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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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Ultrasonic deterrents provide no additional benefit over curtailment in reducing bat fatalities at an Ohio wind energy facility

Wind energy is important for achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions but also contributes to global bat mortality. Current strategies to minimize bat mortality due to collision with wind-turbine blades fall broadly into two categories: curtailment (limiting turbine operation during high-risk periods) and deterrence (discouraging bat activity near turbines). Recently, there has been interest in combining these strategies to achieve greater reductions in bat fatalities than either strategy might achieve in isolation. To investigate the effectiveness of combining curtailment with ultrasonic deterrent minimization strategies, we deployed six ultrasonic deterrents at nacelle height on 16 experimental turbines at Avangrid Renewables’ Blue Creek Wind Energy Facility. We rotated between four conditions (normal operations, curtailment only, deterrent only, curtailment and deterrent) randomly assigned to four wind turbines each night between 15 June and 3 October 2017. We found that bat mortality at wind turbines was independent of wind speed. The effectiveness of ultrasonic acoustic deterrents varied between high-frequency-calling species (eastern red bats) and low-frequency-calling species (hoary bats, silver-haired bats, and big brown bats). When deterrents were active, mortality was twice as high for eastern red bats compared to the control. Conversely, deterrents had a weak dampening effect on bat mortality for low-frequency species. We found no additive effects on mortality reduction for turbines operating both curtailment and deterrents compared to either approach in isolation. Our findings suggest that ultrasonic acoustic deterrents may not be effective for both high and low frequency echolocating bats. The increase in fatalities of eastern red bats is alarming and underscores the importance of considering site- and species-specific effects of minimization solutions.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

A Synchronized Sensor Array for Remote Monitoring of Avian and Bat Interactions with Offshore Renewable Energy Facilities

Wind energy production in the U.S. is projected to increase to 35% of our nation’s energy by 2050. This substantial increase in the U.S. is only a portion of the global wind industry growth, as many countries strive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A major environmental concern and potential market barrier for expansion of wind energy is bird and bat mortality from impacts with turbine blades, towers, and nacelles. Carcass surveys are the standard protocol for quantifying mortality at onshore sites. This method is imperfect, however, due to survey frequency at remote sites, removal of carcasses by scavengers between surveys, searcher efficiency, and other biases as well as delays of days to weeks or more in obtaining information on collision events. Furthermore, carcass surveys are not feasible at offshore wind energy sites. Near-real-time detection and quantification of interaction rates is possible at both onshore and offshore wind facilities using an onboard, integrated sensor package with data transmitted to central processing centers. We developed and experimentally tested an array of sensors that continuously monitors for interactions (including impacts) of birds and bats with wind turbines. The synchronized array includes three sensor nodes: (1) vibration (accelerometers and contact microphones), (2) optical (visual and infrared spectrum cameras), and (3) bioacoustics (acoustic and ultrasonic microphones). Accelerometers and contact acoustic microphones are placed at the root of each blade to detect impact vibrations and sound waves propagating through the structure. On-board data processing algorithms using wavelet analysis detect impact signals exceeding background vibration. Stereo-visual and infrared cameras were placed on the nacelle to allow target tracking, distance, and size calculations. On-board image processing and target detection algorithms identify moving targets within the camera field of view. Bioacoustic recorders monitor vocalizations and echolocations to aid in identifying organisms involved in interactions. Data from all sensors are temporarily stored in ring (i.e., circular) buffers with a duration varying by sensor type. Detection of target presence or impact by any of the sensors can trigger the archiving of data from all buffers for transmission to a central data processing center for evaluation and post-processing. This mitigates the risk of “data mortgages” posed by continual recording and minimizes personnel time required to manually review event data. We first conducted individual component tests at laboratories and field sites in Corvallis and Newport, Oregon, and Seattle and Sequim, Washington. We conducted additional component tests on research wind turbines at the North American Wind Research and Training Center, Mesalands Community College (MCC; General Electric 1.5 MW turbine), New Mexico, and the National Wind Technology Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL; Controls Advanced Research Turbines 3 [CART 3] 600 kW Westinghouse turbine), Colorado. We conducted fully integrated system tests at NREL in October 2014 and April 2015. We used only research wind turbines so that we could conduct controlled, experimentally generated impacts using empty and water-filled tennis balls shot from a compressed air cannon on the ground. The approx. 57-140 g tennis balls (depending on water content) were at the upper mass range for bats, but lower mass range for marine birds. Therefore, the ability to detect collisions of most seabirds is likely greater than our experiments demonstrate, but possibly lower for some bats depending on the background signal of a given turbine. Vibration data demonstrated that background signals of operating turbines varied markedly among the CART 3 under normal operation (greatest), GE (moderate), and CART 3 during idle rotation (generator not engaged; least). In total, we measured 63 experimental blade impacts on the two research turbines. Impaction detection was dependent on background signals, position of impact on the blade (a tip strike resulted in the strongest impact signal), and impact kinetics (velocity of ball and whether the ball struck the surface of the blade or the leading edge of the blade struck the ball). Overall detection percentage ranged from 100% for the “quietest” conditions (CART 3 idle rotation), down to 35% for the noisiest (CART 3 normal operation). Impact signals were detected from sensors on more than one blade (i.e., blades other than the blade struck) 50% - 75% of the time. Stereo imaging provided valuable metrics, but increased data processing and equipment cost. Given the cost of cameras with sufficient resolution for target identification, we suggest mounting cameras directly on the blades to continuously view the entire rotor swept area with the fewest number of cameras. Bioacoustic microphones provide taxonomic identification, as well as information on ambient noise levels. They also assist in identifying environmental conditions such as hail storms, high winds, thunder, lightning, etc., that may contribute to a collision or a false positive detection. We demonstrated a proof of concept for an integrated sensor array to detect and identify bird and bat collisions with wind turbines. The next phase of research and development for this system will miniaturize and integrate sensors from all three nodes into a single wireless package that can be attached directly to the blade. This next generation system would use all “smart” sensors capable of onboard data processing to drastically reduce data streams and processing time on a central computer. A provisional patent for the blade mounted system was submitted by Oregon State University and recorded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (application no. 62313028). Eventually, technology and industry advances will allow this low cost monitoring system to be designed into materials during manufacturing so that all turbines could be monitored with either a subset or full suite of sensors. As standard equipment on all commercial turbines, the sensor suite would allow the industry to effectively monitor whether individual turbines were causing mortalities or not and under what circumstances. It would also provide real-time evaluation of mechanical and structural integrity of a turbine via vibration, image, and acoustic data streams, thereby permitting modifications in operation to limit environmental or mechanical damage.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

