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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 OSTI2022

Solar Energy Zone Market Analysis for the San Luis Valley Region of Colorado

This report examines the commercial viability of solar energy zones (SEZs) in the San Luis Valley of Colorado ("the Valley") based on market conditions in 2022. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) may designate a SEZ on federal land to expedite environmental review and permitting for solar energy projects. The purpose of this analysis is to understand whether current market conditions support the need for SEZs in the Valley.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

2022 Long-Term Hydrologic Monitoring Program Report for the Rio Blanco, Colorado Site

This report presents the monitoring data collected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Legacy Management (LM) during the 2022 sampling event at the Rio Blanco, Colorado, Site, where an underground nuclear test was conducted in 1973. The test resulted in residual radionuclide contamination at the detonation depth. The 2022 sampling event included the collection of samples from onsite groundwater wells to monitor for any potential contamination that might be attributed to the Rio Blanco nuclear tests. This report summarizes the laboratory results obtained from the sampling along with the historical results since monitoring began in the 1970s. This annual report and previous reports are available on the LM public website at https://www.energy.gov/lm/rio-blanco-colorado-site. Data collected during this and previous monitoring events are available on the Geospatial Environmental Mapping System (GEMS) website at https://gems.lm.doe.gov/#site=RBL.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Weather Analysis for Xcel Energy's 2030 Colorado Preferred Plan

The Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCo), a subsidiary of Xcel Energy (Xcel), plans to meet its target of an 80% reduction in CO 2 emissions over 2005 levels by 2030 through its Preferred Plan1,2 that includes increasing the wind and solar energy on its system, reducing coal, and adjusting the operation and dispatch of new and existing thermal generation. The objective of our analysis reported here is to identify how the PSCo generation and transmission of its Preferred Plan might operate in the face of specific weather events. We investigate weather events that currently cause stress to PSCo’s system, such as winter storms and extreme heat. In addition, we explore how the future system responds to scenarios that may be considered normal weather conditions today, but that have a large impact on wind and solar generation potential.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Neutron Dosimetry for the Colorado School of Mines (CSM 16-10584) Irradiation in ATR

PNNL project 74242 involves the analysis of neutron fluence monitors irradiated in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory in accordance with MPO 00236287 and Statement of Work No. 17370, Rev. 0, PNNL Analysis of NSUF Flux and Melt Wire Capsules. This report is for the Colorado School of Mines (CSM 16-10584) experiment which was conducted in position B5 of the ATR. Three other irradiations included in the scope of work are reported separately. The neutron fluence monitors were prepared by PNNL and loaded into the CSM assemblies at INL prior to irradiation. Following irradiation, the capsules were returned to PNNL for analysis. The neutron dosimetry capsules were opened, the flux wires were removed for gamma analysis, and the measured activities were used to determine the activation rates for various activation products. Following suitable corrections, the measured activation rates were used to adjust calculated neutron spectra at 12 fluence monitor locations. The adjusted neutron spectra were then used to determine displacement per atom (dpa) and gas production for irradiated materials.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Relationship of Hydrology in the Green River to Colorado Pikeminnow Populations

The Federally listed Colorado Pikeminnow (CP) (Ptychocheilus Lucius) has been declining in the Green River Basin over the last 20 years. Muth et al. (2000) recommended flows and temperatures to benefit endangered fish species downstream of Flaming Gorge Dam on the Green River. The recommendations identified a range of flows during the base flow period (flows that occur after the annual snowmelt runoff period, usually from early summer to the following spring) that were intended to benefit CP. The recommendations indicated that the mean flow for the summer–winter period should be established each year on the basis of anticipated hydrologic conditions, but adjustments could be made if hydrologic conditions change. Flow should gradually decline from peak flow to base flow, with the base flow reached by early to middle summer (depending on hydrologic conditions) and maintained through February. The rate of decline should depend on rates of decline in Yampa River flows and the recommended rates of decline for dam releases. No specific recommendations were made for base flow variation in Reach 1, but variation around the annual mean base flow should be restricted to achieve recommended levels of variation in Reach 2 (middle Green River) (Table 5.5 in Muth et al. 2000). Implementation of the flow and temperature recommendations served as the proposed action for an EIS on Flaming Gorge Dam operations. A Biological Assessment of the impacts on endangered species of implementing the recommendations was prepared and a Biological Opinion that called for development of a study plan to examine the effects of implementation. Projects to address this evaluation were identified in the Green River Study Plan and have been conducted since then. The purpose of the Study Plan was to identify and recommend to the Recovery Program those monitoring or research projects necessary for implementation and evaluation of the flow and temperature recommendations. Those projects included studies to evaluate the anticipated effects of implementing the recommendations (including potential adverse effects identified in the 2006 Biological Opinion) and studies to examine recognized uncertainties of the recommendations. A new recovery program summer base flow study plan was approved in September of 2020 to evaluate stable and elevated summer base flows below Flaming Gorge Dam intended to benefit CP spawning and rearing success. Anecdotal observations suggest CP production may have been higher in years prior to flow restrictions for endangered fish. Based on long-term CP monitoring data in the Green River, Bestgen and Hill (2016) concluded that CP would benefit from higher summer baseflows (1,700-3,000 ft 3 /sec) with flows above or below associated with lower abundance of age-0 CP. Therefore, flexibility in the ROD is currently being utilized to establish higher stable summer base flows in an attempt create more advantageous conditions for spawning and rearing CP. These fish recovery flows are restrictive to WAPA in the summer months, therefore it is necessary to conduct an analysis of historic river data relationships to CP abundance to better understand if the recommended fish flows (elevated and stable base flows) are necessary for fish recovery.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Occurrences of REE and CM in volcanic ash beds associated with coals in SW Wyoming & NW Colorado

