Posted: 06-11-13
Clean Energy States Alliance will host a webinar 2-3 p.m. (EDT) June 18, 2013, titled "Highlights of the DOE/EPRI 2013 Electricity Storage Handbook in Collaboration with NRECA." To support the U.S. Dept. of Energy, Sandia National Laboratories led the effort to update the Electricity Storage Handbook. The Handbook is a how-to guide for utility and rural cooperative engineers, planners, and decision makers to plan and implement electricity storage projects.
This webinar is free, but registration is required at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/675120464. After registering you will receive a confirmation e-mail containing information about joining the webinar.
Following an introduction by Dr. Imre Gyuk, Energy Storage Program Manager in the U.S. DOE Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, the webinar's speakers include Georgianne Huff, Sandia National Laboratories, and Abbas Akhil, Renewable Energy Ventures, LLC.
Posted: 06-07-13
The Electrical Energy Storage Applications and Technologies (EESAT) Conference 2013 Call for Papers has been announced and the EESAT Committee urges all interested individuals to consider submitting a paper for presentation at this highly visible, international conference.
To present at EESAT, a one-page abstract of a formal paper is due for consideration by the EESAT Committee no later than July 10, 2013. Please review the Abstract Requirements and Guidelines (PDF, 124 kb) carefully before submitting your abstract. Initial one-page abstracts will be chosen by the Committee from all one-page abstracts submitted by this deadline.
The EESAT 2013 will be Oct. 21 - 23, 2013, at the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina Hotel in San Diego, CA. Registration will be 4 - 6 p.m. The opening reception will be 6 - 8 p.m. Oct. 20, 2013.
Details for the conference will be announced via the EESAT website as they become available.
Posted: 05-10-13
The Energy Storage Technology Advancement Partnership project of the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) and the U.S. Dept. of Energy will present a webinar 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. EST May 16, 2013, featuring a discussion of how the smart grid and smart meters, demand response, and energy storage affect the deployment of intermittent renewable energy.
This webinar is free, but space is limited so registration is required at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/359189000. After registering you will receive a confirmation e-mail containing information about joining the webinar.
The webinar's speakers include Tom Stepien, CEO of Primus Power, and Ron Dizy, President & CEO ENBALA Power Network.
Posted: 03-04-13
The Energy Storage Technology Advancement Partnership project of the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) and the U.S. Dept. of Energy will present a webinar 2 - 3 p.m. EST March 6, 2013, featuring a case study conducted by Sandia National Laboratories on the Island of Maui and the goals of increasing its renewable energy capacity and the role of energy storage.
This webinar is free, but space is limited so registration is required at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/364676024. After registering you will receive a confirmation e-mail containing information about joining the webinar. Also, the report is currently available for download (1.3 MB , PDF).
The Hawaiian Island of Maui plans to provide as much as 40 percent of its system capacity by renewable energy resources by 2015. Maui Electric Company (MECO) plans for three large wind farms and a significant distributed deployment of photovoltaics. This work investigates strategies utilizing energy storage resources in reducing anticipated wind curtailment and mitigating any increases in production costs.
The webinar's panelists include DOE's Imre Gyuk, as well as Sandia's Dan Borneo, James Ellison, Dhruv Bhatnagar, and Ben Karlson.
Posted: 02-13-13
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Sandia National Laboratories will conduct a webinar 2:30 - 4 p.m. EST March 1, 2013, to discuss upcoming work on the Protocol for Uniformly Measuring and Expressing the Performance of Energy Storage Systems (PDF, 1.6 MB).
The webinar will focus on the three areas. Because the protocol currently covers peak shaving and frequency regulation applications, the efforts will look for ways to enhance the protocol to cover additional applications and metrics. It will apply the protocol to actual ESS technologies, installations, and applications while identifying relevant enhancements to the protocol and securing and reporting actual performance data. It also will foster the application and use of the protocol as a basis for more formal U.S. and international standards development.
For information on participating in the webinar, contact Dave Conover at PNNL.
Posted: 12-19-12
The biennial Electrical Energy Storage Applications and Technologies (EESAT) Conference 2013 will be Oct. 21 - 23, 2013, at the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina Hotel in San Diego, CA. Registration will be 4 - 6 p.m. The opening reception will be 6 - 8 p.m. Oct. 20, 2013. The call for papers is scheduled to be announced in February.
