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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 OSTI2022

GIS-Based Graphical User Interface Tools for Analyzing Solar Thermal Desalination Systems & High-Potential Implementation

This project developed a user-friendly, open-source, software that enables a comparative evaluation of solar thermal desalination technology options and employs geospatial data layers to identify regions of high-potential for solar thermal desalination. This was accomplished by integrating solar models with desalination models and enhancing their utility by providing GIS-based data inputs. The developed Solar Energy Desalination Analysis Tool (SEDAT) enables techno-economical evaluation of desalination technologies and selection of regions with the highest potential for using solar energy to power desalination plants. It simplifies the planning, design, and valuation of solar thermal and solar hybrid desalination systems in the U.S. and worldwide. SEDAT uses Dash for integrating various layers of large volumes of GIS data with Python-based models of solar energy generation and desalination technologies. It derives time-series of energy generation and water production, with details of plant performance and suggestions for improving the solar-desalination coupling. It is a one of-a-kind tool of analysis representing a definitive advancement in the state-of-the-art. Of solar desalination modeling This report summarizes the various phases of the tool’s development, and presents examples of the results.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Building a framework to genetically characterize “feather spots” and understand demographic impacts of solar energy sites on migratory bird populations

The lack of data on the impact of utility-scale solar facilities on avian species and populations adds to the cost of siting and operation. As much as 32 percent of the avian biological material (feathers and carcasses) recovered from solar facilities remain unidentified, because they often take the form of “feather spots”. Feather spots are remains of impacted animals that can be separated into two broad categories: 1) those remains that may be visually identified to a species, or 2) those that cannot be visually identified to a species due to degradation from the environment and/or scavenger activity (listed as “unknown”). Even when feather spots can be identified to species, they cannot be visually assigned to particular breeding populations. In some cases, it is unknown whether multiple feather spots represent single or multiple individuals. This project’s objectives were to: 1. Use a developed, genetic-based technique to identify and determine the species, population of origin, and number of individuals found in feather spots recovered from solar facilities. 2. Implement collected data and resulting analyses to develop a publicly accessible web-based decision-making tool that can be used by the solar industry, regulators and other stakeholders to inform siting, mitigation, and conservation management efforts. 3. Establish a not-for-profit fee-for-service center at UCLA to ensure collection and identification of feather spots continue after the project period of performance. During the Project Period, we proposed to establish a pipeline for collecting, transporting, and storing of avian biological material collected at solar facilities and the collection and identification of feather spots to species and individual. We proposed the development of a genetic-based framework that would recover viable DNA from feather spots, amplify this DNA (i.e., make millions of copies of the original DNA), and use it to match the resulting sequences to a national database of known species of birds. The result would be the identification of feathers spots that were previously unidentified, and the incorporation of these samples into a larger database that included all samples recovered from solar facilities. The resulting report (below) details the result of this work and its alignment with proposed activities. We proposed the use of the data collected to assess the comparative risk to specific species or populations of species from solar facilities. For some species, we have already identified genomic markers of specific breeding populations and developed “genoscapes,” maps of unique genetic variation across the full breeding range of a species. We used these (previously and newly developed) genoscapes to probabilistically link a feather spot to the specific breeding populations from which it originated (assignment probabilities range from 75%-100% depending on species and population groups). For those species without genoscapes, we developed a vulnerability and susceptibility estimate that determines the relative local and regional risk to populations that are in geographic proximity to solar facilities, using citizen science data (Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) and eBird). These two feather spot processing pipelines (see Figure 1 below) provide quantitative estimates as to the numbers of individuals from a given population of origin that are affected by solar facilities, and ultimately can reduce costs to the consumer by reducing the industry costs associated with mitigation and siting strategies for future solar energy development.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Integrating solar energy with agriculture: Industry perspectives on the market, community, and socio-political dimensions of agrivoltaics

