Designing Hybrid Systems to Optimize Resilience [Slides]
This presentation provides an overview of how distributed wind-hybrids can be used to maximize resilience for communities given the right set of design principles.
17 WIND ENERGY↗
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Investigating the relationship between simulation parameters and flow variables in simulating atmospheric gravity waves for wind energy applications
Wind farms, particularly offshore clusters, are becoming larger than ever before. Besides influencing the surface wind flow and the inflow for downstream wind farms, large wind farms can trigger atmospheric gravity waves in the inversion layer and the free atmosphere aloft. Wind-farm-induced gravity waves can cause adverse pressure gradients upstream of the wind farm, which contribute to the global blockage effect, and can induce favorable pressure gradients above and downstream of the wind farm that enhance wake recovery. Numerical modeling is a powerful means of studying these wind-farm-induced atmospheric gravity waves, but it comes with the challenge of handling spurious reflections of these waves from domain boundaries. Typically, approaches which employ radiation boundary conditions and forcing zones are used to avoid these reflections. However, the simulation setup of these approaches relies heavily on ad hoc processes. For instance, the widely used Rayleigh damping method requires ad hoc tuning to produce a setup that may only produce satisfactory results for a particular case. To provide more systematic guidance on setting up realistic simulations of atmospheric gravity waves, we conduct a large-eddy simulation (LES) study of flow over a 2D hill and through a wind farm canopy that explores the optimum domain size and damping layer setup depending on the fundamental parameters which determine the flow characteristics. In this work, we only consider linearly stratified conditions (i.e., no inversion layer), thereby focusing on internal gravity waves in the free atmosphere and their reflections from the domain boundaries. This type of flow is governed by a single Froude number, which dictates most of the internal wave properties, such as wavelength, amplitude, and direction. This, in turn, will dictate the optimum domain size and Rayleigh damping layer setup. We find the effective horizontal and vertical wavelengths (the representative wavelengths of the entire wave spectrum) to be the appropriate length scales to size the domain and damping layer thickness, and the optimal Rayleigh damping coefficient scales with the Brunt–Väisälä frequency. Considering Froude numbers seen in wind farm applications, we propose recommendations to limit the reflections to less than 10 % of the total upward-propagating wave energy. Typically, damping is done at the top boundary, but given the non-periodic lateral boundary conditions of practical wind farm simulation domains, we find that damping the inflow–outflow boundaries is of equal importance to damping the top boundary. The Brunt–Väisälä frequency-normalized damping coefficient should be between 1 and 10. The damping layer thickness should be at least one effective vertical wavelength; damping layers exceeding 1.5 times the vertical wavelength are found to be unnecessary. The domain length and height should accommodate at least one effective horizontal and vertical wavelength, respectively. Moreover, Rayleigh damping does not damp the waves completely, and the non-damped energy might accumulate over the simulation time.
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Sensitivity Analysis of Compensation Topologies for Dynamic WPT System
The dynamic wireless power transfer (DWPT) or in-motion charging of electric vehicles (EVs) may alleviate the challenges encountered by the plug-in charging systems and assist in the penetration of the EVs at a larger scale. Similar to its stationary charging counterpart, DPWT also makes use of compensation circuits to reduce the inductive reactance for enabling higher current on the coupler winding and improve the power transfer. However, the behavior of compensation circuits has not been comprehensively analyzed in a DWPT system. This paper analyzes in detail the performance of three compensation topologies applied to the DWPT system. A combination of finite element analysis (FEA) and circuit analysis is employed to study the compensation topologies when the receiving coil moves over the transmitting coil. Moreover, the variations in operating frequency have also been considered in the analysis. Furthermore, the theoretical calculations for the dynamic WPT system are verified using PLECS simulation model.
