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At least 163 records · Page 9

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DOE OSTI2025

Exploring the interplay between distributed wind generators and solar photovoltaic systems

This study investigates the spatial and temporal dynamics of wind and solar energy generation across the continental United States, focusing on energy availability, reliability, variability, and cooperation. Using data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, we analyze the performance of wind turbines and photovoltaic systems, revealing distinct patterns in energy production and reliability. The classification of wind and solar zones based on energy availability and reliability provides valuable insights for renewable energy planning and grid integration strategies. Overall, this methodology contributes to understanding wind and solar interactions, which will lead to informing effective renewable energy deployment and grid integration efforts.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Hydrogen Carriers for Renewable Microgrid System Applications

Utility-scale energy storage can help improve grid reliability, reduce costs, and promote faster adoption of intermittent sources such as solar and wind. This paper analyzes the technical aspects and economics of standalone microgrids operating on intermittent power combined with hydrogen energy storage. It explores the feasibility of using dibenzyltoluene (DBT) as a liquid organic hydrogen carrier to absorb excess energy during periods of high supply and polymer electrolyte fuel cells to generate electrical energy during periods of low supply. A comparative analysis is conducted on three power demand scenarios (industrial, residential, and office), in conjunction with three alternative energy sources: solar, wind and wind–solar mix. A mixed system of solar and wind energy can maintain an annual average efficiency above 70%, except for residential power demand, which lowered the efficiency to 67%. A balanced combination of wind and solar power was the most cost-effective option. The current levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for industrial power demand was estimated to 15 ¢/kWh, and it is projected to decrease to 9 ¢/kWh in the future. For residential power demand, the LCOE was 45% higher due to the demand profile. In comparison, battery storage is significantly more expensive than hydrogen storage, even with future cost projections, increasing the LCOE between 60 and 120 ¢/kWh.

PEM electrolysis↗

DOE OSTI2025

Initial assessment of alternative carbon fiber geometries for design of cost-effective compressive performance: Size effect studies

Carbon fiber provides opportunity to reduce weight in structural composites, including wind turbine blades, due to the material's superior specific stiffness and specific strength compared to alternatives. Despite these advantages, cost and compressive performance are considered weaknesses for carbon fiber products available today. Studies to produce low-cost carbon fiber alternatives, including the use of textile-derived precursor systems, have shown progress and merit through the DOE/ORNL low-cost carbon fiber initiatives. Here, this work focuses on enabling increases in compressive strength through design of the carbon fiber geometry, applicable to both textile and conventional precursor systems, while also providing opportunities to reduce carbon fiber processing costs. Fiber-resin interface and fiber alignment are among the most frequently cited factors controlling composite compressive performance. However, it is believed that there is opportunity in traditionally unexplored routes to increasing compressive strength through alteration of the carbon fiber geometry by increasing the fiber area moment of inertia and/or the fiber perimeter and interfacial area. This paper presents initial results from manufacturing carbon fiber materials to assess the impacts of carbon fiber size on tested composite compressive performance with projected neutral or even beneficial impact on fiber and composite manufacturing economics. Carbon fiber systems with increasing size illustrate a favorable correlation for compressive performance greater than predicted from a micromechanical failure model. The manufacturing and mechanical test results support the hypothesis of this work that alterations to fiber geometry can be used to produce improvements of the compressive strength of carbon fiber reinforced polymers and provide incentive for related work in designing alternative shapes to further enhance compressive performance.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2026

A Fast, Accurate Prediction for System-Wide Damage Due to Dynamic Wind Loading

The complex relationship between photovoltaic (PV) hardware configurations, overall system dynamics, and turbulent aerodynamic phenomena generates highly unsteady, non-uniform loads that can lead to damaging instabilities. These effects may result in glass breakage, cell cracking, and structural failures in frames and mounting systems, even under moderate wind conditions. Addressing industry concerns about premature system failures in field conditions deemed survivable, our research aims to develop a fast and accurate predictive model for system damage. This model integrates configurable hardware choices with advanced simulation tools to represent the overall system-specific dynamics effectively. Using this model, we predict responses under varying weather conditions and hardware setups, translating these predictions into pre-trained surrogate models capable of accurately identifying failure risks and rapidly testing new system hardening measures. In this presentation, we will showcase preliminary results in capturing system dynamics through our customizable library of PV hardware configurations. Additionally, we will highlight how these new tools build upon PVade's established wind load modeling capabilities and foster the development of advanced AI/ML surrogates for improving system robustness.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

