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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 217 records · Page 12
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Lahaina Energy Partnership: Technical Assistance Task Updates and Discussion Part 2

The Lahaina Energy Partnership (LEP) is an initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) to support energy planning and rebuilding efforts in Hawaii's historic town of Lahaina on Maui as the community recovers from a devastating fire on August 8, 2023, with technical assistance provided by the National Laboratory of the Rockies. NLR has partnered with Hawaii-based community organizations to engage with Lahaina the community on energy priorities and inform the technical assistance scope. This virtual workshop presentation is the second in a two-part series to provide progress updates and request community input to guide next steps. Workshop 1 on November 18 focused on hydropower resource potential, building energy modeling, and workforce development. Workshop 2 on December 11 (this presentation) will focus on microgrids, electric grid hardening, policy and regulation.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

A Fair and Equitable Clean Energy Transition in Alachua County

Alachua County, Florida is committed to transitioning to renewable energy in order to address the climate crisis and secure energy justice for low-income and underserved communities. Alachua County's community-led Project EMPOWER (Energy Modernization for People, Opportunity, Work, Equity, and Renewables) is focused on making the clean energy transition fair and equitable for everyone, and is partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy's Communities LEAP (Local Energy Action Program) Pilot.

Alachua County↗
DOE OSTI2024

Evaluating Utility Costs Savings and Resilience: A Case Study in Port Arthur, Texas

This study evaluates the techno-economic feasibility of integrating solar photovoltaics (PV), battery energy storage systems (BESS), and generators to enhance both cost savings and resilience in critical community facilities in Port Arthur, Texas. Using NREL's REopt model, we analyze four facilities: the Golden Triangle Empowerment Center (GTEC), Lamar State College (LSC), Port Arthur Independent School District (PAISD), and Port Arthur Transit (PAT). A key aspect of the analysis is the incorporation of the Value of Lost Load (VoLL) and microgrid upgrade costs to assess the hidden value of resilience during grid outages. While standalone PV scenarios show moderate cost reductions and a 10-15% decrease in CO2 emissions, the inclusion of resilience measures with BESS and generators significantly increases system costs. However, the hidden value of resilience - quantified through avoided outage costs - leads to a substantial improvement in financial outcomes, resulting in positive Net Present Value (NPV) at many sites. The study demonstrates that resilient solar and storage systems offer both economic and resilience benefits, particularly for underserved communities, by balancing energy savings and enhanced operational continuity during outages.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Lahaina Energy Partnership: Technical Assistance Task Updates and Discussion Part 1 [Slides]

The Lahaina Energy Partnership (LEP) is an initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) to support energy planning and rebuilding efforts in Hawaii's historic town of Lahaina on Maui as the community recovers from a devastating fire on August 8, 2023, with technical assistance provided by the National Laboratory of the Rockies. NLR has partnered with Hawaii-based community organizations to engage with Lahaina the community on energy priorities and inform the technical assistance scope. This virtual workshop presentation is the first in a two-part series to provide progress updates and request community input to guide next steps. Workshop 1 on November 18 (this presentation) will focus on Hydropower resource potential, building energy modeling, workforce development. Workshop 2 on December 11 (presentation forthcoming) will focus on microgrids, electric grid hardening, policy and regulation.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Applications of Measuring and Valuing Resilience in Energy Systems

The electricity sector is vulnerable to numerous hazards that are being exacerbated by climate change, which can cause an increase in the hazards' frequency and intensity. Consumers, system regulators, system operators, and communities are now preparing to mitigate the increased risks posed by climate change. New York State's energy infrastructure resilience can be increased with targeted investments including but not limited to installing emergency backup systems, integrating microgrid solutions, weatherizing buildings, increasing energy efficiency, adding redundancy, investing in restoration and recovery, and hardening critical components. Such investments can reduce the likelihood, impact, and consequences of disruptive events but can also increase capital and operating costs. A barrier to prioritizing investments in resilience is that there is no widely established method for quantifying and assigning the benefits of resilience investments across various stakeholders. Decision-makers need better information detailing the value of resilience improvements. Developing methods to quantify, value, and price resilience helps meet resilience needs in an effective manner that also supports broader societal welfare. This report lays out considerations for quantifying and valuing resilience, discusses the current state of resilience valuation tools, and provides case studies of resilience projects that demonstrate how resilience attributes could be measured while highlighting broader, project-specific challenges to increasing resilience. Further, we present insights into methods and challenges to measuring, valuing, and enacting resilience investments.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Port Electrification Handbook: A reference to aid U.S. port energy transitions