Haruna, Josiah↗
Africa Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) Capacity Building Li-Ion Battery Degradation and Performance [Slides]
This presentation is intended for power system engineers, operators, and planners who work on isolated power systems that have (or may soon have) high levels of power generation coming from wind turbines, solar farms, and battery energy storage, which are collectively referred to as inverter-based resources. It describes the basics of lithium-ion battery energy storage systems and lithium-ion battery degradation. Battery degradation at the cell-level is explained, and then the structure and degradation of battery energy storage systems is also explained. This is intended to help power system engineers, operators, and planners to understand and effectively utilize battery energy storage systems.
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Loss of Glen Canyon Dam Hydropower Plant Capabilities
The power grid in the western United States is undergoing a major transformation, driven by technological advancements, power markets, policy shifts, and evolving energy demands. The integration of variable renewable energy (VRE) resources, such as wind and solar, into the power grid has become a major driver of change. Between 2018 and 2023, about 19 gigawatts (GW) of new solar capacity and 14 GW of new wind capacity was built in the Western Interconnection (WI) region. These two VRE resources accounted for the majority of WI capacity additions. The Western Interconnection is expected to host 30 GW of wind, 40 GW of solar, and 14 GW of energy storage by 2030 (Western Electricity Coordinating Council n.d.).
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Techno-Economic Analysis of Greenfield Geothermal Hybrid Power Plants using a Solar or Natural Gas Steam Topping Cycle
The relatively low generation costs associated with wind, solar PV, and natural gas power plants make it challenging for geothermal power plants to produce and sell the power that has the reliability and sustainability characteristics that are greatly needed in US power markets. This is especially true for geothermal resources with low to medium temperatures, which results in relatively low thermal efficiency and generation costs that are higher than those for wind, solar PV, and natural gas. This analysis evaluates solar thermal- and natural gas combustion waste heat recovery-based topping cycle hybridization of geothermal binary power plants. This approach provides several benefits that may allow geothermal power plants to generate power at more competitive costs. First, the addition of solar thermal energy or natural gas combustion waste heat input to a geothermal power plant provides additional heat input that can be converted to electrical power. Second, the temperature level of the heat obtained from concentrating solar collectors or natural gas combustion exhaust is higher than that of geothermal heat, which provides opportunities for improving the efficiency of the conversion of thermal energy to electrical power. Third, the ease with which solar thermal systems integrate with energy storage and the flexibility of natural gas means power generation can occur during peak demand periods.
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Investigating a Renewable-Resource-Targeting Mobile Aquaculture System Using Route Optimization Based on Optimal Foraging Theory
Aquaculture systems require careful consideration of location, which determines water conditions, pollution impacts, and hazardous conditions. Mobility may be able to address these factors while also supporting the targeting of renewable energy sources such as wind, wave, and solar power throughout the year. In this paper, a purpose-built mobile aquaculture ship is identified and modeled with a combination of renewable energy harvesting capabilities as a case study with the objective of assessing the potential benefits of targeting high renewable energy potentials to power aquaculture operations. A route optimization algorithm is created and tuned to simulate the mobility of the aquaculture platform and cost-basis comparisons are made to a stationary system. The small spatial variability in renewable energy potential when combining multiple resources significantly limits the benefits of a mobile, renewable-targeting aquaculture system. On the other hand, the consistent energy harvest from a blend of renewable energy types (13 kW installed wind capacity, 661 m 2 installed solar, and 1 m characteristic width wave-energy converter) suggests that the potential benefits of a mobile platform for offshore aquaculture (mitigation of environmental and social concerns, any potential positive impact on yields, hazard avoidance, etc.) can likely be pursued without significant increases in energy harvester costs.
