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To support Energy Futures Grant awardees in pursuing workforce efforts to support their broader projects, this presentation provides an introduction to workforce development, including what it is, who is involved, employment considerations, and an overview of the process for creating new clean energy workforce programs.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) has launched a new technical assistance program, administered by NREL, in support of prospective applicants to the Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program. The competitive technical assistance program will help small- and medium-sized manufacturers understand the requirements of the Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program and prepare for future applications. Such applications must propose a project to build, retrofit, or expand facilities in coal communities for producing or recycling goods used to support clean energy supply chains. This presentation is for an informational webinar on Wednesday, April 26, 2023.
As urbanization and climate change progress, understanding and addressing urban heat becomes a priority for climate adaptation efforts. High temperatures concentrated in the urban core can drive increased risk of heat-related death and illness as well as increased energy demand for cooling. However, modeling the urban microclimate is an ongoing field of research typically burdened by an imprecise description of the built environment, incomplete observational records, significant computational cost, and a lack of high-resolution estimates of the impacts of increasing temperatures. Here, we present computationally efficient machine learning methods that can improve the accuracy of urban temperature estimates when compared to historical reanalysis data. These models are applied to a neighborhood in Los Angeles, and we compare the energy benefits of heat mitigation strategies to the impacts of climate change. We find that cooling demand is likely to increase substantially through midcentury, but engineered high-albedo surfaces could lessen this increase by more than 50 %. The corresponding increase in winter gas heating offsets the summer cooling benefit in the current climate, but total annual energy use from combined heating and cooling with electric heat pumps benefits from the engineered heat mitigation strategies under both current and future climates.
This project is part of a joint effort between Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to evaluate the energy and demand savings potential of emerging efficient buildings technologies. This project quantifies the energy efficiency benefits from retrofitting an air-cooled, constant-speed compression, self-contained medium-temperature open-vertical display case with a high efficiency water-cooled condensing unit. In addition to a water-cooled heat rejection mechanism, the high-efficiency condensing unit utilizes a variable-speed compressor, electronic expansion valve and advanced controls system. The focus of this project, however, was mainly on capturing the energy savings potentials of the water-cooled condenser, variable-speed compression and electronic expansion valve, and not on the advanced controls. The results of this evaluation will be considered by ComEd and CLEAResult for future energy efficiency rebate offerings.
This dataset contains results estimating projections of change of annual capacity factors and levelized cost of energy for several turbine technologies in the 2024 Annual Technology Baseline (ATB). Projections of change are based on downscaled earth system model (ESM) data from Sup3rCC. There has been evidence of reductions in average wind speeds over land in North America since the 1980s, and several models project that average wind speeds will continue to decrease. Concurrently, the cost of wind energy systems in the United States has been decreasing since around 2010, a trend also projected to continue. There is considerable uncertainty in these future projections, with quantitative estimates of future wind resource and system costs varying widely. To study this, we run land-based wind energy models with a range of possible future system costs, turbine designs, and meteorological inputs from multiple downscaled earth system models over the contiguous United States to estimate critical system performance metrics such as annual energy production (AEP) and levelized cost of energy. Where multiple earth system models agree, changes in mean AEP from the time period 2000-2019 to 2040-2059 can be as high as +10% in South Texas or as low as -20% in Iowa. Several additional states in the Midwest that currently have considerable wind generation capacity show the possibility of substantial decreases in AEP by mid-century. Larger turbines and moderate reductions in system costs can offset even the largest projected decreases in wind resource, but much uncertainty remains in the extent to which wind resources will actually change into the future and to what extent wind energy systems can drive down future costs. An analysis of variance shows, in several states in the Midwest, the uncertainty in future wind resource can be almost as important for future changes in the cost of wind energy as the uncertainty in future system costs.
The Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at Portland State University (PSU) has developed a Power Engineering Internship (PEI) program that provides engineering career development pathways within the electric utility industry. The PEI is supported by several U.S. Department of Energy grants that aim to develop quality career opportunities and develop a future electric utility workforce that represents the nation’s diverse populations. The PSU ECE Department intends to use surveys of internship participants as assessment tools for its ABET accreditation process, in particular, the ABET Criteria 3 Student Outcomes (SOs). SOs relate to the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that students acquire as they progress through an engineering program [1]. They describe what engineering students are expected to know and should be able to do by the time they graduate. Engineering education literature presents multiple methods for using internships as means for assessing SOs. Methods include using self-assessments that derive from internship experiences as well as mapping survey responses from employers and interns to SOs. Such methods gain value as they are assessed over multiple years. However, the majority of this literature discusses assessment tools that were developed for the ABET 2000 Criteria 3 “a through k” SOs. One of our motivations is to provide assessment tools that can be used to assess modern Criteria 3 SOs based on students’ internship experiences.
https://events.usea.org/events/midwest-regional-carbon-conversionutilization-procurement-grant-workshop As the U.S. economy moves toward clean energy and a lower carbon future, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking to partner with states, communities, and industries to support the procurement and development of carbon conversion products. These efforts have been enabled by provisions included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). As part of the BIL, supporting the Administration’s goal to achieve a carbon-free power sector by 2035 and putting the United States on a path to a net-zero economy by 2050, a new initiative was established within DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management through its Carbon Conversion/Utilization Program. The new initiative will establish a demonstration grant program to issue grants to eligible entities to procure commercial and industrial products derived from the conversion of anthropogenic carbon oxides and demonstrate a significant net reduction in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions compared to incumbent technologies, processes, and products. DOE-FECM will establish a demonstration grant program within the Carbon Conversion/Utilization Program to support eligible applicants that procure those commercial and industrial products derived from anthropogenic carbon oxides. Therefore, the Carbon Conversion/Utilization Program, with the assistance of the United States Energy Association (USEA), will conduct a series of workshops (both virtual and in-person) with relevant stakeholders, e.g., product manufacturers, eligible entities, or their representative national organizations (e.g., United States Conference of Mayors, etc.) to solicit input and ideas on challenges and opportunities for a potential grant program.
Wind power is a growing source of energy generation that relies on complex global atmospheric and earth system processes. There has been evidence of reductions in average wind speeds over land in North America since the 1980s, and several models project that average wind speeds will continue to decrease. Concurrently, the cost of wind energy systems in the United States has been decreasing since around 2010, a trend also projected to continue. There is considerable uncertainty in these future projections, with quantitative estimates of future wind resource and system costs varying widely. To study this, we run wind energy models with possible future system costs, turbine designs, and meteorological inputs from multiple downscaled earth system models over the contiguous United States. Changes in mean annual energy production from 2000-2019 to 2040-2059 can be as high as +10% in South Texas or as low as -20% in Iowa. Larger turbines and moderate reductions in system costs can offset the largest projected decreases in wind resource, but much uncertainty remains in the extent to which wind resources will change and to what extent system costs can be reduced. An analysis of variance shows, in several states in the Midwest, uncertainty in future wind resources can influence the cost of wind energy nearly as much as uncertainty in future system costs.
Heat pumps are a clean and efficient technology that can be powered by renewable electricity to transfer heat using a refrigerant from one place to another by different heat sources, making buildings clean and environmentally friendly. With the support of the ORNL Laboratory Modernization Division, this project explored and evaluated an innovative solution that uses water-water cost-effective midtemperature heat pump (MTHP) technology to leverage the low-grade waste heat from ORNL Frontier and the data center to deliver 85°C hot water, which replaces hot steam generated using natural gas combustion boilers for water heating or space heating in the buildings of ORNL campus. Two scenarios were studied. In the first scenario, which considered the 5600-5700-5800 complex only, Carrier’s commercial 1,000 kW MTHP technology achieves more than 6,640 MWh/year energy savings, an emission reduction of 858 TCO2e/year CO2, and a payback time of 4.85 years. In the second scenario, which considered the 5600-5700-5800 complex and Buildings 5100, 5200, and 5300, the CO2 emission reduction is 1,483 TCO2e/year, the operating cost savings are $0.21 million annually, and the payback time is 3.74 years. Additionally, a comprehensive HP ShowCase Tool was developed for evaluating the optimal solution to improve sustainability and decarbonization of the buildings on the ORNL campus. The tool is an Excel-based tool integrated with VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) coding. The tool includes collected ORNL campus building information and an MTHP library, which comprises collected commercial and ORNL-defined MTHPs. The tool was used to evaluate the sustainability and decarbonization of the ORNL campus. The tool can be widely used or referenced for heat pump solutions and building decarbonization renovation strategies to modernize ORNL facilities and energy use–intensive equipment to enable efficient, sustainable, and resilient operations in the future.
