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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 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Exploring the Grid Value Potential of Offshore Wind Energy in Oregon

The grid value of Oregon's offshore wind resource is considered through the lenses of (i) resource complementarity with the hydroelectric system and other Variable Renewable Energy resources, (ii) load complementarity with the four balancing authorities with territory in Oregon, and (iii) spatial value to regional and coastal grids as represented through a Production Cost Model of the WECC system. Capacity implications of the interactions between offshore wind and the historical east-to-west power flows of the region are reviewed. The existing system is shown to accommodate 2GW of offshore wind interconnections without curtailment.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Updated Oregon Floating Offshore Wind Cost Modeling [Slides]

The study provides heat maps showing updated estimates of the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for floating offshore wind energy off the coast of Oregon. This project builds on a 2019 National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) floating offshore wind power cost study in Oregon (Musial et al. 2019) and a recent NREL California cost analysis (Beiter et al. 2020). Floating wind power cost data, modeling methodology, and resource data are updated and LCOE is estimated through 2032 using 2019 as a reference year. Comparisons are made to the previous offshore wind energy cost studies (Musial et al. 2019; Beiter et al. 2020). The study does not prioritize specific sites or make judgments about marine spatial planning viability.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Using Machine Learning to Identify Optimum Prospects for Offshore Geologic CO 2 Storage and Enhanced Oil Recovery in the Gulf of Mexico

The SECARB Offshore Partnership is a government-industry partnership focused on assembling the knowledge base required for secure, long-term, large-scale CO 2 subsea storage in saline formations and mature oil reservoirs. The SECARB Offshore Partnership is evaluating potential storage opportunities in the Central and Eastern planning areas of the outer continental shelf (OCS) of the Gulf of Mexico. The evaluation focuses on active and depleted oil and gas fields and potentially associated CO 2 -enhanced oil recovery (CO 2 -EOR), as well as, deep saline storage resources. As part of Subtask 3.0 (Offshore Storage Resources Characterization) and Subtask 4.0 (Risk Assessment, Simulation, and Modeling), Oklahoma State University (OSU) is developing a machine learning system that employs the SAS Institute’s Viya platform with visual data mining and machine learning to identify and characterize optimum prospects for enhanced oil recovery and stacked storage in saline reservoirs. This report summarizes this effort to date and discusses the many variables that can be used to characterize these storage objectives, as well as, the design vision of the Viya machine learning system.

02 PETROLEUM↗
DOE OSTI2022

Offshore Wind Market Report: 2022 Edition

The 2022 edition of the Offshore Wind Market Report provides offshore wind policymakers, regulators, developers, researchers, engineers, financiers, supply chain participants, and other stakeholders with up-to-date quantitative information about the offshore wind market, technology, and cost trends in the United States and worldwide.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

U.S. Offshore Wind Workforce Assessment

As the U.S. offshore wind market prepares for rapid growth, our understanding of specific workforce requirements and pathways to meet those requirements is not keeping pace. Without this deeper understanding, there is a risk that the workforce will not develop as efficiently or robustly as is needed to fully realize the benefits of offshore wind. The "U.S. Offshore Wind Workforce Assessment" provides a more detailed assessment of the workforce demand, supply, and pathways to support key stakeholders including industry, state and local governments, educational organizations, and unions in their efforts to attract, educate, train, and retain a domestic workforce to support this burgeoning industry.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Offshore Wind in the US Gulf of Mexico: Regional Economic Modeling and Site-Specific Analyses