FEST: Facility Energy Saving and Securing Technology Using Multi-Source Data: (Milestone 2 Report)

This project aims to demonstrate three technologies developed in-house at LLNL and University of Michigan-Dearborn (UMD), at a military site, including i) Grid Data Crossing (called GriD-Xing) for increasing smart meter data usability, ii) Facility Energy Optimization (called Facility E-GO) for improving facility energy efficiency in both operation and planning perspectives, and iii) Co-simulation tool (called Co-Sim) for enhancing smart meter and energy facility networks resilience and security. In this report, Millstone 2 - Integration A: Integrate GriD-Xing and facility optimization tools is documented.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Acoustic Exposure to Turbine Operation Quantifies Risk to Bats at Commercial Wind Energy Facilities

ABSTRACT Turbine‐related bat mortality at commercial wind energy facilities may threaten populations of migratory tree‐roosting bat species in North America. Industry stakeholders and regulatory agencies alike are investigating strategies to reduce risk of population‐level consequences as the wind energy industry grows. Bats collide with turbines only when turbine rotors are spinning and curtailing turbine operation at low wind speeds can effectively reduce bat fatality rates. Nonetheless, few quantitative data exist to determine appropriate threshold wind speeds below which turbine operations should be curtailed. Carcass monitoring is labor‐intensive and does not provide information on factors linked to bat fatality rates on any scale finer than nightly. We tested whether acoustic bat data recorded at turbine nacelles could provide a more precise and sensitive measure of fatality risk to bats by analyzing acoustics, weather, turbine operation, and carcass data collected at 2 commercial wind energy facilities in West Virginia over 7 years. Each wind facility implemented several distinct curtailment treatments during our study, allowing us to compare fatality rates and acoustic bat activity across multiple operational strategies. We found that bat passes exposed to turbine operation explained close to 80% of the variation in carcass‐based estimates of bat fatality rates and accounted for significant variation in raw carcass counts per turbine and probability of finding bat carcasses during individual turbine searches. Conversely, bat activity occurring when turbines were not operating had little or no relationship to fatality rates. We also found that patterns in bat activity exposure could be predicted accurately among turbines and years. Our results demonstrate that measuring exposure of acoustic bat activity provides a quantitative basis for designing, evaluating, and adaptively managing curtailment strategies. This is an important advance towards using curtailment to reduce bat fatality rates strategically while allowing for increased generation of renewable energy. © 2021 The Authors. Wildlife Society Bulletin published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Wildlife Society.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Compounding Risks from Natural Phenomena Hazards at U.S. Department of Energy Facilities