Wyandotte Municipal Services (WMS), a Michigan Municipal Utility offering electric generation, transmission & distribution, water filtration & distribution and Broadband/Video sought to deploy a set of renewable energy projects for their Electric Utility that contributed to reducing the City’s environmental and energy impact, provided examples that would encourage businesses and citizens to adopt cleaner energy practices and help WMS meet the required renewable energy standards of the State of Michigan (10% in 2015, 15% in 2021). WMS generates and delivers roughly 280,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity annually to more than 10,000 homes and 1,000 businesses within the City of Wyandotte. The Wyandotte Integrated Renewable Energy Strategy – WIRES 2 resulted in deployment of a set of community-scale micro-wind turbines, evaluation and installation of energy-efficient and low-maintenance light-emitting diode (LED) street lights and park lights in highly visible locations in the City and expansion of the geothermal heating and cooling district that already included residential geothermal systems, to include larger scale business/institutional systems at the Utility’s largest electric customer and at the City Library. Finally, WMS identified the need for job training in energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies to further develop a local skilled workforce in these areas. Partially funded by the grant, the wind turbine project provides a benchmark for WMS, local businesses and residents in the evaluation of utility-scale wind v. micro-wind in an urban environment as a renewable energy strategy. Also partially funded by the grant, the LED project benefited the City of Wyandotte by reducing load on the electric system for the public utility but also reduced City costs for streetlighting, parking lot lighting and park lighting without a compromise in security. The project also resulted in a visual success that has led to additional approvals for non-Grant related LED lighting installations resulting in further reduction in the electric load in the City. Commercial Geothermal installations resulted in the Utility being able to eliminate steam customers who formerly utilized the byproduct of steam from WMS electric production. Due to the reduction in natural gas prices and the overall reduction in market purchased power, it was no longer feasible for WMS to operate its Power Plant as a base load plant and to only operate on a market dispatch philosophy when market prices dictated that WMS could produce electricity cheaper than the market purchase price. This has resulted in fewer operating days for the WMS Power Plant, resulting in less environmental impact. WMS has now completely exited the steam business and the ability to offer a geothermal option to two (2) former steam customers (BASF-Wyandotte and the Bacon Memorial Library) allowed for that. In addition, peak loads have been shaved for these two (2) large customers due to the consistent temperature offered by geothermal heating and cooling, reducing the swings associated with thermostat changes caused by outside temperature changes during extreme high and low temperatures. Finally, energy efficiency and renewable energy college-level classes at Wayne County Community College allowed a group of interested students to pursue studies in those technologies through grant provided tuition, books and course materials. This effort provided a foundation of potential future employees not only for WMS but other energy efficiency/renewable energy employers such as Franklin Energy, a partner with WMS in energy optimization efforts with Wyandotte businesses.
PPL Electric Utilities’ Keystone Solar Future Project (KSFP) is part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewables, Energy Enabling Extreme Real-time Grid Integration of Solar Energy (ENERGISE) grant. The three-year project, beginning in October, 2017, funded an innovative pilot program to develop and evaluate a technology platform and framework for managing high levels of distributed energy resources (DER), and improving future DER interconnection. The KSFP aimed to bridge gaps between existing and future technology, including Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS), by monitoring, managing, and optimizing a system with high penetration of solar and other DER. Specifically, the project worked to make Demand Management Systems (DMS) applications, devices, and real-time communications technology DER-aware to allow for advanced applications for utility operations. Here, by installing and implementing a DERMS, project designers transformed how DERs interact with PPL’s distribution system, offering learnings and results worth sharing industry-wide.
This project replaced legacy heating and cooling equipment at Klickitat Valley Health (KVH), a rural hospital in Goldendale, Washington. Work included constructing a new chiller building, installing modern hydronic piping systems, replacing the main Emergency Department air handler (Air Handlining Unit (AHU-1)), upgrading electrical systems, and converting the Emergency Department wing from electric reheat to hydronic heating and cooling. Commissioning, testing, adjusting, and balancing were completed under this grant. These upgrades improve energy efficiency, operational resilience, and system reliability while preparing the campus for future electrification and renewable energy integration. They also support growth in healthcare services for a rural population. The project directly reduces energy costs and provides a foundation for future decarbonization measures, including a FEMA-funded microgrid and a large-scale ground source heat pump (GSHP) project. These follow-on initiatives would not have been possible without the hydronic backbone built through this project.
