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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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At least 73 records · Page 4

MOOSE-based Tritium Migration Analysis Program, Version 8 (TMAP8) for advanced open-source tritium transport and fuel cycle modeling

Tritium management is critical for the safety, sustainability, and economics of fusion energy systems, and advanced and reliable modeling tools help accelerate the development of tritium technologies. This paper presents the Tritium Migration Analysis Program, Version 8 (TMAP8), an open-source, MOOSE-based application developed to provide state-of-the-art tritium transport and fuel cycle modeling capabilities. TMAP8 aims to expand the capabilities of previous versions (i.e., TMAP4 and TMAP7) by leveraging modern computational techniques, ensuring high software quality assurance standards (key to building trust), and enabling multispecies, multiscale, and multiphysics simulations for integrated tritium transport modeling in complex geometries. This paper outlines TMAP8’s scope and rigorous development practices, emphasizing its transparency, accessibility, modularity, and reliability. We present the current suite of verification and validation cases based on those from TMAP4, demonstrating TMAP8’s accuracy and reliability against analytical solutions and experimental data. Additionally, the paper showcases TMAP8’s integrated fuel cycle modeling capabilities, highlighting its applicability at various scales and levels. The TMAP8 code and documentation are openly available, promoting collaborative development and widespread adoption within the fusion community. Future work will soon expand TMAP8’s verification and validation suite to include those from TMAP7 and other recent experimental studies for validation.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Water Power Technologies Office: Multi-Year Program Plan

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) has released its first Multi-Year Program Plan (MYPP), which outlines the Office’s research priorities and plans through 2025. Cover of the WPTO MYPP 2022. The MYPP serves as both a strategic vision and an operational guide to help WPTO manage and coordinate its activities, as well as a vehicle to communicate WPTO’s mission, goals, and plans to water power stakeholders and the public. It details WPTO’s research, development, demonstration, and commercial activities across both hydropower and marine energy for the coming years and outlines how these efforts can help meet the nation’s energy and sustainability goals. The MYPP features key performance goals for 2025, as well as additional objectives running through 2030. All outlined goals contribute to the overarching mission of WPTO to enable research, development, and testing of new technologies to advance marine energy and hydropower systems for a flexible, reliable grid.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Wind Energy Accomplishments and Year-End Performance Report: Fiscal Year 2022

Four decades ago, construction was just beginning on experimental turbines at the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC). Today, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) facility is the centerpiece of the laboratory's Flatirons Campus, a world-class hub for renewable energy research. The nation's shift to 100% clean electricity by 2035 will require a mix of renewable energy sources and strategies - and together, wind and solar energy could account for 60% to 80% of that clean energy resource. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, NREL scientists, engineers, and analysts contributed to these visionary goals through their wind energy research. As wind innovations push into new areas, NREL continues to play a vital role in advancing technology and addressing deployment barriers in pursuit of more efficient, reliable, and predictable wind energy systems. FY 2022 wind research and development explored the potential for dramatic growth in land-based systems, the launch of the nation's first commercial-scale offshore installations, and transmission infrastructure buildout. Land-based wind energy is one of the most cost-effective electricity supply options - but utility-scale deployment will require up to 10 times the current number of turbines. An NREL plan addressed this need to accelerate U.S. wind technology rollout at distributed and utility scales. Another project conducted by NREL and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) helps position the nation's first major offshore wind corridor for success. The WETO-funded Atlantic Offshore Wind Transmission Study is evaluating options for balancing electricity supply and demand, while supporting resilience of the grid and marine industries. WETO, NREL, and other partners are working to enable the enormous supply chain and workforce changes the U.S. wind energy industry will need to meet net-zero-carbon-emissions targets. As part of a seminal series of DOE-funded supply chain studies, NREL analysts reported on the trade-offs involved in manufacturing large volumes of wind technologies, while addressing cost, workforce, and logistics issues. All of this research is supported by NREL's outstanding research teams, tools, data, and facilities. A WETO-funded international wind energy field campaign, the American WAKE experimeNt (AWAKEN), has brought together experts from NREL, PNNL, and Sandia National Laboratories to create the world's most comprehensive set of high-resolution data on wind energy atmospheric phenomenon. This study could lead to more accurate predictions of losses from turbine-to-turbine wake interactions, eventually helping wind plants capture more energy and operators save millions of dollars. In addition, NREL researchers developed testing, modeling, and analysis tools to improve the security of power grids by identifying wind power plant dynamic stability problems. A new Stochastic Soaring Raptor Simulator (SSRS) protects golden eagles from turbine encounters by predicting flight paths. This report provides more detail on these top achievements and other accomplishments made by NREL and its partners during FY 2022 (between October 1, 2021, and September 30, 2022).