Rare earth elements (REEs) and critical minerals (CMs) are vital components in the nation’s economy, national security, and the further strengthening of our renewable energy capabilities and infrastructure. Recent work has revealed more insight into previously unknown modes of occurrence for REEs, particularly in coal seams and adjacent noncoal sediments, but many data gaps persist. Temporal relationships between coal beds and adjacent tonstiens, ash beds, or other partings are widely recognized but not fully understood. Variations in REE concentration and their direct or indirect association with coal beds are not predictable. This study presents findings from examining lateral and potentially stratigraphic variation of REE and CM occurrences in coals of late Cretaceous and Paleocene age. In this study we collected and examined samples of differing ages both core and coal mine exposures for qualitative x-ray fluorescence (XRF), and multi-element geochemistry. Preliminary XRF data indicates variable levels of light REEs in a core from the Yampa coalfield of Moffat County in northwest Colorado. An absence of similar enrichments in slightly older coals in the Adaville Formation of the Fold and Thrust belt in southwest Wyoming is described from XRF and ICP-MS evaluation. Previous work has shown an association with the Yampa Bed and REE enrichment in coals of the Upper Cretaceous Williams Fork Formation. While not common and widespread, this association suggests that leaching or reworking of the ash bed could lead to elevated REEs in the adjacent coal. We investigate differences between the two data occurringas geologic compositions and post-depositional histories. In-depth petrography and precise geochemistry should reveal data that at the very least will help improve some aspects of the geologic models of coal basins and the effect of an influx of non-coal sediments.

REE, CM, ash, volcanic ash, coal↗
DOE OSTI2023

RARE EARTH AND CRITICAL ELEMENT RELATIONSHIPS TO COAL DEPOSIT LITHOLOGIES IN SOUTHWEST WYOMING AND NORTHWEST COLORADO

Rare earth elements (REE) and critical minerals (CM) are vital components in a wide variety of applications, not only in the renewable energy sector but also in military, telecommunication, and other civilian uses. The association of REE and CM with coal deposits is widely known but not thoroughly understood. While individual coal samples or beds themselves might not host significant concentrations of REE, recent studies indicate temporal relationships among some REE with coal beds and their immediately adjacent non-coal bounding strata, including interbeds. These strata most commonly include clays, carbonaceous shales, and ash beds, but other related strata are possible in different coal-bearing settings. Variations in REE and CM concentrations and their direct or indirect association with coal beds are not always predictable. This study presents recent findings from studying different associations between coal beds and adjacent rocks to identify possible relationships between REE-CM concentrations and the coals and adjacent rocks. For this study we collected and analyzed several dozen samples from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Core Research Center (CRC). Additionally, a small number of coal mine outcrops and their adjacent non-coal rocks were included. Most samples are of Cretaceous age. Previous work has shown a potential link between coals in the Upper Cretaceous Williams Fork Formation and REE occurrences in the Yampa ash bed in northwest Colorado. While data are uncommon and sparse, this possible link may suggest REE or CM enrichment from leaching or reworking of the ash bed. Trace element geochemistry, whole rock data, and microscopic examinations are used here to explore these relationships and guide future studies.