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
Reference Site Condition Datasets for Floating Wind Arrays in the United States
Floating offshore wind farm design is highly site-specific, requiring detailed information about the specific conditions of a project area for realistic design studies. Unfortunately, publicly available site condition data for potential floating offshore wind project sites in the United States is scarce. To support U.S. offshore wind research, we developed reference site condition datasets, including metocean and seabed information, for four potential floating wind project areas in the U.S.: Humboldt Bay, Morro Bay, the Gulf of Maine, and the Gulf of Mexico. These datasets were compiled using publicly available data. Our metocean analysis, covering wind, waves, and surface currents, utilized measurement data from 2000 to 2020. Sources included the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s National Offshore Wind Dataset for wind data, National Data Buoy Center buoys for wave data, and the High Frequency Radar Network for surface currents. These data were integrated into hourly time series used to compute extreme return periods up to 500 years, monthly statistics, and joint probability clusters for fatigue analysis. Soil conditions were evaluated using the usSEABED database and bathymetry grids were interpolated from the NCEI Digital Elevation Model Global Mosaic. Further information on the datasets and how they were created can be found in: Biglu, M., M. Hall, E. Lozon, S. Housner. 2024. Reference Site Conditions for Floating Wind Arrays in the United States. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). NREL/TP-5000-89897. The data are also available at: https://github.com/FloatingArrayDesign/SiteConditions The content of each dataset is as follows: _NOW23_wind.txt: Hourly NOW-23 wind data up to a height of 400 meter. _metocean_1hr.txt: Hourly time series including wind, wave, surface current and temperature data. _Summary.xlsx: Metocean data, including extreme values, joint probability distributions and monthly statistics. _usSEABED_soil.csv: Extract of the usSEABED database for this specific site. _bathymetry_200m.txt (and 500m, 1000m): Gridded seabed depth data.
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Review of Marine Renewable Energy in Integrated Resource Plans
As part of a literature review of reference material for grid applications of marine hydrokinetic energy capture technologies, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) surveyed U.S. electric utility integrated resource plans for the mention or treatment of marine renewable energy technologies, principally wave energy, tidal energy, and offshore wind energy. This review offers a window into utility decision-making and data utilization with regard to these generating technologies. The report also offers perspectives on the relationship between traditional and emerging resource planning paradigms and metrics.
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High temporal resolution generation expansion planning for the clean energy transition
As power systems integrate increasing quantities of wind, solar and energy storage resources, it is important to revisit power system capacity expansion modeling methods and assumptions that have been utilized in thermal- dominated systems. We conduct a series of case study analyses using a simplified representation of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) system to demonstrate how least-cost capacity expansion outcomes are impacted by changes in model resolution across two temporal dimensions: 1) the number of considered representative periods, and 2) the system dispatch interval. First, we find that the least-cost generation portfolio can differ significantly for small changes in the number of representative days, but largely converges to the 365-day result once 104 representative days are considered. Furthermore, systems with wind, solar and storage resources were more sensitive to changes in the number of representative days than a thermal-dominated system. Second, we find that considering five-minute dispatch resolution consistently results in least-cost generation portfolios with less solar capacity and more energy storage capacity than corresponding scenarios with hourly dispatch intervals. This suggests that hourly dispatch representation fails to capture the intra-hour volatility of solar generation, and therefore also overlooks opportunities for storage resources to provide system value by balancing this volatility. Collectively these results indicate that capacity expansion modelers should revisit conventional approaches to temporal representation when conducting analyses of deeply decarbonized power systems to ensure that such analyses are robust and actionable. To our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze capacity expansion outcomes with five-minute dispatch resolution in this manner.