accomplishments↗

NREL Is Strengthening the Future of Hydropower, A Cornerstone of America's Energy System

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is a leader in advancing hydropower technologies, positioning hydropower as a pillar of an affordable, reliable, and secure energy future. Through its hydropower program, NREL is conducting innovative research that reduces energy costs, drives efficiency, and supports systems integration - unlocking economic opportunities, rebuilding supply chains, and fueling America's global competitiveness.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Revolutionizing thermal Management in Next-Generation AI data centers: Challenges and breakthrough innovations

Data centers (DCs) serve as critical infrastructure for powering the growth and evolution of AI. Next-generation AI DCs present unique challenges in thermal management driven by unprecedented computational demands. This paper provides a comprehensive summary of key stakeholder perspectives on technology gaps, infrastructure requirements, test bed needs, emerging opportunities, and preliminary solutions related to thermal management for AI DCs. It establishes six strategic pillars of thermal management for next generation AI DC: reliability, deployability, efficiency, resilience, measurability, and valorization. The discussion spans a range of critical topics, including advanced cooling technologies, thermal strategies for emerging modular and edge DCs, system-level optimization and control frameworks, infrastructure planning and grid integration designs, benchmarking approaches, and pathways for waste heat recovery and reuse. The proposed research, development, and demonstration efforts are aimed at accelerating the deployment of AI DCs while ensuring energy efficiency, reliability, safety, and regulatory compliance.

Wang, Pengtao [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000214713429)↗

Packages of Distributed Energy Technologies Demonstrating Demand Flexibility at Community Scale