The EESAT Conference is the premier forum for dissemination, review, and presentation of research and development, demonstration, and studies conducted around the globe on specific electrical energy storage applications and technologies, especially as they relate to the electricity grid. The conference is organized by the DOE/Office of Electricity's Energy Storage Program and Electricity Storage Association.
As with previous EESAT conferences, various levels of sponsorship opportunities will be available, providing recognition throughout the conference. Sponsorships for specific events will also be offered.
Details for the conference will be announced via the EESAT website as they become available.
Posted: 10-31-12
Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) will host a webinar 2 - 3:30 p.m. EST Nov. 7, 2012, with Connecticut DEEP, in conjunction with Sandia National Laboratories and the U.S. DOE Office of Electricity, on energy storage to address potential respondents on the CT DEEP RFP.
Matt Lazarewicz, consultant to Clean Energy States, will discuss energy storage and microgrids, distributed generation and renewables integration, siting and permitting, interconnection, and other topics. Dan Borneo of Sandia National Laboratories will also participate. The presentation will be followed by time for questions and discussion.
The webinar is free, but registration is required. To participate, register online at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/792267576 as soon as possible. After registering, you will receive a confirmation e-mail that contains information about joining the webinar. Previous filings for the CT DEEP microgrids initiative are available for review at the Microgrid Grant and Loan Pilot Program website.
Posted: 10-05-12
The 2012 DOE Energy Storage Program Peer Review and Update Meeting was held Sept. 26-28 at the Renaissance Washington DC Downtown Hotel in Washington, D.C., with more than 360 people attending the 107 presentations and posters.
The agenda with links to the presentations and posters are available on the 2012 Peer Review and Update Meeting web page.
The three-day event was sponsored by the Dept. of Energy's Energy Storage Systems (ESS) Program at Sandia National Laboratories and will feature the DOE/OE Energy Storage Program projects at Sandia National Laboratories, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Oakridge National Laboratories. Additionally, ARRA, ARPA-E, SBIR, and University energy storage projects were presented.
Posted: 09-18-12
The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) will host a free webinar 1:30 - 3:00 p.m. EDT Oct. 15, 2012, on Lessons Learned from the Seneca Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) project.
The New York State Electric & Gas Corporation's (NYSEG) experience of the Seneca CAES project yielded an extensive, innovative information base for use by other entities exploring utility-scale bulk energy storage. The nominal 150 Megawatt Seneca project was discontinued due to a combination of financial factors, including plant capital costs and the state of the New York wholesale electricity market now and in the foreseeable future, but it yielded valuable insights into developing large storage facilities. Although based on CAES project experience, many of the lessons are independent of geography, geology, or the storage technology being used.
The project was funded by a Cooperative Agreement from the DOE's Smart Grid Demonstration Program as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and managed by the DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).
Dr. Imre Gyuk, DOE Storage Systems Program Manager, will provide a brief introduction and James Rettberg of NYSEG, Principal Investigator, will present an overview of the Seneca Project Phase 1 results and formal report. The Seneca Phase 1 Report (including numerous appendices of all underlying detailed reports and documentation) will be available for download prior to the webinar via the www.smartgrid.gov website.
To register for this event, please send an email to Frank Bombardiere indicating your intent to attend, your name, and your organization affiliation no later than Oct. 12, 2012.
Posted: 08-16-12
Sandia National Laboratories presented a Request for Information webinar (RFI #276186) Aug. 15, 2012, to assess industries' current capabilities for providing Energy Storage Systems that are compatible with alternative energy sources for military services. The webinar provided an overview of the RFI, and participants could submit written questions during the presentation.
The webinar involved discussing capabilities and ideas, and was not a request for proposals or solicitations. Sandia will not be conducting the formal solicitation. Sandia National Laboratories will not be issuing a solicitation for this effort. Any formal solicitations for this effort will be conducted by an agency of the federal government.
The webinar is available online as a video download (WMF, 77.1MB) or as a slide presentation (PDF, 1.8MB).
Posted: 03-01-12
The Energy Storage Technology Advancement Partnership (ESTAP), a new federal-state co-funding and information-sharing project, hosted a Request for Information (RFI) bidder's call webinar Feb. 29, 2012, during which bidders from state entities and their partners met with staff from the Dept. of Energy's Office of Electricity (DOE OE), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) to answer live and e-mailed questions about the RFI.
