized process for doing so. Removing barriers to technology advancement requires deviating from the status quo. Changes include 1) creating incentives to mitigate impacts, 2) establishing options for research as mitigation, 3) rethinking how research is funded, 4) increasing stakeholder coordination, and 5) increasing the efficiency of research and development. We recommend the creation of a national framework to establish clear criteria and protocols for technology evaluation and adoption.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Bat activity at ecovoltaic solar energy developments in the Midwestern United States

As global photovoltaic (PV) solar electricity generation continues to increase, some PV sites are co-prioritizing electricity generation and ecosystem function (“ecovoltaics”) to align renewable energy development with biodiversity conservation. Thus far, positive responses of plant and insect communities to native habitats at ecovoltaic sites have been observed, but there has been little research on bat responses to ecovoltaic designs in the U.S. We conducted passive ultrasonic monitoring in 2023 and 2024 at 12 solar sites and paired reference sites (agricultural fields) to investigate bat activity responses to ecovoltaic facilities in the Midwestern U.S. We found that average weekly overall bat activity was approximately 50?% higher within ecovoltaic sites than reference sites in the first half of the monitoring season. We also found species-specific differences in bat responses to ecovoltaic sites, with Hoary Bats showing higher activity on ecovoltaic sites throughout most of the monitoring season, Big Brown Bats showing higher activity on ecovoltaic sites during the first one-third of the monitoring season, and Silver-haired Bats showing no difference in activity between ecovoltaic sites and reference sites. There were no weeks in which bat activity was statistically greater on reference sites, suggesting that bats in the Midwestern U.S. do not avoid ecovoltaic solar sites. Rather, our results suggest that ecovoltaic sites in this region may provide early season (May-June) habitat at a time of year when resources may be limited in the surrounding landscape. These findings support a growing body of evidence on the positive ecological outcomes of ecovoltaic designs. Further investigations of the types of bat calls being recorded at PV sites and relationships with insect prey abundance are needed to understand the underlying drivers of species-specific responses to PV developments.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Permafrost microbial communities and functional genes are structured by latitudinal and soil geochemical gradients

Permafrost underlies approximately one quarter of Northern Hemisphere terrestrial surfaces and contains 25–50% of the global soil carbon (C) pool. Permafrost soils and the C stocks within are vulnerable to ongoing and future projected climate warming. The biogeography of microbial communities inhabiting permafrost has not been examined beyond a small number of sites focused on local-scale variation. Permafrost is different from other soils. Perennially frozen conditions in permafrost dictate that microbial communities do not turn over quickly, thus possibly providing strong linkages to past environments. Thus, the factors structuring the composition and function of microbial communities may differ from patterns observed in other terrestrial environments. Here, we analyzed 133 permafrost metagenomes from North America, Europe, and Asia. Permafrost biodiversity and taxonomic distribution varied in relation to pH, latitude and soil depth. The distribution of genes differed by latitude, soil depth, age, and pH. Genes that were the most highly variable across all sites were associated with energy metabolism and C-assimilation. Specifically, methanogenesis, fermentation, nitrate reduction, and replenishment of citric acid cycle intermediates. This suggests that adaptations to energy acquisition and substrate availability are among some of the strongest selective pressures shaping permafrost microbial communities. The spatial variation in metabolic potential has primed communities for specific biogeochemical processes as soils thaw due to climate change, which could cause regional- to global- scale variation in C and nitrogen processing and greenhouse gas emissions.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2020

Highly Available Nuclear Power for Mission-Critical Applications

Some energy consumers require power on an anytime, all-year-round basis with a high level of certainty, including defense installations, isolated communities, and some industrial processes. For these customers, interruptions in electricity or heat can mean substantial financial loss or even loss of life. In the absence of grid-scale energy storage, a high level of power availability can be accomplished only through the robustness and redundancy of power generators. The NuScale small modular reactor design is well suited to provide highly available power because of several features related to both the nuclear steam supply system and the overall plant design. In analogy to Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) systems used to provide highly reliable data storage, a NuScale plant can assure sustained power generation by virtue of its Redundant Array of Integral Reactors (RAIR).This paper describes the NuScale RAIR plant features and summarizes the results of a rigorous analysis of RAIR availability as a function of power or, conversely, the RAIR plant output power as a function of power availability. The analysis utilized the Matrix Laboratory code (MATLAB) and included probability distributions for the frequency and duration of module outages due to planned and unplanned events. Further, the study evaluated the impact of implementing turbine bypass rather than module shutdown and using one or more modules to supply house loads in the case of loss of off-site power (LOOP). Availability results are presented for a 12-module RAIR plant with and without turbine bypass enabled during a LOOP and for different possible connections to the off-site power distribution grid and dedicated service loads. Results indicate that a very high level of availability can be achieved at relatively high power output levels, regardless of turbine bypass and dedicated load connection, compared to the operating fleet.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Clear Sky Tampa Bay: Project and Toolkit Overview - Resilience-Based Resources for Assessing Solar + Storage on Critical Facilities

