Voluntary Renewable Energy Markets 101 Workshop
These slides are for the Voluntary Renewable Energy Markets 101 Workshop at the annual Renewable Energy Markets Conference.
SEARCH · Search NASA
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.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
These slides are for the Voluntary Renewable Energy Markets 101 Workshop at the annual Renewable Energy Markets Conference.
Urban areas, including Detroit and Pittsburgh, have suffered significant dual outages of the electrical and water infrastructure in the past decade due, in part, to the increasing number of extreme weather events. With increasing temperatures and rainfall intensity, these regions need to prepare for increasing extreme events through community-based energy and water resilience analysis, planning, and enhancement. This project developed a suite of open-source, open-access, community-centered, data-driven assessment and distributed energy resource (DER) and planning tools for energy and water resilience enhancement in urban areas. Through establishing a multi-level community awareness and engagement mechanism and a comprehensive collection of power outage and flooding data, an innovative group of community energy and water resilience assessment and planning tools have been developed for a wide range of users with differing and variable sets of data available to them. The developed tools include (1) DOE EAGLE-I data-driven, deep-learning assisted resilience assessment and DER planning tools at the county level with socioeconomic factors incorporated; (2) Utility annual power outage data-driven tools for long term resilience assessment and DER planning and 15-min power outage data-driven tools for short term resilience assessment and planning; (3) Detailed engineering tools for energy and water systems resilience assessment and planning when the system topology and component fragility curves are available; (4) Alternative Resiliency Metric Calculation that extracts and separates outage and restoration processes; and (5) Co-optimization tools that evaluate the resilience of the power and sewage system and allow users to conduct joint planning with energy and wastewater systems. The developed tools provide planners, decision-makers, and stakeholders with powerful capabilities to systematically evaluate system/community resilience and optimal and actionable guidance for enhancing resilience while prioritizing DER investments. The tools have been used and validated in Detroit and Pittsburgh and can be used in other areas of the nation. In addition, this project will (1) advance the knowledge and applications of machine-learning methods in analyzing and fusing different layers of information and generating meaningful data points such as generating rare weather events; (2) significantly improve the energy and water resilience of the identified communities in Detroit and Pittsburgh and prepare for more frequent and severe weather conditions; (3) help communities assess extreme weather event impacts and address short-term and long-term resilience-related issues The developed tools have been made public via GitHub and demonstrated to community stakeholders and utility companies via the two annual workshops and numerous community engagement meetings. The project outcomes are also disseminated through publications in various journals and conference proceedings, and presentations at top conferences.
We present the historical antecedents to the field of relativistic heavy ion physics, beginning with early attempts to model the strong interaction and ending with the endorsement of a relativistic heavy ion collider in the 1983 U.S. Long-Range Plan for Nuclear Science. Particular attention is paid to two major themes: 1) A program to study high density states of nuclear matter emerging from the 1974 Bear Mountain conference and 2) Efforts to understand the predictions of QCD for matter at high densities and/or temperatures.
Over the past year, the Qubit Engineering team has pushed the frontiers of power‑grid optimization, working in close collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Their progress is reflected in three newly submitted conference papers, “Unified Relational GNN Architecture for AC Optimal Power Flow Calculations in Electric Grids,” “Graph‑Based Attention Mechanisms for Solving the AC Optimal Power Flow Problem in Electrical‑Power Networks,” and “Enhanced Power‑Grid Maintenance Planning and Quantum‑Inspired Combinatorial Prospects.” These publications showcase state‑of‑the‑art graph‑neural‑network methods for AC‑OPF and novel quantum‑inspired heuristics for maintenance scheduling. Beyond the academic results, the Qubit team has converted the research into two production‑grade tools built on TVA data: Neuro‑Grid, an AI‑driven power‑flow simulator that provides instant, interactive full‑grid load‑flow visualizations, and Quanta‑Grid, a quantum‑inspired maintenance‑scheduling engine to support logistics optimization for power utilities. Together, these advances demonstrate how Qubit’s partnership with ORNL and TVA is delivering practical, physics‑grounded analytics for next‑generation grid management.
