Results for “Energy Education” — Page 5

DOE OSTI2024

2024 OES-Environmental 2024 State of the Science Report, Chapter 7: Education and Outreach around Environmental Effects of Marine Renewable Energy

The marine renewable energy (MRE) industry has faced many challenges in getting projects in the water. In many cases, this is due to long consenting timelines, and occasionally active public opposition, often related to concerns about environmental effects or potential conflicts with other uses of the ocean space. While these concerns are very real, some of them are based on misconceptions or lack of familiarity with MRE devices and how they function (Boudet et al. 2020; Karytsas & Theodoropoulou 2014), or uncertainty or misinformation regarding how MRE devices may affect the environment. These misconceptions are common challenges for other renewable energy sectors or other developments in the ocean (Caporale et al. 2020; Scott 2022; Wiersma & Devine-Wright 2014), though the details of device design, site-specific environmental effects, risk and benefit perceptions, and workforce development may be unique to MRE

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

DOE OSTI2025

Accelerating the fusion workforce in the USA

The fusion energy research and development landscape has seen significant advances in recent years, with important scientific and technological breakthroughs and a rapid rise of investment in the private sector. The workforce needs of the nascent fusion industry are growing at a rate that academic workforce development programs are not currently able to match. This paper presents the findings of the Workforce Accelerator for Fusion Energy Development Conference held in Hampton, Virginia, United States of America (USA), on 29–30 May 2024, which was funded by the National Science Foundation of the USA. A major goal of the conference was to focus on bringing public and private stakeholders together to identify opportunities for partnership in fusion research and education with the goal of meeting the needs for a talented and diverse workforce. Representatives from industry, academia, and national laboratories participated in the conference through the preparation of white papers, presentations, and group discussions, and the production of recommendations to address the challenges facing the fusion workforce in the USA.

diversity↗

DOE OSTI2024

Inspiring Tomorrow's Water Power Workforce to Lead the Clean Energy Revolution

Renewable water power, including hydropower and marine energy, will play a key role in building a reliable and flexible 100% clean energy future. That future needs a larger, modern workforce - one that's more diverse, equitable, and inclusive - to power and improve these technologies. And researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are committed to fostering tomorrow's water power workforce through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and workforce development programs. Through events, online resources, and more, the lab aims to engage and inspire careers in water power.

app↗

DOE OSTI2023

Leveraging national laboratories to increase Black representation in STEM: recommendations within the Department of Energy

Increasing diversity in STEM disciplines has been a goal at scientific institutions for many decades. Black representation in STEM, however, has remained critically low at all levels (high school, undergraduate, graduate, and professional) for over 40 years, highlighting the need for innovative strategies that promote and retain Black students and professionals in STEM. We refocus efforts on increasing Black representation in STEM by promoting early exposure and continued engagement while leveraging national laboratories—an underutilized resource with immense potential to centralize diversity and inclusion efforts nationally.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2026

Downloadable Dynamometer Database (D3): Public Test Data on Advanced-Technology Vehicles

Access to high-quality, independent vehicle test data is critical to advancing energy-efficient transportation research. The Downloadable Dynamometer Database (D3) is a public repository of dynamometer test data on advanced-technology vehicles, generated at the Advanced Mobility Technology Laboratory (AMTL) at Argonne National Laboratory and hosted by the Transportation and Power Systems Division. The database has been made available to support researchers, students, and professionals engaged in energy-efficient vehicle research, development, and education. A wide range of vehicle categories has been tested (i.e., alternative fuel vehicles, conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles, all-electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles), as well as various drive cycles and test conditions documented in the accompanying D3 user presentation. Stakeholders can select a vehicle type, identify a vehicle of interest, and download the associated test data for use in their own analyses. Data downloaded from D3 must be accompanied by the required attribution: "This data is from the Downloadable Dynamometer Database and was generated at the Advanced Mobility Technology Laboratory (AMTL) at Argonne National Laboratory." These data are critical to vehicle modeling, validation, technology assessment, and educational use.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2024

National Wind Energy Workforce Assessment: Challenges, Opportunities, and Future Needs