Magnesium-ion batteries hold the potential to outperform the energy density of lithium-ion batteries, given the divalent charge carried by each Mg 2+ cation, but remain in an early stage of development. Here, in this study, 25 Mg solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) is used to gain insight into the local structure and Mg-ion dynamics of candidate Mg-ion solid electrolytes, the antiperovskites Mg 3 SbN and Mg 3 AsN. Using the highest available magnetic field (35.2 T) for high-resolution solid-state NMR, the largest 25 Mg quadrupole coupling constants (C Q ) yet measured of up to 22 MHz are reported and corroborated by first-principles calculations. Predicted C Q values are shown to correlate with the antiperovskite’s tolerance factor; thus, 25 Mg NMR linewidths can report on lattice distortions and phase stability of these antiperovskites. Variable-temperature 25 Mg NMR spectra demonstrate changes at elevated temperatures, ascribed to Mg-ion motional effects. 25 Mg T 1 relaxometry measurements at ultrahigh field reveal a lower activation energy for the more distorted Mg 3 AsN phase, matching computational predictions of a lower energy barrier for Mg 2+ ion migration and suggesting that additional scrutiny of antiperovskites as Mg-ion conductors is warranted. Given the inherent challenges of 25 Mg NMR, this work demonstrates the benefits of combining ultrahigh field NMR spectroscopy, advanced pulse sequences, modern signal processing, and first-principles calculations to facilitate NMR of quadrupolar nuclei as a tool to probe the local structure and ion dynamics in beyond-Li battery materials.
The following three publications which reference the above grant from the NASA Origins of Solar Systems program are attached and form the final technical report for this project. The research involved comparisons of the spectral energy distributions of FU Orionis objects with theoretical models and associated studies of the structure of the outbursting accretion disks, as well as related studies on the effects of magnetic fields in disks, which will lead in the future to models of FU Orionis outbursts which include the effects of magnetic fields. The project was renewed under a new grant NAGW-4456, entitled 'Effects of FU Orionis Outbursts on Protoplanetary Disks'. Work now being prepared for publication deals more specifically with the issue of the effects of the outbursts on protoplanetary formation. Models of the spectral energy distribution of FU Orionis stars. A simple model of a buoyant magnetic dynamo in accretion disks and a numerical study of magnetic buoyancy in an accretion disk have been submitted.
Lack of access to high-quality, publicly available, time series solar data to inform decisions that will transform energy sectors in Southeast Asia is a challenge. The solution is to level the playing field by offering free, high-quality, robust solar data to inform private sector investment and policymaking. This is done by (1) leveraging deep NREL expertise in atmospheric science, solar resource assessment, high-performance computing, and cloud-based data dissemination, (2) producing and validating high spatial and temporal resolution solar resource data, (3) making data available on the USAID-funded global Renewable Energy Data Explorer platform, (4) providing capacity building for data and applications, and (5) informing future demand-driven tool development.
An ongoing investigation for the future of Jefferson Lab’s Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) lies in upgrading its maximum nominal energy using Fixed-Field Alternating-gradient (FFA) technology for its recirculating arcs, using permanent magnets for the FFA arcs. A common concern among the community is the degradation of these permanent magnets during operation due to the radiation environment in which they will be present. This work, funded by a Laboratory Directed R&D grant, aims to measure the permanent magnet degradation in the CEBAF tunnel enclosure, and extrapolate to the energies expected from the upgrade. We present the latest results of this study, as well as plans moving forward.