Port electrification can take many forms, such as electrifying cargo handling equipment or deploying a microgrid to power critical port infrastructure. To help evaluate the growing challenge of increased electrification and its impacts on the system, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory developed this Port Electrification Handbook with support from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Electricity’s Microgrids R&D [research and development] program. The goals of this handbook are the following: (1) Help port operators and planners evaluate different electrification technologies; (2) Explain how these technologies could aid and impact ports and surrounding communities; and (3) Provide step-by-step considerations for port electrification.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Cataloging US state policy patterns towards microgrid deployment

Frequent extreme weather events have called for rigorous and timely efforts for alternative non-wire solutions. These efforts are getting more widespread to offer a perfect alternative as the conventional grid becomes progressively less resilient. One of these solutions is microgrids that can disconnect from the grid and offer grid resilience during an outage. While this technology is still finding its footing in the industry, states across the US are employing policy patterns and forms of instruments to support its deployment. This study includes a systemic review of the US by conducting a binary analysis of all 50 states (including Washington D.C, excluding other US territories) using seven variables. The results show four major policy approaches to microgrids: i) supporting microgrids through a definitive legislative activity leading to further policy action; ii) direct efforts from the public utilities commissions without a concrete legislative push; iii) initiatives from institutions other than the commissions; and lastly, iv) self-initiated community and private consumer efforts. The results help understand what policy instruments are being used in each of these patterns to support this niche technology that still faces regulatory challenges.

Furqan, Maham↗
DOE OSTI2018

Solar and Energy Storage for Resiliency

Facilitated by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, the San Francisco Department of the Environment (SF Environment) is working to overcome regulatory, financial and technical barriers and create a roadmap to build resilience through the implementation of solar with energy storage. One key element of resilience is ensuring the continued operation of shelters and critical emergency management facilities in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake, flood, or other disaster, such as a nearby wildfire. To mitigate interruptions to emergency power at these facilities, the City and County of San Francisco (the “City”) has established “on call” contracts with national diesel generator suppliers. However, relying solely on these suppliers poses significant risks to the City, because the supply of diesel generators in San Francisco may be limited when they are most needed, especially during hurricane season when coastal states face an increased risk of power outages. Furthermore, although diesel generators can provide a few days of power when the electric grid is down, they rely on fuel to do so, and fuel supplies can be interrupted by disasters. To help the City address these challenges, a Resilient Solar and Storage Roadmap study was completed in 2017 that investigated the use of microgrids and standalone solar electric generation with battery storage at emergency shelters. The study identified 67 facilities across the City where solar and battery storage systems could be installed. Out of the 67 facilities, 42 are classified as community shelters, where people can live temporarily and receive medical attention for nonserious injuries, and 25 are libraries where people can gather and have free access to communication/information channels (internet access for communication, news, etc.). At present, none of the emergency shelter facilities have back-up power or generators on site. The Solar and Energy Storage for Resilience project (the “Project) is intended to provide electricity to 67 emergency shelters within the City in the wake of a disaster, by implementing stand-alone solar power generation with battery storage. This report aims to provide an assessment of the economic value and resilience benefits derived from the implementation of a solar and energy storage system at emergency shelters. This assessment is based on quantifiable metrics and grounded in a proven economic benefit-cost analysis (BCA) methodology, which help decision makers assess whether the benefits of a project or policy exceed its total costs from a societal perspective. This is a first-of -its-kind study and it is not meant to be comprehensive. The Project Team hopes that other organizations/municipalities will use this report as a reference and refine it for use in future economic assessments on resiliency at emergency shelters. While the report focuses on a study for the City and County of San Francisco, the methods are applicable to any city or town. The analysis is intended to help the City better prepare for the next large-scale grid outage by weighing the benefits and costs of implementing a solar energy system.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Project Planning for Community Resilience: Aquinnah and Chilmark, Massachusetts

