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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Storing Affordability: Battery Storage as an Asset to Reduce Data Center Cost Shifts

This report examines how battery energy storage systems (BESS) can help utilities accommodate large load growth while protecting affordability for existing ratepayers. Rapid growth in electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers is straining the U.S. grid. Furthermore, many new data centers are entering rural markets, which could offer economic benefits but may also pose implementation challenges for smaller utilities. At the same time, retail electricity prices are increasing faster than inflation, elevating customer affordability as a key challenge. While data centers have not been the primary driver of increases in residential prices to date, they have pushed wholesale energy and capacity prices higher in several markets. Fundamental utility cost-allocation principles show that data center growth can be rate-positive for existing customers only if new peak demand grows faster than the costs a utility must incur to serve it. Several factors, including a utility’s degree of wholesale market exposure, forecast uncertainty and stranded-asset risk, and tariff design can determine the outcome of load growth on retail rates. Energy storage can make several affordability contributions in the face of this landscape of uncertainty and market volatility, including deferral of higher-cost grid investments through improved utilization of existing assets and flexibility of new large loads, insulation from volatile wholesale prices through peak shaving, and reliability support to address grid risks stemming from the behavior of AI data center loads. Different potential BESS deployment pathways—utility-scale front-of-the-meter systems, aggregated small-scale storage installations, and data center-sited behind-the-meter storage—are compared against each other and against conventional capacity alternatives. This framework is intended as a conceptual resource to utilities, particularly smaller public utilities with rural service territories, who may be considering the role that energy storage can play in insulating existing ratepayers from data center cost shifts.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Pilot Development Progress to Demonstrate Electric Thermal Energy Storage (ETES) Using Low-Cost Particles

The rapid growth of future energy demand increases the need to economically store electrical energy over durations up to several days in long-duration energy storage (LDES) applications. LDES can reduce the grid stress for improving the resilience of the grid. The integration of renewable power and storage has several significant and positive impacts including expanding the renewable energy portion of electricity generation, meeting peak-load demand, and coordinating supply and demand. Several energy storage approaches including mechanical, chemical and electrochemical methods are currently deployed or under development. However, LDES requirements pose unique challenges for scalability, energy capacity, and cost. Thermal energy storage (TES) has the ability to store a large capacity of energy with improved site flexibility compared to incumbent LDES technologies (i.e., pumped hydro) and has attracted significant interest. Our development in TES technology using solid particles as the storage medium has shown feasibility and potential in serving LDES purposes. Particle TES has various advantages over commercialized molten nitrate salt TES and has emerged as a promising storage technology originating from Generation 3 concentrating solar power (CSP) development. Stable, inexpensive silica sand produced in the Midwestern U.S. was identified as a suitable storage medium and has been validated through lab heating and cycling tests. We have successfully developed particle TES for bidirectional electric energy storage to broaden the applications for TES beyond CSP technologies and into standalone electric-thermal energy storage (ETES) systems. Key component designs and performance were verified with prototype testing and model simulations. The ETES system uses high-temperature, low-cost particle thermal energy storage coupled with a unique pressurized fluidized bed heat exchanger that supports a high-efficiency, air-Brayton combined power cycle. At times of low energy demand or high renewable production, an electric particle heater heats large quantities of solid particles to high temperatures in excess of 1100 degrees C. The particles are stored in internally insulated silos. At times of high electricity demand, the hot particles are gravity-fed through the heat exchanger where stored thermal energy is transferred to the power cycle working fluid to drive the gas turbine power generation system, thereby converting the thermal energy back into electricity for the grid. The cold particles leaving the heat exchanger are returned to the storage silos by a well-insulated particle conveyor. This ETES technology using particle TES can be sited anywhere and is predicted to be economic and efficient. Moreover, this ETES technology could be co-located with a retired coal or gas plant to leverage existing power generation and grid infrastructure. Our work has focused on the development of each of the key components (e.g., the electric particle heater, particle storage silos, and the particle-to-gas pressurized fluidized bed heat exchanger) through conceptual designs, prototype testing, and computational modeling. These developments demonstrate technological feasibility and are an important step towards the next phase of development of this promising LDES technology. This presentation will show the progress in developing a pilot demonstration of the ETES system on a commercially relevant scale.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Hanover LED Streetlight Conversion

