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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

ALTRIOS - Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System

The Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System (ALTRIOS) is a unique, fully integrated, open-source software tool to evaluate strategies for deploying advanced locomotive technologies and associated infrastructure for cost-effective decarbonization. ALTRIOS simulates energy conversion and storage dynamics, locomotive and train dynamics, meet-pass planning (detailed train timetabling), and freight-demand-driven train scheduling in a Pareto optimization. Because new locomotives represent a significant long-term capital investment and new technologies must be thoroughly demonstrated before deployment, this tool provides guidance on the risk/reward tradeoffs of different technology rollout strategies. An open, integrated simulation tool will be invaluable for identifying future research needs and making decisions on technology development, routes, and train selection. ALTRIOS development is a collaboration between NREL, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) RailTEC, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), and BNSF.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,MATHEMATICS AND COMPUT↗
DOE OSTI2023

Fact Sheet - Long-length Scintillating Fibers for Radiation Detection

As the world looks to underground geological repositories for storing nuclear waste, technologies to safeguard the material are needed. An example of a project that developed a new technology is Tripwire. Tripwire proposes a multi-sensor system approach for geological spent nuclear fuel repositories that relies of radiation, vibration, and electromagnetic detection. Tripwire was developed by the Applied Radiation Measurements and Systems (ARMS) group at INL and sponsored by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The ARMS group performs research and development, testing and evaluation, operational support, and training focused on applied ionizing radiation detection and measurement. Application areas include nuclear engineering for advanced reactors and fuel cycle operations, nuclear nonproliferation, nuclear counterproliferation, nuclear forensics, and arms control and disarmament.

46 - INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AN↗
DOE OSTI2020

Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicle Electrification: An Assessment of Technology and Knowledge Gaps

The objective of this assessment was to leverage current medium- and heavy-duty vehicle (MHDV) data and information to evaluate the state of commercial vehicle electrification technologies, including the following: 1. Assessment and inventory of current MHDV electrification architectures; 2. Identification and assessment of MHDV component technologies; 3. Assessment of potential performance and cost drivers; and, 4. Identification of R&D gaps where appropriate R&D and technology would accelerate commercial vehicle electrification. These gaps include shortfalls in technology, gaps in data, and inadequate knowledge and understanding. To inform this study, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory–Oak Ridge National Laboratory team examined the open literature; conducted workshops; assessed and analyzed data on more than 175 electrified MHDVs, including vehicle and powertrain specifications; and conducted one-on-one meetings with industry representatives. This systems-level information was concatenated and parsed with respect to key characteristics such as battery energy, power, and range compared across vehicle classes. Operational data of many conventional vehicles were also examined to help determine the requirements on electrified vehicle attributes such as range. Previous studies on the total cost of ownership of electrified MHDVs were reviewed to determine where improvements in technologies (efficiency, cost, maintenance) were needed to accelerate adoption. The team also assessed the state of the art in electric drivetrains for component specifications and challenges for the commercial vehicle sector, including electric machines, power electronics, and off-board high-power charging systems (extreme fast charging and beyond). The goal of this analysis was to identify the barriers to widespread adoption of commercial vehicle electrification technologies and prioritize the research and development gaps that need to be overcome to accelerate significant market penetration of these technologies.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Characteristics of U.S. Energy Production using Nuclear Fission

When considering potential energy production technologies for the future, a critical consideration centers on the question of “how green” the technology is. Here, the word “green” implies that the technology has a zero or minimal impact on the public and environment while still providing benefits by way of electricity, heat, and other products such as hydrogen and water. And, these potential impacts must be considered over the lifecycle of the technology deployment, from design, construction, operation, and disposition. Ideally, a green energy technology would be net-zero (i.e., having no to almost negligible contribution) on five key elements: 1. Greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases such as ozone-depleting gases 2. Water consumption 3. Material resource consumption 4. Disposition of wastes 5. Public, flora, and fauna safety including deaths, health, and environmental impacts. Society would benefit from net-zero impacts of the five elements above while having low-cost energy. As society starts to replace fossil fuels in the energy mix, we need to consider the possible impacts of adopted technologies. We need a production approach that provides large quantities of energy while being safe, reliable, economical, and sustainable. In this report, we describe a variety of characteristics related to the five elements above to provide a fact-supported, science-based depiction of nuclear fission as an energy providing technology. By better understanding how fission power is nearly net-zero in the five elements above, we can position our thinking to align with the overarching goal to provide society with a low-impact energy source.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Energy Storage Technologies and U.S. Department of War Requirements