The Department of Energy (DOE) Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Road Ready Demonstration Project is an effort to package DOE-managed SNF for road-ready dry storage. A key operation in this demonstration is performing the closure weld on the DOE Standard Canister after it has been loaded with the SNF. Planning the closure weld operations is ongoing and must consider what parts of the operations (if any) can be done manually and what parts must be done remotely. A key parameter to inform the evolving planning of these operations is the dose rate in the vicinity of the canister and the dose hazard posed to the closure weld operators and collocated workers. This study developed a Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) model of the closure weld operation, which was used to estimate general area dose rates as well as dose rates to the welding location, weld operators, and collocated workers. These estimates provide some insight into the potential radiation exposure hazard for workers during the operations and are a factor to be considered in the ongoing development of designs, technology, processes, and administrative controls for packaging DOE-managed SNF for road-ready dry storage.
This report provides a set of best practices in response to Section 4(d) of Executive Order 14308, Empowering Commonsense Wildfire Prevention and Response. The information contained herein is expected to be used in conjunction with other materials at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Wildfire Risk Mitigation Technical Conference (Docket No. AD25-16-000), with possible direction to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation to take action. The objective of this report is to provide an overview of existing and emerging best practices currently employed or planned by utilities for wildfire mitigation, demonstrating how these efforts align with the executive order’s emphasis on reducing electric utility–caused wildfires while also balancing cost-effectiveness. Additionally, while most practices in utility-developed wildfire mitigation plans focus on risk reduction through robustness and operational reliability, this report also discusses best practices for resilience. The best practices are adopted from publicly available utility wildfire mitigation plans from the United States and Canada, recent findings from wildfire risk reduction research, and industry engagement.
The onshore Gulf of Mexico region presents significant opportunities for CO2 capture, transport, and storage due to its numerous CO2 sources, such as power plants, refineries, and its substantial CO2 storage potential. However, operators face critical decisions in designing an efficient and cost-effective CO2 pipeline network. This study examines the economic implications of two primary strategies: constructing a trunkline with excess initial capacity versus developing dedicated pipelines incrementally as new CO2 sources come online. Building a trunkline first offers the advantage of future-proofing the network, allowing for the accommodation of increased CO2 volumes from various sources over time. However, this approach incurs higher upfront costs and risks underutilizing the transport capacity in the initial stages, potentially resulting in economic inefficiencies. Conversely, constructing dedicated pipelines for each new CO2 source as it becomes operational may avoid the initial overcapacity issue but fails to capitalize on the economies of scale. This could lead to higher overall costs due to the duplication of infrastructure and increased complexity in network management. This research employs a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis, integrating factors such as capital expenditure, operational costs, projected CO2 volumes, and potential economies of scale. Through this analysis, we aim to provide operators with insights into the most economically viable strategy for CO2 pipeline network design in the region. The findings underscore the importance of strategic planning and highlight the trade-offs between immediate capacity utilization and long-term cost savings, ultimately guiding stakeholders towards informed decision-making in the development of CO2 transport infrastructure. Presented at the 41st USAEE/IAEE North American Conference, 3-6 November 2024, Baton Rouge, LA, United States.
Conference presentation about Idaho National Laboratory tools for damage prediction and resilience, along with an overview of microgrid capabilities.
Conference presentation at American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting, San Diego, California, October 27–31, 2024. We presented a high-level overview of many novel and sustainable carbon storage monitoring methods that are at various stages of planning or demonstration to accelerate the deployment of CCS technologies at future CCS sites across the United States. Our work impacts the general CCS industry by providing novel and more sustainable methods for tracking CO 2 plume migration and performing assurance monitoring. Our work primarily benefits three parties: 1) CCS community members through knowledge sharing of lessons learned; 2) CCS operators through commercialization of additional methods, including improvements on workflows and simplification of fieldwork; and 3) stakeholders of CCS projects through implementation of low-impact and more autonomous monitoring solutions.