This report presents the findings of an energy system planning study for the towns of Aquinnah and Chilmark, MA, on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, conducted under the U.S. Department of Energy ETIPP program. The study used the DER-CAM model to optimize the deployment of PV and battery microgrids to enhance energy resilience against power outages, particularly winter storms. Key findings show that PV is highly cost-effective and delivers net annual savings. However, due to limited rooftop space and low winter solar output, PV and battery storage alone cannot support the full critical load during outages. Solutions incorporating conventional backup generators were found to be more economically viable for achieving 100% critical load support.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

ARIES 2022

An annual report of ARIES FY 2022 research highlights and capabilities, partner impacts, engagement and outreach, and messages from DOE and an External Advisory Board member.

clean energy↗
DOE OSTI2024

Risk Analysis for Remote Operation of Microreactors

Microreactors are a subset of advanced nuclear reactors that can be factory fabricated, transportable, and self-regulating. They have the potential to be used in microgrids, rural and remote areas, or emergency response applications, replacing fossil fuel sources like diesel generators and enabling sustainable energy generation. In order to make microreactor operation cost-effective, it is likely that remote communications will be needed to reduce the number of personnel required to be on site. While remote operation of energy generation and other industrial control systems is common in other industries, it is not yet adopted in the nuclear community and has many perceived and actual risks. In this paper, the severity of the risks introduced by remote operations for microreactors are explored. The primary changes in the operations involve the addition of a remote communications network and a certification system for data and controls. These changes lend themselves to considerations of cyber risks, whether unintentional or adversarial, but the assessment considers not just cyber risks introduced, but also how physical and human factors-based risks will impact the remote operations system and change the overall risk profile. This initial assessment indicates that there are standard cyber and mitigation measures that can be put in place so the risk of doing remote operations does not dramatically increase compared to local operations. This evaluation is a critical step in the process of evaluating if remote operations of microreactors is a suitable solution to meet future sustainable grid needs

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2024

Simulation-Guided Decision-Making for Enhancing Energy Resilience in a Remote Alaskan Community

The increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events underscore the need to bolster the resilience of energy infrastructure in remote coastal communities exposed to climate hazards. In recent years, considerable effort has been made to harden the grid infrastructure of remote communities through investment in energy storage, advanced metering, renewable generation and energy-efficient loads. However, simulation-based studies are still needed to identify appropriate locations for investment and determine the adequacy of existing infrastructure in supporting new resources. Preparing the required models may often be challenging due to insufficient metering, disparate data sources and workforce limitations. This paper describes modeling efforts undertaken to represent, within a unified co-simulation platform: (a) the electric distribution network and (b) the thermal behavior of a community medical center, in the remote community of Cordova, Alaska. With the help of case-studies, it is shown how the developed simulation platform can help the local utility in making decisions regarding capital investment aimed at enhancing community resilience.

Microgrid, energy storage, resilience↗
DOE OSTI2014

Perfect Power Prototype for Illinois Institute of Technology

Starting in October 2008, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), in collaboration with over 20 participating members, led an extensive effort to develop, demonstrate, promote, and commercialize a microgrid system and offer supporting technologies that will achieve Perfect Power at the main campus of IIT. A Perfect Power system, as defined by the Galvin Electricity Initiative (GEI), is a system that cannot fail to meet the electric needs of the individual end-user. The Principle Investigator of this Perfect Power project was Dr. Mohammad Shahidehpour, Director of the Robert W. Galvin Center for Electricity Innovation at IIT. There were six overall objectives of the Perfect Power project: (1) Demonstrate the higher reliability introduced by the microgrid system at IIT; (2) Demonstrate the economics of microgrid operations; (3) Allow for a decrease of fifty percent (50%) of grid electricity load; (4) Create a permanent twenty percent (20%) decrease in peak load from 2007 level; (5) Defer planned substation through load reduction; (6) Offer a distribution system design that can be replicated in urban communities.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Port Electrification Handbook: A Reference to Aid U.S. Port Energy Transitions