This report offers an overarching primer the energy storage market and assessment of each technology’s suitability for U.S. Department of War applications. We find that battery energy storage is the most promising technology for energy storage applications in terms of energy density and cost. While commercial and advanced Li-ion can satisfy certain electric mobility (e.g., cars, midsized vehicles) and electric flight application (e.g. drones) needs of DoW, next generation technologies like Li metal solid-state batteries, and conversion chemistries (Li-air, Li-CFx) are needed for heavy duty applications like armored vehicles, tanks, airplanes, jets. Batteries should also be supplemented with technologies such as supercapacitors and next-generation flywheels to provide short bursts of high energy for high power needs. Thermal energy storage solutions (sensible and latent heat) and fuel cells (PEMFC and SOFC) are good alternatives for supporting energy storage applications in terms of energy density and cost. Gravity-based energy storage promises the least energy density with high cost and should only be used for niche DoW applications. Of the different gravity energy storage technologies reviewed, pumped-hydro, flywheel, and compressed air energy storage are promising, while solid gravity energy storage appears the least attractive. Military facilities requiring 14 days of energy storage can benefit from flow batteries, especially commercial VFRBs and next generation iron-air systems. While VFRBs are expensive, iron-air batteries have the coupled benefits of low cost and good energy density promising 100+ hours of storage.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Circularity Futures Workshop Series: Summary Report

The aim of this report is to synthesize key feedback received from the three-part Circularity Futures workshop series held in Spring 2024. The workshop series was conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on behalf of U.S. Department of Energy, Office Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), and was broken into three workshops: Workshop 1 - Circularity Analysis Needs and Priorities; Workshop 2 - Circularity Metrics and Indicators; and Workshop 3 - Circularity Data. Together, the workshops focused on identifying the existing priorities and gaps in the circularity modeling space, understanding different stakeholders' use and interpretation of circularity metrics and indicators, identifying common data gaps and data quality challenges, and assessing the robustness of available solutions. The workshop series brought a diverse group of stakeholders - including representatives from U.S. government offices, national labs, nonprofit organizations, industry, and academia - to collect first-hand feedback on needs, priorities, challenges and opportunities in the circularity modeling and analysis space. The workshop discussions highlighted numerous common needs, priorities and challenges among the interviewed groups. Several topics were frequently discussed, including: 1) Circularity as a pathway for sustainable economic growth: While circularity is generally defined in terms of resource conservation and reducing wasteful disposal of materials, participants agreed that circular strategies should serve broader economic, environmental, and social goals. It is therefore crucial for circularity analysis to look beyond waste reduction and instead evaluate a variety of impact metrics such as cost savings, job creation, air quality, and pollutant emissions. Mutli-criteria decision-making frameworks may be useful for making sense of disparate metrics and evaluating tradeoffs between impact categories.; 2) Economic and social factors are not well understood: Underdevelopment of existing end-of-life (EOL) management infrastructure, inconsistent standardization codes and policy space in reusing recycled content, and suboptimal collection and sorting strategies collectively contribute to uncertainty about the economic potential of circular pathways. The latter observation is consistent among all technologies but more emphasized for renewable energy systems. Social impacts of circularity practices are less understood and less researched than other sustainability aspects.; 3) Inconsistent methods for assessing emerging technologies: LCA and TEA results vary widely depending on the assumptions made with regards to market adoption of new technologies. Emerging technologies suffer limited availability of data needed to conduct a robust circularity analysis. Yet, understanding projected impacts of proposed nascent technology is a key need for different stakeholder groups.; and 4) Lack of temporally and geospatially explicit data: There is a need for open data that represents variations in circularity technologies over time and location. The lack thereof leads to aggregated and potentially misrepresented results in circularity analysis. Sensitivity analyses should be included to verify whether options perceived as more sustainable align with real-world practices.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