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facilities are exposed to adverse effects of natural phenomena hazards (NPHs). While the DOE Standard (STD) 1020-2016 provides criteria and guidance for assessing these effects, certain gaps exist, particularly related to combinations of NPHs that can compound the risk to DOE facility assets. This report describes a methodology to systematically consider compounding NPHs, identified gaps in DOE-STD-1020-2016, and recommends ways to update the standard. At any given DOE facility, NPH effects depend on the site-specific hydrometeorologic and geoseismic conditions. Therefore, compounding NPHs should be determined using site-specific assessments. DOE facility assets generally are assessed using site-specific NPHs with the assessment usually limited to the DOE site extents. However, an inventory analysis of a selected DOE facility also revealed that some assets may have off-site dependencies. These dependencies may be part of threat pathways that can lead to on-site asset failures because of off-site effects of the same NPHs that also affect the DOE site. These threat pathways usually are not accounted for in traditional NPH analyses. The report also describes the effects of duration of NPH effects. Duration of disruption, particularly for off-site dependencies can lead to on-site asset failures, disruption of evacuation roadways, and consequent human health and safety effects. Finally, the report recommends some considerations for updating DOE-STD-1020-2016 to include explicit consideration of compounding NPHs.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS1988

High-energy facility development plan

Approaches to the deployment of instruments for the study of high-energy solar emissions alone or in conjunction with other solar instruments are considered. The Space Station has been identified as the preferred mode for the deployment of the Advanced Solar Observatory, and it is suggested that a proposed High-Energy Facility could be on a coorbiting platform. The implementation plan for the High-Energy Facility involves the definition of the interface structures required to mount the facility instruments to the Space Station and the development of hard X-ray and gamma-ray imaging, spectroscopic, and polarimetric instruments.

Walker, Arthur B. C., Jr.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Migratory Strategy is a Key Factor Driving Interactions at Wind Energy Facilities in At-Risk North American Bats

Animal migration remains poorly understood for many organisms, impeding understanding of movement dynamics and limiting conservation actions. We develop a framework that scales from movements of individuals to the dynamics of continental migration using data synthesis of endogenous markers, which we apply to three North American bat species with unexplained high rates of fatalities at wind energy facilities. The two species experiencing the highest fatality rates exhibit a "pell-mell" migration strategy in which individuals move from summer habitats in multiple directions, both to higher and lower latitudes, during autumn. We link movements to higher latitudes to encounters with wind energy facilities and report that the timing of pell-mell migration strongly overlaps with that of fatalities at the continental level. These findings support the hypothesis that migration distance and strategy are drivers of increased interactions with wind energy facilities, highlighting the significance of understanding migratory strategy to achieve conservation goals.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2026

Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Daytime Video Monitoring for Bird, Insect, and Other Wildlife Interactions with Photovoltaic Solar Energy Facilities

Studying bird, insect, and other wildlife interactions with photovoltaic (PV) solar energy facilities is difficult due to limited multi-season, multi-site data. Researchers can address such data gaps by combining passive monitoring and artificial intelligence (AI). As a part of the development of AI-enabled avian–solar monitoring software, we collected over 19,000 h of daytime videos at five PV sites across three U.S. regions between 2019 and 2024. We applied a moving object detection and tracking (MODT Version 1) AI model we developed earlier to 4373 h of the footage to extract moving objects in video frames, and human reviewers interpreted the model output and identified 68,646 bird, 25,968 insect, and 169 other wildlife instances to generate the training/validation dataset. We analyzed the data by site, region, and season, considering ground cover and landscapes. Songbirds were most common, with raptors as the next most frequent group. Most notably, no bird collisions were confirmed in our observations collected from the videos. Birds most often flew over or near panels, with the highest observations in the Midwest and Northeast (approximately 30 observations per hour on average) and fewer in the desert Southwest. Other behaviors included perching, foraging, and nesting. Bird abundance peaked during breeding and migration seasons. AI-assisted video monitoring proved effective for non-invasively studying flying wildlife at solar facilities to inform ecologically mindful energy development.