On May 8, 2017, Hanover residents voted overwhelmingly to transition to 100% renewable electricity by 2030 and heating, cooling and transportation by 2050. In so doing, we became the first municipality in the country to make this commitment by popular vote. To accomplish these goal town leaders developed a plan to address first transitioning municipal energy uses to renewable forms of energy, through on-site generation of the municipal electrical load, load reduction through energy efficiency improvements to town facilities and infrastructure. Significant progress has been accomplished in the generation of energy with 90%+ of the 2024 municipal load being offset by generation and through various energy efficiency projects. The utility owned street lighting was identified as a large energy consumer of 165 MWh annually (7% of the annual municipal load) due to old inefficient high-pressure sodium and mercury vapor streetlights with no ability to reduce wattage during periods with low lighting needs. The Hanover LED Streetlight Replacement Project replaced utility owned streetlights with town owned controllable (dimmable and trimmable) LED lights that can be adjusted by location and time of night. Coupled with ownership of the streetlights transfer to the town, the town’s share of the project pay back is 11 months and for the complete project including federal share the payback is approximately 3 years. With the completion of lighting upgrade, the annual streetlighting energy load has dropped by 60% to 67 MWh in the first year of operation (7/1/24 - 6/30/25). This amounts to an approximate $90,000 annual savings or a local 1% tax rate impact. Additionally, over 200,000 pounds of CO2 will be saved annually.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Navigating Integration: Key Challenges for Data Centers, Nuclear Stakeholders, and Utility Operators

he exponential growth of data centers—driven by artificial intelligence and cloud computing—is reshaping the U.S. energy landscape, presenting urgent challenges and transformative opportunities for data center developers, nuclear energy providers, and utility operators. As data centers are projected to consume up to 12% of U.S. electricity by 2028, stakeholders must address rapid deployment needs, grid congestion, and the demand for reliable, high-quality power. This presentation explores the multifaceted barriers to integrating data centers with nuclear and utility infrastructure, including land use constraints, public perception, regulatory complexity, and workforce alignment. It highlights the distinct priorities and operational cultures of each sector, and the friction that arises from misaligned planning horizons and risk tolerances. We examine collaborative strategies such as co-siting, hybrid power-purchase agreements, unified community engagement, and innovative financing models.

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

ComStock Measure Documentation: Lighting Control for Load Shedding

This report describes the modeling methodology for a single end-use savings shape measure - lighting control for load shedding - and briefly introduces key results. The lighting control for load shedding measure applies lighting dimming control to reduce the lighting load during the building's electricity peak window every weekday. The measure takes daily peak load schedule inputs generated by the method "Dispatch Schedule Generation" described in the "Supplemental Documentation: Dispatch Schedule Generation for Demand Flexibility Measures" to determine the start and end times of the predicted peak window, and then adjusts the lighting dimming level by a percentage reduction from the original schedules during the peak window to reduce the peak demand. The measure is applicable to (large, medium and small) offices, warehouses, and primary and secondary schools, which correspond to approximately 68% of the stock floor area of commercial buildings in ComStock analysis. The measure demonstrates 2%-7% daily peak demand reduction performance for applicable buildings, and 0.43% total site energy savings (0 trillion British thermal units [TBtu]) for the U.S. commercial building stock modeled in ComStock.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

ComStock Measure Documentation: Thermostat and Lighting Control for Load Shedding

This report describes the modeling methodology for an upgrade package of two end-use savings shape measures - Thermostat Control for Load Shedding and Lighting Control for Load Shedding - and briefly introduces key results. The package combines thermostat control for load shedding and lighting control for load shedding measures to reduce the HVAC and lighting load during the building's electricity peak window every weekday. The measure takes daily peak load schedule inputs generated by the method "Dispatch Schedule Generation" described in the "Supplemental Documentation: Dispatch Schedule Generation for Demand Flexibility Measures" to determine the start and end times of the predicted peak window, and then relaxes the thermostat setpoints and dims the lighting level from the original schedules during the peak window to reduce the peak demand. The measure is applicable to (large, medium and small) offices, warehouses, and primary and secondary schools, which correspond to approximately 68% of the stock floor area of commercial buildings in ComStock analysis. The measure demonstrates 3%-10% daily peak demand reduction performance for applicable buildings, and 0.97% total site energy savings (0 trillion British thermal units [TBtu]) for the U.S. commercial building stock modeled in ComStock.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2024