DOE OSTI2024

Economic dispatch of offshore renewable energy resources for islanded communities with optimal storage sizing

Coastal or isolated microgrids depend on diesel generators and could benefit from renewable energy resources, especially offshore wind and wave energy. Integrating these resources into microgrids is complicated by their high intermittency, which requires optimal economic dispatch to effectively evaluate. This study considers three coastal or islanded sites, and uses mid-fidelity models of wind and wave energy technologies, and local demand data to solve the optimal economic dispatch problem. An optimal storage sizing method is developed that finds the smallest capacity of energy storage required to meet the microgrid load during each season. The storage capacity decreases by a factor of two at most when adding wave energy converters to a system. Adding wave energy converters to a farm decreases cost by about 30%. Furthermore, the required storage size varies by two to three times from summer to winter. Compared with the state-of-the-art approaches that often overlook realistic offshore renewable energy technology in microgrid economic dispatch and optimal storage sizing, the proposed solution introduced in this study allows for better site selection, microgrid design, converter selection, and storage sizing considerations for isolated microgrids.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

DOE OSTI2025

HPC for optimizing process parameters to control material evolution in seamless induction hardening of wind turbine main shaft bearings

Work proposed in this project focused on understanding the effect of martensitic transformation in the steel on the potential for cracking during seamless induction hardening (SIH) as a function of process conditions to allow the process to optimally scale up. Large-scale, three-dimensional phase-field simulations of martensitic transformation were performed using MEUMAPPS-SS (Microstructure Evolution Using Massively Parallel Phase-field Simulations – Solid State) code developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The simulations were guided by location-specific thermal history generated by experimental measurements of time-temperature history generated at The Timken Company. The simulations were able to capture the morphological evolution of the martensite variants in an Fe-1.0C-1.5Cr steel based on the Nishiyama-Wasserman (NW) orientation relationship. The simulations were also able to quantify the stress-state at the interface between impinging martensite variants. The simulations indicated that the magnitude of the various stress and strain components were dependent on the sizes of the impinging plates with a reduction in these quantities with reduced plate size in agreement with experimental findings. The results obtained from the simulations will be used to guide the optimization of the alloy thermal conditions to eliminate quench cracking during SIH of bearing steels.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Anomalous Hall effects in chiral superconductors

We report theoretical results for the electronic contribution to thermal and electrical transport for chiral superconductors belonging to even or odd-parity E 1 and E 2 representations of the tetragonal and hexagonal point groups. Chiral superconductors exhibit novel properties that depend on the topology of the order parameter and Fermi surface, and—as we highlight—the structure of the impurity potential. An anomalous thermal Hall effect is predicted and shown to be sensitive to the winding number, ν, of the chiral order parameter via Andreev scattering that transfers angular momentum from the chiral condensate to excitations that scatter off the random potential. For heat transport in a chiral superconductor with isotropic impurity scattering, i.e., point-like impurities, a transverse heat current is obtained for ν = ± 1, but vanishes for | ν | > 1. This is not a universal result. For finite-size impurities with radii of order or greater than the Fermi wavelength, R ≥ ℏ / p f, the thermal Hall conductivity is finite for chiral order with | ν | ≥ 2, and determined by a specific Fermi-surface average of the differential cross-section for electron-impurity scattering. Our results also provide quantitative formulae for analyzing and interpreting thermal transport measurements for superconductors predicted to exhibit broken time-reversal and mirror symmetries.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