avian mortality↗
DOE OSTI2021

Potential environmental effects of deepwater floating offshore wind energy facilities

Over the last few decades, the offshore wind energy industry has expanded its scope from turbines mounted on fixed platforms driven into the seafloor and standing in less than 50 meters of water, to floating turbines moored in 120 meters of water, to prospecting the development of floating turbines moored in ~1000 meters of water. Since there are few prototype turbines and mooring systems of these deepwater, floating offshore wind energy facilities (OWFs) currently deployed, their effects on the marine environment are largely unknown. Using the available scientific literature concerning appropriate analogs, this study provides the first synthesis of the potential environmental effects of deepwater, floating OWFs during operation, as well as potential mitigation measures to some of the risks. Potential effects we identify and evaluate include changes to atmospheric and oceanic dynamics, electromagnetic fields, habitat alterations, noise, structural impediments, and changes to water quality that could affect a variety of marine species across trophic levels. Our synthesis suggests that many of these potential effects could be mitigated to pose a low risk to the marine environment if developers adopt appropriate mitigation strategies and best-practice protocols. This review takes the necessary first steps in summarizing the available information on the potential environmental effects of deepwater, floating OWFs and can serve as a valuable reference document for marine scientists and engineers, the energy industry, permitting agencies and regulators of the energy industry, project developers, and concerned stakeholders such as coastal residents, conservationists, and fisheries.

Farr, Hayley K.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Solar energy facility at North Hampton Recreation Center, Dallas, Texas

The solar energy facility located at the North Hampton Park Recreation and Health Center, Dallas, Texas is presented. The solar energy system is installed in a single story (two heights), 16,000 sq ft building enclosing a gymnasium, locker area, and health care clinic surrounded by a recreational area and athletic field. The solar energy system is designed to provide 80 percent of the annual space heating, 48 percent of the annual space cooling, and 90 percent of the domestic hot water requirements. The system's operation modes and performance data acquisition system are described. The system's performance during the months of June, July, August, September, and October of 1979 are presented and show a negative savings of energy. Experience to date indicates however that the system concept has promise of acceptable performance. It is concluded that if proper control and sequencing components was maintained, then the system performance would improve to an acceptable level.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2020

Estimating Bat Fatality at a Texas Wind Energy Facility: Implications Transcending the United States-Mexico Border

Wind energy development causes bat fatalities. Despite emphasis on understanding and reducing these impacts, few data are available for the southwest region of the United States and northern Mexico. We monitored bat fatalities for a full year (March 2017–March 2018) at a wind energy facility in south Texas near the United States–Mexico border. We established search plots of 100-m radius at eight randomly selected turbines (of 255) and searched the roads and pads at an additional 92 turbines. We conducted weekly searches from spring through fall and bimonthly during winter. We used GenEst (Generalized Mortality Estimator) to estimate bat fatalities corrected for searcher efficiency, carcass removal, and density-weighted proportion of area searched. We found 205 bats during standardized searches, the majority of which were Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis, 76%). The corrected fatality estimates were 16 bats/megawatt/year (95% confidence interval [CI]: 12 – 30 bats/megawatt/year) across all species. Species composition at our site is similar to that of northern Mexico, an area of expanding wind energy development with no published studies.