A thermal evaporation–trapping strategy to synthesize flexible and robust oxygen electrocatalysts for rechargeable zinc–air batteries

Great efforts have been devoted to the development of bifunctional electrocatalysts to accelerate the sluggish kinetics of cathodic oxygen reduction/evolution reactions (ORR/OER) in zinc–air batteries (ZABs). Here we report a thermal evaporation–trapping synergistic strategy to fabricate a bifunctional electrocatalyst of flexible N-doped carbon fiber cloth loaded with both CoFe-oxide nanoparticles and single-atom Co/Fe–Nx sites, in which the thermal evaporation process functions in both downsizing CoFe-oxide nanoparticles and trapping the evaporated Co/Fe species to generate Co/Fe–Nx sites. The obtained flexible electrocatalyst, directly serving as an oxygen electrode, displays a small potential gap of 0.542 V for the OER/ORR, large peak power densities (liquid-state ZAB: 237.4 mW cm2 ; solid-state ZAB: 141.1 mW cm2 ), and excellent charge–discharge cycling stability without decay after working more than 770 hours. Furthermore, in situ Raman spectroscopy characterization and theoretical calculations reveal that CoFe2O4 species is responsible for the OER while atomic Fe/Co sites play a key role in the ORR

Zhang, Hong-Bo↗
DOE OSTI2025

Comparison of wind-farm control strategies under realistic offshore wind conditions: wake quantities of interest

Wind-farm control strategies aim to increase the efficiency, and therefore lower the levelized cost of energy, of wind farms. This is done by using turbine settings such as the yaw angle, blade pitch angles, or generator torque to manipulate the wake that negatively affects downstream turbines in the farm. Two inherently different wind-farm control methods have been identified in the literature: wake steering (WS) and active wake mixing (AWM). As one of two companion papers focused on understanding practical aspects of these two wind-farm control strategies using large-eddy simulation (LES), we below analyze the wake quantities of interest for a single wind turbine performing WS and AWM, while the companion article (Frederik et al., 2025) focuses on turbine quantities of interest including power and structural loads for the same computational setup and also includes two-turbine arrays with full and partial wake overlap. The simulations, which are based in the LES solver AMR-Wind, are tailored to have inflow conditions representative of measurements from a site off the East Coast of the US, including with strong veer and low turbulence. The turbine, which is modeled in OpenFAST and coupled to the LES, is the IEA 15 MW, an open-source offshore design. After presenting an overview of the wake recovery for the different wake-control cases, the analysis probes the fluid-dynamic causes for the different performance of the arrays reported in the companion article by examining control volumes around the wakes and the budget of the mean-flow kinetic energy (MKE) within these volumes. In the high veer environment considered, the MKE recovery is dominated by mean convection, and this is shown to especially benefit the WS strategy when a neighboring turbine is directly downstream: there is ≈65 % more available power for a downstream turbine than in the baseline case, and this power is gained primarily through mean convection on the left-tip and top-tip faces of the control volume. However, the case with imperfect knowledge of the exact wind direction favors the pulse-type AWM strategy, largely because of ≈9 % increased turbulent entrainment from aloft versus the baseline that could be related to an apparent resistance to skewing in the pulsed wake. The general reduced effectiveness of helix-type and other individual-pitch-based AWM strategies for inflow with high veer and low turbulence as reported in the companion paper is due, in part, to low magnitudes of phase-averaged turbulent entrainment. Two main findings of this study are thus that veer has a significant impact on the effectiveness of different wake-control strategies and that pulse-type AWM may be a useful strategy when the objective is power maximization in realistic, offshore flow environments with imperfect knowledge of the exact wake overlap position on the downstream turbine.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