DOE OSTI2025

Main Shaft Bending Moment Analysis for a Gamesa G97 2-MW Wind Turbine

In a collaborative project between Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a cost-effective method to measure dynamic main shaft torque and the influence of non-torque loads was applied to the gearbox of the Gamesa G97 2-megawatt (MW) wind turbine at the NREL Flatirons Campus and verified through a field test campaign that took place in 2023. The method involved the installation of fiber-optic sensors on the ring gear of the gearbox. Additionally, traditional strain gauges and a rotary encoder were installed on the main shaft to measure mechanical torque and orthogonal bending moments. We compare the measured total main shaft bending moments from the field test campaign to those predicted by an updated OpenFAST model of the G97 wind turbine for similar environmental conditions. We also assessed the sensitivity of the predicted bending moment to varying levels of turbulence intensity, shear exponent, and yaw error.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

HPC for Optimizing Process Parameters to Control Material Evolution in Seamless Induction Hardening of Wind Turbine Main Shaft Bearings

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2025

A Regional Approach to Offshore Wind Energy Manufacturing in the Central Atlantic: Supply Chain

Growth of the offshore wind industry in the United States is likely to require growth in the nation's manufacturing capacity and additional resources and investments to meet energy project demands. Such growth has the potential to provide positive economic impacts for local communities, workers, and entire states. To realize the benefits of developing a domestic offshore wind supply chain, the states of Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia are working together under the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic Regional Transformative Partnership for Offshore Wind Resources (SMART-POWER) regional collaboration to advance the industry, with Delaware as a supporting state. This report is part of the SMART-POWER Workforce and Supply Chain Analysis study, funded by the National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium. The study assesses challenges and opportunities for the four Central Atlantic states to understand key regional strengths and identify supply chain investments that could effectively leverage their resources and provide benefits to both the member states and the offshore wind sector as a whole.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

Co-Benefits of Mitigating Aerosol Pollution to Future Solar and Wind Energy in China Toward Carbon Neutrality

The climate commitment to achieving carbon neutrality before 2060 in China has been announced recently. In the context of pursuing carbon neutrality, sharing similar sources as greenhouse gases, aerosol particle and precursor emissions are projected to substantially decrease in China, which can potentially have a great impact on climate. Here, we investigate the effects of future aerosol reductions, because of achieving carbon neutrality, on solar and wind energy in China by using an earth system model. We show that significant reductions in aerosol emissions, particularly in eastern China, lead to increases in the surface downwelling shortwave radiation, surface air temperature and wind speed, which can further enhance the potential of solar and wind energy production. The findings underline that the pursuit of carbon neutrality can yield co-benefits of not only mitigating climate change and air pollution but also fortifying the stability of renewable energy sources.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2026

Intelligent industrial demand response to increase grid flexibility and reliability: A review

The rapid transition toward renewable energy has introduced challenges in grid stability due to the intermittency of non-dispatchable sources like solar and wind. Industrial Demand Response (IDR) offers a promising, cost-effective solution that adjusts energy consumption patterns to align with supply, increases renewable utilization, and reduces costs. This review provides an updated analysis of IDR, sorting technologies into five categories: energy storage, scheduled energy usage, operational flexibility, on-site generation, and intelligent operations. Energy storage solutions, while requiring little flexibility, often have the longest payback periods. While slightly better, on-site generation also has longer payback periods, ranging from 5 to 20 years or more. Scheduled energy usage, operational flexibility, and intelligent operations allow significant peak reduction at lower capital costs but require greater flexibility. While 15–20 % peak reduction is within the range of all five categories, scheduled energy use and on-site energy generation are shown to have reductions of up to 70–80 % in select scenarios. Combining multiple IDR strategies from these five categories maximizes both financial and operational benefits. Synergistic approaches are shown to enhance grid stability while reducing costs. As the grid evolves, IDR will enable a more flexible, renewable-powered future that will benefit industrial facilities and the broader energy system.