Large-scale development of solar-generated electricity is hindered in some regions of the U.S. by land use competition and localized social resistance. One approach to alleviate these coupled challenges is agrivoltaics: the strategic co-location of solar photovoltaics and agriculture. To explore the opportunities and barriers for agrivoltaics, in-depth interviews with solar industry professionals were conducted and findings suggest that the potential for an agrivoltaic project to retain agricultural interests and consequently increase local support for development is the most significant opportunity of dual use solar. Capable of increasing community acceptance, participants expect agrivoltaics to play an important role in future solar endeavors, especially in places where development may be perceived as a threat to agricultural interests. The results further reveal the interconnections among the various dimensions of social acceptance and suggest that the growth of agrivoltaics is contingent on market adoption of the technology through community acceptance and supportive local regulatory environments. As solar photovoltaic systems transcend niche applications to become larger and more prevalent, the dimensions of social acceptance, including the opportunities and barriers associated with each dimension, can help inform decision making to enhance the growth of agrivoltaics and thus photovoltaic development. Here, the findings can help land use planners, solar developers, and municipal governments make informed decisions that strategically and meaningfully integrate agriculture and solar, and in turn provide multiple benefits including the retention of agricultural land, local economic development, and broad adoption of solar energy technologies.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Development and testing of a solar flux heating freeze recovery system for molten salt parabolic troughs

A major obstacle preventing commercialization of molten salt parabolic trough plants is freeze protection and recovery of the solar field. One of the most common nitrate salt compositions under consideration allows for solar field outlet temperatures up to 565°C and begins solidifying above 240°C. Using molten salt directly in the solar field can significantly reduce thermal energy storage costs and the higher temperature compared to oil heat transfer fluids can power a more efficient power cycle, but the very high freezing point is cause for concern. This work builds on a previous modeling effort investigating different methods for melting Solar Salt frozen in the solar field, which suggested the viability of a novel solar heating method to lower costs of the freeze protection system. In this work higher fidelity models are developed to better investigate the melting process with a more detailed 3D geometry which includes the insulated bellows. The thermal-fluid model of the melting process is updated to include temperature dependent density and data for solid phase properties. In addition, a finite element model is developed to resolve thermal stresses at the point with highest thermal gradients. Results with the new model confirm the viability of using controllable solar flux heating to thaw salt frozen in the solar field without damaging the receiver; however, the presence of non-illuminated sections significantly slows down the melting process. Solar heating simulations with pauses off-sun of 120 and 60 s require 18.5 and 11.9 h to melt salt from a night-time temperature of 10°C with 1000 W m2 DNI, which results in maximum thermal stresses of 48.2 and 53.5 MPa, respectively. Adding 150 W m−1 to the solar heating simulation with a 60 s pause off-sun decreases both the melt time and thermal stresses due to the more uniform heating, suggesting a combined heating method may be the best option.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Coupled social and infrastructure approaches for enhancing solar energy adoption. Final Report

The goal of this project was to work with rural electric cooperatives to facilitate the diffusion of solar energy adoption in households located in the rural and semi-urban areas of Virginia by identifying social and behavioral factors that might be unique to rural regions; and develop a model to calculate the solar adoption propensity score for household based on their demographics, social and behavioral characteristics which would provide an objective metric to cooperatives that can be further used to do targeted marketing of rooftop solar panels. This was achieved through the following tasks: (1) Conducted a survey of the members of Virginia electric cooperatives to identify demographic, social, financial and behavioral attributes of individuals who are likely to adopt rooftop solar panels. (2) Developed a highly detailed, data-driven, agent-based model of the population of Virginia, focusing on the rural regions. (3) Developed diffusion models that use social, behavioral, and demographic factors, and peer effects to study their impact on solar adoption in rural areas. (4) Built a prototype tool based on the diffusion model to help study market segmentation in rural areas and made it available to National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA). (5) Results and recommendations derived from the model were provided to NRECA to be shared with participating cooperatives. (6) Results were published in peer reviewed journals, conference proceedings and book chapters, and ideas disseminated through presentations and newsletters. There were several important methodological contributions made under this project which are detailed in the published papers, including: (1) Built a decision-adjusted model for predicting adoptors with imbalanced training data; (2) designed seeding strategies to maximize adoption given a fixed budget; (3) built a methodology to compare different agent based models; (4) created models to identify important factors that influence decision to adopt solar panels; and (5) built a methodology for building household profiles of solar generation to study the duck curve phenomenon. The team included members from the University of Virginia (lead), National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), Arizona State University, Virginia Tech and Sandia National Laboratory. Note that no individual entity or stakeholder has incentive to promote solar in rural regions. Most of the research and work focuses around urban regions where the potential for growth in solar adoption is higher due to higher population density. This puts rural areas at a disadvantage. By improving the diffusion of solar adoption in rural parts of the country, we can not only provide clean energy to rural areas but also promote job growth and improves energy independence.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Residential Solar-Adopter Income and Demographic Trends: 2024 Update [Slides]