The ESTAP RFI is available at RFI#1145. Links to the presentation slides and audio of the webinar are available at the CESA website's ESTAP RFI page.
Opening remarks about the RFI and ESTAP were made by Dr. Imre Gyuk, Energy Storage Program Manager at DOE OE.
ESTAP is supported by DOE OE and implemented by SNL in collaboration with CESA. The project's goal is to accelerate the deployment of electrical energy storage technologies in the U.S. by creating partnerships through which DOE and participating states can share information and lessons learned, leverage available funds, and ultimately improve progress in electrical energy storage commercialization and deployment.
Questions submitted to SNL and the answers are public and will be shared with all bidders. Questions should be submitted to SNL's Suzette Howey. Questions will be accepted until 4 p.m. EST March 5, 2012, and responses to the RFI are due March 8, 2012.
Posted: 01-27-12
The free webinar U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Storage Systems (ESS) program and the Iowa Stored Energy Park (ISEP) titled "Lessons From Iowa: The Economic, Market and Organizational Issues in Making Bulk Energy Storage Work" has been rescheduled for 1-2:30 p.m. EST (10-11:30 a.m. PST) Feb. 9, 2012.
The webinar had been scheduled for Jan. 20, but the large number of participants caused technical difficulties. All participants will need to reregister online at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/890504232. After registering, a confirmation e-mail will be sent with information about joining the webinar.
Funded by a grant from the ESS program and managed by Sandia National Laboratories, the ISEP Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) project yielded extensive information that can be used by entities exploring utility-scale bulk energy storage. The 270 Megawatt ISEP project was discontinued because of inadequate geology, yet it yielded valuable insights on developing large storage facilities. Although based on CAES project experience, most of the lessons are independent of geology or storage technology.
In the webinar, ESS Program Manager Dr. Imre Gyuk will introduce CAES projects funded by DOE and ISEP Executive Director and Project Manager Bob Schulte will present an overview of the "Lessons from Iowa" and the formal report.
The full "Lessons from Iowa" report with underlying detailed reports and documentation is available for download at the ESS Program website (PDF, 2.8 MB), the DOE-OE website, the ISEPA website, and the Lessons From Iowa (LFI) website.
Posted: 01-26-12
As part of Clean Energy States Alliance's Energy Storage Technology Advancement Partnership, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Storage Systems (ESS) program and the Clean Energy States Alliance hosted a webinar on Jan. 25, 2012, that discussed Federal Regulatory Energy Storage Policy, as part of a series exploring the national and state landscape for energy storage.
In late 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order 755, which directs grid operators -- the ISOs -- to compensate resources that provide frequency regulation of the grid based on their efficiency and efficacy. In some cases, this will mean a larger role for storage devices, such as batteries and flywheels, in lieu of traditional generators. This webinar reviews the federal regulatory landscape for energy storage, specifically FERC Order 755, FERC Order 890 (which directs ISOs/RTOs to develop tariffs, market rules, and control algorithms and to open markets for new technologies that provide ancillary services), and other aspects of FERC treatment of energy storage and how these affect ISOs, energy storage device owners, and energy storage technology manufacturers.
The speakers include Dr. Imre Gyuk, manager of the DOE's ESS program; Dr. Bob Hellrich-Dawson, FERC economist; Ruston Ogburn, senior lead engineer with PJM Interconnection; Eric Hsieh, manager of Regulatory Affairs with A123 Systems; and Praveen Kathpal, vice president of Market and Regulatory Affairs with AES Energy Storage.
The webinar presentation slides are available for PDF download (PDF, 4.15 MB). Also, video of the webinar is available from the Clean Energy States Alliance website (WMV, 83 MB).
Posted: 01-12-12
In conjunction with the DOE's Energy Storage Systems (ESS) program, the Clean Energy States Alliance hosted a webinar December 19, 2011, entitled "Energy Storage in State RPSs."
The webinar explored the role of energy storage in state RPS, including the integration of an increasing penetration of renewables and the interpretation of energy storage as a generation resource. The topics included a review of state RPS that include energy storage while exploring the benefits of energy storage to an RPS portfolio and the challenges of integrating storage into RPS programs.
The presentation slides from the webinar are available for download (PDF, 5.25 MB). The webinar was recorded and is to be made available at the Clean Energy States Alliance website.