The wind workforce gap is defined as the disconnect between employers having difficulty finding qualified candidates while potential wind energy workers report having difficulty finding jobs and educational institutions having difficulty placing students in industry. For this assessment, a system dynamics model - informed by a survey effort completed in 2022 and other anecdotal research - was created to better understand potential scenarios and actions that could be used to help close the workforce gap. The survey was conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in collaboration with BW Research Partnership, to understand the perspective of wind industry firms, wind educators, current wind energy industry employees, and current renewable energy students on the workforce pathways into the wind industry. The information gathered through the survey effort was used to help develop workforce estimation scenarios, gain insight into why the workforce gap exists, and evaluate areas of opportunity to reduce barriers of entry into the wind energy industry.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Developing Smart Building Technology Modules to Enhance Workforce Preparedness: A Case for AI-Driven Academic and Professional Education

Smart building technologies are resources that improve building energy efficiency and resilience, reduce carbon emissions, and provide load flexibility to the grid. However, in both academic curricula and building professionals’ continuing education, there is a lack of systematic instruction on methods to integrate multiple energy systems including distributed energy resources (DER), smart building technologies, AI (Artificial Intelligence) tools and key concepts, components, and controls, including “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices. In today’s dynamic workforce, this major gap in smart building technology education prevents stakeholders from being able to attract talent with an understanding and preparation to adopt smart building technologies in building design and operations. A federally funded project included a partnership between Slipstream and Texas A&M University (TAMU) to develop a semester-long smart building curriculum for engineering college students with the ability to adapt the contents for workforce development of professionals in building services. The final product consists of 16 training videos adapted for building professionals and the public. The educational content and training materials cover the benefits of building energy systems, the latest sensor technologies and IoT devices, all with a focus on smart building technologies. The key drivers are on topics related to smart building controls (i.e., energy management information systems), smart building control platforms, cybersecurity, grid-interactive-efficient buildings (GEBs), smart building control methods, and occupant-centric control. Although not explicitly included the technologies nod to the need for AI driven technologies to prepare engineers and industry professionals to be future ready. This paper describes the project approach, provides outlines of the training materials, and identifies lessons learned in creating the content for this course. The authors suggest ways to scale the instruction of smart building concepts to empower the workforce to accelerate the adoption of smart building technologies and AI-based teaching and learning in higher education and building sector.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

NASA NTRS2000

Student Outreach with Renewable Energy Technology

The Student Outreach with Renewable Energy Technology (SORET) program is an education program involving three Historically Black Colleges and Universities and NASA's John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field. These three universities; Central State University (CSU), Savannah State University (SSU) and Wilberforce University (WU) are working together with NASA Glenn to use the theme of renewable energy to improve the science, engineering and technology education of minority students and to attract minority students to these fields. In this vein, a renewable energy laboratory course is being offered at WU with the goal of giving the students of WU and CSU hands on experiences. As part of this course, the students are constructing solar light posts for a local high school with a high minority population. A Physics teacher from this school and some of his high school students are involved with this project. A lecture course on energy systems and sustainability is being developed by SSU to be delivered via distance reaming to the other institutions. Summer activities are being planned at all three institutions involving student projects in renewable energy. For example, WU students will work on a study of the synthesis and properties of photovoltaic materials. In addition, CSU will present a weeklong summer program to high school students with the assistance of WU. This presentation will focus on the student involvement and achievements in the educational area to date and plot the future course of this program.

Buffinger, D. R.↗

DOE OSTI2026

Community-Engaged Energy Transition Planning in Holyoke

The overarching motivation of this project is to provide stakeholder-engaged research and education to enable a clean, equitable, and resilient energy transition. Presently, low-income communities and people of color are disproportionately burdened by environmental harm, while also being routinely left out of planning processes and benefits from infrastructure improvements. The Energy Transition Institute (ETI) addresses these issues in three ways: community engagement, educating diverse future leaders, and cutting-edge research. As municipalities across the Commonwealth plan their transition to a climate-friendly energy system, research from ETI will advance technical and social understanding of heating electrification, energy storage, demand flexibility, reliability and resiliency of power distribution infrastructure, with attention to equity. This will benefit surrounding communities, cities and towns across Massachusetts, and the global research community

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Greater Toledo Community Foundation Sustainable Communities Educational Initiative (Final Technical Report)