The goal of this study is to assess offshore wind energy resources in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and to quantify its technical and economic potential in order to inform Federal and GOM state strategic energy planning over the next decade. The objectives are to: describe site-specific and regional benefits and challenges of deploying offshore wind in the GOM and discuss the current research to mitigate challenges; review and quantify the wind resource capacity and energy potential in the GOM region for each GOM state including state and federal waters, distance from shore, and water depth; perform geospatial regional economic assessments of levelized cost of energy (LCOE), levelized avoided cost of energy (LACE), and net value (Section 3.4.2); evaluate three representative hypothetical locations for site-specific analysis; perform a high-level assessment of local supporting infrastructure availability, including existing services (e.g., fabrication facilities, vessels, ports) and possible grid connection options; assess the regional economic impacts of a 600 megawatt (MW) offshore wind power plant installed at a representative site in the GOM.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Definition of the Stiesdal Offshore TetraSpar Floating Wind System for OC6 Phase IV

The Offshore Code Comparison Collaboration, Continued, with Correlation, and unCertainty (OC6) is an international project focused on verifying and validating modeling tools used in the analysis of floating offshore wind systems. The fourth phase of the project aims to assess the ability of the tools to model a novel floating wind design. The TetraSpar was designed by Stiesdal Offshore Technologies and was selected as the subject platform for the project. The platform is a unique design that features spar-like stability with a very low center of gravity, but does not require rare deep-water ports. This combination is achieved with a system made of two separate steel structures, a hull at the water's surface that supports the wind turbine tower, and a keel that is suspended below the main body. This lower keel has a very high density and drives the total platform's low center of gravity. The TetraSpar, with hull and keel, spar-type stability, and relatively slender components, is unique compared to platforms studied in earlier phases of OC3-OC6 projects, and it offers an opportunity to evaluate the applicability of modeling tools to a novel design, especially unique hydrodynamics and compliant cables. Scaled model tests of the TetraSpar design were performed in 2018-2019 by the University of Maine. The data collected in the model tests provides a detailed description of the response of the platform in various controlled and relatively well understood conditions. Comparison with this data provides a good opportunity for validation of numerical models. The OC6 Phase IV work focuses on the specific parameters used in these scaled model tests. Descriptions of the platform and the test campaign in this document are based on the report written by Allen and Fowler of the University of Maine in 2019.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Gulf of Mexico Offshore Wind Energy Hurricane Risk Assessment

NREL's feasibility assessment of offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico concluded that hurricane risk was one of the major challenges that would need to be overcome for a mature offshore wind industry to develop in the Gulf of Mexico. To ensure the robust design of wind turbines in the Gulf of Mexico, it is critical to understand the added risk posed by the threat of major hurricanes, as those affecting the Gulf of Mexico region have a significant potential to exceed design limits prescribed by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) wind design standards. To satisfy this charge, this project defines the wind hazard for the Gulf of Mexico Offshore Wind Energy area using the hurricane hazard model develop by Applied Research Associates and published extensively in the open literature. In doing so, the return periods associated with the IEC Class 1A and Typhoon Class limit-state hurricanes are estimated on a grid with nominal resolution of 10 km to determine where hurricane risk results in the exceedance of the IEC design criteria. On the same grid, wind speeds hazard contours associated with return periods varying from 50 to 1,000 years are also estimated. An additional challenge in assessing hurricane wind speed risk in the Gulf of Mexico arises from inconsistent terminology across the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale and the IEC design criteria. Saffir-Simpson definitions are based on 1-minute sustained wind speeds estimated at 10-m height over marine terrain, while the IEC uses a different averaging period (3-second versus 1-minute) and reference height (assumed herein a hub height of 150 m versus 10 m). Employing the latest research on turbulence characteristics of the hurricane boundary layer, conversions between various durations (e.g., 3-seconds, 1-minute, 10-minutes, 1-hour) and between elevations near the surface (10 m) to near hub height (assumed herein 150 m) are developed. IEC Class 1A and Typhoon Class limit states are also provided in terms of an equivalent Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind speed category.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Ultraflexible Smart FLoating Offshore Wind Turbine (USFLOWT) (Final Report) [Slides]