This a poster on PAT for the CESA National Energy Summit for States: Navigating Energy Trends and Federal Programs Conference.
An automated mobility district (AMD) envisions a system of integrated mobility options that serves major activity centers such as campuses, central business districts, and large medical facilities. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has been investigating the implementation prospects for fully automated passenger transport systems that are deployed to operate within dense urban settings. This document provides a synopsis of findings revealed over the last three phases of work, which have yielded insights into the creation and management of AMDs anticipated to use automated vehicle (AV) technology over the next decade. Phase I and Phase II tracked the deployment and lessons learned from 10 early-stage demonstrations of automated shuttle deployments, and their associated insights into the challenges for automated driving systems to achieve safe operations within district-scale deployments. Phase III began in-depth investigations of critical subsystem components, as automation, electrification, and on-demand service continue to converge within initial AMD operations. These directed studies focus on elements of electrification, curbfront/station management, the role of infrastructure sensing, and overall integration of AMD safety management in central, simultaneous coordination of multiple AMD fleets. Future research in AMDs includes systems engineering methodology (more frequently referred to as "digital twins") for planning, design, testing, and ongoing operation of AMDs; location (or co-location) of management functions; and human supervision and passenger communications for safety and security in unattended vehicles. The synopsis references the foundational research products (papers and presentations) that have been published through conference proceedings, journal articles, and NREL reports.
Slides used to present roadmap to state agencies, EEI stakeholders, EPA stakeholders, and other conferences
As part of a U.S. DOE Geothermal Technologies Office funding opportunity, Geysers Power Company, LLC, an indirect subsidiary of Calpine Corporation, partnered with Sandia National Labs, EGI at the University of Utah, and Texas A&M University to demonstrate increased drilling performance at The Geysers Geothermal Field. The performance target in the drilling demonstrations is at least a 25% improvement in rates of penetration with increased time on bottom for each bit. The planned drilling demonstrations are being conducted as part of an existing drilling campaign intended to enhance reservoir utilization. A major goal of the project is to assess the effectiveness of implementing mechanical specific energy (MSE) and drilling dysfunction diagnosis and remediation in these challenging environments, as well as alternate bit technologies. The first demonstration well has been completed, with a total of 15 PDC bit runs in the 17.5”, 12.25” and 8.5” sections. Initial analysis shows ROP gains in all three hole sections, especially in the 17.5” and 12.25” sections, compared with conventional roller cone bit runs in the demonstration well and offset wells. However in the 8.5” hole, wear and damage to the PDC bits resulted in relatively short bit runs. Analysis is underway to take advantage of the positive results and remediate the challenges.
The WHOLESCALE acronym stands for Water & Hole Observations Leverage Effective Stress Calculations and Lessen Expenses. The goal of the WHOLESCALE project is to simulate the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of stress in the geothermal system at San Emidio in Nevada, United States. To reach this goal, the WHOLESCALE team has developed a methodology to incorporate and interpret data from four methods of measurement into a multi-physics model that couples thermal, hydrological, and mechanical (T H-M) processes. The WHOLESCALE team has applied this methodology at the San Emidio geothermal field, located ~100 km north of Reno, Nevada in the northwestern Basin and Range province. The WHOLESCALE team includes 30 individuals working at two universities, two national laboratories, and one industry partner. Two master-degree students and five post-doctoral researchers have gained professional experience and earned partial financial support via the WHOLESCALE project. The WHOLESCALE team has taken advantage of the perturbations created by changes in pumping operations during planned shutdowns in 2016, 2021, and 2022 to infer temporal changes in the state of stress in the geothermal system at San Emidio, Nevada, U.S. The WHOLESCALE results support the working hypothesis that increasing pore-fluid pressure reduces the effective normal stress acting across fault zones. During normal operations, pumping in deep production wells decreases fluid pressures and thus increases the effective normal stresses on faults, reducing microseismicity. During planned shutdowns, the cessation of production increases pore-fluid pressure and reduces effective normal stress. The WHOLESCALE products generated during the 4-year period between 2020 and 2024 include: three articles published in the open-access, peer-reviewed scientific literature, two master’s theses, 20 presentations or papers at scientific conferences, and 17 data sets available on public repositories. The WHOLESCALE project has been completed in two phases that included three performance periods separated by two Go/No-go Stage Gate Reviews. Tasks were classified by data type (i.e., Geologic Structure, Borehole, Geodesy, Hydrology, Seismology, and Modeling). The first phase of the project started July 31, 2020 and included ongoing project coordination (Task 1), a project kickoff (Task 2), analysis of existing data (Task 3), development of the initial stress model & deployment design (Task 4), and Go/No-go Decision Point #1 (Task 5). Phase II began with implementing the 2022 deployment (Task 6), followed by Go/No-go Decision Point #2 (Task 7) The remainder of Phase II consisted of analyzing data collected during deployment (Task 8), calibration of the stress model on all observations (Task 9), and the Final Review (August 23, 2024) & Reporting (Task 10).