Demand flexibility↗

DOE OSTI2025

Acetolysis for Epoxy-Amine Carbon Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Recycling

Carbon fibre-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) are used in many applications in the global energy transition, including for lightweighting aircraft and vehicles and in wind turbine blades, shipping containers and gas storage vessels1,2,3,4. Given the high cost and energy-intensive manufacture of CFRPs5,6,7, recycling strategies are needed that recover intact carbon fibres and the epoxy-amine resin components. Here we show that acetic acid efficiently depolymerizes both aliphatic and aromatic epoxy-amine thermosets used in CFRPs to recoverable monomers, yielding pristine carbon fibres. Deconstruction of materials from multiple sectors demonstrates the broad applicability of this approach, providing clean fibres from 2 h reactions. The optimal conditions were scaled to 80.0 g of post-consumer CFRPs, and demonstrative composites were fabricated from the recycled carbon fibres, which were recycled two more times, maintaining their strength throughout. Process modelling and techno-economic analysis, with feedstock cost informed by wind turbine blade waste generation8, indicates this method is cost effective, with a minimum selling price of US$1.50 per kg for recycled carbon fibres whereas life cycle assessment shows process greenhouse gas emissions around 99% lower than virgin carbon fibre production. Overall, this approach could enable recycling of industrial CFRPs as it provides clean, mechanically viable recycled carbon fibres and recoverable resin monomers from the thermoset.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Magnetohydrodynamic simulations preliminarily predict the habitability and radio emission of TRAPPIST-1e

TRAPPIST-1e, an Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone of the nearby M dwarf TRAPPIST-1, may experience magnetospheric responses that vary with stellar space weather, which could potentially influence both its habitability and radio emissions. Our objective is to investigate how different Earth-like magnetospheric configurations of TRAPPIST-1e – specifically variations in dipolar magnetic field strength and axial tilt – respond to diverse stellar space weather conditions, including events analogous to coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and to assess their implications for potential habitability and expected radio emissions. We conducted 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the TRAPPIST-1e system using the PLUTO code in spherical coordinates. The planetary magnetic field was modelled as dipolar, with equatorial strengths from Earth-like to several times stronger. The dipole axis spans a representative range of axial tilts. We investigate four stellar wind environments, from sub-Alfvénic flow to CME-like disturbances. Planetary shielding was quantified based on the magnetopause standoff distance, and radio powers were estimated via empirical scaling laws. Our simulations show that both shielding and radio power depend strongly on the magnetic configuration. Stronger fields increase protection, while larger tilts reduce it. Radio power increases with both field strength and tilt across all wind regimes. An Earth-like magnetic field can provide effective shielding even under intense CMEs, whereas high tilts require stronger fields. Predicted radio powers reach ~10 20 erg s −1 during CMEs, making bursts from close-in, magnetised planets more detectable. However, for TRAPPIST-1e, the maximum cyclotron frequency lies below the Earth’s ionospheric cutoff (~10 MHz), making ground-based detection currently infeasible.

Sun: magnetic fields↗

DOE OSTI2024

Accurate machine-learning predictions of coercivity in high-performance permanent magnets

Increased demand for high-performance permanent magnets in the electric vehicle and wind-turbine industries has prompted the search for cost-effective alternatives. Discovering magnetic materials with the desired intrinsic and extrinsic permanent magnet properties presents a significant challenge to researchers because of issues with the global supply of rare-earth elements, material stability, and a low maximum magnetic energy product BH max . While first-principles density functional theory (DFT) predicts materials’ magnetic moments, magnetocrystalline anisotropy constants, and exchange interactions, it cannot compute extrinsic properties such as coercivity (H c ). Although it is possible to calculate H c theoretically with micromagnetic simulations, the predicted value is larger than the experiment by almost an order of magnitude due to the Brown paradox. To circumvent these issues, we employ machine-learning (ML) methods on an extensive database obtained from experiments, DFT calculations, and micromagnetic modeling. The use of a large experimental dataset enables realistic H c predictions for materials such as Ce-doped Nd 2 ⁢Fe 14 ⁢B, comparing favorably against micromagnetically simulated coercivities. Remarkably, our ML model accurately identifies uniaxial magneto-crystalline anisotropy as the primary contributor to H c . With DFT calculations, we predict the Nd-site-dependent magnetic anisotropy behavior in Nd 2 ⁢Fe 14 ⁢B, confirming that Nd 4⁢g sites mainly contribute to uniaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy, and also calculate the Curie temperature (T c ). Finally, both calculated results are in good agreement with the experiments. The coupled experimental dataset and ML modeling with DFT input predict H c with far greater accuracy and speed than was previously possible using micromagnetic modeling. Further, we reverse engineer the grain-boundary and intergrain exchange coupling with micromagnetic simulations by employing the ML predictions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2026

