Energy Systems Integration Newsletter: August 2023
In this edition, two NREL technologies win 2023 R&D 100 Awards, the Energy Systems Integration Facility celebrates 10 years, an Alaskan city updated its microgrid with help from a digital twin, and more.
R&D 100 Awards Honor NREL Innovations
R&D World magazine presented NREL with two of its annual R&D 100 Awards for research innovations. The winning NREL technologies are the open-source Renewable Energy Potential (reV) model, which provides unprecedented wind and solar generation detail at scale, and Simulation and Emulation for Advanced Systems (SEAS), which is the only software that simulates and validates energy transmission and distribution solutions across the grid and building, transportation, and renewable sectors. Including this year’s winners, NREL has received 74 R&D 100 Awards since 1982. Learn more about the winning innovations.
Ten Years of Leading Energy Systems Innovation
Ten years ago, NREL’s Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) made history. An architectural marvel, the ESIF’s design matched the science that it would feature: domain-crossing, data-infused, radically efficient energy system science.
Throughout the years, the ESIF has incubated pivotal clean energy technologies, helped communities reach record amounts of renewable energy, and enabled partners to explore the innovative edge of energy integration. To celebrate a decade of the ESIF, we compiled 10 of its trailblazing achievements in one can’t-miss list.
Alaskan City Updates Microgrid With Help From Digital Twin
While Cordova, Alaska, was modernizing its microgrid, NREL was expanding its power research capabilities. The collaboration was a perfect match for grid innovation and led to one of the most advanced microgrid demonstrations ever, including a live digital twin and a continent-spanning super lab. Read about how Cordova, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and industry partners refreshed a remote microgrid with modern data, sensors, and controls.
NREL Analysis Quantifies the Impacts of Setback Ordinances on the Land Available for Renewable Energy Deployment
The number of local zoning ordinances governing renewable energy deployment is increasing in the United States, according to new research by NREL. The amount of land available to deploy renewables depends on the characteristics of the ordinances, specifically setback ordinances—the required distance from a specific feature, such as a house. Setback ordinances have not traditionally been captured in large-scale resource assessments. As a result, previous assessments have likely overestimated the amount of land available to renewables and, in turn, underestimated the costs and challenges of achieving high levels of deployment.
New Prize Supports Rural and Municipal Utilities in Strengthening Cybersecurity Posture
Cyber threats pose a critical risk to the energy infrastructure that powers where we work, live, and play. Cyberattacks can impact utilities—large and small—and cause consequences that range from financial impacts and supply shortages to electricity outages. To support the utilities powering rural America in fortifying their systems against cyber threats, DOE’s Rural and Municipal Utility Advanced Cybersecurity Grant and Technical Assistance Program launched the Advanced Cybersecurity Technology (ACT) 1 Prize.
The prize, which opened for applications on Aug. 30, 2023, offers a total prize pool of $8.96 million in competitive funding and technical assistance. The three-phase competition is designed to empower electric cooperatives, municipal, and small investor-owned utilities in making critical investments in staff training, governance processes, and technologies to harden their systems against threats. Learn more about the prize, including details on how to enter.
Free Virtual Workshop Invites Stakeholders To Learn About Cyber-Informed Engineering Principles
Cyber-informed engineering (CIE) evaluates cybersecurity risks and builds mitigations into systems from the early stages of design through installation and operation rather than bolting on security after a system is exposed to cyber adversaries. On Sept. 6, from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. ET., NREL and Idaho National Laboratory are hosting a free CIE practitioners’ virtual workshop.
All stakeholders are encouraged and invited to attend to learn about CIE principles, building CIE-proficient teams, building a business case for CIE, considerations for incorporating CIE concepts into risk assessments, and more. View the agenda and register.
NREL To Lead Strategic Planning for Nine Remote and Island Communities Working Toward Energy Resilience
The U.S. Department of Energy and NREL are proud to welcome nine remote and island communities to the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project. These communities—spread across Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, and Washington—will design projects to address their unique energy resilience challenges related to energy planning, high energy costs, and the escalating effects of climate change. The communities have proposed projects that would engage in energy planning and explore renewable energy technologies, including electric vehicle infrastructure, geothermal energy, hydropower, microgrids, solar power, tidal power, and wind power.