49 EE - Wind and Water Power Program - Wind (EE-4W↗
DOE OSTI2023

Facility Energy Saving and Securing Technology Using Multi-Source Data (FEST) (Final Report)

Facility Energy Saving and Securing Technology (FEST) project focuses on developing algorithmic tools and techniques for analyzing cyber-physical security of DoD’s military site facilities, and optimal scheduling, operation and planning of their Distributed Energy Resources (DER). The project is led by LLNL with the team including University of Michigan-Dearborn and XENDEE. The military site partner providing the energy metering data is White Sands Missile Range (WSMR). This report summarizes the work performed during the project and future directions for follow-on research.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Valuation of pollination services from habitat management: a case study of utility scale solar energy facilities in the United States

Creating and maintaining pollinator habitats following the ecological infrastructure concept in degraded or unutilized land, such as solar energy facilities, is a practical way to synergistically advance the food, energy, and ecology nexus. Given the large land-use requirements for solar farming—the fastest growing renewable energy technology–considerable attention has been focused on strategies to maximize multiple ecosystem services. In this study, we coupled the principles of agronomy and ecology with economics and integrated national-scale data on crops, pollinators, and solar facilities to identify locations for creating pollinator habitats and estimating the economic value of pollination from the habitats. We examined opportunities for pollination services from pollinator-friendly utility-scale solar facilities adjacent to 42 million hectares of pollination-dependent crops in the conterminous United States at high resolution of 1 ha. We used the net income method to estimate the potential economic value of creating habitat in the land adjacent to solar facilities in the eight states with the greatest number of solar installations. Creating pollinator habitats at the 217 utility-scale solar facilities in these states could support adjacent 80,000 hectares of high pollinator dependent crops, which could potentially generate a pollination value of $\$$120 to $\$$264 million USD. The location-specific information and high-resolution maps generated for the United States demonstrate integration of grey and green infrastructure to support the food, energy, and environment nexus.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

A Spatial Hedonic Analysis of the Effects of Wind Energy Facilities on Surrounding Property Values in the United States

Previous research on the effects of wind energy facilities on surrounding home values has been limited by small samples of relevant home-sale data and the inability to account adequately for confounding home-value factors and spatial dependence in the data. This study helps fill those gaps. We collected data from more than 50,000 home sales among 27 counties in nine states. These homes were within 10 miles of 67 different wind facilities, and 1,198 sales were within 1 mile of a turbine—many more than previous studies have collected. The data span the periods well before announcement of the wind facilities to well after their construction. We use OLS and spatial-process difference-in-difference hedonic models to estimate the home-value impacts of the wind facilities; these models control for value factors existing before the wind facilities’ announcements, the spatial dependence of unobserved factors effecting home values, and value changes over time. A set of robustness models adds confidence to our results. Regardless of model specification, we find no statistical evidence that home values near turbines were affected in the post-construction or post-announcement/pre-construction periods. Previous research on potentially analogous disamenities (e.g., high-voltage transmission lines, roads) suggests that the property-value effect of wind turbines is likely to be small, on average, if it is present at all, potentially helping to explain why no evidence of an effect was found in the present research.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Developing a Deep Learning-Computer Vision Framework to Monitor Avian Interactions with Solar Energy Facility Infrastructure (Final Technical Report)

The project addressed an inability to monitor avian interactions with photovoltaic (PV) solar energy facilities necessary for understanding PV solar impacts on birds. In the project, machine-vision technology that continuously monitors avian activities at PV solar facilities was developed. The technology includes four machine-learning (ML) models, each of which accomplishes a specific task in detecting birds and classifying their activities in live or recorded videos—detecting and tracking moving objects, differentiating birds from other objects, detecting bird collisions with solar panels, and classifying non-collision bird activities around PV facilities. Major project outcomes include adoption by two of DOE SETO’s SolWEB projects, providing novel observational data on birds to promote co-location of PV solar development and habitat conservation, known as ecovoltaics.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

EVALUATING FACILITY ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RESILIENCE OPPORTUNITIES WITH FEDS AND MCOR

Energy resilience has become increasingly important for critical building infrastructure, in response to concerns over potential disruptions to the electrical grid from threats both natural and man-made. Energy efficiency can provide a valuable resource for reducing critical loads and therefore lowering the cost of supplying alternative power. This paper highlights two tools that are well-suited for analyzing building energy efficiency and resilience opportunities and presents a case study for their combined application. The Facility Energy Decision System (FEDS) and Microgrid Component Optimization for Resilience (MCOR) tools can be used together to simulate building systems, identify energy efficiency measures, and evaluate resilience options for powering a site during an outage.

FEDS, MCOR, Energy Efficiency, Resilience, Simulat↗