ComStock Measure Documentation: Thermostat and Lighting Control for Load Shedding + Photovoltaics With 40% Rooftop Coverage

This report describes the modeling methodology for an upgrade package of two end-use savings shape measures - Thermostat Control for Load Shedding and Lighting Control for Load Shedding - and briefly introduces key results. The package combines thermostat control for load shedding, lighting control for load shedding, and PV with 40% rooftop coverage measures to reduce the net building load during the building's electricity peak window every weekday. The measure takes daily peak load schedule inputs generated by the method "Dispatch Schedule Generation" described in the "Supplemental Documentation: Dispatch Schedule Generation for Demand Flexibility Measures" to determine the start and end times of the predicted peak window, and then relaxes the thermostat setpoints and dims the lighting level from the original schedules during the peak window to reduce the peak demand, while applying the fixed rooftop PV application for onsite electricity generation. The measure is applicable to (large, medium and small) offices, warehouses, and primary and secondary schools, which correspond to approximately 68% of the stock floor area of commercial buildings in ComStock analysis. The measure demonstrates 5%-15% daily peak demand reduction performance for applicable buildings, and around 1% total site energy savings (0 trillion British thermal units [TBtu]) for the U.S. commercial building stock modeled in ComStock.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Synergistic ruthenium single-atom and nanoparticles in nickel as cooperative catalysts for the alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction

Efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts that reduce the use of noble metals and can be synthesized on a large scale are essential for advancing anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers (AEMWEs) toward commercialization. Herein, we present a composite catalyst in which Ru nanoparticles coexist with Ru single-atom alloys (SAAs) dispersed within Ni nanoparticles (Ru-SAA/Ni), creating a highly active HER electrocatalyst. Using a one-pot and scalable synthesis method, we can tune the material composition from SAA, i.e. materials containing atomically dispersed Ru atoms (with ≤0.4 at% Ru) to composite structures in which SAAs coexist with Ru NPs. Comprehensive characterization using XPS, XAS, and TEM confirms Ru-SAA formation at a low Ru content and composite structures at higher contents. Electrochemical evaluations conducted in a three-electrode setup reveal that Ru-SAA/Ni composites achieve HER performance on par with that of Pt/C. Computational insights suggest that water dissociation is significantly faster at the Ru/Ni interface compared with that on extended surfaces. These active sites are thermodynamically as active as basal planes, preventing the excessive accumulation of reaction intermediates (H*, OH*). All these results highlight the synergistic interaction between Ru SAAs and Ru nanoparticles and their potential for large-scale applications with minimal use of precious metals. Finally, the materials are processed and tested in AEMWEs, achieving 1.85 V at 0.5 A cm −2 with a total noble metal loading of only 0.1 mg cm −2 .

Khalil, Gaëlle [Université de Paris (France)]↗
DOE OSTI2024

Energy Requirements for Integration of Nuclear Reactors with Iron and Steel Plants

This report identifies energy needs of heavy energy users within the domestic iron and steel industry and suggests solutions for integrating nuclear energy. The iron and steel industry, composed of several types of plants which perform different processes with varied energy demands and vectors, is a heavy consumer of electric power and fossil fuels including coke and natural gas. Almost all major process temperatures exceed the temperatures of direct heat available from advanced reactors, and so electricity and hydrogen were considered instead. Reference units were adopted and estimated energy demands computed for the blast furnace (BF), direct reduced iron (DRI) unit, electric arc furnace (EAF), and reheat furnaces. By utilizing production capacity data from industry reports, the ranges of power demands were estimated, including for hydrogen production by high temperature steam electrolysis (HTSE). For the EAF and DRI unit, more detailed integration studies with thermodynamic modeling were also conducted and determined a possible solution with a specific reactor design and number of modules. Furthermore, because many unit processes are co-located, entire plants were considered by adding the energy demands of the unit processes to form four hypothetical reference plants. The range of power needs for the reference plants is compatible with multi-unit banks of microreactors at the low end, and would create a need for multiple larger-capacity SMRs at the high end (1 GWe plus 0.14 GWt). Although the overall power need at the high end is well-matched with one present-day large reactor offering (1.1 GWe), redundancy considerations may require a minimum of two reactors, potentially eliminating the single large reactor from consideration. Auxiliary or house loads would increase the reference plant estimates. Finally, the report provides total estimated energy needs under integration of all U.S. units of each process (BF, DRI, EAF, and reheat furnaces), representing a national potential for nuclear energy in the industry. U.S. iron and steel plants may be candidates for integration with nuclear reactors via electricity and hydrogen, and many sites have energy requirements that correspond well to the capacities of several advanced nuclear power designs.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Large Power Transformer Supply Chain Gap Analysis and Domestic Content Strategies for Hydropower Rehabilitation: Supplemental Report