As a major supporter of basic genome-enabled research, BER’s Biological Systems Science Division (BSSD) fosters scientific discovery by funding - fundamental biological research across disciplines in conjunction with enabling investigational tools and computational capabilities that include world-class user facilities. The overarching goal of BSSD is to provide the necessary fundamental science to understand, predict, manipulate, and design biological systems that underpin innovations for bioenergy and bioproduct production and enhance understanding of natural, DOE-relevant environmental processes (Biological Systems Science Division Strategic Plan, 2021). To accelerate the U.S. bioeconomy, BSSD pursues innovative science underpinning advances in sustainable biofuels and bioproducts and the development of next-generation technologies and computational resources for systems biology research. The 2024 BSSD Enabling Capabilities and Resources (ECR) Principal Investigator (PI) meeting brought together PIs across the BSSD ECR portfolio to confer on shared interests and opportunities. The meeting was held concurrently with the Genomic Science program (GSP) PI meeting to optimize collaboration on research to advance bioenergy and the bioeconomy. Rick Stevens of Argonne National Laboratory gave a keynote on How Generative Artificial Intelligence Can Impact Biological Research (see Keynote: How Generative Artificial Intelligence Can Impact Biological Research, this page). Plenary presentations included several joint sessions that illuminated the integration and understanding of the larger BSSD mission. GSP’s objective is to provide systems-level understanding of plants, microbes, and their communities through its Bioenergy Research, Biosystems Design, and Environmental Microbiome Research portfolios. The objective of the ECR portfolio is to support development of computational and instrumental platforms to advance fundamental GSP research—and BER more broadly— toward the overall goal of understanding the functional principles of living systems and their response to environmental challenges.
Poster on “CO2 Storage Economic Analysis: CarbonSAFE Use Case” for the CCUS 2025 conference held in Houston, Texas March 3-5, 2025. The cost of designing, permitting, constructing, operating, and closing a CO2 storage project is of vital importance to project developers. The National Energy Technology Laboratory has developed the NRAP/SMART Technoeconomic and Liability Evaluation for Storage (TALES) Model to provide quantitative cost-based insights to support developers planning CO2 injection and storage projects. This study presents a collaborative economic analysis applying TALES with data from the San Juan Basin CarbonSAFE Phase III project led by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology to estimate potential costs incurred during the implementation of a real-world commercial-scale carbon storage project. Scenario analysis was implemented in which different operational and cost attributes were varied and the associated cost implications observed. Key results data and project cost summary metrics, first-year breakeven price of CO2 ($/tonne) and net present value (NPV), are presented for base and alternative cases. Output provides a unique perspective for project stakeholders towards evaluating the influence of different operational strategies and financing approaches on overall project cost and financial viability.
A presentation about the Tribal Nation Transmission Program and an overview of transmission generally for attendees of the Seminole Annual Conference.
Berkeley Lab provided technical assistance to the New England Conference of Public Utilities Commissioners on challenges that participants in retail demand response programs face to accessing ISO-NE wholesale markets. This report summarizes findings from the technical assistance and includes actions that New England regulators can take to address the challenges to wholesale market access.