REE, CM, ash, volcanic ash, coal↗
DOE OSTI2025

Ecohydrological controls on root and microbial respiration in the East River watershed of Colorado

The main objective of this project was to conduct exploratory work to quantify how snow and rain water inputs influence the CO2 coming from the soil surface (soil CO2 flux), and its plant and microbial sources, in the East River watershed, near Crested Butte, Colorado. Knowledge gained from this effort laid the groundwork for a more comprehensive (ongoing) follow-on grant that is using a combination of experiments, field observations, machine learning and simulation modeling to fully disentangle these relationships. New field measurements were made at four locations along an elevational transect on Snodgrass Mountain at Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. These sites were chosen to differ in total snowpack and water table depth, and included both deciduous (aspen) and evergreen (spruce/fir) forest types. We used automated measurements of soil CO2 concentrations to quantify the total soil CO2 flux, and the vertical CO2 production within the soil profile at each site. Isotope (radiocarbon, 14C) measurements determined how much of the CO2 emitted from the soil surface came from plant respiration (root metabolism) versus microbial respiration (decomposition of soil organic matter) sources. Supporting data on plant phenology and microbial dynamics provided context for the observed variation in respiration sources. This work was motivated by our overarching hypothesis that quantifying belowground plant and microbial processes separately, and how they are influenced by snow and rain inputs, is necessary for understanding and predicting how the East River watershed ecosystems will respond to future environmental change.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

High-Fidelity Analysis of EV Integration on Real Utility Feeders in Colorado

Residential electric vehicle (EV) charging has the potential to alter long-held assumptions on load characteristics impacting distribution grid planning, operations, and design standards. This study identifies analysis and control methods to increase the affordability of residential EV charging both for Xcel Energy and their customers. The project also provides solutions for more reliable grid interconnection that can support a reliable utility business model prepared for increasing EV charging load in the coming years. For this project, we referenced Level 2 alternating current (AC) onboard charging profiles for various vehicle models and high-fidelity charging data collected at the experimental setup established at the EV Research Infrastructure Laboratory at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Next, we developed EV adoption models for 2030 and 2040 for the Boulder and Aurora regions in Colorado. Moreover, we evaluated different smart charging control algorithms and compared their performance. We developed time-of-use (TOU)-based and grid-aware active EV charging control methods and integrated them within the study region to understand field impacts. Diving deeper, we selected 10 feeders in Boulder and Aurora for high-fidelity grid modeling down to the house level. We executed detailed grid analysis comparing the smart charge management (SCM) algorithms we developed. Finally, we created a novel tool, Electric Vehicle Infrastructure--Distribution System Integration Tool (EVI-DiST), to integrate all the approaches in a single software environment to provide easy integration, fast simulation, and detailed evaluation capability for utility engineers and other stakeholders.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Carbon ore, rare earth, and critical minerals (core-cm) assessment of san juan and raton coal basins: what is the future potential of coal in the san juan and raton basins, new mexico and colorado

This report summarizes results from the CORE-CM project in the San Juan and Raton basins of New Mexico and Colorado and ultimately begins to address what is the future of coal in the San Juan and Raton basins. The objective of this project was to determine the nonfuel carbon-based products (CBP), critical minerals, and rare earth elements (REE) potential in coal and related stratigraphic units in the San Juan and Raton basins and adjacent areas. This project delineated favorable geologic terrains and priority areas containing potential CBP, critical minerals, and REE deposits for the DOE mandate, which also is a priority of the NMBGMR and state of New Mexico. This project is important to the state because CBP, critical minerals, and REE resources must be identified before land use decisions are made by government officials. Future mining of CBP, critical minerals, and REE will directly benefit the economy of New Mexico. Furthermore, it is crucial to re-establish a domestic source of critical minerals and REE in the U.S. to help secure the nation’s clean energy future, to reduce the vulnerability of the U.S. to material shortages related to national defense, and to maintain our global technical and economic competitiveness. In addition to these benefits, students at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT) and San

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2021

Sodar - Colorado City, TX - Processed Data

This dataset was produced from the raw sodar .txt files from the Colorado City, TX site during the WFIP1 campaign. Quality control and formatting have been applied to transform the numerous raw files into a single file to provide user friendliness and improved wind resource characterization at this location.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Meteorological data from the Billy Bar site at the East River, Colorado

This dataset includes Quality Assessed and Quality Controlled (QA/QC) meteorological data from the Billy Bar field site in the East River Watershed, Colorado in order to inform watershed hydrobiogeochemical processes. The data includes 1-hour aligned time series of Solar Radiation, Wind Speed, Wind Direction, Air Temperature, Relative Humidity, Barometric Pressure, and Precipitation. For each parameter, the QA flags are given: 1 is for extreme (potential abnormal values), and 0 is for values in the expected range. The Rmarkdown document is a stand-alone file/notebook that preserves the text, code, and code results, as well as formatting contained in the original R script. The Data profiling report is a summary and graphical presentation of the data exploration process for data analysis and model building, so that users could focus on understanding data and extracting insights. The report provides a summary of each variable and does data profiling.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