Large Power Transformers (LPTs) are indispensable to U.S. hydropower operations, serving as generator step-up (GSU) units that interconnect hydro facilities to the transmission grid. Yet the LPT supply chain faces mounting stress from aging infrastructure, limited domestic production, and long lead times. Currently, more than 80% of LPT demand is met through imports, with primary suppliers including Mexico, South Korea, Brazil, Austria, and Canada. Domestic manufacturers supply only about 20% of units, constrained by bottlenecks in high-grade Grain-Oriented Electrical Steel (GOES), copper conductors, bushings, and on-load tap changers (OLTCs). Hydropower rehabilitation projects in particular face additional challenges due to custom design requirements, remote siting, and regulatory needs around domestic content. Regional cost disparities, driven by transportation logistics, labor markets, and import price volatility, further exacerbate project risks. To address these vulnerabilities, coordinated action is required: strengthening domestic capacity for GOES and secondary components, developing near-site assembly hubs, and leveraging IRS domestic content safe harbors to incentivize U.S. manufacturing. This addendum refines the 2024 NREL Hydropower Supply Chain Gap Analysis by focusing specifically on critical issues related to LPT domestic manufacturing capacity and key considerations for hydropower developers and asset owners.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Long-Term Photovoltaic System Performance in Cold, Snowy Climates

As countries around the world transition towards renewable energy, there is increasing interest in using photovoltaic (PV) technologies to help decarbonize northern and alpine communities due to their scalability and affordability. However, a barrier to large-scale adoption of PV in cold climates is long-term performance uncertainty under snowfall, freeze-thaw cycles, low temperatures, and high winds. In this work, we provide a comprehensive review of published silicon degradation rates in cold Koppen-Geiger climate classifications of Dfb (humid continental), Dfc (subarctic), and ET (tundra). We first analyze the system degradation rates of three subarctic ground-mounted photovoltaic sites in North America using the RdTools year-on-year method: an Al-BSF double-axis tracking site in Fairbanks, Alaska (65degrees N); a PERC and silicon heterojunction bifacial vertical and south-tilted site in Fairbanks, Alaska; and a PERC south-facing fixed-tilt site in Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories (62degrees N). Degradation rates of these newly analyzed sites vary between -0.4%/year and -1.5%/year. Combining these data with previously reported cold climate degradation rates, we show that the distribution of cold climate degradation peaks at -0.1%/year to -0.2%/year but has a large tail with rates above -0.5%/year. The average reported cold climate degradation rate is -0.45%/year, whereas the median value is -0.33%/year. These results suggest that despite frequent freeze-thaw cycles and potential exposure to high wind and snow loads, PV systems in cold climates tend to degrade slower than PV systems in warmer climates. The limited sample size of reported degradation rates in cold climates (27) motivates the need for further data acquisition and monitoring efforts as new technologies are deployed.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Energy Infrastructure Futures: A Multiscale Evaluation of Projected Power Plant Siting Across the Western Interconnection

The US Western Interconnection is facing unprecedented challenges in the form of less predictable peak demand, increasingly diverse generating resources, and fast-growing loads due to the onset of artificial intelligence, hyperscale computing, and electrification. Projecting where future generation may be developed is critical to maintaining a robust and resilient electric grid under this mounting uncertainty and variability. Using an integrated multisectoral, multiscale modeling framework that links a human-Earth systems model, an hourly load model, a geospatial power plant siting model, and an hourly grid operations model, we evaluate the power plant landscape evolution under eight alternative futures between 2020 and 2055. These futures represent a wide but plausible range of atmospheric conditions, emissions constraints, and economic, technological, and population growth assumptions. We find that local-level development can vary substantially both by generation type and capacity buildout across these futures. Specific regions of the Western Interconnection are projected to see large amounts of capacity development regardless of the future scenario. We additionally determine that projected power plant locations are more heavily influenced by the cost to interconnect to the electric grid than the locational energy value.

