NOTICEThis report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. Neither the United States government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States government or any agency thereof. AbstractHybrid energy systems utilize two or more energy resources as inputs to two or more physically coupled subsystems to produce one or more energy commodities as outputs. Nuclear hybrid energy systems can be used to provide load-following electrical power to match diurnal to seasonal-scale changes in power demand or to compensate for the variability of renewable wind or solar generation. To maintain economical, full rate operation of the nuclear reactor, its thermal energy available when power demand is low could be diverted into making synthetic vehicle fuels of various types. The Institute for Nuclear Energy Science and Technology (INEST) 1 and the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA) 2 co-sponsored an international workshop to identify research topics important in advancing the potential use of hybrid systems with a specific focus on nuclear-renewable hybrid systems. The workshop included presentations ranging from energy challenges and research and development (R&D) directions being pursued by nations to multiple options for hybrid systems. Those options include one that is being commercialized to other opportunities and analysis results quantifying them. The workshop also involved two breakout sessions-one focused on thermal energy management issues especially at unit-operation scale and the second focused on system operations issues including system controls, regulatory issues, technical and economic analysis, and market challenges. A discussion involving the full group focused on more general issues such as societal involvement and participation. Key criteria for selecting hybrid energy system projects and metrics for comparing them were also identified by the full group. The workshop's findings are being used initially by INEST to define topics for a research preproposal solicitation.
Systems Engineering (SE) practice has largely developed around a few specific industries, especially aerospace/defense and IT. SE is well understood by, and remains associated with, these industries. The classical systems engineering process starts with conceptual development of a specific system that will ultimately be produced and deployed. In the renewable energy R&D environment, neither of these normal cases apply; the work is being conducted in a culture that is generally unfamiliar with systems engineering, and the R&D activities are mostly oriented toward technology development and refinement rather than toward development of a specific deployable system. Nevertheless, systems engineering principles can be applied to enhance the management of the Research & Development (R&D) process, but significant tailoring of SE processes is required, and enhanced modeling and simulation techniques must be applied to deal with all the unknowns at a very early part of the system lifecycle. The lessons learned from several years of experience in this unique environment at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, as well as a number of new ideas for future process enhancements, will be explored in this paper.
Printed on paper containing at least 50% wastepaper, including 10% post consumer waste.iii AcknowledgmentsThe authors would like to thank all who contributed their time and insights to make the Nuclear and Renewable Energy Synergies Workshop successful. Without them, the ideas and information in this report would not exist. Executive SummaryTwo of the major challenges the U.S. energy sector faces are greenhouse gas emissions and oil that is both imported and potentially reaching a peak (the point at which maximum extraction is reached). Interest in development of both renewable and nuclear energy has been strong because both have potential for overcoming these challenges. Each has the potential to de-carbonize the energy sector, and electricity, biofuels, and hydrogen from renewable and nuclear sources have the potential to replace oil used for transportation.Research in both energy sources is ongoing, but relatively little research has focused on the potential benefits of combining nuclear and renewable energy. In September 2011, the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA) convened the Nuclear and Renewable Energy Synergies Workshop at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to identify potential synergies and strategic leveraging opportunities between nuclear energy and renewable energy. Industry, government, and academic thought leaders gathered to identify potential broad categories of synergies and brainstorm topic areas for additional analysis and research and development (R&D). This report records the proceedings and outcomes of the workshop.Section 1 provides an introduction to the challenges facing the U.S. energy sector and a look at the recent history of both nuclear and renewable energy use in this country.Section 2 summarizes a series of presentations that set the stage for group discussion.Section 3 focuses on the process of determining the high impact categories of synergies between nuclear and renewable energy and defining critical next steps for each. The workshop participants identified nine broad categories of synergies: balancing capacity on the grid; islandable micro-grids and small modular reactors (SMRs); energy for transportation; energy for industrial applications; hybrid energy systems; lessons learned; permitting, licensing, and financing; business model development; and policy and institutional opportunities.The participants prioritized two technical categories-energy for transportation and hybrid energy systems-and one institutional category-business model development-as having the greatest potential for high impact, which was defined as a balance between scale of the issues or opportunities, probability of success, near-term potential, complexity, cost, and ability to move to implementation. In the two technical categories, workshop participants identified high priority analysis and R&D needs. Those needs include development of a list of requirements, dynamic system models, process designs, cost and scale analysis, R&D on enabling t...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.