Grid

VEIR aims to enable the cost-effective transfer of bulk electric power (up to 400 MW) at a single voltage (10 kV) from generation to grid using high temperature superconducting (HTS) overhead and underground power lines. The team proposes to integrate VEIR’s existing distributed, evaporative liquid nitrogen cooling architecture for HTS lines with breakthroughs in two key areas (1) high ampacity (maximum current) low-loss conductors and (2) ultra-low heat leak insulation systems.

Siemens and its partners will develop innovative protection schemes consisting of fundamentally new control and protection (C&P) functions for inverter-dominated renewable systems. These new functions do not represent simple evolution of prior engineering practices when analyzing and optimizing system-level protection schemes. Rather, new Protection Inverter Co-Design (PICo-Design) tools will be developed that automatically analyze and optimize C&P functions to achieve higher protection reliability.

North Carolina State University (NC State) will radically change how future microgrids are designed by developing a suite of microgrid control/coordination co-design tools capable of performing systematic design of an optimized microgrid, given a set of design objectives and performance constraints.

Stoicheia aims to accelerate the discovery of proton exchange membrane electrolyzer (PEM) anode catalysts to reduce or eliminate the rare, expensive iridium oxide (IrOx) that is currently the industry standard. Stoicheia’s novel combinatorial process and Megalibrary platform enables the rapid synthesis and characterization of hundreds of thousands of unique materials in a single experiment. Stoicheia seeks to use this approach to accelerate the discovery of reduced IrOX options.

Cornell University seeks to develop a breakthrough wireless charging system for stationary and dynamic charging of EVs that will drastically reduce the need for expensive and bulky on-board batteries, enable unlimited range, accelerate EV penetration, and reduce U.S. energy consumption. The new system will leverage charging range extension, field focusing, and machine learning-based optimization to (1) reduce interference from fringing fields by 10x, (2) increase energy transfer by 10x, and (3) reduce power pulsations by 10x compared with state-of-the-art solutions.

pH Matter will use electrochemical compression within an electrolysis stack and contained in a Type V vessel to eliminate or reduce the amount of additional mechanical compression required to make high-pressure hydrogen (200-700 bar). Historically, mechanical stability, hydrogen crossover, or diffusion problems made such an approach very challenging. In addition to the Type V vessel, pH Matter will utilize their patented, hybrid liquid alkaline-anion exchange membrane electrolysis cell that has 30x less crossover than a state-of-the-art proton exchange membrane electrolyzer.

Leakage from SF6-insulated circuit breakers and power equipment has been raising environmental concerns due to the high GWP of SF6. Georgia Tech proposes TESLA, an SF6-free high-voltage circuit breaker. Recent breakthroughs in the dielectric properties of supercritical fluid research show the promise of using it as a dielectric and arc-quenching medium for high-voltage AC circuit breakers instead of SF6. TESLA opens possibilities for an SF6-free electric apparatus.