The Greater Toledo Community Foundation’s (GTCF) Sustainable Communities Educational Initiative leveraged the two recently constructed Overland Solar Arrays to launch a diverse collection of educational activities designed to promote the intersection between workforce development, renewable energy and community activism to showcase emerging avenues for greater prosperity in communities that have experienced historic disinvestment. In addition to educational programming focused on employment in the clean energy and advanced manufacturing fields, the project also activated storytelling approaches to explain sustainable energy’s role in philanthropy, grantmaking and resident-led neighborhood enhancements.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

NASA NTRS2023

Development of Two High-Energy Bus ‘Cores’ for Rapid Support of Low-TRL and Educational Payloads: A Software-Configured EPS Combined with Flexible C&DH

For several years the TechEdSat flight series (TES-n), developed by the Nano Orbital Workshop (NOW) group at NASA Ames, has relied upon an in-house developed unit to serve both EPS (Electrical Power System) and C&DH (Command and Data Handling) roles along with low data-rate telemetry functions, i.e., serving as the ‘core’ of the spacecraft bus. This ‘core’ has a considerable task given the rapid cadence of the TES program and the typically low-TRL of payloads; configurability and compatibility are key to prevent mission-specific hardware. However, at only 15 watts the current core has become insufficient to support the program’s growing missions and increasingly demanding payloads. To this end, the NOW program is developing new cores to support two TES mission classes: a single-PCB ‘MiniCore’ designed to support 80-watt missions 6U or smaller in LEO, and a three-PCB, radiation-tolerant ‘StackCore’ designed to support 6U and larger missions over 500 watts in LEO and beyond. The ‘MiniCore’ design consists of three main segments: a processor-agnostic C&DH, a software-configured EPS, and a backup low data-rate radio. The design philosophy was to enable rapid-manufacture in a turbulent supply chain, hence the design consists of COTS parts with a focus on those able to be drop-in replaced with radiation-tolerant versions when demanded by the mission. As a single PC-104 sized circuit board, power density and ease of integration also dominated design, demanding the use of modern features such as single-point USB-C for easy charging and monitoring of the spacecraft on the ground. The ‘MiniCore’ can support 80 watts of load, 140 watt-hours of storage, and over 20 watts of optimized solar generation with extensive power monitoring throughout. The ‘MiniCore’ supports one battery pack, six solar-panels, six loads, five actuators, Iridium SBD, and an internal 802.15.4 network. Additionally, the processor-agnostic design can accept any PJRC Teensy 3.x or Adafruit Feather microcontroller unit to enable processor scaling with mission requirements or environment. It is expected a development unit of this design will be completed before conference. The ‘StackCore’ design consists of three stacked PC-104 sized circuit boards: one dedicated to power generation and storage, one dedicated to power distribution, and one dedicated to C&DH tasks. This delineation is necessary to support the transition from highly integrated ICs to discrete analog circuitry, enabling a primarily analog control power system able to operate without software in a radiation environment with finer monitoring compared to the ‘MiniCore’ design. The planned base architecture supports over 500 watts of load, 250 watt-hours of storage, and over 80 watts of optimized solar generation. The power distribution board allows for the use of daughter cards hosting custom converters or interfaces for payloads, in addition to the software-configured supplies used on the ‘MiniCore’. This core stack will be managed by a Vorago ARM M4 microcontroller and support the same wireless communications as the ‘MiniCore’, with optional integration of a NOW S-band radio and attitude determination sensors for ‘black box’ functionality. It is expected the prototype will still be in development during conference.

Spacecraft↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Development of Two High-Energy Bus ‘Cores’ for Rapid Support of Low-TRL and Educational Payloads: A Software-Configured EPS Combined with Flexible C&DH