The combination of increased electric load growth across all sectors, deferred electrical infrastructure investment, and other factors resulting in variable electric power supply, has created technical challenges to maintaining a resilient and reliable grid. Many federal, regional, and local efforts are in play to modernize the electric grid, including advancing building technologies and distributed energy resources (DERs) that are utilizing smarter controls to become responsive to both occupant and grid needs. This report reviews ten pilot projects demonstrating how groups of buildings combined with behind-the-meter (BTM) DERs such as electric vehicle (EV) charging, battery storage, flexible HVAC and domestic hot water systems, and photovoltaic systems can reliably and cost effectively provide grid services. Each of the ten pilot projects aim to deliver both energy efficiency and demand flexibility (DF) while supporting load growth. The ten demonstration teams are piloting flexible DER packages across diverse communities of residential and commercial buildings to address a variety of regional grid needs. The outcomes of these pilot projects will be used to inform future scaling through utility program development. This paper characterizes the ten teams, showcasing the decision-making process used by each group to develop their packages (Section 2), the grid services they plan to deliver (Section 3), the types of DER packages selected for deployment within building sectors (Section 4) and trends between building sector, DER types, and grid services In order to achieve community scale benefits, the pilot projects must utilize aggregated control mechanisms for coordinating buildings and DERs together. Several types of coordinated control architectures have evolved amongst the teams, influenced by use type, existing market conditions, and integration type. Three coordinated controls architectures have been characterized, highlighting their use cases, benefits, challenges, and tradeoffs in their design. These insights can aid utilities, control vendors, and developers in scaling community-level energy systems (Paul, 2024). Ultimately, the technology packages selected by the ten teams will be coordinated to provide power system services, also known as grid services. Insights from these demonstrations will be useful for grid operators, regulators, aggregators and other stakeholders as they look to deploy demand flexible resources as grid services in the future. The grid services that each team is targeting for demonstration are described in Section 3 and Section 4. Methods for evaluating the grid services have been described in the paper Metrics for Evaluating Grid Service Provision from Communities of Grid-interactive and Efficient Buildings and other DER (MacDonald, 2023). To identify technology packages for demonstration, Section 2 shows that project teams used a range of analysis approaches, including building energy modeling, AMI data analysis, cost-benefit frameworks, and utility pilot data. Some teams emphasized technical modeling to quantify grid impacts and demand reduction potential, while others prioritized economic evaluations, stakeholder input, or exploratory pilots to inform deployment decisions. This diversity reflects the need to tailor selection methods to project goals, available data, and organizational context. Section 5 discusses trends between the DER technologies deployed and the grid service provisions from each team. Residential buildings (multifamily and single family) lean towards technologies that enhance energy efficiency (e.g. weatherization upgrades, smart thermostats) and onsite power generation integration (e.g. solar PV). Commercial building demonstrations prioritize technologies that ensure operational reliability (e.g. battery storage) and centralized energy management systems and optimization solutions. Teams that are deploying controllable storage-based technologies are more likely to provide grid services that require a near real-time response. Teams incorporating load shifting technologies like smart thermostats with HEMs are likely to include energy markets participation and customer bill management offerings. Campus demonstrations are adopting diverse sets of DERs to emphasize renewable generation, paired with centralized control. This section also describes technologies that were considered during project planning but ultimately excluded from final deployment. These demonstrations reveal that effective DER package design should be tailored to building type, customer segment, and construction vintage. Multifamily buildings benefit from centralized HVAC upgrades and supervisory controls, while single-family homes are well-suited for individualized technologies like solar, storage, and smart home energy monitors. Commercial and campus settings prioritize EMIS integration and load optimization. New construction enables cost-effective integration of DER-ready infrastructure, whereas retrofits require deployments aligned with owner and tenant value streams. For utility program planners, early coordination with developers and building owners, paired with segmented and modular program offerings, can improve adoption, scalability, and grid impact.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Impact of Nuclear Power Plant Energy Storage on Grid Reliability and Generation Costs with Variable Power Generation

This report examines the impact of combining integrated energy systems (IES), specifically hydrogen-based energy-storage systems, with nuclear power plants (NPPs) on grid reliability and generation flexibility in scenarios with substantial variable-power generation from solar energy. The analysis focuses on the challenges and solutions associated with high-levels of solar energy penetration, highlighting the role of advanced energy-storage solutions and flexible-generation technologies in enhancing grid stability and reliability.

29 - ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY AND ECONOMY↗

Analysis Program 2021 Annual Progress Report

During fiscal year 2021 (FY 2021), the U.S. Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) funded analysis projects supportive of VTO’s goals to pursue early-stage research in vehicle and mobility system technologies to reduce petroleum dependence, increase energy reliability and security, improve transportation affordability, and promote economic growth. VTO analysis projects result in a foundation of data, analytical models, and applied analyses that provide insights into critical transportation energy problems and assist in research investment prioritization and portfolio planning. This document presents a brief overview of VTO analysis efforts and progress for projects funded in FY 2021. Each of the progress reports includes project objectives, approach, and highlights of the technical results that were accomplished during the fiscal year (FY).