The Clear Sky Tampa Bay Team, convened by the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council (TBRPC) and composed of county and city partners, private and public sector stakeholders, solar energy experts, and academic partners, collaboratively developed a set of resources to support the expanded use of solar + storage in the context of community resilience in Florida. Key questions guiding the project included: (1) What types of buildings and systems provide the maximum resilience benefits? (2) Where within our communities should we prioritize future solar + storage analysis or investment to mitigate the impacts of disasters? (3) How might other societal variables be incorporated into a site assessment when considering solar + storage for resilience? (4) Can a standardized process be developed that leverages existing resources to assist local governments with solar + storage for resilience research and decision-making?

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2020

THE LHeC ERL – OPTICS AND PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION

Unprecedently high luminosity of 1034 cm-2s-1, prom-ised by the LHeC accelerator complex poses several beam dynamics and lattice design challenges. Here we present beam dynamics driven approach to accelerator design, which in particular, addresses emittance dilution due to quantum excitations and beam breakup instability in a large scale, multi-pass Energy Recovery Linac (ERL). The use of ERL accelerator technology to provide im-proved beam quality and higher brightness continues to be the subject of active community interest and active accelerator development of future Electron Ion Colliders (EIC). Here, we employ current state of though for ERLs aiming at the energy frontier EIC. The main thrust of these studies was to enhance the collider performance, while limiting overall power consumption through explor-ing interplay between emittance preservation and effi-ciencies promised by the ERL technology.

Bogacz, Slawomir↗

DOE OSTI2020

CMS Experience with Adoption of the Community supported DD4hep Toolkit

DD4hep is an open-source software toolkit that provides comprehensive and complete generic detector descriptions for high energy physics (HEP) detectors. The Compact Muon Solenoid collaboration (CMS) has recently evaluated and adopted DD4hep to replace its custom detector description software. CMS has demanding software requirements as a very large, longrunning experiment that must support legacy geometries and study many possible upgraded detector designs of a constantly evolving detector that will be taking data for many years to come. CMS has chosen DD4hep since it is a high-quality, community-supported solution that will benefit from continuing modernization and maintenance. This presentation will discuss the issues of DD4hep adoption, the advantages and disadvantages of the various design choices, performance results, and the integration of the plugin systems from CMS and Gaudi, another open-source software framework. Recommendations about DD4hep based upon the CMS use cases will also be presented.

Vuosalo, Carl↗

DOE OSTI2022

Ending the Energy-Poverty Nexus: An Ethical Imperative for Just Transitions

Arguments for a just transition are integral to debates about climate change and the drive to create a carbon-neutral economy. There are currently two broad approaches rooted in ethics and justice for framing just energy transitions. The first can be described as internal to the transition and emphasizes the anticipation, assessment, and redressing of harms created by the transition itself and the inclusion in transition governance of groups or communities potentially harmed by its disruptions. In this article, we propose a second approach to ethics and justice in an energy transition, which we describe as systemic or societal in scope. This approach complements attention to the proximate dynamics and impacts of the transition process with a focus on the distant societal and economic outcomes the transition brings into being and how they compare to conditions prior to the transition. It poses the question: do the transformative social, economic, and technological changes wrought by energy systems create more just societies and economies, or do they instead reinforce or recreate long-standing injustices and inequalities? We illustrate this approach with an assessment of one of the most significant existing forms of energy injustice: the energy-poverty nexus. We argue that the energy-poverty nexus reflects configurations of socio-energy systems that create complex, extractive feedbacks between energy insecurity and economic insecurity and, over time, reinforce or exacerbate poverty. We further argue that just energy transitions should work to disentangle these configurations and re-design them so as to create generative rather than extractive feedbacks, thus ending the energy-poverty nexus and creating long-term outcomes that are more just, equitable, and fair.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2020

Deciphering Degradation: Machine Learning on Real-World Performance Data

The solar investment community is in need of up-to-date and data-derived system degradation rates to use in financial models that calculate the risk and expectation of energy revenue. To date, financial models choose degradation rates from past studies that are limited and may not be representative of solar projects in development today. As the solar industry expands in all sectors (residential, commercial, and utility), there is a growing amount of energy generation data available to analyze. With the help of the open source degradation analysis code (RdTools) it is now possible to derive degradation on an ongoing basis and continuously provide up-to-date durability statistics to the investment community. Ongoing and accurate statistics of fielded photovoltaic systems allows financial stakeholders to constrain energy revenue projections, lower financial risk, and increase the bankability of solar. This presentation will provide a mid-term progress update on a 2 year SETO-funded degradation project that involves applying RdTools analysis on kWh Analytics’ industry database. With results from the RdTools analysis in hand, machine learning methods are employed to quantify how much variance of system performance degradation can be explained by predictor variables such as environmental factors, equipment bill of materials characteristics, and system design information. The goal of this presentation is to promote the usage of RdTools on an ongoing to data owners and to solicit feedback from researchers and stakeholders on how to maximize impact of the SETO-funded kWh Analytics degradation project.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2020