For several years the TechEdSat flight series (TES-n), developed by the Nano Orbital Workshop (NOW) group at NASA Ames, has relied upon an in-house developed unit to serve both EPS (Electrical Power System) and C&DH (Command and Data Handling) roles along with low data-rate telemetry functions, i.e., serving as the ‘core’ of the spacecraft bus. This ‘core’ has a considerable task given the rapid cadence of the TES program and the typically low-TRL of payloads; configurability and compatibility are key to prevent mission-specific hardware. However, at only 15 watts the current core has become insufficient to support the program’s growing missions and increasingly demanding payloads. To this end, the NOW program is developing new cores to support two TES mission classes: a single-PCB ‘MiniCore’ designed to support 80-watt missions 6U or smaller in LEO, and a three-PCB, radiation-tolerant ‘StackCore’ designed to support 6U and larger missions over 500 watts in LEO and beyond. The ‘MiniCore’ design consists of three main segments: a processor-agnostic C&DH, a software-configured EPS, and a backup low data-rate radio. The design philosophy was to enable rapid-manufacture in a turbulent supply chain, hence the design consists of COTS parts with a focus on those able to be drop-in replaced with radiation-tolerant versions when demanded by the mission. As a single PC-104 sized circuit board, power density and ease of integration also dominated design, demanding the use of modern features such as single-point USB-C for easy charging and monitoring of the spacecraft on the ground. The ‘MiniCore’ can support 80 watts of load, 140 watt-hours of storage, and over 20 watts of optimized solar generation with extensive power monitoring throughout. The ‘MiniCore’ supports one battery pack, six solar-panels, six loads, five actuators, Iridium SBD, and an internal 802.15.4 network. Additionally, the processor-agnostic design can accept any PJRC Teensy 3.x or Adafruit Feather microcontroller unit to enable processor scaling with mission requirements or environment. It is expected a development unit of this design will be completed before conference. The ‘StackCore’ design consists of three stacked PC-104 sized circuit boards: one dedicated to power generation and storage, one dedicated to power distribution, and one dedicated to C&DH tasks. This delineation is necessary to support the transition from highly integrated ICs to discrete analog circuitry, enabling a primarily analog control power system able to operate without software in a radiation environment with finer monitoring compared to the ‘MiniCore’ design. The planned base architecture supports over 500 watts of load, 250 watt-hours of storage, and over 80 watts of optimized solar generation. The power distribution board allows for the use of daughter cards hosting custom converters or interfaces for payloads, in addition to the software-configured supplies used on the ‘MiniCore’. This core stack will be managed by a Vorago ARM M4 microcontroller and support the same wireless communications as the ‘MiniCore’, with optional integration of a NOW S-band radio and attitude determination sensors for ‘black box’ functionality. It is expected the prototype will still be in development during conference.

Spacecraft↗

DOE OSTI2024

Renewable Energy Discovery (REDi) Island

This poster explores the Renewable Energy Discovery (REDi) Island, a web-based educational application of a virtual world powered entirely by renewable energy.

marine energy↗

DOE OSTI2022

1.4.2.403 - Water Power STEM Workforce Development (Hydro)

As interest in renewable energy grows, water power technologies will continue to play a robust and growing role. However, the industry needs new talent to spur innovation and to support industry needs. With one-quarter of the domestic hydropower workforce retiring in the coming decade, the need to fill the workforce pipeline has never been more critical. The lack of new hydropower development has limited the number of educational programs focused on this sector at all levels of education. NREL has a long track record of working to address educational needs across the renewable energy spectrum. Leveraging this track record, this project brought the Hydropower STEM Portal to water power stakeholders fueled by information from a multitude of sectors, our partnership with the Hydropower Foundation, NEED, and others. The team has also sought to integrate activities with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, to increase dissemination opportunities and interfaces. The purpose of the portal is to be a one-stop shop to information geared at inspiring the next-generation water power professional. NREL also leverages experience in engaging with stakeholders to understand barriers to technology adoption to identify issues and drivers, provide feedback to the R&D community, work to clarify misperceptions, and inform decisions to facilitate market adoption. The outcome of this work is a more successful and diverse water power industry based on a motivated and better-trained workforce.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY,HYDRO ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2022

Energy Resilience Reference Guide Chapter One: Developing A Shared Definition of Energy Resilience

The NARUC Resilience Reference Guide is envisioned as a one-stop primer for state public utility commissions (PUCs) to assist in the development of a shared language, valuation framework, and educational tool on the topic of energy resilience. The resilience of the energy system has increasingly become part of commissions’ regulatory scope so informed decisions are made regarding how to best enhance system resiliency. Several states have already established evaluative resilience criteria (via legislative statute or regulatory directive). This guide is intended to summarize many of the critical topic areas within energy resilience and to facilitate adoption of resilience valuation frameworks by which PUCs can weigh investment decisions regarding energy system resiliency.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2021

