Addressing the Energy Challenge with Vehicle-to-Grid Power

NREL scientists use new power electronics to support the electric power grid. Read on to learn more.

Data Library Enables Analysis of Electric Grid Issues

Dr. Aaron J. Wilson and his team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed The Grid Event Signature Library — an open-access online collection of datasets containing waveforms that are visual representations of behaviors of the electric grid, which can help analyze anomalous events.

An All-Liquid Iron Flow Battery for Better Energy Storage

Flow batteries can serve as backup generators for the electric grid. Flow batteries are one of the key pillars of a decarbonization strategy to store energy from renewable energy resources. Their advantage is that they can be built at any scale, from the lab-bench scale, as in this PNNL study, to the size of a city block.

A ‘Smarter’ Way to Protect an Electric Grid

The team, led by Data Scientist Sumit Purohit, is trying to create a tool that sorts and prioritizes cyber threats on the fly. The idea is to give grid operators a clear blueprint to identify and address the biggest threats first and to protect against them without a mad scramble for resources down the road.

An AI-Based Approach for Controlling Microgrids

UC Santa Cruz Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Yu Zhang and his lab are leveraging tools to improve the efficiency, reliability, and resilience of power systems, and have developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based approach for the smart control of microgrids for power restoration when outages occur.

A Novel Way to Convert Heat to Electricity

Researchers have fabricated a novel device that could dramatically boost the conversion of heat into electricity. If perfected, the technology could help recoup some of the recoverable heat energy that is wasted in the U.S. at a rate of about $100 billion each year.

Intelligent Building Blocks for a More Reliable Electric Grid

Radha Krishna Moorthy is lead researcher on an Oak Ridge National Laboratory project to create a new architecture to modernize the electric grid from the bottom up. The approach combines hardware and software to monitor equipment health, speed up communication and increase security.

Printing High-Fidelity Sensors

Printed radio frequency (RF) surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor devices are a promising technology for providing highly reconfigurable, cost-effective, and multi-parameter sensing.

Giant Batteries Deliver Renewable Energy When It’s Needed

In developing its flow battery, Oregon-based ESS drew from groundbreaking research and development conducted by NASA more than 40 years ago.

Reliable Power for Long-Term Lunar Surface Operations

To open the Moon to continuous multi-year human and robotic operation, Astrobotic is developing LunaGrid™ — a commercial power system for the surface of the Moon.

Technique Extends Next-Generation Lithium Metal Batteries

The discovery could enable lightweight, low-cost, long-lasting energy storage for electric vehicles, houses, and more.

Bringing More Reliable Electricity to Puerto Rican Microgrids

Ben Ollis and a team of engineers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory are creating a novel orchestrator tool to manage a cluster of microgrids so they can directly support and communicate with each other, making them more resilient during long power outages. It is being installed as a demonstration project in the small town of Adjuntas in the Central Mountains of Puerto Rico.

Printed Rechargeable Batteries for the IIoT

Wireless sensors are critical for the IIoT, but they need long-term, reliable battery power.

Room-Temperature Liquid-Metal Battery

The researchers have created a “room-temperature all-liquid-metal battery,” which includes the best of both worlds of liquid-and solid-state batteries.

Protecting the U.S. Electric Grid with Physics-Based Cybersecurity

The grid’s growing size and complexity increases vulnerability to cyberattacks.

AI Technology Foils Cyberattacks

The technology is aimed at protecting physical targets, such as utilities and infrastructure.

What Will 5G Do for the IoT/IIoT?

To find out about the impact of 5G mobile broadband service on the IoT/IIoT, I interviewed Jai Suri, Vice President, IoT and Blockchain Applications Development, Oracle, and Mike Anderson, Embedded Systems...

Products of Tomorrow

Metamaterial printing, high-efficiency solar cells, and a noise-reduction material.

Q&A: Switching Technology Improves Power Grid Efficiency

Kristin Sampayan from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found a fast way to switch high voltages.

Flywheel Energy Storage Continues to Advance Green Initiatives

Flywheels offer an environmentally and financially sound choice for protecting critical operations.

Electrolyte Boost Improves Performance of Aqueous Dual-Ion Batteries

New cell chemistry utilizes less costly and more abundant materials than lithium-ion batteries.

Supercapacitors Go Hybrid for Increased Performance and Efficiency

Learn about the properties of each capacitor option, and their ideal applications.

Enhancing Hybrid Flow Battery Electrodes with Nanomaterials

This technology provides highly efficient grid-scale electricity storage at a fifth of the cost of current storage technologies.

Radar Enables Cars to Spot Hazards Around Corners

Using radar commonly deployed to track speeders and fastballs, the automated system “sees” around corners to spot oncoming traffic and pedestrians.

Leap in Lidar Could Improve Safety and Security of New Technology

University of Colorado researchers have described a new silicon chip that improves the resolution and scanning speed needed for a lidar system.

Wraparound Sensors

These sensors monitor electrical loads from household appliances to support grid operations.

High-Reliability Radio Frequency MEMS Switch

Applications include homeland security, vehicle anti-collision systems, telecommunications systems, and industrial instrumentation.

“Smart” Frequency-Sensing Charge Controller for Electric Vehicles

This controller minimizes the burden on the power grid.