The report describes income, demographic, and other socio-economic trends among U.S. residential rooftop solar adopters. The report is based on address-level data for roughly 4.1 million residential rooftop solar systems installed through 2023, representing 87% of all U.S. systems. With its unique size, geographic scope, and level of detail, this report is intended to serve as a foundational reference document for policy-makers, industry stakeholders, and researchers. Key findings include the following: -The median income of households that installed solar in 2023 was about $\$$115k/year, compared to a U.S. median of $\$$75k/year for all households and $\$$94k/year for all U.S. owner-occupied households. -Compared to owner-occupied households in the same state, 2023 solar-adopter incomes were 7% higher in the median case, and in 10 states, median solar-adopter incomes were below the corresponding median income for all owner-occupied households. -Roughly 49% of solar adopters in 2023 had incomes below 120% of their area median income (AMI), a threshold sometimes used to define “low-and-moderate income” (or LMI), while 26% were below 80% of AMI, often used to define “low-income”. -Solar adoption continues to shift toward less affluent households over time, with the median present-day income of solar adopters dropping from $\$$141k for households that installed systems in 2010 to $\$$115k in 2023. -PV systems installed in 2023 by households earning less than $\$$50k had a median size of 6.4 kW, 33% were third-party owned, and 6% included battery storage, compared to corresponding values of 8.0 kW, 18%, and 14% for households earning more than $\$$200k. -Compared to all households in their respective state, solar adopters in 2023 were slightly more likely to be college educated and to live in rural areas; had higher home values; and were more likely to live outside a disadvantaged community (DAC), be middle-aged, identify as non-Hispanic white, work in a business or financial occupation, and own a single-family home. In conjunction with the report, Berkeley Lab has published an updated accompanying set of online data visualizations that allow users to further explore the underlying data. Berkeley Lab is also offering related analytical support to states, local agencies, and other organizations on issues related to solar adoption among low-to-moderate income households; requests for analytical support may be submitted through this online form.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Near-infrared Spectral Characterization of Solar-type Stars in the Northern Hemisphere

Although solar-analog stars have been studied extensively over the past few decades, most of these studies have focused on visible wavelengths, especially those identifying solar-analog stars to be used as calibration tools for observations. As a result, there is a dearth of well-characterized solar analogs for observations in the near-infrared, a wavelength range important for studying solar system objects. We present 184 stars selected based on solar-like spectral type and V−J and V−K colors whose spectra we have observed in the 0.8–4.2 μm range for calibrating our asteroid observations. Each star has been classified into one of three ranks based on spectral resemblance to vetted solar analogs. Of our set of 184 stars, we report 145 as reliable solar-analog stars, 21 as solar analogs usable after spectral corrections with low-order polynomial fitting, and 18 as unsuitable for use as calibration standards owing to spectral shape, variability, or features at low to medium resolution. We conclude that all but five of our candidates are reliable solar analogs in the longer wavelength range from 2.5 to 4.2 μm. The average colors of the stars classified as reliable or usable solar analogs are V−J = 1.148, V−H = 1.418, and V−K = 1.491, with the entire set being distributed fairly uniformly in R.A. across the sky between −27° and +67° in decl.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Solarize Fairbanks BRITE: Facilitating Efficient, Resilient Homes in Cold Climates

Solarize Fairbanks began an annual Solarize campaign in the Interior Alaska city in 2020, located in IECC climate zone 8, with a goal to increase the number of solar PV panels in the community. The campaign provides peer support, education, bulk purchase discounts, and simplified installation of solar PV technologies for homes, businesses, and nonprofits. In 2021, the campaign began offering energy audits to building and homeowners with a bulk discount; however, building owners were responsible for pursuing next steps on their own. In 2022, a diverse team of local, state, and federal partners formed a team to create a process to further facilitate energy efficiency improvements alongside solar PV technology. The resulting project, Solarize Fairbanks - Building Resilience for the Interior (BRITE) aims to build out an efficiency component over 3 years. If implemented, it will be the first efficiency add-on to a solarize campaign in Alaska. In year one, the team conducted energy audits of four nonprofits located in the cold climate of Interior Alaska and is providing technical assistance and fundraising for the nonprofits to pursue the recommended retrofits. These audits provided insights on the types of retrofits that could be expected to increase efficiency, comfort, and resiliency of buildings, including LED lighting retrofits, increased envelope insulation, improved building controls, and air source heat pump technology. A pre- and post-retrofit analysis will provide further insight on the energy savings and other benefits of the retrofits. It will also inform the offerings in the following years of the BRITE add-on to Solarize campaigns. In this presentation, program implementers will review the past campaigns of Solarize Fairbanks, summarize the energy efficiency and resiliency analyses of the nonprofit buildings, cover future plans for Solarize Fairbanks BRITE, and provide recommendations for other communities pursuing similar programs.