In this final report, we summarize activities and results from the Ultraflexible Smart Floating Offshore Wind Turbine (USFLOWT) project. The project involved co-design of a 10-MW floating offshore wind system, especially the substructure. This substructure was based on the SpiderFLOAT, an ultra-compliant, ultralight, and modular system with actuators for smart platform control that was promising for control co-design. The project’s overall goal was to unlock the floating offshore wind market based on conditions on the North Atlantic coast of the United States. Tasks summarized in the report include Task 2.3 (including controller design for the turbine and the substructure and final design of the SpiderFLOAT), Task 2.4 (final design of the active can ballasting actuator), Task 2.5 (planning for a scale demonstrator), Task 3.1 (technology to market plan), and Task 3.3 (approval in principle). The report also summarizes project dissemination activities at a variety of venues including the lead author and/or presenter for each.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Challenges and Opportunities for Floating Offshore Wind Energy in Ultradeep Waters of the Central Atlantic

This study, funded under an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), is intended to provide BOEM with key information to inform their decision making about current and future leasing in the Central Atlantic region of the United States. The report will also benefit state governments, developers, research institutions, and the public which are seeking technical and market-based information about the unique aspects of the offshore wind energy development along the outer continental shelf of the Central Atlantic region of the United States. The study provides a broad top-level assessment of the key challenges and opportunities that are unique to offshore wind energy development in the Central Atlantic region. It focuses on BOEM's Central-Atlantic region Call areas. The research is based on the most current technology, deployment, and stakeholder information available to NREL. The topics include assessments of the physical environment, current leasing status and major stakeholder issues, state and federal energy policy, an assessment of future leasing requirements based on state targets, status and limitations of the technology, and supply chain status. The primary intent is to inform the readers about the prospects for deploying offshore wind in the designated deep water Call areas, E and F, identified by BOEM. The report makes recommendations regarding development in these regions.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Expected occurrence of wildlife in US Atlantic offshore wind areas

Offshore wind energy has entered a pivotal phase of development for the U.S. Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), a region that supports critical habitats, migratory corridors and flyways for many marine species. Assessing where and when marine wildlife occurs is a crucial first step in developing a risk assessment framework to evaluate potential risks and impacts of offshore wind development. In this study, we perform this initial assessment by evaluating the expected occurrence of marine mammal, seabird and sea turtle taxa in areas of interest to identify patterns and potential areas of concern. Specifically, this work depicts the expected monthly density of 84 marine species and taxa within each of the 29 active wind energy lease areas plus a 10 km buffer to account for nearby activity. We then compare these densities to subregional thresholds, evaluated as the 90th percentile of the subregion’s monthly density, to provide comparisons across the shelf region. This analysis synthesizes the most recent spatial distribution models of 31 marine mammal taxa (26 species and 5 guilds), 49 seabird species and 4 sea turtle species to provide a unified evaluation of the major marine wildlife in the region. Out of the 84 species and taxa analyzed, 56 exhibit levels of expected density in wind energy areas that exceed the corresponding 90th percentile subregional threshold at some point throughout the year. These results represent an initial assessment in the broader Occurrence, Exposure, Response, and Consequence (OERC) framework, originally developed by the U.S. Navy for marine species risk assessments. These results offer valuable guidance to marine spatial planners, management agencies and offshore wind developers on the expected locations and timing of interaction risk to wildlife species in or near wind energy areas across the region.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Exploring the Grid Value of Offshore Wind Energy in Oregon

The significant offshore wind energy potential of Oregon faces several challenges, including a power grid which was not developed for the purpose of transmitting energy from the ocean. The grid impacts of the energy resource are considered through the lenses of (i) resource complementarity with Variable Renewable Energy resources; (ii) correlations with load profiles from the four balancing authorities with territory in Oregon; and (iii) spatial value to regional and coastal grids as represented through a production cost model of the Western Interconnection. The capacity implications of the interactions between offshore wind and the historical east-to-west power flows of the region are discussed. The existing system is shown to accommodate more than two gigawatts of offshore wind interconnections with minimal curtailment. Through three gigawatts of interconnection, transmission flows indicate a reduction of coastal and statewide energy imports as well as minimal statewide energy exports.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Defining Infrastructure Feasibility for Hub-Scale Offshore Atlantic Carbon Storage in the Northeastern United States