Modeling Wind in Agrivoltaics and its Impact on Eddy Covariance Flux Measurements

Silicon Ranch is conducting a research study at their 138MW Bancroft Station agrivoltaics site, the largest agrivoltaics research array in the US, in which they are using an eddy covariance flux tower to measure the carbon budget. They are interested in finding out if the presence of the panels changes the effectiveness of these measurements. To investigate this topic, NLR performed numerical simulations of wind through the agrivoltaic array to identify under what environmental conditions (wind speed, wind direction, temperatures) and panel tilt angles the mean wind speeds at the measurement heights are significantly altered by the presence of the solar panels. NLR adapted and used the PVade simulation tool [1] to model wind in Silicon Ranch's agrivoltaic array and found that at the height of the flux tower (6m), the wind speed measured is not significantly altered by the presence of solar panels. The percent difference is less than 4% and is generally greatest during daytime conditions at higher wind speeds and perpendicular wind direction. Closer to the ground, the flow is significantly altered (wind speeds are reduced) by the presence of solar panels and the percent difference increases in strong winds. The work confirmed that eddy covariance flux towers can be used within the context of a solar array field.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Driving the grid forward: How electric vehicle adoption shapes power system infrastructure and emissions

We model the effect of plug-in electric vehicle (EV) adoption on U.S. power system generator capacity investment, operations, and emissions through 2050 by estimating power systems outcomes under a range of EV adoption trajectory scenarios. Our EV adoption scenarios are informed by 1) an Energy Information Administration scenario with no policy intervention, 2) EV growth expected under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), 3) a Biden Administration 50% EV sales target by 2030, 4) the Environmental Protection Agency’s projections under vehicle emissions standards, and 5) the International Energy Agency’s roadmap to Net Zero by 2050. We find across these scenarios that increasing EV adoption induces investment in new wind, solar, storage, and natural gas capacity, affecting power generation mix and emissions. The net effect of increasing EV adoption beyond our IRA base case is to increase power sector emissions by about 5 mtCO 2 eq per EV-year in 2026 (comparable to displaced gasoline vehicle combustion emissions), but this effect rapidly drops to annual levels below 1 mtCO 2 eq per EV-year by 2032 and continues below this level through 2050. Consequential effects of EV adoption vary regionally, with most regions primarily increasing wind or solar capacity and some regions primarily increasing natural gas capacity, even in 2050. Our national emissions estimates per EV-year are relatively robust to the level of EV adoption beyond our baseline and to variation in assumptions about power systems, EV behavior, and policy.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗

DOE OSTI2024

Active nematic ratchet in asymmetric obstacle arrays

We numerically investigate the effect of an asymmetric periodic obstacle array in a two-dimensional active nematic. We find that activity in conjunction with the asymmetry leads to a ratchet effect or unidirectional flow of the fluid along the asymmetry direction. The directional flow is still present even in the active turbulent phase when the gap between obstacles is sufficiently small. We demonstrate that the dynamics of the topological defects transition from flow mirroring to smectic-like as the gap between obstacles is made smaller, and explain this transition in terms of the pinning of negative winding number defects between obstacles. This also leads to a nonmonotonic ratchet effect magnitude as a function of obstacle size, so that there is an optimal obstacle size for ratcheting at fixed activity.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