Alaska↗
DOE OSTI2023

Challenges and Roadmap for Solar-Thermal Desalination

Decarbonizing desalination systems requires combining renewable energy technologies with desalination systems. Solar thermal desalination, which combines a thermal desalination system (e.g., distillation, multistage flash, etc.) with a concentrated solar system is attractive in geographic regions with an abundance of saline water and solar energy. However, the high economic cost and low efficiency limits its adoption. This review provides an overview of the techno-economic, materials, and performance challenges that need to be overcome to realize solar-desalination. The review describes the four most prominent pathways for overcoming thermodynamic and cost limitations present in current systems. Specifically, methodologies and approaches such as direct solar evaporation structures, low-cost thermal energy storage, solar cogeneration schemes for power and desalination, and solar hybrid desalination are discussed. Furthermore, these strategies can enable solar thermal desalination technologies that are resilient to intermittent solar energy.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Supply Chain Cybersecurity Recommendations for Solar Photovoltaics

Solar photovoltaic (PV) cybersecurity is a growing field of research. As deployments of solar PV has increased, cyber risk has also increased. However, utility solar PV installations are not required to comply with North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) unless they meet a minimum generation threshold of 75 Megawatts (MW). Individual residential scale solar PV deployments will not meet that generation threshold and are therefore excluded from NERC CIP requirements. With most solar installations below 75MW, solar PV has been deployed with minimal oversight and highly variable cybersecurity maturity. The resources that make up the digital supply chain can include software, code, data, as well as other digital components. However as clean energy technology advances, cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities continue to evolve and grow in sophistication. Solar PV faces a unique challenge in which it can be deployed in residential buildings and purchased by a consumer directly. This makes the supply chain of PV a unique challenge, where responsible parties for cybersecurity vary widely depending on the type of solar PV being deployed. Supply chain cybersecurity for solar PV represents a critical area for ensuring safe operations as the U.S. moves towards a clean energy future.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Implementation of a Model Predictive Control Strategy to Regulate Temperature Inside Plug-Flow Solar Reactor With Countercurrent Flow

Abstract Solar-driven thermochemical energy storage systems are proven to be promising energy carriers (solar fuels) to utilize solar energy by using reactive solid-state pellets. However, the production of solar fuel requires a quasi-steady-state process temperature, which represents the main challenge due to the transient nature of solar power. In this work, an adaptive model predictive controller (MPC) is presented to regulate the temperature inside a tubular solar reactor to produce solid-state solar fuel for long-term thermal storage systems. The solar reactor system consists of a vertical tube heated circumferentially over a segment of its length by concentrated solar power, and the reactive pellets (MgMn2O4) are fed from the top end and flow downwards through the heated tube. A countercurrent flowing gas supplied from the lower end interacts with flowing pellets to reduce it thermochemically at a temperature range of 1000—1500 °C. A low-order physical model was developed to simulate the dynamics of the solar reactor including the reaction kinetics, and the proposed model was validated numerically by using a 7-kW electric furnace. The numerical model then was utilized to design the MPC controller, where the control system consists of an MPC code linked to an adaptive system identification code that updates system parameters online to ensure system robustness against external disturbances (sudden change in the flow inside the reactor), model mismatches, and uncertainty. The MPC controller parameters are tuned to enhance the system performance with minimum steady-state error and overshoot. The controller is tested to track different temperature ranges between 500 °C and 1400 °C with different particles/gas mass flowrates and ramping temperature profiles. Results show that the MPC controller successfully regulated the reactor temperature within ± 1 °C of its setpoint and maintained robust performance with minimum input effort when subjected to sudden changes in the amount of flowing media and the presence of chemical reaction.