ECP Software Technology Capability Assessment Report

The Exascale Computing Project Software Technology (ECP ST) focus area represents the key bridge between Exascale systems and the scientists developing applications that will run on those platforms. ECP offers a unique opportunity to build a coherent set of software (often referred to as the "software stack") that will allow application developers to maximize their ability to write highly parallel applications, targeting multiple Exascale architectures with runtime environments that will provide high performance and resilience. But applications are only useful if they can provide scientific insight, and the unprecedented data produced by these applications require a complete analysis work ow that includes new technology to scalably collect, reduce, organize, curate, and analyze the data into actionable decisions. This requires approaching scientific computing in a holistic manner, encompassing the entire user workflow - from conception of a problem, setting up the problem with validated inputs, performing high-fidelity simulations, to the application of uncertainty quantification to the final analysis. The software stack plan defined here aims to address all of these needs by extending current technologies to Exascale where possible, by performing the research required to conceive of new approaches necessary to address unique problems where current approaches will not suffice, and by deploying high-quality and robust software products on the platforms developed in the Exascale systems project. The ECP ST portfolio has established a set of interdependent projects that will allow for the research, development, and delivery of a comprehensive software stack,

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Stakeholder-driven carbon neutral pathways for Thailand and Bangkok: integrated assessment modeling to inform multilevel climate governance

Thailand has established a target of carbon neutrality by 2050. Reaching this goal will require coordination and collaboration between stakeholders spanning sectors and scales, including energy system decision makers, land managers, and city planners. Robust decarbonization scenarios incorporating current plans and targets, additional measures needed, and trade-offs between strategies can help stakeholders make informed decisions in the face of uncertainty. Through iterative engagement with decision makers at the city and national levels, we develop and analyze carbon neutral scenarios for Thailand that incorporate Bangkok’s role using a global integrated assessment model. We find that Thailand can reach carbon neutrality through power sector decarbonization, energy efficiency improvements, widespread electrification, and advanced technologies including carbon capture and storage and hydrogen. Negative emissions technologies will also be needed to offset Thailand and Bangkok’s hardest-to-abate CO 2 emissions. Bangkok, as a major population and economic center, contributes significantly to Thailand’s energy demand and emissions and can therefore play an important role in climate change mitigation. Accordingly, our results underscore the importance of subnational climate action in meeting Thailand’s carbon neutral goal. Our analysis also indicates that without sustained land-based carbon sequestration, much more mitigation effort will be needed in Thailand’s energy sector, including at the subnational scale, to reach carbon neutrality. These insights can help stakeholders identify priorities, consider tradeoffs, and make decisions that will impact Bangkok and Thailand’s long-term climate change mitigation potential. This analysis demonstrates how stakeholder engagement in integrated assessment modeling can facilitate and inform multilevel climate governance.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Unveiling the drivers contributing to global wheat yield shocks through quantile regression

Sudden reductions in crop yield (i.e., yield shocks) severely disrupt the food supply, intensify food insecurity, depress farmers' welfare, and worsen a country's economic conditions. Here, we study the spatiotemporal patterns of wheat yield shocks, quantified by the lower quantiles of yield fluctuations, in 86 countries over 30 years. Furthermore, we assess the relationships between shocks and their key ecological and socioeconomic drivers using quantile regression based on statistical (linear quantile mixed model) and machine learning (quantile random forest) models. Using a panel dataset that captures spatiotemporal patterns of yield shocks and possible drivers in 86 countries, we find that the severity of yield shocks has been increasing globally since 1997. Moreover, our cross-validation exercise shows that quantile random forest outperforms the linear quantile regression model. Despite this performance difference, both models consistently reveal that the severity of shocks is associated with higher weather stress, nitrogen fertilizer application rate, and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (a typical indicator for economic and technological advancement in a country). While the unexpected negative association between more severe wheat yield shocks and higher fertilizer application rate and GDP per capita does not imply a direct causal effect, they indicate that the advancement in wheat production has been primarily on achieving higher yields and less on lowering the possibility and magnitude of sharp yield reductions. Hence, in the context of growing extreme weather stress, there is a critical need to enhance the technology and management practices that mitigate yield shocks to improve the resilience of the world food systems.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Building the Efficiency Workforce: Preprint