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Revisiting the validity of eddy viscosity models for predicting airflow over water waves
In this study, we revisit the validity of eddy viscosity models for predicting wave-induced airflow disturbances over ocean surface waves. We first derive a turbulence curvilinear model for the phase-averaged Navier–Stokes equations, extending the work of Cao, Deng & Shen (2020 J. Fluid Mech. 901, A27), by incorporating turbulence stress terms previously neglected in the linearised viscous curvilinear model. To verify our formulation, we perform a priori tests by numerically solving the model using mean wind and turbulence stress profiles from large-eddy simulations (LES) of airflow over waves across various wave ages. Results show that including turbulence stress terms improves wave-induced airflow predictions compared with the previous viscous curvilinear model. We further show that using a standard mixing-length eddy viscosity yields inaccurate predictions at certain wave ages, as it fails to capture wave-induced turbulence, which fundamentally differs from mean shear-driven turbulence. The LES data show that accurate representations of wave-induced stresses require a complex-valued eddy viscosity. The maximum magnitude of this eddy viscosity scales as ∼𝑢 𝜏 𝜁 𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑟 , where 𝑢 𝜏 is the friction velocity and 𝜁 𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑟 is the inner-layer thickness, the height at which the eddy-turnover time matches the wave advection time scale. This scaling aligns with the prediction by Belcher & Hunt (1993 J. Fluid Mech. 251, 109–148). Overall, the findings demonstrate that traditional eddy viscosity models are inadequate for capturing wave-induced turbulence. More sophisticated turbulence models are essential for the accurate prediction of airflow disturbances and form drag in wind–wave interaction models.
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Distributed Wind for Industrial Loads
Industrial loads have significant energy resilience requirements, which is one reason distributed wind may be a good option to help provide generation for these facilities. This fact sheet provides an overview of industrial load energy and resilience needs, and discusses why distributed wind may be a good option to provide onsite power for these facilities.
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Developing a Power Plant Suitability Model for the Energy Zones Mapping Tool
This report provides an example of designing, developing, and running a power plant suitability model in the Energy Zones Mapping Tool (EZMT), a public, web-based mapping tool with a large spatial database focused on energy infrastructure, energy resources, and related siting factors. The example focuses on natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plants, which have several unique and interesting characteristics. NGCC plants typically provide peaking power to the electrical grid. Such plants can be started or stopped relatively quickly and are often used to supplement base load plants (such as nuclear or coal) during times of peak electrical consumption or to counterbalance lulls in variable power generation (such as wind or solar). Due to these and other factors, NGCC plants have been projected to increase in number under energy planning studies such as Hadley et al. The scope of the Hadley et. al. study is the Eastern Interconnection (EI), the electrical transmission grid serving much of the United States and Canada east of the Rocky Mountains. Results in the study are organized according to 22 Multi-region National—North American Electricity and Environment Model (NEEM) regions within the EI. NGCC plants usually have lower water requirements than other thermoelectric power plants they may replace; therefore, they are expected to have an interesting role in reducing the overall water requirements of energy generation.
20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
Coupled Aerodynamic and Hydrodynamic Hybrid Simulation of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines
The development and innovation of floating offshore wind energy in the U.S. requires detailed high-fidelity observations and measurements of turbine and platform loading due to wind, waves, and currents. However, full-scale and quasi-full-scale experiments require significant financial and temporal investments for construction, experimental testing, and long-term field campaigns. To support the commercial advancement of the offshore wind energy industry, specialized wind tunnel and wave basin experimental facilities are critical to be able to test FOWT designs at small scale under controlled conditions prior to full-scale deployment. Oregon State University (OSU) is internationally known as a leader in water and energy research, development, and testing. The O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory (HWRL) and the Wallace Energy Systems and Renewables Facility (WESRF) at OSU have extensive experience building, modeling, monitoring, controlling, and actuating scaled systems. Experiments on wave-structure interaction have been performed at the HWRL since its establishment in 1972. Studies have included the interaction of waves with coastal structures (breakwaters, seawalls, buildings, cylinders, bridges, fixed