Generation

The proposed technology will boost the power production and increase the density of utility wind farms, resulting in at least a 23% reduction in levelized cost of energy (LCOE) from the wind. The flow dynamics of vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) enable constructive interactions between rotors in a wind farm, increasing power up to 30% over non-interacting turbines, and increasing VAWT density per unit land-area an order of magnitude compared with state-of-the-art wind farms.

Flares are widely used address methane emissions, eliminating a safety issue, and reducing greenhouse gas impacts up to 90%. There are many technical and economic challenges for designing small flares that operate reliably with high destruction efficiency, however. Frost Methane Labs proposes to develop a “micro-flare,” capable of handling emissions from sources from 10-200 tonnes of methane per year per site.

Blue Sky Measurements will develop a near-infrared passive scanner using sunlight to detect and measure methane emissions at an oil or gas production well pad or drilling site. The proposed system will provide continuous daily measurements for less than the annualized cost of currently mandated twice-a-year surveys. This fixed-position sensor system will enable operators to continuously monitor their operations for fugitive emissions and enable owners to take corrective action when a leak occurs, minimizing the time between when a leak develops and when it is fixed.

The team led by the University of Delaware Center for Composite Materials will develop a novel composite material feedstock and robotic placement process to fabricate stand-alone structural pipe within existing pipelines with no disruption in gas service. Repair strategies will be developed for straight and slightly curved pipe sections that will be internally wrapped and repaired using a new robotic-based design facilitating continuous placement of the tailorable feedstock material and creating a stand-alone structural liner within the legacy pipeline.

Fusion power plants will need efficient, high-power electrical drivers for plasma heating, compression, and control. Wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductor devices and innovative amplifiers may speed up the development of high-power fusion systems and reduce their eventual levelized cost of electricity. Princeton Fusion Systems will develop integrated, power-dense, reliable, and scalable power amplifier boards for plasma heating and control applications using WBG silicon carbide devices and employ advanced cooling. Individual boards will be capable of delivering more than 10 kW of power.

Robust, affordable, and durable plasma-facing components (PFCs) are key to commercial fusion energy. PFCs must maintain the capability to handle the extreme heat, high-density plasma, high-energy neutrons, and fuel cycling in safe and economical operation. So far, a solution does not exist. Solid PFCs with a tungsten (W) armor, helium (He) cooling, and reduced-activation steel structure may satisfy the demanding requirements.

Prototype burning-plasma magnetic-fusion devices must operate at long pulse lengths to support power generation, making them susceptible to catastrophic disruption from plasma instabilities. Electron cyclotron heating and current drive powered by megawatt-level gyrotrons (vacuum electron devices that generate high-power, high-frequency radiation) are the most effective ways to heat and stabilize such plasmas. Megawatt-class gyrotrons are large, expensive to build and operate, inefficient, and have limited frequency and device lifetime.

Reduced-activation ferritic-martensitic (RAFM) steels are critical structural materials for fusion-energy subsystems such as integrated first-wall and blanket technology. Current RAFM steels cannot operate above ~550° C (1020° F). Castable nanostructured alloys (CNAs), recently developed at laboratory scale, can potentially achieve significantly higher temperatures, offering a pathway to more efficient operation, however. ORNL will establish a new class of RAFM steels based on carbide-strengthened CNAs to demonstrate industry-scale CNA production viability.

With significant improvement in high-temperature superconductors (HTS), several fusion projects are adopting HTS for high-field magnets. As compact fusion devices have less space for radiation shielding, HTS degradation is a potential design-limiting issue. There are currently no high-performance, compact shielding materials to enable the HTS technology in compact fusion devices. Stony Brook University seeks to improve the effectiveness and longevity of shield materials for HTS magnets.