This report documents a Seedling project supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), conducted by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR). The Seedling and Sapling Program provides small grants over short duration to enable early-stage research at national laboratories. This funding mechanism is intended to cultivate innovative ideas and expand research road maps in hydropower and marine energy technologies. Under this Seedling award, the project team developed an educational outreach tool, or “serious game”, built in Python and powered by the Pygame library, aimed at teaching fundamental hydropower concepts through an engaging, interactive learning experience. The game features multiple lessons covering several hydropower topics while allowing for expansion and customization in the instance of future funding availability: • Hydropower Plant Types: Players explore and compare the mechanics and applications of run-of-river, dam hydropower, and pumped-storage hydropower. • Flow Dynamics and Power Generation: Interactive tasks demonstrate how release rate and hydraulic head combine to determine power output. • Grid Operations and Load Following: Simulations illustrate how hydropower facilities respond to fluctuating electricity demand to balance the grid. • Market Integration: Levels scaffold understanding of how hydropower interfaces with the broader energy market, including operational and economic considerations. The tool was showcased at several science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) outreach events, where it was demoed to students, educators, and the general public. These events provided valuable opportunities to collect feedback on the gameplay, storyline, and educational objectives from a wide audience. The game was presented at STEMapalooza, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, STEMCON, and Clean Currents 2025. Insights gathered during these demonstrations informed refinements to the game’s user experience and strengthened its effectiveness as an educational tool for teaching hydropower concepts. This report outlines the game’s design philosophy, educational objectives, technical implementation, user experience insights, and potential for broader deployment within educational and workforce development contexts. It emphasizes how gamified learning can demystify complex hydropower science and inspire interest in water-power technologies. The project’s success demonstrates the value of Seedling funding in fostering creative, lowcost educational tools that support DOE’s mission to advance energy literacy and innovation. The report concludes with recommendations for expanding the tool by adding new levels, integrating assessment metrics, and exploring commercialization or deployment pathways through future Sapling funding. The official webpage of the Hydropower Game, which includes a link to the educational tool, can be accessed at www.anl.gov/hydropower/hydropower-game.
Grid-tied solar photovoltaic (PV) development began gradually in Montana, initially taking root in the early 2000s, largely in the form of small residential systems, rarely larger than two kilowatts. Utility support for solar technology through public benefit funding triggered the installation of the state’s first solar PV installations on community-owned facilities including schools, libraries, fire stations and local government buildings in the mid-2000s. By 2016, solar PV installations totaled approximately 28 megawatts of installed capacity, generating less than 0.05% of electricity sold in Montana. Montana’s solar fleet in 2016 included 17 megawatts of utility-scale solar farms, and three shared solar projects developed by rural electric cooperatives that ranged from 25 to 50 kilowatts in size. However, with only 3,000 households utilizing solar PV, either through an on-site installation or participation in a shared solar project, the potential benefits and reach of solar technology was limited. The Montana Solar Community Project (MSCP) was developed by the Montana Energy Office (MEO) at the Department of Environmental Quality in order to implement a “community-scale” solar energy strategy for the state that would cost-effectively expand Montanans’ access to solar PV. This project defines three types of community-scale solar projects: shared solar, community-sited solar, and group purchasing programs. The MSCP project conducted research and stakeholder engagement that helped to inform and develop model community-scale initiatives and an overarching community-scale solar strategy for Montana. Specifically, the project included a solar market assessment, stakeholder meetings across Montana, development of a menu of community-scale solar options, a study of solar potential on schools, community solar market research, and community-scale project implementation support. MSCP activities were successful in implementing solar projects and supporting solar development in communities across Montana. Project activities realized 280 kW of newly installed solar from two solarize programs, a shared solar array at a rural electric cooperative, and a solar array atop a Bozeman high school. The community-scale project implementation support and Solar on Schools components of the project resulted directly in the analysis and design of nearly 2 MW of distributed solar systems across the state. The Solar on Schools analysis alone produced solar designs for 25 schools, representing 920.8 kW of solar potential. Many of the deliverables from this project provide guidance on future development of community-scale solar in Montana, and resulted in a number of important conclusions about community-scale solar in Montana. There is strong interest in community-scale solar in Montana, as noted during stakeholder meetings, in response to solar market research surveys, and as seen by applications for implementation support grants provided by MEO. Project activities also suggest that Montanans demonstrated a desire and need for more information about solar energy technology, solar financing options, and the state’s policy and regulatory framework. Additionally, the project found that schools will be key partners for future community-scale solar programs. In addition to being excellent hosts for solar arrays, schools have the opportunity to use the installation of a solar array to develop educational materials and curricula to educate Montana’s future leaders about these technologies, which can be shared and replicated across the state. Project activities laid a clear path forward for solar energy in Montana. Certain activities have concrete next steps. For example, numerous solar arrays were designed for schools and other public buildings around the state. Many of those designs will be used as soon as funding becomes available. Other activities have less developed next steps, though lay the foundation for future work. The solar market assessment, solar market research, and community stakeholder meetings are good examples. These documents can be used as stepping stones to increase renewable energy education, increase stakeholder outreach, and support communities as they seek to develop community-scale solar projects.