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Integration Methods for High-Density Integrated Electric Drives (Final Technical Report)

The project goal was to research, design and fabricate high-power-density, high-performance SiC power electronic modules for motor drive inverters in electric vehicles (EVs) to enable the subsequent motor drive to achieve a power density of 100 kW/l. EVs use electric motors instead of internal combustion engines as the prime mover, and their core components are semiconductor-based power electronic modules. Efficient power electronic modules play a vital role in power conversion systems. The performance of power modules directly affects the energy efficiency and overall performance of electric vehicles. Therefore, it is particularly important to develop power modules with high power density and high electrical performance that will perform reliably under EV environmental conditions. To achieve these goals, advanced electronic packaging technologies are required. This report describes a 5-year effort to integrate key aspects surrounding the basic power devices into the module itself to increase power density. These include sensing and sensing readout circuits, gate driver circuits, and two-sided cooling solutions.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Network Security Challenges and Countermeasures for Software-Defined Smart Grids: A Survey

The rise of grid modernization has been prompted by the escalating demand for power, the deteriorating state of infrastructure, and the growing concern regarding the reliability of electric utilities. The smart grid encompasses recent advancements in electronics, technology, telecommunications, and computer capabilities. Smart grid telecommunication frameworks provide bidirectional communication to facilitate grid operations. Software-defined networking (SDN) is a proposed approach for monitoring and regulating telecommunication networks, which allows for enhanced visibility, control, and security in smart grid systems. Nevertheless, the integration of telecommunications infrastructure exposes smart grid networks to potential cyberattacks. Unauthorized individuals may exploit unauthorized access to intercept communications, introduce fabricated data into system measurements, overwhelm communication channels with false data packets, or attack centralized controllers to disable network control. An ongoing, thorough examination of cyber attacks and protection strategies for smart grid networks is essential due to the ever-changing nature of these threats. Previous surveys on smart grid security lack modern methodologies and, to the best of our knowledge, most, if not all, focus on only one sort of attack or protection. This survey examines the most recent security techniques, simultaneous multi-pronged cyber attacks, and defense utilities in order to address the challenges of future SDN smart grid research. The objective is to identify future research requirements, describe the existing security challenges, and highlight emerging threats and their potential impact on the deployment of software-defined smart grid (SD-SG).

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Power Quality and Load Capacity Evaluations of an Electric Vehicle for Multi-Robot System Applications

This paper evaluates the capability of a fully electric pickup truck, using the Ford F-150 Lightning as an example, to provide power to the circuit of a multi-robot system. The case study was conducted on a simulated INL Autonomous Pit Exploration System (APES) designed for the inspection of nuclear waste tank pits. Through a series of controlled tests, the vehicle’s power delivery consistency, load-handling capability, and battery performance were assessed under various conditions. First of all, the load test demonstrated that the vehicle provided stable power with low distortion and no unexpected interruptions. Second, during the operational limit test, the 240V system sustained loads up to 7.4 kW before tripping, providing insights into its operational limits. Last but not least, during a simulated full-scale APES operation, the vehicle’s battery depleted by only 6% over an hour, indicating sufficient capacity for extended use while retaining reserve power for transportation needs. This study highlights the potential of electric vehicles as reliable power sources for field operations, contributing to the advancement of sustainable technologies by reducing reliance on traditional fossil fuel generators and promoting the integration of clean energy solutions in remote and challenging environments.

Electric vehicle↗

IEEE SusTech 2025 Presentation

This paper evaluates the capability of a fully electric pickup truck, using the Ford F-150 Lightning as an example, to provide power to the circuit of a multi-robot system. The case study was conducted on a simulated INL Autonomous Pit Exploration System (APES) designed for the inspection of nuclear waste tank pits. Through a series of controlled tests, the vehicle’s power delivery consistency, load-handling capability, and battery performance were assessed under various conditions. First of all, the load test demonstrated that the vehicle provided stable power with low distortion and no unexpected interruptions. Second, during the operational limit test, the 240V system sustained loads up to 7.4 kW before tripping, providing insights into its operational limits. Last but not least, during a simulated full-scale APES operation, the vehicle’s battery depleted by only 6\% over an hour, indicating sufficient capacity for extended use while retaining reserve power for transportation needs. This study highlights the potential of electric vehicles as reliable power sources for field operations, contributing to the advancement of sustainable technologies by reducing reliance on traditional fossil fuel generators and promoting the integration of clean energy solutions in remote and challenging environments.