Demand for high-performance homes and buildings is growing due to their marketability, environmental benefits, and increasing affordability. Growth for energy efficient technologies and building upgrades has driven expansion across many traditional industries including construction trades (which added almost 21,000 jobs) and professional services (which added 35,000 employees) in 2018, according to the 2019 U.S. Energy Employment Report (USEER). As buildings become more automated, digitized and interconnected, the workforce that supports the design, build, operations and maintenance of these buildings must evolve. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office (BTO) has engaged NREL to provide a framework upon which BTO can develop their next generation workforce development strategy. The strategy will be designed to increase quantity of workers with the skills to adequately design, install, maintain and operate high- performance buildings across all building sectors (residential, commercial, industrial). This paper will summarize past BTO workforce development efforts, identify current skills gaps and hiring challenges, and present anticipated future workforce needs based on new technologies currently being developed by labs and industry. Through a literature review and a series of industry and academic workshops, NREL will present a framework that includes multiple options to best prepare the next generation workforce.

buildings↗
DOE OSTI2025

National Energy Water Treatment & Speciation (NEWTS): A Water & Critical Mineral Database and Dashboard

The scarcity of water resources, the need for beneficial water reuse, and the challenges of wastewater treatment are becoming increasingly pressing in economic, social, and environmental domains. Addressing these concerns requires effective treatment strategies to manage wastewater streams and tackle environmental and economic issues. Furthermore, the recovery of critical minerals from the waste streams associated with energy production holds the promise of offsetting treatment costs and securing local sources of valuable minerals. However, relevant data on these waste streams are dispersed and challenging to locate. The process of ingesting such data into modeling software often involves multiple steps, requiring data restructuring to meet software-input requirements. The non-standardized reporting of water data makes data aggregation and reformatting a time-consuming process. Additionally, essential attributes necessary for modeling water treatment and mineral scale formation are frequently missing. Moreover, data gaps vary depending on the region of interest. Consequently, there is a pressing need for high-quality energy-water composition data that can be easily imported into water chemistry modeling software. To address this need, the National Energy Technology Laboratory has created the National Energy Water Treatment and Speciation (NEWTS) Database and Dashboard—a free online tool catering to community leaders and water researchers. NEWTS facilitates a comprehensive understanding of the composition of energy-related wastewater streams in the United States. The datasets provide detailed concentrations and speciation of major and minor aqueous compounds in energy-related wastewater streams, including power plant leachate, acid mine drainage, brackish water, and oil and gas produced water across the United States. Many of the aqueous species are critical minerals (Li, REEs) in high demand to modernize the world’s energy infrastructure. Many of the datasets also contain volumetric flow-rates needed to model the treatment and reuse scenarios in advanced aqueous chemistry software programs. The NEWTS Database and Dashboard offer public access to hitherto challenging-to-access datasets, presented in a standardized format that is tailored for easy input into aqueous chemistry modeling software. By performing the work needed to transform dispersed, disparate data sources into unified, model-ready datasets, NEWTS serves as an essential resource in advancing water treatment research and sustainable water resource management.

produced water management↗
DOE OSTI2023

Strategy for Understanding the Higgs Physics: The Cool Copper Collider

A program to build a lepton-collider Higgs factory, to precisely measure the couplings of the Higgs boson to other particles, followed by a higher energy run to establish the Higgs self-coupling and expand the new physics reach, is widely recognized as a primary focus of modern particle physics. We propose a strategy that focuses on a new technology and preliminary estimates suggest that can lead to a compact, affordable machine. New technology investigations will provide much needed enthusiasm for our field, resulting in trained workforce. This cost-effective, compact design, with technologies useful for a broad range of other accelerator applications, could be realized as a project in the US. Its technology innovations, both in the accelerator and the detector, will offer unique and exciting opportunities to young scientists. Moreover, cost effective compact designs, broadly applicable to other fields of research, are more likely to obtain financial support from our funding agencies.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Quantum thermodynamic devices: From theoretical proposals to experimental reality

Thermodynamics originated in the need to understand novel technologies developed by the Industrial Revolution. However, over the centuries, the description of engines, refrigerators, thermal accelerators, and heaters has become so abstract that a direct application of the universal statements to real-life devices is everything but straight forward. Furthermore, the recent, rapid development of quantum thermodynamics has taken a similar trajectory, and, e.g., “quantum engines” have become a widely studied concept in theoretical research. However, if the newly unveiled laws of nature are to be useful, we need to write the dictionary that allows us to translate abstract statements of theoretical quantum thermodynamics to physical platforms and working mediums of experimentally realistic scenarios. To assist in this endeavor, this review is dedicated to provide an overview over the proposed and realized quantum thermodynamic devices and to highlight the commonalities and differences of the various physical situations.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Snowmass2021 Cosmic Frontier White Paper: Future Gravitational-Wave Detector Facilities