National Renewable Energy Laboratory, South Table Mountain Campus, Golden, Colorado

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) South Table Mountain campus, located in Golden, Colorado, has multiyear datasets from buildings with approximately 1,100,000 sq ft of floor area. These 16 buildings include a large office, nine laboratories, and other education or public assembly facilities such as an education center, a warehouse, quick service restaurants, two site entrance security buildings, and a parking garage—all constructed and improved from 1982 to 2014. These datasets are also available from the NREL data storage and management platform SkySparks. The datasets contain electricity meter data (poser, voltage, and current) with 1-minute resolution and building automation system (BAS) data with resolutions of 5 or 15 minutes. Some subsystems (e.g., lighting) or equipment electricity data have the same intervals as above. Some mechanical equipment state or condition data, such as flow and temperature, are captured with 5- to 15-minute intervals. The types of measurement points (i.e., electrical meter power and zone temperature) and associated data quality across the campus are typical, which helps reduce the unreliability of data quality.

STM, Systems and equipment operational, Energy use↗
DOE OSTI2024

Rare earth element enrichment in coal and coal-adjacent strata of the Uinta Region, Utah and Colorado

This study aims to quantify rare earth element enrichment within coal and coal-adjacent strata in the Uinta Region of central Utah and western Colorado. Rare earth elements are a subset of critical minerals as defined by the U.S. Geological Survey. These elements are used for a wide variety of applications, including renewable energy technology in the transition toward carbon-neutral energy. While rare earth element enrichment has been associated with Appalachian coals, there has been a more limited evaluation of western U.S. coals. Here, samples from six active mines, four idle/historical mines, four mine waste piles, and seven stratigraphically complete cores within the Uinta Region were geochemically evaluated using portable X-ray fluorescence ( n = 3,113) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry ( n = 145) elemental analytical methods. Results suggest that 24%–45% of stratigraphically coal-adjacent carbonaceous shale and siltstone units show rare earth element enrichment (>200 ppm), as do 100% of sampled igneous material. A small subset (5%–8%) of coal samples display rare earth element enrichment, specifically in cases containing volcanic ash. This study proposes two multi-step depositional and diagenetic models to explain the enrichment process, requiring the emplacement and mobilization of rare earth element source material due to hydrothermal and other external influences. Historical geochemical evaluations of Uinta Region coal and coal-adjacent data are sparse, emphasizing the statistical significance of this research. These results support the utilization of active mines and coal processing waste piles for the future of domestic rare earth element extraction, offering economic and environmental solutions to pressing global demands.

Coe, Haley H.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Using Fission-Track Radiography Coupled with Scanning Electron Microscopy for Efficient Identification of Solid-Phase Uranium Mineralogy at a Former Uranium Pilot Mill (Grand Junction, Colorado)

At a former uranium pilot mill in Grand Junction, Colorado, mine tailings and some subpile sediments were excavated to various depths to meet surface radiological standards, but residual solid-phase uranium below these excavation depths still occurs at concentrations above background. The combination of fission-track radiography and scanning electron microscope energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) provides a uniquely efficient and quantitative way of determining mineralogic associations of uranium that can influence uranium mobility. After the creation of sample thin sections, a mica sheet is placed on those thin sections and irradiated in a nuclear research reactor. Decay of the irradiated uranium creates fission tracks that can be viewed with a microscope. The fission-track radiography images indicate thin section sample areas with elevated uranium that are focus areas for SEM-EDS work. EDS spectra provide quantitative elemental data that indicate the mineralogy of individual grains or grain coatings associated with the fission-track identification of elevated uranium. For the site in this study, the results indicated that uranium occurred (1) with coatings of aluminum–silicon (Al/Si) gel and gypsum, (2) dispersed in the unsaturated zone associated with evaporite-type salts, and (3) sorbed onto organic carbon. The Al/Si gel likely formed when low-pH waters were precipitated during calcite buffering, which in turn retained or precipitated trace amounts of Fe, As, U, V, Ca, and S. Understanding these mechanisms can help guide future laboratory and field-scale efforts in determining long-term uranium release rates to groundwater.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Evaluating 3 decades of precipitation in the Upper Colorado River basin from a high-resolution regional climate model