foundations of offshore wind turbines, etc.) and with floating structures (e.g., wave energy converters, maneuvering of vessels, etc.). Hinsdale is actively used by marine energy technology developers, both for private testing and OSU-collaborative research projects. However, despite the availability of several large-scale facilities for hydrodynamic testing (at OSU and elsewhere in the U.S.), existing experimental laboratories are generally limited in their ability to accurately generate combined wind and wave conditions. The simulation of both wind and waves in experimental testing is complicated due to a number of constraints, including: [i] incompatible similitude laws governing the wind and waves for scaled experiments, [ii] producing accurate wind over a large enough control volume via fans, and [iii] generating wind that reasonably represents the atmospheric boundary layer in existing wave basins/flumes. Hence, physical test data providing insight into the simultaneous wave- and wind-structure response of floating offshore wind components can be difficult to generate. Given the aforementioned challenges in classic hydrodynamic experiments, the motivation of this project is to establish a real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) approach that can apply aero- and hydro-dynamic loading by augmenting wave-only experimental facilities with virtual aerodynamic forces through numerical models representing the remaining dynamic forces. RTHS is a physical-numerical approach that partitions a prototype system into physical and numerical sub-assemblies that interact with each other through actuators and sensors in real time. In coupling physical and numerical models, the hybrid simulation approach applied herein is ideal for problems with: (1) structures subjected to different scaling laws, such as floating offshore wind turbines subjected to combined aero/hydro-dynamic loading, (2) structures that are too large or complex to be tested entirely in a laboratory setting, such as deep-water mooring applications, and (3) component testing, where the behavior of a portion of the assembly is uncertain but still interacts with other portions of the structure, such as testing the fatigue life of turbine blades. Few U.S. experimental facilities are able to test simultaneous aero- and hydro-dynamic loading and none can accurately produce aero/hydro-dynamic response on scaled FOWT models due to conflicting similitude laws between the wind (commonly Reynolds) and the waves (commonly Froude). To aid in accelerating the development of the U.S. floating offshore industry, there is a significant need to develop a flexible, modular framework that can expand the capacities of existing wave-only laboratories. The project goal is to demonstrate a hydrodynamic real-time hybrid simulation (hydro-RTHS) framework that couples numerical wind and physical waves acting on a FOWT, thus representing simultaneous aero/hydro-dynamic loading. The FOWT is partitioned into a full-scale numerical sub-assembly associated with the aerodynamics and a model-scale physical sub-assembly associated with the hydrodynamics. The numerical-physical partition associated with hydro-RTHS mitigates scaling constraints by supplying different scaling laws to the physical and numerical sub-assemblies. Herein, length, force, and time are scaled and exchanged between the sub-assemblies using Froude scaling to represent the open-channel flow in the physical sub-assembly. Other similitude laws could also be utilized depending on the problem definition. It is envisioned that the ability to model FOWTs under waves and wind, with mitigation of similitude distortions, would result in reduced development costs (currently, FOWT concept development is performed with full-size pro- totypes at enormous expense and risk) and increase the reliability of the FOWT industry (since extreme wave and wind conditions and contingency events can be tested safely in a controlled environment).
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Joint Resource Modeling and Assessment for Hybrid Distributed Solar and Wind Systems
The inherent variability and uncertainty in distributed energy resources can presents myriad challenges to the planning and operations of power systems. These risks are poised to become larger as the penetration of renewable energy sources rises in the power generation mix. Hybrid solar-wind energy systems are able to mitigate some of these risks by their complementary resource availability. Surface solar and wind fields are coupled and correlated in both space and time. Appropriately estimating the hybrid solar wind energy system requires simulating the spatio-temporal structure of these fields that can be produced for each time horizon. We introduce a novel joint spatio-temporal stochastic differential equation (SPDE) approach that captures the spatio-temporal dynamics of solar and wind fields and their joint dependency over a domain for each time step. In the case study on Colorado, we consider nonstationary three-level hierarchical spatio temporal models for both hourly solar irradiance data and wind speed data in Colorado. Dependence between the solar irradiance data and wind speed data is captured by a shared spatio-temporal random effect. Our approach performs well in terms of the prediction score criterion.
