During the current COVID-19 pandemic, religious gatherings have become intense hot spots for the spread of the virus. In this research, we focus on the religiosity of communities to examine whether religiosity helps or hinders adherence to mitigation policies such as shelter-in-place directives. Prior research makes opposing predictions as to the influence of religiosity. One stream predicts greater adherence because of rule-abiding norms and altruistic tendencies while another predicts lower adherence as a reaction against the restriction of personal and religious freedom. We used shelter-in-place directives as an intervention in a quasi-experiment to examine adherence over 30 days as a function of religiosity in the most populous metropolitan areas in the United States. When a shelter-in-place directive had not been imposed, religiosity did not affect people's movements. However, when the directive was imposed, higher religiosity resulted in less adherence to shelter-in-place directives. Public Significance Federal, state, and local governments have raced to implement policies and directives to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the United States. One such important policy has been the issuance of shelter-in-place directives. Our research shows that, across the 53 largest municipal regions in the country, these directives have largely been effective in reducing movement and activities. However, we also find that greater religiosity in a community leads to increased reactance to the policy and decreased adherence. Our findings can inform policy makers that the same directive can elicit less versus more adherence depending on how communities perceive it.

Despite the fact that many electrolyzer projects have been installed, there is little operational data available to quantify their response and flexibility. Electrolyzers electrochemically separate water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity as the feedstock. This work explores the operational flexibility of electrolyzers by performing experimental tests on a proton exchange membrane (PEM) and an alkaline electrolyzer. Many applications value flexibility, particularly with the addition of increased intermittent renewables and new regulations for both stationary and transportation emissions. Test results are compared to the operational requirements for participation in end-user facility energy management, transmission and distribution system support, and wholesale electricity market services.The hydrogen produced from electrolyzers can be used for many different applications and can be integrated into different system architectures. The applications include hydrogen for vehicle fueling, industrial processes, power generation, and injection into the natural gas pipeline. Hydrogen can also be methanized and used for similar applications. Hydrogen production and storage can be combined with power generation equipment including fuel cells, reciprocating engines, combustion turbines, and steam turbines, resulting in a storage device with the ability to time shift delivery of electricity for electric grid applications. In this way, hydrogen can be used to support increased intermittent renewable generation.For the applications considered the following factors are important: (1) the time it takes to respond to a change in power set-point, (2) the time it takes to settle after a power set-point change, (3) the rate at which the device can change power consumption, (4) the lower operation limit or the minimum turndown level, and (5) the time it takes to start up and shut down. The findings are as follows:• Small electrolyzer systems (~40 kW units) begin changing their electricity demand within milliseconds of a set-point change.• The settling time after a set-point change is on the order of seconds.• Electrolyzers can reduce their electrical consumption for an unlimited amount of time.• Electrolyzers exhibit low part-load operation capabilities.• Electrolyzers can start up and shut down in several minutes.In addition, a frequency disturbance correction test was performed to test the ability of an electrolyzer to accelerate the speed at which the grid frequency can be restored. For this test, an isolated grid consisting of a diesel generator, load bank, and electrolyzer was perturbed by changing the load bank's set-point. The time that it takes to restore the frequency was examined for both the case with and without the support of the electrolyzer. In all cases, adjusting the electricity demand for the electrolyzer corresponding to the load bank's change, the system was able to restore the frequency faster with the support of the electrolyzer than without.When comparing the performance metrics for electrolyzers with th...

AcknowledgmentsThe authors would like to recognize Rick Farmer, Roxanne Garland, and Jamie Holladay of the U.S. Department of Energy for funding this work. George Sverdrup of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Vicki McCarl of Xcel Energy were both very helpful in scoping and defining the Wind2H2 project and have provided excellent feedback throughout the project. Brad Hollenbaugh and Curtis Perry of Xcel Energy were instrumental in helping design and configure the Wind2H2 system and in participating in the readiness verification review. The authors would like to acknowledge John Cornish of EPC and Marc Mann of Spectrum Automation for their work installing and programming the Wind2H2 system. The authors would like to thank Connie Komomua for her assistance in editing the work. Finally, the authors would like to thank Robert Remick, Dave Mooney, Ben Kroposki, Mike Stewart, and Genevieve Saur of NREL for their technical assistance throughout the project. and is enjoying success as a demonstration project, producing hydrogen directly from renewable energy sources. This unique research-oriented project uses solar and wind energy to produce and store hydrogen. The stored hydrogen can be used both as a transportation fuel and as an energy storage medium, effectively allowing renewable energy to be stored and converted back to electricity at a later time.The Wind2H2 project is helping researchers understand the hurdles and potential areas for improvement in emerging renewable electrolysis technologies. By allowing engineers to operate and configure an integrated electrolysis facility, this project has enabled the investigation and analysis of hydrogen production, compression, storage, and electricity generation that is providing valuable data that are being used to improve the designs of future renewable electrolysis systems. This first report on the Wind2H2 project provides important guidance to industry and key stakeholders for development of future renewable electrolysis systems.The Wind2H2 project is the only renewable hydrogen production facility in the world that can operate multiple electrolyzers in any of the following configurations: 1. Grid connected 2. Directly connected from the output of a photovoltaic array to the electrolyzer stack 3. Real-time electrolyzer stack current control based on a power signal from a wind turbine 4. Closely coupled photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy sources to the electrolyzer stack with custom designed and built power electronics.NREL and Xcel Energy have undertaken the Wind2H2 project with several key objectives in mind. First and foremost, the Wind2H2 project is being used to demonstrate operation of a renewable electrolysis system, allowing researchers to evaluate actual system performance and costs and to identify areas for cost and efficiency improvements. Additionally, the project provides operational experience with a renewable electrolysis hydrogen production facility, enabling project engineers to investigate operational challenges and to explore system-...

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