Empowering Energy Efficiency in Existing Big-Box Retail/Grocery Stores (Final Optimization Report)

The Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE), in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), TRC Energy Services, P2S Engineering Inc, Walmart, and five innovative technology providers, are to demonstrate the impact of an integrated suite of pre-commercial energy efficiency (EE) technologies in a large, existing, retail building located within an inland disadvantaged community. Proposed technology packages include three categories of advanced EE solutions: heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, and refrigerating (HVAC/R); lighting; and integrated system and building level controls. The project is designed to impact Walmart’s future store specifications, which can be replicated and deployed in other buildings across California with similar end-use and system characteristics. The following lists the technologies considered for this project: DualCool (HVAC evaporative cooling); Software Motor Company (SMC) (HVAC and refrigeration fan motor); I2S: DC LED lighting; LocBit: building energy management and optimization; Saya: water monitoring.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2023

pvlib python: 2023 project update

pvlib python is a community-developed, open-source software toolbox for simulating the performance of solar photovoltaic (PV) energy components and systems. It provides reference implementations of over 100 empirical and physics-based models from the peer-reviewed scientific literature, including solar position algorithms, irradiance models, thermal models, and PV electrical models. In addition to individual low-level model implementations, pvlib python provides high-level workflows that chain these models together like building blocks to form complete “weather-to-power” photovoltaic system models. It also provides functions to fetch and import a wide variety of weather datasets useful for PV modeling. pvlib python has been developed since 2013 and follows modern best practices for open-source python software, with comprehensive automated testing, standards-based packaging, and semantic versioning. Its source code is developed openly on GitHub and releases are distributed via the Python Package Index (PyPI) and the conda-forge repository. pvlib python’s source code is made freely available under the permissive BSD-3 license. Here we (the project’s core developers) present an update on pvlib python, describing capability and community development since our 2018 publication (Holmgren, Hansen, & Mikofski, 2018).

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

LA100 Equity Strategies. Chapter 6: Universal Access to Safe and Comfortable Home Temperatures

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 housing weatherization and cooling technologies as means to increase access to safe and comfortable home temperatures. Lack of cooling access and use can have severe health impacts on building occupants during heat waves. Specifically, NREL developed and used a residential building stock model to simulate the energy use of 50,000 dwellings representing the diversity of housing types, appliances, climate zones, and household incomes across Los Angeles. We compared a baseline scenario with seven upgrade scenarios. Five scenarios cooled the entire household and featured cooling systems at varying efficiency levels with various improvements to the envelope, roof, and shading, and two scenarios cooled a single room in a household with no prior cooling using either a room air-conditioning or a heat pump system. For each scenario, we evaluated impacts on utility bills, payback periods, and changes in energy burdens, as well as ability to achieve safe and comfortable temperatures. We also examined the effects of building types (multifamily vs. single-family) on indoor air temperatures. Based on the results of modeling, analysis, and community guidance, we identified six short-term and two long-term strategies for improving access to building envelope upgrades and cooling strategies that could save lives and maintain safe home temperatures for Los Angeles' low-income households during heat waves. Research was guided by input from the community engagement process, and associated equity strategies are presented in alignment with that guidance.

air conditioning↗

DOE OSTI2024

A review on charged-particle transport modeling for laser direct-drive fusion

Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) with the laser-indirect-drive scheme has recently made a tremendous breakthrough recently after decades of intensive research effort. Taking this success to the next step, the ICF community is coming to a general consensus that laser direct-drive (LDD) fusion might be the viable way for enabling inertial fusion energy (IFE) and high-gain targets for other applications. Designing and understanding LDD fusion targets heavily rely on radiation-hydrodynamic code simulations, in which charged-particle transport plays an essential role in modeling laser-target energy coupling and bootstrap heating of fusion-produced α-particles. To better simulate charged-particle transport in LDD targets, over the past four decades the plasma physics community has advanced transport calculations from simple plasma physics models to sophisticated computations based on first-principles methods. In this review, we give an overview of the current status of charged-particle transport modeling for LDD fusion, including what challenges we still face and the possible paths moving forward to advance transport modeling for ICF simulations. We hope this review will provide a summary of exciting challenges to stimulate young minds to enter the field, facilitate further progress in understanding warm-dense matter physics, and ultimately bridge toward the success of reliable LDD fusion designs for IFE and other high-gain ICF applications.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