The next generation of gravitational-wave observatories can explore a wide range of fundamental physics phenomena throughout the history of the universe. These phenomena include access to the universe's binary black hole population throughout cosmic time, to the universe's expansion history independent of the cosmic distance ladders, to stochastic gravitational-waves from early-universe phase transitions, to warped space-time in the strong-field and high-velocity limit, to the equation of state of nuclear matter at neutron star and post-merger densities, and to dark matter candidates through their interaction in extreme astrophysical environments or their interaction with the detector itself. We present the gravitational-wave detector concepts than can drive the future of gravitational-wave astrophysics. We summarize the status of the necessary technology, and the research needed to be able to build these observatories in the 2030s.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2024

First Phase Consensus Roadmap for Development of Condition-Based Cable Reliability Assurance

The objective of this work was to develop a first phase consensus roadmap for condition-based qualification (CBQ) of electrical cables. With CBQ, qualification of Class 1E electrical cables moves from a time-based approach to a condition-based approach, which is anticipated to be safer in terms of reliability and conservatism, and more cost effective in the long run. However, due to barriers, the CBQ approach has not yet been adopted by U.S. nuclear power plants (NPPs). Based upon a review of current work evaluating CBQ, the limitation of available condition monitoring technology seems to be the largest barrier. The importance of condition monitoring, or more specifically selecting appropriate condition indicators, during CBQ cannot be understated. However, selecting appropriate condition indicators is challenged by techniques that are destructive and only evaluate cable degradation locally. Further, arguably, no one identified condition indicator fully establishes cable condition. Thus, additional work is necessary to evaluate potential condition indicators towards CBQ. In addition to the requirements of IEC/IEEE Std. 60780-323, ideal condition indicators should include a) both destructive and non-destructive approaches, b) both local and global measurements, c) real-time (i.e., online) monitoring that trends with degradation, d) enable correlation with qualified levels of degradation, and e) be established within a repository of condition indicators with applicable materials and/or components and their acceptance criteria. Additional work is needed in development of technology and methodology prior to adoption of CBQ, especially for extending qualified life of installed components. Education and early experience by the industry and regulators will be required for this change in approach as an alternative to re-analysis. A series of workshops that bring together stakeholders to identify and address gaps will be needed. The longstanding cooperative working group of cable researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Electric Power Research Institute, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission forms a valuable starting point for development of a consensus roadmap to condition-based qualification approach as a viable options for qualification of cable systems in U.S. light water reactors.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Scale-up and techno-economic analysis of microbial electrolysis cells for hydrogen production from wastewater

Microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) have demonstrated high-rate H 2 production while concurrently treating wastewater, but the transition in scale from laboratory research to systems that can be practically applied has encountered challenges. It has been more than a decade since the first pilot-scale MEC was reported, and in recent years, many attempts have been made to overcome the barriers and move the technology to the market. This study provided a detailed analysis of MEC scale-up efforts and summarized the key factors that should be considered to further develop the technology. We compared the major scale-up configurations and systematically evaluated their performance from both technical and economic perspectives. We characterized how system scale-up impacts the key performance metrics such as volumetric current density and H 2 production rate, and we proposed methods to evaluate and optimize system design and fabrication. In addition, preliminary techno-economic analysis indicates that MECs can be profitable in many different market scenarios with or without subsidies. Here, we also provide perspectives on future development needed to transition MEC technology to the marketplace.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Cryogenic Carbon Capture™ (CCC) Status Report