Celebrating 25 Years Since the First Energy Savings Performance Contract Signing
What began as a pilot program 25 years ago within the Federal Energy Management Program, energy savings performance contracts have now become one of the most widely used project financing methods in the federal government. Though U.S. federal agencies pioneered this kind of financing, energy savings performance contracts can also be used by state and local governments, universities, schools, hospitals, and even private companies to further energy projects. Learn more about the impacts of energy savings performance contracts and how it all got started.
Understand the Future Clean Power Grid With NREL’s New Power Grid Reliability Basics
Many services are required to maintain a reliable power grid, even during unexpected outages. These services are provided at different timescales and serve different purposes on the grid. As more renewable energy, such as wind and solar, is added to the U.S. power system, there is increased interest and requirements for renewable energy to provide the essential reliability services during normal operation and during and after major power disruptions.
In our new power grid reliability basics webpages, learn about different aspects of grid operations and the ability of the power system to reliably keep the lights on as we transition to clean energy. Access explainer videos, fact sheets, technical reports, and more.
Publications Roundup
Clear-Sky Probability for the 2023 Annular Solar Eclipse and the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Using the NREL National Solar Radiation Database, NREL Technical Report (2023)
NREL and collaborators have created a clear-sky probability analysis to help guide viewers to the 2023 annular solar eclipse and the 2024 total solar eclipse. Using cloud and solar data from the NREL National Solar Radiation Database, the analysis provides cloudless-sky probabilities specific to the date, time, and location of each eclipse with a 4-km resolution. Though not intended to be an eclipse weather forecast, the detailed maps can help guide eclipse enthusiasts to likely optimal viewing locations. Additionally, high-resolution data are presented for the centerline of the path of each eclipse, representing the likelihood for cloudless skies and atmospheric clarity. The National Solar Radiation Database provides industry, academia, and other stakeholders with high-resolution solar irradiance data to support feasibility analyses for photovoltaic and concentrating solar power generation projects.
The Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate was a yearlong expedition supported by the icebreaker R/V Polarstern following the Transpolar Drift from October 2019 to October 2020. The campaign documented an annual cycle of physical, biological, and chemical processes impacting the atmosphere-ice-ocean system. Of central importance were measurements of the thermodynamic and dynamic evolution of the sea ice. This manuscript documents the acquisition and post-processing of those measurements and provides a guide for researchers to access and use the data products.
Accomplishments and Challenges of Metrics of Sustainable Energy, Population, and Economics Illustrated Through Three Countries, Frontiers in Sustainable Energy Policy (2023)
The global sustainable development goals require meeting multiple objectives on energy, population, economics, and ecosystems. Development and economic growth as defined by current metrics require energy inputs, yet energy growth can also increase negative impacts on natural systems. To achieve sustainable development goals, policymakers and technologists will need energy system solutions that consider not only cost and efficiency but also population, quality of life, natural ecosystems, and culture that accommodate different starting points and transition timelines of various countries. To explore possible approaches, this perspectives paper summarizes energy in the context of economic growth and population, illustrating concepts through the diverse status and direction of three countries—Japan, the United States, and Bangladesh—as potential views into a post-growth sustainable future.
High-Temperature Heat Pump Model Documentation and Case Studies, NREL Technical Report (2023)
High-temperature heat pumps (HTHPs) have the potential to serve two valuable functions in U.S. industry. First, by valorizing and elevating waste heat streams, HTHPs can improve industrial energy efficiency. Second, by electrifying process heat generation, HTHPs can replace combustion technologies with less carbon-intensive sources of energy and reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions. In certain applications, the combination of increased efficiency, cost savings, and emissions reduction makes HTHPs a promising component of strategies for industrial electrification and the clean energy transition. Researchers at NREL have developed an HTHP model. This model has both a physics-based performance estimation component and an economic evaluation component designed to demonstrate the potential economic competitiveness of HTHPs.
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