In the Northeast U.S., deep rock formations along the Atlantic outer continental shelf may have the potential to sequester 150–1136 million metric tons of CO2. However, the design and infrastructure necessary to develop offshore carbon storage in this region is not well defined because there has been little oil and gas exploration and no commercial production. Consequently, an infrastructure feasibility design was completed for a hub-scale offshore CO2 storage system along the Northeast U.S. Atlantic. The design included development of a detailed, site-specific geological model for a location near the Great Stone Dome geological structure in the Baltimore Canyon Trough off the coast of Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey. A field injection system topology design was completed to portray a design with eight wells in two clusters connected by central manifolds. Reservoir simulations were completed for the injection system that showed the hub may be able to inject 17 million metric tons (MMT) of CO2 per year for thirty years, but injection rates varied substantially across the eight wells. A CO2 pipeline design determined feasible routes from the east coast shoreline to the injection field. Finally, the CO2 injection system design included subsea injection trees, manifolds, and power umbilicals. This is the first study to define large-scale carbon storage design and infrastructure options for the offshore Atlantic, which can help to progress this region towards field characterization and early-mover deployment for future decarbonization in the region.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Validation of Reanalysis-Based Offshore Wind Resource Characterization Using Lidar Buoy Observations

The offshore wind industry in the U.S. is gaining strong momentum to achieve sustainable energy goals, and the need for observations to provide resource characterization and model validation is greater than ever. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) operates two lidar buoys for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in order to collect hub height wind data and associated meteorological and oceanographic information near the surface in areas of interest for offshore wind development. This work evaluates the performance of commonly used reanalysis products and spatial approximation techniques using lidar buoy observations off the coast of New Jersey and Virginia, USA. Reanalysis products are essential tools in order to set performance expectations and quantify the wind resource variability at a given site. Long-term accurate observations at typical wind turbine hub-heights have been lacking at offshore locations. Using wind speed observations from both lidar buoy deployments, biases and degrees of correspondence for the Modern Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications-2 (MERRA-2), the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR), and the analysis system of the Rapid Refresh (RAP) are examined both at hub height and near surface. Results provide insights on the performance and uncertainty of using reanalysis products for long-term wind resource characterization.

lidar buoy, model validation, offshore wind energy↗
DOE OSTI2021

A Twenty-Year Analysis of Winds in California for Offshore Wind Energy Production Using WRF v4.1.2

Offshore wind resource characterization in the United States relies heavily on simulated winds from numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, given the lack of hub-height observations offshore. One such NWP data set used extensively by U.S. stakeholders is the Wind Integration National Dataset (WIND) Toolkit, a 7-year time-series data set produced in 2013 by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. In this study, we present an update to that data set for offshore California that leverages recent advancements in NWP modeling capabilities and extends the period of record to a full 20 years. The data set predicts a significantly larger wind resource (0.25–1.75 m s-1 stronger), including in three Call Areas that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is considering for commercial activity. We conduct a set of yearlong simulations to study factors that contribute to this increase in the modeled wind resource. The largest impact arises from a change in the planetary boundary layer parameterization from the Yonsei University scheme to the Mellor-Yamada-Nakanishi-Niino scheme and their diverging wind profiles under stable stratification. Additionally, we conduct a refined wind resource assessment at the three Call Areas, characterizing distributions of wind speed, shear, veer, stability, frequency of wind droughts, and power production. We find that, depending on the attribute, the new data set can show substantial disagreement with the WIND Toolkit, thereby driving important changes in predicted power.