Posted: 10-13-11
Peer Review is open to the entire energy storage industry and provides a valuable networking opportunity for those in the industry and related fields. Reports will be presented on all projects supported by the DOE Energy Storage Program. Participants will be briefed on the latest developments in a broad portfolio of storage technologies (e.g., advanced batteries, flywheels, electrochemical capacitors, CAES) for utility-scale and standalone applications. The Program's latest research in power electronics and the results of analytical studies on the economic benefits of storage will also be presented.
This year's Peer Review will be held in conjunction with the bi-annual Electrical Energy Storage and Technologies Conference (EESAT 2011). Download the full Peer Review meeting agenda (250KB PDF).
Admission to Peer Review is free, but reservations are required. If you are planning to attend both EESAT 2011 and Peer Review, please check the appropriate box on your EESAT Registration Form. If you are only planning to attend Peer Review, please send an e-mail that includes your name, company, and contact information to esspeerr@sandia.gov.
If you cannot attend, meeting highlights and all project presentations will be available after the meeting on the Energy Storage Program website: http://www.sandia.gov/ess.
Additional information about EESAT 2011 (October 16-19, 2011) is available at http://www.sandia.gov/eesat.
Posted: 11-30-11
The conference on Electrical Energy Storage Applications and Technologies (EESAT 2011) was held Oct. 16-19 at the San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina, in San Diego, California (USA).
Hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy, Sandia National Laboratories, and the Electricity Storage Association, this biennial, international gathering brings together experts from around the globe to introduce, review, and discuss developments in electrical energy storage technologies, especially as they relate to electrical grid systems.
**NOTE** EESAT 2011 presents an excellent opportunity for conference sponsors to showcase technical capabilities. For details, potential sponsors are invited to contact Mr. Dan Borneo at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM (drborne@sandia.gov or 505-284-9880 in the U.S.).
Posted: 06-28-13
Sandia National Laboratories' Electric Power Systems Research Dept. and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Advanced Power and Energy Systems Group have released a jointly authored report that examines how grid-level electricity storage might benefit the operations of NV Energy in 2020, and assesses whether those benefits justify the cost of the storage system.
Titled "NV Energy Electricity Storage Valuation" (PDF, 933 kb), the report finds that grid-level storage adds the most value to the 2020 NV Energy system by providing regulating reserve, and that a grid-level storage facility in the 2020 NV Energy system may have a positive net present value at today's storage system prices, provided that regulating reserve from a fast ramp rate resource is valued more than that from a slow ramp rate resource.
Posted: 05-29-13
The Dept. of Energy's Energy Storage Program website has a number of updates that may be of interest to members the energy storage community.
The ES-Select™ Storage Selection Tool developed by DNV-KEMA has been updated recently, including enhancements in cash flow and payback analyses. Also, the DOE International Energy Storage Database provides free, up-to-date information on grid-connected energy storage projects and relevant state and federal policies.
On the ESS Program's Publications page, a number of recent SAND Reports have become available for download. The most-recent titles include Performance Testing of Zinc-Bromine Flow Batteries for Remote Telecom Sites (SAND2013-2818C), New Wholesale Power Market Design Using Linked Forward Markets (SAND2013-2789), and Southern Company Energy Storage Study (SAND2013-2251).
Posted: 04-30-13
An improved version of the ES-Select™ Storage Selection Tool developed by DNV-KEMA is available for download. The new version includes a number of enhancements in cash flow and payback analyses as well as ease of use. Users are greeted with a newly structured homepage that simplifies the use process and identifies early on, feasible storage options for the user's selected applications before the user may need to have a further dive into specifics. Besides the strengthened business analysis capabilities, ES-Select™ now offers more flexibility for users to enter their storage data and adjust other storage option parameters like costs that are subject to change as technology costs come down.
First-time users need to download and run the ES-Select™ installer, which includes its supporting library. Once ES-Select™ is installed, the update installer then should be downloaded and run. If an earlier version of ES-Select™ is installed already, only the latest ES-Select™ update installer is needed.
Posted: 02-21-13
The latest versions of the ES-Select Tool Installer and Updates has been released and are available from the ES-Select website, providing a variety of improvements in functionality and usability. Existing users of ES-Select only need to download and install the Update utility, while new users should download and install the main installation utility.
The ES-Select™ Tool aims to improve the understanding of different electrical energy storage technologies and their feasibility for intended applications in a simple, visually comparative form. It treats the uncertainties in technical and financial parameters as statistical distributions.