42 - ENGINEERING↗

IEA PVPS Task 13 Techno-Economic Study of Bifacial Photovoltaic Systems on Single Axis Trackers

The International Energy Agency PVPS Task 13 has assembled an international team of photovoltaic (PV) researchers from government labs, academia, and industry to study the specific application of bifacial PV modules deployed on tracking systems. This configuration is of particular interest as it has been identified as the PV system design with the lowest Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) for over 90% of the world [1]. As such, much research, development, and commercial activity are focused on further optimizing this system design for different regions and markets, including field deployment and advanced modeling activities. Despite these efforts, many challenges remain to overcome with this system design. This conference paper will report on several areas the team is working on as part of this project. The first part of this study focuses on extensive interviews with PV tracker companies (we have identified 35) and customers worldwide to identify emerging technology trends, design diversity, market environments, and the reliability and performance of these systems. We will provide a market summary of technologies such as advanced tracking algorithms, methods for dealing with topography within the PV plant, different system configurations and layouts, backside irradiance optimization from albedo enhancement, and ground sculpting. We will also review dual-use applications of tracked bifacial systems, such as Agrivoltaics and Building-Integrated PV. These interviews are underway now, and we will be able to report our initial findings at the conference. The second part of the study focuses on summarizing performance monitoring and evaluation methods, with particular attention to capacity and acceptance testing for such systems. The third part of the study reviews performance modeling and yield assessment methods for these tracked bifacial PV systems. The final part of the study covers reliability and operations, and maintenance data from these systems.

albedo↗

Medium-Voltage Testbed for Comparing Advanced Power Line Sensors vs. Measurement Transformers with Electrical Grid Events

Electrical utilities have relied upon potential transformers (PTs) and current transformers (CTs) for very accurate metering and to provide reliable signals for protective relays. Less expensive alternative sensing technologies offer the possibility of wider deployment, particularly in grids that employ distributed energy resources. In this work, the performance of an advanced medi-um-voltage sensor is compared with a reference PT and CT and experimentally evaluated for different power grid scenarios on an advanced outdoor power line sensor testbed at the US De-partment of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The sensor is based on a capacitive divider for voltage monitoring and a Rogowski coil with integrator for current monitoring. The advanced outdoor power line sensor testbed has a real-time simulator that was used to generate transient scenarios (e.g., electrical faults, capacitor bank operation, service restoration), while the analog signals were recorded by the same high resolution power meter. The behavior of analog signals, harmonic components, total harmonic distortion, and crest factors were assessed for this power line sensor compared with the reference PT/CT, because of the absence for testing standards for advanced outdoor power line sensors.

Piesciorovsky, Emilio↗

Development of Human and Technology Integration Guidance for Work Optimization and Effective Use of Information

Existing nuclear power contributes to roughly 20% of the total electricity generation, and consistently provides the highest capacity factor of any other electricity generating resource in the United States. Despite these advantages, the existing nuclear power plant fleet in the United States has been enduring significant challenges in providing electricity in a cost-competitive manner, which has ultimately threatened the long-term economic viability of these plants. A major contributor to these increased operating and maintenance costs has been the continued reliance of a large workforce who perform their work under an operating model that has largely remained unchanged since the commissioning of these nuclear power plants. Unfortunately, while this operating model has provided safe and reliable electricity, other industries have already began transforming their workforce through the use of advanced digital technology and automation that has reduced their operating and maintenance cost significantly. In order for the United States nuclear industry to remain economically viable, a similar transformation must be considered in which digital technologies and automation capabilities are brought in to support key plant functions across all work functions across plant operation, maintenance, and support. To effectively integrate digital technology and automation in the existing nuclear power plant operating model, a multidisciplinary approach is needed that addresses technological and sociotechnical (i.e., human and technology integration) considerations. This report describes an extension to the human and technology integration methodology, herein referred to as Human Integration and Technology Task Force for Work Management Optimization (HITT), to support the safe, reliable, and efficient use of proposed innovations with the intended users in their intended environment to perform their intended tasks. By effectively incorporating human and technology integration into a plant modernization effort by using HITT, we believe that a utility can significantly improve work performance and overall workforce quality of life. For instance, if HITT is performed to optimize work management, scheduling performance and scope stability can be improved by up to 10%. HITT enables these benefits through developing a rich understanding of the work being performed, the utility’s vision, and the opportunities that provide greatest value to optimize performance through a 10-step process illustrated below as a quick guide. The quick guide contains links in the righthand side of each step that allows for navigation to the detailed section (Section 4) of HITT in this technical report.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Performance of a Natural Gas Solid Oxide Fuel Cell System With and Without Carbon Capture