Port electrification can take many forms, such as electrifying cargo handling equipment or deploying a microgrid to power critical port infrastructure. To help evaluate the growing challenge of increased electrification and its impacts on the system, the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Electricity’s Microgrids R&D [research and development] program created this Port Electrification Handbook through a project led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The goals of this handbook are the following: help port operators and planners evaluate different electrification technologies, explain how these technologies could aid and impact ports and surrounding communities, provide step-by-step considerations for port electrification.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Computational framework for behind-the-meter DER techno-economic modeling and optimization: REopt Lite

The energy system is undergoing a major transformation with the global emphasis on decarbonization. Distributed generation is projected to play a significant role in the new energy system, and energy models are informing how distributed generation can be integrated reliably and economically. In this work, we present an end-to-end computational framework for distributed energy resource (DER) modeling, REopt Lite™, which captures the interface of technology, economics, and policy in the energy modeling process. We describe the problem space, the building blocks of the model, the scaling capabilities of the design, the optimization formulation, and the extensibility of the model. We present a framework for accelerating the techno-economic analysis of behind-the-meter distributed energy resources to enable rapid planning and decision-making, thereby enabling greater renewable energy deployment. This computation framework is open-sourced to facilitate transparency, flexibility, and wider collaboration opportunities within the worldwide energy modeling community.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Chapter 11: Renewable Microgrids as a Foundation of the Future Sustainable Electrical Energy System

Renewable microgrids are an integral part of the future sustainable energy system. This chapter focuses on the role of renewable energy-based microgrids in the electricity system transformation. It is seen as a foundation that complements large-scale generation plants and high-voltage transmission lines by providing additional flexibility and resilience. This flexibility and resilience are crucial for balancing the energy system and ensuring its long-term sustainability, given the changing supply and demand patterns due to rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV), battery storage, electric mobility, and heat pumps. It is also an opportunity for residential and commercial consumers to become active participants in the energy market. Innovation, new technologies and business models will act as the key enabler for this transformation. The regulatory restructuring of the energy market will be crucial for successful integration of prosumers and aggregated energy communities. The chapter presents the vision of a sustainable, decentralized, and digitized energy future including market potential, most innovative case study projects and start-up companies, and the shifts needed in the regulatory landscape.

battery storage↗
DOE OSTI2024

Understanding Line Losses and Transformer Losses in Rural Isolated Distribution Systems

Rural, isolated power systems in the mainland U.S. and in states like Alaska and Hawaii are powered by assets like diesel generators. These rural, isolated power systems also cannot operate at the higher band of medium voltage (like 69kV). They are primarily in the 12 to 14 kV range to keep the cost of the distribution investments lower. Because of this mid-band medium voltage range, the line losses and distribution transformers losses consume significant diesel consumption (almost 10 percent of the peak load). This work considers one such power system powering an isolated system and presents key findings online losses, and transformer losses. Understanding and documenting the impacts is critical for these communities operating their power systems and take actions to reduce expensive diesel consumption. In this paper, we will present one such typical grid and model it in electromagnetic transients (EMT) domain. We used the tower structure, under ground cabling installation to develop high fidelity models of lines. We also used high fidelity models of distribution transformers to present the no-load losses and full load loses. We will also present technical solutions available commercially off-the-shelf to reduce these losses and reduce diesel consumption. This work will be a primer for communities to understand the technical challenges and to understand the possible solution available to solve such challenges for rural, isolated power system operators.

blackstart↗