joint modeling↗
Can lidars assess wind plant blockage in simple terrain? A WRF-LES study
Wind plant blockage reduces wind velocity upstream of wind plants, reducing the power generated by turbines adjacent to the inflow, and potentially throughout the plant as well. The nature of the mechanism that amplifies blockage as well as the velocity reductions in both the induction zone and potentially deeper into the array are not well understood. Field observations can provide valuable insight into the characteristics of the induction zone and the mechanisms that amplify it. However, the relatively small velocity reductions that have been measured experimentally pose a challenge in quantifying blockage, especially in onshore environments with flow heterogeneities that may be of the same scale as the blockage effect itself. We simulate the flow around the King Plains wind plant in the relatively simple terrain of Oklahoma, the location of the American WAKE experimeNt, to evaluate wind plant blockage in this environment. Using numerical simulations, we find the largest velocity deceleration (0.64 m s−1; 8%) immediately upstream of the wind plant, and 1% velocity deficits 24 rotor diameters upstream of the first turbine row. We also use virtual measurements upstream of the wind plant to analyze the uncertainties and difficulties in measuring blockage using a scanning lidar on shore. Based on our virtual lidar study, the induction zone of land-based wind plants can be incorrectly estimated using observations if the effects of nonuniform terrain on the flow are not carefully considered. Changes in terrain elevation produce local variations in wind speed (as measured by a scanning lidar) that exceed in magnitude the deceleration within the induction zone. We refer to these local changes in wind speed as terrain effects. A methodology to differentiate between terrain effects and blockage in experimental settings is proposed and evaluated herein, highlighting the difficulties and uncertainties associated with measurement and simulation of blockage in even relatively simple onshore environments.
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Wind Energy Accomplishments and Year-End Performance Report: Fiscal Year 2024
As the largest source of clean, renewable power generation in the United States and one of the fastest growing sources of new electricity supply, wind energy will play a large role in the nation's energy future. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, scientists, engineers, analysts, and support professionals at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) worked to accelerate the pace of innovation in wind energy science and technology, advance grid systems integration, and develop sustainable solutions to deployment challenges. Much of NREL's research, development, and deployment work aligns with addressing the Grand Challenges of Wind Energy. Beginning in 2019, DOE's Wind Energy Technologies Office partnered with the International Energy Agency to identify the barriers to greater wind energy deployment and related research gaps. The world's leading wind energy scientists and engineers identified five research areas as critical to advancing wind energy deployment: wind atmospheric science, wind turbine systems, wind plants and grid, environmental co-design, and social science. In FY 2024, NREL's accomplishments helped narrow the research gaps in these critical areas. This report provides details on those accomplishments.
accomplishments↗
Numerical Analysis of Offshore Wind-Farm-Induced Drag Effects on Coastal Upwelling Dynamics
Wind farms extract momentum from the atmospheric flow, generating wind-speed deficits both within the plant, and extending downstream. When located offshore, these deficits modulate air-sea coupling, potentially impacting coastal upwelling in sensitive regions. We investigate impacts of wind farms on coastal upwelling using kilometre-scale, three-way-coupled simulations with the coupled ocean-atmosphere-wave-sediment transport system for the US West Coast. Wind-farm effects are represented by a generalised turbine drag formulation, an idealised, height-dependent body force whose magnitude is systematically varied. This approach isolates the leading-order fluid-dynamical response in a realistic coastal configuration. The atmospheric adjustment exhibits an approximately linear relation between drag force and wind-speed deficit, with wakes that expand downstream and increase in magnitude as drag increases. An empirical orthogonal function analysis of sea-surface-temperature anomalies reveals the emergence of a canonical dipole pattern under strong drag forcing. Subsurface diagnostics show consistent shoaling of the mixed layer and suppressed upward velocities in areas near wind-farm region, accompanied by compensating enhancements of shoaling closer to the coast. These results identify turbine drag as a control parameter in assessing interactions between wind-farm wake and coastal upwelling and provide scaling relationships for understanding offshore wind-farm effects on the coastal circulation dynamics.
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