Mongird, Kendall↗
DOE OSTI2025

Aerosol Particle Mixing State and Composition at AMF3 (Interim Field Campaign Report)

The campaign is designed to support deployment of aerosol sampling equipment at the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s third ARM Mobile Facility (AMF3) to enable both singe-particle and bulk characterization of the aerosol particles at the field site in Bankhead National Forest, northern Alabama. We are proposing to do this work as part of our proposal “Generalizing aerosol mixing state: synthesis from observations and connection to models,” which has the pre-proposal tracking number PRE-0000035878. The full proposal has Dr. Rachel O’Brien as the Principal Investigator (PI) and Dr. Andy Ault and Dr. Nicole Riemer as Co-PIs. We sought to deploy instruments in winter 2025 and summer 2025 to obtain samples in different seasons, but were delayed by AMF3 set-up and availability of students and PIs. We just completed our first deployment this summer (2025) and we are interested in obtaining samples during this upcoming fall and winter to see the seasonal trends in aerosol mixing state at the site. This will provide a comparison of the impact of biogenic emissions on the mixing state and the chemical composition of the aerosol particles. Overall, the proposed study will provide key information regarding the mixing state of aerosol particles at AMF3 with direct ties to impacts of the particles on cloud formation and light scattering/absorption. From our deployment that ended las week we have some visible observations from our samples. We are observing a regular amount of black carbon on stage 6 of our Micro-Orifice Uniform Deposit Impactor (MOUDI) and we have also observed some short, large increases in aerosol loading. We hope to continue observations of these two features to determine the sources/aging for the black carbon and the physical mixing state as well as the sources for the short (a few minutes) increases in the aerosol loading and determine if the source for these is dust or sea salt or another source. We are also interested in comparing the black carbon we see here to samples collected during the agriculture burns in January/February and in comparing the larger particles to bioaerosols in the spring. To obtain these comparisons, we will need to collect more samples in the other seasons. Finally, we have some size-resolved particle collectors that can be deployed at the same time as the tethered balloon launches. We have discussed with Swarup China about trying to get the timing to work in August and we are interested in coordinating again later, if possible. This will give us ground-level and vertical aerosol mixing state sample sets that will be very exciting to analyze.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

First-Principles Study of Molecular Hydrogen Activation by Defects in Boron Nitride

Here, we used density functional theory simulations in combination with ab initio thermodynamics to determine the H 2 partial pressure (p H2 )-dependent energetics associated with H 2 activation and recovery at various defect sites in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). We found that some defects are very reactive with hydrogen, thereby definitely trapping hydrogen in defective h-BN. However, depending on hydrogen partial pressure, less reactive defect sites can be populated. Because of the lower binding capability of these sites, they would allow hydrogen to be recycled and recovered. For small defect sizes, we found that hydrogen preferentially binds to nitrogen sites by forming N–H bonds, and if no N sites are available then boron sites would be the next to bind hydrogen. Hydrogen dissociation via frustrated Lewis pair is found to be more favorable than forming only N–H bonds but only if the defect size is large enough to accommodate steric effects. For specific conditions such as T = 400 K, p H2 = 1 bar, and only considering one molecular H 2 per defect, three defects, namely, the N monovacancy, 3V(1B2N), and hexagonal 6V(3B3N) could play a role in both the activation and recycling of H 2 as they would be reacting enough to allow a favorable splitting of H 2 while not binding too strongly to allow its recovery. More broadly, a range of p H2 and hydrogen loading conditions were investigated for different types of defects and the finding suggests that p H2 could be used to fine-tune the Gibbs free energy of hydrogenation, thereby allowing several types of defects at different hydrogen loading contents to play a role in the activation/recovery process of H 2 in defective h-BN.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2026