The fuel cell program at the United States Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is focused on the development of low-cost, highly efficient, and reliable fossil-fuel-based solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) power systems that can generate environmentally-friendly electric power with at least 90 percent carbon capture. NETL’s SOFC technology development roadmap is aligned with near-term market opportunities in the distributed generation sector to validate and advance the technology while paving the way for utility-scale natural gas (NG)- and coal-derived synthesis gas-fueled applications via progressively larger system demonstrations. The present study represents a part of a series of system evaluations being carried out at NETL to aid in prioritizing technological advances along research pathways to the realization of utility-scale SOFC systems, a transformational goal of the fuel cell program. In particular, the system performance of utility-scale NG fuel cell (NGFC) systems with and without carbon dioxide (CO2) capture is presented. The NGFC system analyzed features an external auto-thermal reformer (ATR) feeding the fuel to the SOFC system consisting of planar anode-supported SOFC with separated anode and cathode off-gas streams. In systems with CO2 capture, an air separation unit (ASU) is used to provide the oxygen for the ATR and for the combustion of unutilized fuel in the SOFC anode exhaust along with a CO2 purification unit to provide a nearly pure CO2 stream suitable for transport for usage in enhanced oil recovery operations or for storage in underground saline formations. Remaining thermal energy in the exhaust gases is recovered in a bottoming steam Rankine cycle while supplying any process heat requirements. A reduced order model (ROM) developed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is used to predict the SOFC performance. The ROM, while being computationally effective for system studies, provides other detailed information about the state of the stack, such as the internal temperature gradient, generally not available from simple performance models often used to represent the SOFC. Such additional information can be important in system optimization studies to preclude operation under off-design conditions that can adversely impact overall system reliability. The NGFC system performance was analyzed by varying salient system parameters, including the percent of internal (to the SOFC module) NG reformation—ranging from 0 to 100 percent—fuel utilization, and current density. The impact of advances in underlying SOFC technology on electrical performance was also explored.

solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), natural gas fuel cel↗

Mitigating Calendar Aging in Si-NMC Batteries with Advanced Dual-Salt Glyme Electrolytes

In addressing the critical challenge of calendar aging in silicon (Si)-based lithium-ion batteries, this study introduces a groundbreaking strategy utilizing glyme-type dual-salt electrolytes (lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide [LiTFSI] and lithium difluoro(oxalato)borate [LiDFOB]). These electrolytes are demonstrated to significantly mitigate parasitic reactions and capacity loss in Si-NMC (lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide) full cells, especially when compared with traditional carbonate-based electrolytes. Further, our exhaustive mechanistic analysis reveals that such electrolytes not only preserve the integrity of the Si anode but also improve the cathode/electrolyte interphases (CEI) through the formation of a conformal coating on the high-voltage cathode surface. This dual-salt approach, enhanced by the addition of a phosphate additive, effectively decelerates calendar aging, marking a substantial advance in the quest for durable and reliable Si-based energy storage technologies. The findings underscore the vital role of electrolyte composition in extending the calendar life of Si batteries, offering an alternative avenue toward maximizing the performance and longevity of next-generation Li-Si batteries.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Scout: An AI-Driven Tool for Cyber Threat Report Creation

This talk will introduce Scout, an AI-driven tool designed to enhance the efficiency of cyber threat report creation. Attendees will learn how Scout leverages advanced AI technologies to streamline the reporting process, thereby enabling faster and more reliable threat assessments.

99 - GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