ES-Select™ was developed by DNV-KEMA in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories, and is licensed for public use.
Posted: 02-06-13
A number of reports have been publicly released by the Sandia National Laboratories' ESS Program. These are available at the ESS Program's Publications page. The most-recent titles include the following:
Posted: 01-23-13
An improved version of the ES-Select Storage Selection Tool developed by DNV-KEMA is available for download. The new version includes enhanced cash flow and payback analyses, as well as improved ease of use. The new homepage simplifies the use process and immediately identifies feasible storage options for the selected application. In addition to the strengthened business analysis capabilities, ES-Select offers more flexibility for users to enter storage data and adjust other storage option parameters, including costs that are subject to change as technology costs come down.
The program's improved energy storage feasibility scoring algorithm better identifies applicable storage options for the selected application. A new algorithm for bundling multiple grid applications helps users understand the realizable potential and value for a storage system to serve multiple applications simultaneously. These enhancements simplify the analysis process of bundled services and enable users who are unfamiliar with energy storage to evaluate a bundled business case.
Posted: 12-05-12
Sandia National Laboratories has been working with Magnum Gas Storage and the state of Utah by providing core sample drilling and other test support in an initiative to develop a large compressed air energy storage system, or CAES, in a 2-mile-wide salt cavern.
In a recent Explore Utah Science article for KCPW public radio titled "Can We Store Energy From the Sun and Wind?," Sandia National Laboratories geo-mechanics engineer Stephen Bauer explains the fundamentals of how such CAES systems work.
"Basically, you store the energy as a compressed gas by pumping it underground when electricity is inexpensive, or there's extra energy that you can't use otherwise," says Bauer. "And you let it out, and harvest that energy."
Such CAES systems can store hundreds of megawatt-hours of surplus energy for large grid-scale applications.
Posted: 05-09-12
Sandia National Laboratories and the Department of Energy have released a new tool to help utilities, developers and regulators identify the energy storage options that best meet their needs.
Partnering with DNV-KEMA, a global testing and consulting firm, Sandia is releasing Energy Storage Select, or ES-Select, software under a public license to the company. The tool makes it easier to conduct a quick, high-level analysis of energy storage options and determine the value of energy storage technologies for a specified application, which developers say will increase the adoption of energy storage technologies.
"ES-Select is the first of a suite of easily accessible web tools to help potential users and regulators to make decisions on energy storage options in specific applications," said Imre Gyuk, program manager of DOE's Energy Storage program.
The application is available for free download on the ES-Select page. "This tool is designed to help users to understand at a high level what storage can do. If it looks beneficial from a cost standpoint, they can explore the options further," said Sandia project manager Dhruv Bhatnagar.
Utilities and developers who want to use energy storage have many technologies to consider, including flywheels, compressed air, pumped hydro and thermal storage and six types of electric batteries. All have different costs, and estimating revenue from using various applications is difficult. Researching all relevant cost factors independently could take days or weeks in the past, but ES-Select aggregates all relevant factors into a single decision-support tool that runs in a few minutes. If the results are favorable for a particular technology, users can determine whether to run detailed, site-specific analysis using other tools.
"ES-Select is an educational and decision-support tool for deployment of energy storage on the power grid," said Ali Nourai, executive consultant for DNV-KEMA, and co-developer of ES-Select. "It has been created for public use to promote the understanding of storage technologies and the benefits they offer when applied on the electric grid."
The tool aids decisions about what storage technologies would work best in a given situation. For example, if a business pays more for electricity during the day than at night, the owner could use the tool to quickly evaluate several energy storage options to determine the cost-benefit of buying lower-cost electricity at night and storing it for use during the day.
Users can input the application they are interested in, as well as such parameters as energy costs and discount rates. The program produces a list of storage technologies and their predicted benefits and associated costs. ES-Select aggregates all of the inputs and assumptions -- monetary value for an application, technology costs, performance characteristics and operation and maintenance costs -- and quickly spits out recommended options.
Rather than basing decisions on a single factor such as capital cost, ES-Select assesses how an energy storage technology performs while addressing uncertainties in application value, storage cost, cycle life, efficiency, discharge duration and other parameters.
"With funding from DOE's Energy Storage Program, Sandia has worked with KEMA to develop a user friendly, freely accessible tool to evaluate potential applications of energy storage," said Gyuk. "We hope that this tool will contribute to the widespread adoption of storage on the grid."