Bioinformatic teaching resources - for educators, by educators - using KBase, a free, user-friendly, open source platform

Over the past year, biology educators and staff at the Department of Energy Systems Biology Knowledgebase (KBase) initiated a collaborative effort to develop a curriculum for bioinformatics education. KBase is a free and easily accessible data science platform that integrates many bioinformatics resources into a graphical user interface built upon reproducible analysis notebooks. KBase held conversations with college and high school instructors to understand how KBase could potentially support their educational goals. These conversations morphed into a working group of biological and data science instructors that adapted the KBase platform to their curriculum needs, specifically around concepts in Genomics, Metagenomics, Pangenomics, and Phylogenetics. The KBase Educators Working Group developed modular, adaptable, and customizable instructional units. Each instructional module contains teaching resources, publicly available data, analysis tools, and markdown capability to tailor instructions and learning goals for each class. The online user interface enables students to conduct hands-on data science research and analyses without requiring programming skills or their own computational resources (these are provided by KBase). Alongside these resources, KBase continues to work with instructors, supporting the development of additional curriculum modules. For anyone new to the platform, KBase, and the growing KBase Educators Organization, provides a community network, accompanied by community-sourced guidelines, instructional templates, and peer support to use KBase within a classroom whether virtual or in-person.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2023

Wind as a Distributed Energy Resource

Distributed wind can be installed in a wide range of locations and wind conditions, supporting millions of systems and thousands of gigawatts of power production capacity. As a result, utilities, communities, and nations are looking to distributed generation as an effective way to meet future energy needs. This fact sheet provides an overview of distributed wind, including where distributed wind projects can be located, and how U.S. and international research supports distributed wind applications. This fact sheet was produced as a resource for the International Energy Agency Task 41 members to use as an educational resource.

behind-the-meter wind energy↗

DOE OSTI2025

Development and Validation of Smart Building Technology Modules for Academic and Professional Education (Final Technical Report)

Smart building technologies can improve building energy efficiency and resilience, reduce carbon emissions, and provide load flexibility to the grid. However, in both college curricula and building professionals’ continuing education, there is a lack of systematic instruction on smart building technologies. Slipstream, partnering with Texas A&M University (TAMU), the Society of Building Science Educators (SBSE), and the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), developed a semester-long smart building curriculum for college students and 16 training videos for building professionals and the general public. The education and training cover the drivers and benefits of smart building technologies, key building energy systems, the latest sensor technologies and IoT devices, and focus on topics related to smart building controls (i.e., energy management information systems, smart building control platforms, cybersecurity, grid-interactive-efficient buildings [GEBs], smart building control methods, and occupant-centric control). The smart building curriculum for college students was taught at TAMU in the Spring semester of 2024 as part of the validation process. Student feedback was collected and summarized in a validation report by TAMU. The curriculum material was also reviewed by SBSE faculty who are interested in teaching smart building technology-related courses. Suggestions on revisions and better adoption of the materials by other faculty across the architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) domains were compiled in a distinct validation report by SBSE. The SBSE validation report was used to create structured subsets of the curriculum material for adoption at different levels in different sub-disciplines. These subsets are categorized and offered on the SBSE website (https://www.sbse.org/courses/Smart-Building-Technologies). The 16 training videos for building professionals and the general public were previewed by 17 industry experts, and feedback and suggested changes were incorporated into the final version of these videos. The videos are organized into a smart building technology training course and published on the Whole Building Design Guide website (https://www.wbdg.org/ce/doe/bto/sbtt), which is hosted by the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS). Project team members created marketing materials to promote the awareness of these free, publicly available education and training resources. Outreach and marketing activities included creating short promotional videos, building project webpages, making project announcements on social media, conducting an email campaign, and directly reaching out to faculties and building professionals. This report describes the project approach, provides outlines of the training materials, along with links to resources, and identifies lessons learned in creating the content. We also suggest ways to scale the instruction of smart building concepts to empower the workforce to accelerate the adoption of smart building technologies in the real world.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