Engineering↗
DOE OSTI2022

Residential Solar-Adopter Income and Demographic Trends: November 2022 Update [Slides]

The report describes income, demographic, and other socio-economic trends among U.S. residential rooftop solar adopters. The report is based on address-level data for roughly 2.8 million residential rooftop solar systems installed through 2021, representing 86% of all U.S. systems. With its unique size, geographic scope, and level of detail, this report is intended to serve as a foundational reference document for policy-makers, industry stakeholders, and researchers. Key findings include the following: -Median solar adopter income was about $\$110$k/year in 2021, compared to a U.S. median of about $\$63$k/year for all households and $\$79$k/year for all owner-occupied households -The degree of income skew varies significantly across all states, but all states exhibit some positive income skew, with median solar-adopter incomes ranging from 131-168% of the respective county-median income for all households -Notwithstanding the fact that solar adopter incomes skew high, a substantial share of adopters could be considered low-to-moderate income (LMI), with 22% of all 2021 adopters earning less than 80% of area median income, and an additional 21% between 80% and 120% of area median income. -Solar-adopter incomes are declining over time, with median incomes dropping from $\$129$k in 2010 to $\$110$k in 2021, as adoption becomes more proportionately distributed across the population and has started to broaden into low- and middle-income states since 2016. -Solar-adopter incomes are consistently higher for systems paired with battery storage, for host-owned systems, and for systems installed on single-family homes; higher income adopters also consistently install larger systems. -Solar adopters tend to live in Census Tracts not identified as “disadvantaged communities” (using the U.S. Department of Energy’s interim definitions developed March 2022), making up 11% of adopters compared to 18% of U.S. households. -Compared to the broader population, solar adopters tend to: identify as Non-Hispanic White, be primarily English-speaking, have higher education levels, be middle-aged, work in business and finance-related occupations, and live in higher-value homes In conjunction with the report, Berkeley Lab has published an updated accompanying set of online data visualizations that allow users to further explore the underlying data. Berkeley Lab is also offering related analytical support to states, local agencies, and other organizations on issues related to solar adoption among low-to-moderate income households; requests for analytical support may be submitted through this online form.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Wire-based metallization and stringing for solar cells

Wire-based metallization and stringing techniques for solar cells, and the resulting solar cells, modules, and equipment, are described. In an example, a string of solar cells includes a plurality of back-contact solar cells, wherein each of the plurality of back-contact solar cells includes P-type and N-type doped diffusion regions. A plurality of conductive wires is disposed over a back surface of each of the plurality of solar cells, wherein each of the plurality of conductive wires is substantially parallel to the P-type and N-type doped diffusion regions of each of the plurality of solar cells. One or more of the plurality of conductive wires adjoins a pair of adjacent solar cells of the plurality of solar cells and has a relief feature between the pair of adjacent solar cells.

Sewell, Richard Hamilton↗
DOE OSTI2020

Potential impacts of climate change on wind and solar electricity generation in Texas

Wind and solar energy sources are climate and weather dependent, therefore susceptible to a changing climate. in this paper, we quantify the impacts of climate change on wind and solar electricity generation under high concentrations of greenhouse gases in Texas. We employ mid-twenty-first century climate projections and a high-resolution numerical weather prediction model to generate weather variables in the future and produce wind and solar generation time series. We find that mid-twenty-first century projections based on five global climate models agree on the multiyear average increases across Texas in direct normal irradiance, global horizontal irradiance, surface air temperature, and 100-m wind speed of up to 5%, 4%, 10%, and 1%, respectively. These changes lead to multiyear average relative changes across Texas of -0.6 to + 2.5% and of + 1.3 to + 3.5% in solar and wind capacity factors, respectively, with significant regional, seasonal, and diurnal differences. Areas with low solar resource show an increase in solar capacity factors but reductions in wind capacity factors. Areas with high solar resource show reductions in solar capacity factors. The spatial and temporal differences in our results highlight the importance of using high-resolution data sets to study the potential impacts of climate change on wind and solar power.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Investigation of Stochastic Unit Commitment to Enable Advanced Flexibility Measures for High Shares of Solar PV

As the share of solar photovoltaics (PV) in the power system increases, there is a growing need for flexibility from multiple, possibly interdependent sources to adjust to PV's variability, uncertainty, and diurnal dependence. This paper investigates how stochastic unit commitment leveraging probabilistic solar forecasts can support other flexibility measures under high solar shares. We consider two flexibility measures relevant to day-ahead scheduling: battery energy time-shifting and solar ancillary service provision. Unit commitment and economic dispatch simulations are conducted on a realistic test system based on Texas using day-ahead solar trajectories. The benefits of the two flexibility measures are pronounced when the instantaneous solar share is high, offering cost savings of 10%-20% in the spring. For a Texas-sized system, this translates to hundreds of millions of dollars in cost savings once the installed PV capacity enables instantaneous solar shares regularly exceeding 40%. Using probabilistic forecasts also greatly increases the reliability of upward reserve provision from solar PV, reducing unserved reserves by 50%-100%. Both day-ahead forecast resolution and errors can impact system reliability at high solar shares, but the stochastic formulation has significant value, mitigating reliability impacts on over-forecast days.