49 EE - Wind and Water Power Program - Wind (EE-4W↗
DOE OSTI2022

Detecting and characterizing simulated sea breezes over the US northeastern coast with implications for offshore wind energy

Abstract. With the planned construction of vast offshore wind farms along the US East Coast, identifying and understanding key coastal processes, such as sea breezes, has become a critical need for the sustainability and development of US offshore wind energy. In this study, a new two-step identification method is proposed to detect and characterize three types of sea breezes (pure, corkscrew and backdoor) over the US northeastern coast from a year-long WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) simulation. The results suggest that the proposed detection method can identify the three different types of sea breezes in the model simulation. Key sea breeze features, such as the calm zone associated with pure sea breezes and coastal jets associated with corkscrew sea breezes, are evident in the sea breeze composite imagery. In addition, the simulated sea breeze events indicate a seasonal transition from pure to corkscrew sea breeze between March and August as the land–sea thermal contrast increases. Furthermore, the location and extension of the sea breeze front are different for each type of sea breeze, suggesting that the coastal impact of sea breeze varies with sea breeze type. From the wind energy perspective, the power production associated with a 10 MW offshore wind turbine would be approximately 3 to 4 times larger during a corkscrew sea breeze event than the other two types of sea breezes. This highlights the importance of identifying the correct type of sea breeze in numerical weather/wind energy forecasting.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Offshore low-level jet observations and model representation using lidar buoy data off the California coast

Abstract. Low-level jets (LLJs) occur under a variety of atmospheric conditions and influence the available wind resource for wind energy projects. In 2020, lidar-mounted buoys owned by the US Department of Energy (DOE) were deployed off the California coast in two wind energy lease areas administered by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management: Humboldt and Morro Bay. The wind profile observations from the lidars and collocated near-surface meteorological stations (4–240 m) provide valuable year-long analyses of offshore LLJ characteristics at heights relevant to wind turbines. At Humboldt, LLJs were associated with flow reversals and north-northeasterly winds, directions that are more aligned with terrain influences than the predominant northerly flow. At Morro Bay, coastal LLJs were observed primarily during northerly flow as opposed to the predominant north-northwesterly flow. LLJs were observed more frequently in colder seasons within the lowest 250 m a.s.l. (above sea level), in contrast with the summertime occurrence of the higher-altitude California coastal jet influenced by the North Pacific High, which typically occurs at heights of 300–400 m. The lidar buoy observations also validate LLJ representation in atmospheric models that estimate potential energy yield of offshore wind farms. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis version 5 (ERA5) was unsuccessful at identifying all observed LLJs at both buoy locations within the lowest 200 m. An extension of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 20-year wind resource dataset for the Outer Continental Shelf off the coast of California (CA20-Ext) yielded marginally greater captures of observed LLJs using the Mellor–Yamada–Nakanishi–Niino (MYNN) planetary boundary layer (PBL) scheme than the 2023 National Offshore Wind dataset (NOW-23), which uses the Yonsei University (YSU) scheme. However, CA20-Ext also produced the most LLJ false alarms, which are instances when a model identified an LLJ but no LLJ was observed. CA20-Ext and NOW-23 exhibited a tendency to overestimate the duration of LLJ events and underestimate LLJ core heights.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Potential of U.S. Marine and Offshore Wind Energy to Power Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal

The goal of this project was to provide a preliminary feasibility assessment of powering different marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR), carbon capture (mCC), and carbon sequestration (mCS) strategies with marine energy. The investigation focused on methods with clear power requirements at sea beyond monitoring such as artificial upwelling, deep ocean storage, electrochemical (eChem) mCDR and mCC, offshore microalgae cultivation, and seaweed farming and sinking. The project found that eChem mCDR powered by marine energy and offshore wind energy available in the United States could meet global CDR scales needed by 2040 and 2050 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees C by 2100 and marine energy alone could greatly contribute to reaching scales needed by 2040. Note that this preliminary estimate assumes that it is possible to harvest all the marine and offshore wind resources available in the United States with existing technology options. Though the biological methods were limited in scale they still hold promise in developing carbon negative fuels and products which can reduce emissions in the short term.

afforestation↗