Abstract. Convection-permitting regional climate models (RCMs) have recently become tractable for applications at multi-decadal timescales. These types of models have tremendous utility for water resource studies, but better characterization of precipitation biases is needed, particularly for water-resource-critical mountain regions, where precipitation is highly variable in space, observations are sparse, and the societal water need is great. This study examines 34 years (1987–2020) of RCM precipitation from the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF; v3.8.1), using the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFS; CFSv2) initial and lateral boundary conditions and a 1 km × 1 km innermost grid spacing. The RCM is centered over the Upper Colorado River basin, with a focus on the high-elevation, 750 km2 East River watershed (ERW), where a variety of high-impact scientific activities are currently ongoing. Precipitation is compared against point observations (Natural Resources Conservation Service Snow Telemetry or SNOTEL), gridded climate datasets (Newman, Livneh, and PRISM), and Bayesian reconstructions of watershed mean precipitation conditioned on streamflow and high-resolution snow remote-sensing products. We find that the cool-season precipitation percent error between WRF and 23 SNOTEL gauges has a low overall bias (x^ = 0.25 %, s = 13.63 %) and that WRF has a higher percent error during the warm season (x^ = 10.37 %, s = 12.79 %). Warm-season bias manifests as a high number of low-precipitation days, though the low-resolution or SNOTEL gauges limit some of the conclusions that can be drawn. Regional comparisons between WRF precipitation accumulation and three different gridded datasets show differences on the order of ± 20 %, particularly at the highest elevations and in keeping with findings from other studies. We find that WRF agrees slightly better with the Bayesian reconstruction of precipitation in the ERW compared to the gridded precipitation datasets, particularly when changing SNOTEL densities are taken into account. The conclusions are that the RCM reasonably captures orographic precipitation in this region and demonstrates that leveraging additional hydrologic information (streamflow and snow remote-sensing data) improves the ability to characterize biases in RCM precipitation fields. Error characteristics reported in this study are essential for leveraging the RCM model outputs for studies of past and future climates and water resource applications. The methods developed in this study can be applied to other watersheds and model configurations. Hourly 1 km × 1 km precipitation and other meteorological outputs from this dataset are publicly available and suitable for a wide variety of applications.

Geology↗
DOE OSTI2023

Sensitivities of subgrid-scale physics schemes, meteorological forcing, and topographic radiation in atmosphere-through-bedrock integrated process models: a case study in the Upper Colorado River basin

Abstract. Mountain hydrology is controlled by interacting processes extending from the atmosphere through the bedrock. Integrated process models (IPMs), one of the main tools needed to interpret observations and refine conceptual models of the mountainous water cycle, require meteorological forcing that simulates the atmospheric process to predict hydroclimate then subsequently impacts surface–subsurface hydrology. Complex terrain and extreme spatial heterogeneity in mountainous environments drive uncertainty in several key considerations in IPM configurations and require further quantification and sensitivity analyses. Here, we present an IPM using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model which forces an integrated hydrologic model, ParFlow-CLM, implemented over a domain centered over the East River watershed (ERW), located in the Upper Colorado River basin (UCRB). The ERW is a heavily instrumented 300 km2 region in the headwaters of the UCRB near Crested Butte, CO, with a growing atmosphere-through-bedrock observation network. Through a series of experiments in the water year 2019 (WY19), we use four meteorological forcings derived from commonly used reanalysis datasets, three subgrid-scale physics scheme configurations in WRF, and two terrain shading options within WRF to test the relative importance of these experimental design choices for key hydrometeorological metrics including precipitation and snowpack, as well as evapotranspiration, groundwater storage, and discharge simulated by the ParFlow-CLM. Our hypothesis is that uncertainty from synoptic-scale forcings produces a much larger spread in surface–subsurface hydrologic fields than subgrid-scale physics scheme choice. Results reveal that the WRF subgrid-scale physics configuration leads to larger spatiotemporal variance in simulated hydrometeorological conditions, whereas variance across meteorological forcing with common subgrid-scale physics configurations is more spatiotemporally constrained. Despite reasonably simulating precipitation, a delay in simulated discharge peak is due to a systematic cold bias across WRF simulations, suggesting the need for bias correction. Discharge shows greater variance in response to the WRF simulations across subgrid-scale physics schemes (26 %) rather than meteorological forcing (6 %). The topographic radiation option has minor effects on the watershed-average hydrometeorological processes but adds profound spatial heterogeneity to local energy budgets (±30 W m−2 in shortwave radiation and 1 K air temperature differences in late summer). This is the first presentation of sensitivity analyses that provide support to help guide the scientific community to develop observational constraints on atmosphere-through-bedrock processes and their interactions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