ancillary services↗
DOE OSTI2022

What you get is not always what you see—pitfalls in solar array assessment using overhead imagery

Effective integration planning for small, distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays into electric power grids requires access to high quality data: the location and power capacity of individual solar PV arrays. Unfortunately, national databases of small-scale solar PV do not exist; those that do are limited in their spatial resolution, typically aggregated up to state or national levels. While several promising approaches for solar PV detection have been published, strategies for evaluating the performance of these models are often highly heterogeneous from study to study. The resulting comparison of these methods for practical applications for energy assessments becomes challenging and may imply that the reported performance evaluations overly optimistic. The heterogeneity comes in many forms, each of which we explore in this work: the degree of diversity of the locations and sensors (e.g. different satellites, aerial photography) from which the training and validation data originate, the validation of ground truth (manual annotation of imagery vs known solar PV locations), the level of spatial aggregation (e.g. array-level vs regional estimates), and inconsistencies in the training and validation datasets (e.g. different datasets are used for each study and those data are not always made accessible). For each, we discuss emerging practices from the literature to address them or suggest directions of future research. As part of our investigation, we evaluate solar PV identification performance in two large regions: the entire state of Connecticut and the city of San Diego, CA. In Connecticut, we also use 33,114 known parcel-level solar PV installations from Berkeley Lab’s Tracking the Sun dataset to evaluate parcel-level performance and evaluate capacity estimates using 169 municipalities. We also make our code (which we call SolarMapper), pre-trained models, training data, and predictions publicly available and provide a web portal for interactively inspecting each prediction that was made. Here our findings suggest that traditional performance evaluation of the automated identification of solar PV from satellite imagery may be optimistic due to common limitations in the validation process. The takeaways from this work are intended to inform and catalyze the large-scale practical application of automated solar PV assessment techniques by energy researchers and professionals.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

A solar energy desalination analysis tool, sedat, with data and models for selecting technologies and regions

Abstract There is interest for desalination technologies powered by solar energy as arid areas are typically bestowed with good solar potential. In response to a US DOE call for solar desalination analysis tools, we developed an open-source solar energy desalination analysis tool, sedat , for techno-economical evaluation of desalination technologies and selection of regions with the highest potential for using solar energy to power desalination plants. It is expected that this software will simplify the planning, design, and valuation of solar desalination systems in the U.S. and worldwide. Sedat uses Dash for integrating various layers of large volumes of GIS data with Python-based models of solar energy generation and desalination technologies. It derives time-series of energy generation and water production, with details of plant performance and suggestions for improving the solar-desalination coupling. This paper summarizes the various phases of the tool’s development, presents example results showing the potential, under multiple objectives, of solar desalination in parts of the U.S. southwest, and discusses method details that would be useful for future model development.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

If you build it, will they come? Insect community responses to habitat establishment at solar energy facilities in Minnesota, USA

Abstract Global declines in insect populations have important implications for biodiversity and food security. To offset these declines, habitat restoration and enhancement in agricultural landscapes could mutually safeguard insect populations and their pollination services for crop production. The expansion of utility-scale solar energy development in agricultural landscapes presents an opportunity for the dual use of the land for energy production and biodiversity conservation through the establishment of grasses and forbs planted among and between the photovoltaic solar arrays (‘solar-pollinator habitat’). We conducted a longitudinal field study across 5 years (2018–2022) to understand how insect communities responded to newly established habitat on solar energy facilities in agricultural landscapes by evaluating (1) temporal changes in flowering plant abundance and diversity; (2) temporal changes in insect abundance and diversity; and (3) the pollination services of solar-pollinator habitat by comparing pollinator visitation to agricultural fields near solar-pollinator habitat with other agricultural field locations. We found increases over time for all habitat and biodiversity metrics: floral rank, flowering plant species richness, insect group diversity, native bee abundance, and total insect abundance, with the most noticeable temporal increases in native bee abundance. We also found positive effects of proximity to solar-pollinator habitat on bee visitation to nearby soybean ( Glycine max ) fields. Bee visitation to soybean flowers adjacent to solar-pollinator habitat were comparable to bee visitation to soybeans adjacent to grassland areas enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program, and greater than bee visitation to soybean field interior and roadside soybean flowers. Our observations highlight the relatively rapid (<4 year) insect community responses to grassland restoration activities and provide support for solar-pollinator habitat as a feasible conservation practice to safeguard biodiversity and increase food security in agricultural landscapes.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