Concerted Proton–Electron Transfer Minimizes Substituent Effects on Adsorbed Phthalocyanine Electrocatalysis

Molecularly modified electrodes (MMEs) are potent electrocatalysts, but few principles exist for their rational design. Electrocatalysis by soluble molecules depends strongly on substituents that tune the catalyst redox potential (E 1/2 ), but it is unclear if this parameter similarly impacts MME catalysis. Herein, we employ the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) as a test case for comparing carbon-adsorbed cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc/C) and cobalt hexadecafluoro-phthalocyanine (CoFPc/C). By correlating HER activity and voltammetric data to total Co surface concentration across a wide range of catalyst loadings, we find that only 5–25% of adsorbed Co sites contribute to the Co(II/I) redox wave and that this subpopulation poorly correlates with catalytic activity. Instead, in the low-loading limit, catalytic activity correlates linearly with the majority Co(II/I)-silent Co population, revealing per-site turnover frequency (TOF) values for HER. Despite a 230 mV difference in Co(II/I) redox potentials, CoPc/C and CoFPc/C display TOF values differing by less than a factor of 3 when compared over a wide potential range. Mechanistic studies point to an inner-sphere concerted proton–electron transfer step as rate-determining, suggesting that the Co–H bond dissociation free energy (BDFE) rather than the Co(II/I) E 1/2 is thermodynamically relevant. Computational studies indicate that the fluoro-substituents lead to compensatory changes in Co(II/I) E 1/2 and Co(I) basicity, leaving the Co–H BDFE largely unchanged between CoPc and CoFPc and thereby manifesting in similar catalytic rates. Furthermore, these results highlight the limited effect of E 1/2 -tuning on MME catalytic activity and motivate the development of methods to directly alter active site–substrate BDFE.

Catalysts↗
DOE OSTI2025

WELLS Interactive Application

The Wellbore Exploration and Location Logistic System (WELLS) Interactive Application is an interactive tool to enable easy exploration and visualization of the living national wellbore database (WELLS Database (https://edx.netl.doe.gov/dataset/wells_database)). The tool and underlying database were created and are maintained by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), providing visualization of the more than six million public wellbore records from more than 65 authoritative state, federal, and tribal resources. The WELLS Interactive Application serves up wellbore data from oil, gas, underground injection, research, geothermal, geotechnical, groundwater, and other types of wells in a single, standardized, unified system. In addition to the surface location of these wells, the underlying database combines select key attributes for features such as well age, depth, and operating status. The system also provides users with references back to the original sources used in this unified platform. The underlying data can be accessed through the WELLS Database: https://edx.netl.doe.gov/dataset/wells_database Additional Information: The WELLS Interactive Application (formerly titled CO2-Locate) enables visualization and access to the public wellbore records through an intuitive web-based mapping tool. The WELLS Interactive Application was designed to help users visualize, query, analyze, and download wellbore records. Public wellbore points are included as a layer in the Map page, called Public Wells. Additionally, a multivariate hexagon grid summarizing well density from proprietary well data, called Well Density, is included to identify data gaps between the public and proprietary well data. Filtering functionalities in the tool allow these two layers to be spatially filtered by state, county, or basin as well as by status, type, true vertical depth, and spud year. The WELLS Interactive Application also contains a Near Me tool can be used to search and explore wellbore data within a user-defined distance of a specified location on the map, which can also be downloaded. The Query tool allows users to query the selected or filtered wells in the Public Wells layer and export the data. For additional information on these tool functionalities, see the help documentation on the About page of the tool. Notes for Consideration: The Well Density layer provided in this application is derived from proprietary wellbore data, the records of which do not always contain values for key features (status, type, true vertical depth, or spud year). Therefore, data might not be available when layers are queried for all filter combinations. Additionally, visualizing layers and applying filters may take additional time to load (i.e., draw on the map) due to the large size of the data.

ccs↗