ES-Select should benefit utilities, independent power producers, industrial and commercial enterprises, regulators, lawmakers and the public, including those doing research on energy storage. "We've already had a lot of people asking about this program, and we know many are anxious to use it," said Bhatnagar. "I think this will encourage those who might not have considered energy storage before to think more seriously about it and evaluate its potential as a viable option."
Posted: 04-27-12
A beta version of the online DOE Energy Storage Database has been released for public use, providing free, up-to-date information on grid-connected energy storage projects and relevant state and federal policies.
Projects and policies can be searched based on a number of criteria, including power rating, ownership model, and grid interconnection. The information from the database can be exported to Excel or PDF.
All project and policy information in the database is vetted through third-party verification. The database was developed to contribute to the rapid development and deployment of energy storage technologies.
Posted: 02-17-12
Sandia researchers have developed a new family of liquid salt electrolytes, known as MetILs, that could lead to batteries able to cost-effectively store three times more energy than today's batteries. The research, published in Dalton Transactions, might lead to devices that can help economically and reliably incorporate large-scale intermittent renewable energy sources, like solar and wind, into the nation's electric grid.
The grid was designed for steady power sources, making fluctuating electricity from intermittent renewable energy difficult to accommodate. Better energy storage techniques help even out the flow of such fluctuating sources, and Sandia researchers are studying new ways to develop a more flexible, cost-effective and reliable electric grid with improved energy storage.
To view the full story, visit the Sandia Labs News Releases web site.
Posted: 09-16-11
Starting in October 2011, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) will be testing RedFlow's latest flow battery. This battery system will soon be available in the USA and is designed for both grid-connected and off-grid applications. The tests on the 5kW/10kWh zinc-bromine flow battery module (ZBM) will be performed as part of a multi-phase project to develop advanced performance metrics for flow battery systems.
Posted: 07-20-11
Deployed on a commercial airplane, proton exchange membrane fuel cells may offer emissions reductions, thermal efficiency gains, and enable power source location near the point of use. This work seeks to understand whether on-board fuel cell systems are technically feasible, and, if so, whether they offer a performance advantages.
Posted: 06-29-11
The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy's (ARPA-E) Fiscal Year 2010 Annual Report highlights the agency's establishment and how it has focused precious resources to create programs that will advance the development of transformational technologies in energy.
In its first two years of existence, ARPA-E has awarded amounts ranging from roughly $400,000 to $9 million each to 121 projects, with an average award value of $3 million. The agency supports projects for up to three years.
ARPA-E 2010 Annual Report
Posted: 06-27-11
The report presents the methodology for calculating present worth of system and operating costs for a number of energy storage technologies for representative electric utility applications. The values are an update from earlier reports, categorized by application use parameters.
Posted: 06-22-11
ESS researcher Stan Atcitty was named a recipient of one of R&D Magazine's R&D100 Awards for 2011. The awards are presented to researchers who have been determined, by a selecting council, to have developed the year's top 100 outstanding achievements in applied technology. They focus on applied impact and reward awardees based on product design, development, testing, production, and applicability. Sandia National Labs won four such awards this year.
Stan Atcitty won for his entry on an Ultra-high-voltage Silicon Carbide Thyristor. This DOE Energy Storage Systems project, managed by Sandia in partnership with GeneSiC Semiconductor Inc., and the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC), developed an ultra-high-voltage silicon carbide thyristor. The semiconductor device allows next-generation "smart grid" power electronics system to be built up to 10 times smaller and lighter than current silicon-based technologies. Their performance advantages are expected to spur innovations in utility-scale power electronics hardware and to increase the accessibility and use of distributed energy resources.
DOE seeks comments on the newly released draft of the Power Electronics and Development Program Planning Document.
“The electric grid is a complex system that has been built over the last century as demand for power has grown and now has more than 180,000 miles of transmission lines, 14,000 transmission substations, and more than 100 million distributed loads. There are over 3,000 electric utilities involved with the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. This system is the backbone of the nation’s economy, and it is imperative that the electric delivery system is modernized to meet the nation’s energy future...
To revolutionize the grid, power flow control and energy storage needs to be achieved—however, there are many barriers to realizing this vision. Advances in power electronics devices and modules, including materials development, high temperature packaging, and control systems are needed to increase their reliability and efficiency while at the same time decreasing their installation and operating costs.”
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