The Cryogenic Carbon Capture™ (CCC) process separates CO2 from light gases in essentially any continuous process. CCC cools the gases to the frost or desublimation point of CO2 (-100 to -135 °C), separates and pressurizes the solids, and warms all streams to produce a CO2-depleted stream at ambient pressure and a pure (99+%) pressurized liquid CO2 stream typically to about 150 bar, both at ambient temperature. The process also recovers all gas moisture and most gas impurities less volatile than CO2 (NOx, SOx, Hg, PM, UHC, CCC, etc.) in separable streams. CCC nearly eliminates refrigeration energy for sensible temperature changes through heat integration. CCC does require energy to change the CO2 phase from a mixed vapor to a pressurized fluid, which represents the minimum energy required of any process for this separation. CCC uses additional energy for turbomachinery inefficiencies, heat losses, moisture removal and overall process pressure drop. Aside from these real-world energy demands, CCC operates near the minimum energy required to perform this gas separation by minimizing stream recycling. CCC compresses CO2 as a liquid, which is one of several reasons it costs about about half as much and consumes about half as much energy as an amine process when using flue gases with about 15% CO2. The process also has several major additional advantages, including (a) it is a bolt-on retrofit technology that does not need steam or any modification of existing equipment, (b) it recovers water and nearly all pollutants in addition to CO2 from the flue gas, (c) it enables highly efficient and cost effective energy storage at grid scale and on time scales of minutes, (d) it enables NG storage if the energy storage option is used, and (d) it has a small footprint and is minimally disruptive to existing plants, requiring only electrical power and a gas source to operate. Sustainable Energy Solutions (SES) has scaled this technology through several levels, the largest of which captures nominally 1 tonne of CO2/day and is called the skid system. Skid system field tests include utility-scale power plants, cement plants, heating plants, and other utility or industrial sites that burn natural gas, biomass, coal, shredded tires, municipal waste, and combinations of these fuels. These field tests produced 95-99% CO2 capture with CO2 purities of 99+% and initial CO2 contents that range from 4 to 28%. SES currently seeks to scale the system to merchant scale (10-80 tonnes of CO2 per day). In the process of doing so, SES has demonstrated the potential for CCC to contribute to energy storage and direct air capture in innovative and cost-effective ways. This presentation discusses the overall process and highlights results from field and in-house tests. These include (a) measured CO2 capture rates and operating conditions from in-house and field tests, and (b) predicted utility-scale costs and energy demands. This discussion also includes the application of the CCC technology to energy storage and direct air capture.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Research Roadmap on Grid-Forming Inverters

This research roadmap is intended to fill the knowledge gap by providing a system view of grid-forming inverter-based resource controls and their impact on grid stability, which we believe is central to meeting some of the challenges to operating the future North American electric power system. This includes the roles and requirements of grid-forming inverter-based resources—including solar photovoltaics, wind generators, and energy storage. For this roadmap, we focus on a specific family of grid-forming inverter control approaches that do not rely on an external voltage source (i.e., no phase-locked loop) and that can share load without explicit communications. Although the roadmap is focused narrowly on system challenges for grid-forming controls and power system stability, including interactions with protection, we hope it serves as a foundational element for future system-of-systems roadmapping needed in a broader grid modernization effort with increasing deployments of inverter-based resources. The roadmap first introduces formal definitions for the grid stability topics and then describes the differences between grid-forming and traditional grid-following control approaches for inverter-based resources. The core of the roadmap consists of a review of current research and an outline of research needs related to five grid-forming inverter topics: frequency control, voltage control, system protection, fault ride-through and voltage recovery, and modeling and simulation. The review both delineates contemporary advances and highlights open research questions that must be addressed to enable the widespread adoption of inverter-based resources across the grid. Feedback from industry on these research questions is incorporated, including discussions during the Workshop on Grid-forming Inverters for Low-inertia Power Systems. The workshop included industry presentations and discussion of ongoing research, technology gaps, and piloting needs. This roadmap concludes by offering a multiyear perspective on the gradual field validation of grid-forming inverters. This perspective recognizes that the scale and scope of the types of power systems that inverters will be called on to provide grid-forming services will and should begin modestly. Specifically, this roadmap recognizes that inverter controls today are predominantly grid-following and that future power systems will involve a mix of inverter-based resources with both grid-following and grid-forming control capabilities. Growth over time will depend on how well grid-forming inverters perform and what advantages they bring as penetration levels (instantaneous and average) of inverter-based resources increases. This recognition, in turn, establishes a natural sequence of priorities for the research questions that must be addressed. Following this multiyear perspective, the roadmap offers short descriptions of two specific near-term research priorities: the review of regulatory and technical standards and the development of advanced modeling techniques. These priorities are foundational. We recommend immediate pursuit of them in parallel with and in direct support of the research outlined by our multiyear perspective.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