OVERVIEW

Last year, PNNL managed over $1 billion in research and development expenditures, and helped dozens of commercial partners bring new innovations to market. The Energy & Environment Directorate at PNNL is tackling our nation's most complex and important science and technology challenges. We are a National Laboratory with cross-disciplinary capabilities that include advanced chemical, materials, computer, biology and earth systems science, along with extensive expertise in systems engineering. At PNNL, it’s our job to envision the clean energy future as greater than the sum of its parts—we take a systems view, providing the foundation for a thriving, sustainable energy economy.

We see everything working together, only so much better.

THE SMARTER GRID

The electric infrastructure that powers the U.S. economy has been described as one of our nation’s “supreme engineering achievements,” central to decades of innovation and a key to our global competitiveness. But the way our grid operates today is based on 19th Century theory and 20th Century hardware. PNNL researchers recognize the tremendous opportunity emerging from the integration of 21st Century intelligent devices at all levels of our energy system, which can be optimized to reduce emissions, increase efficiency and enhance reliability.

PNNL researchers are playing a key role in bringing this intelligent infrastructure to life through the nation’s largest Smart Grid Demonstration Project. Smart Grid technologies leverage advanced communications infrastructure to provide grid operators and consumers alike with better visibility over the networks that move electrons from power plants to the plug. The Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demo Project is amassing data through PNNL’s Electricity Infrastructure Operations Center the Smart Grid control room of the future.

We’re collecting energy use and efficiency data across five states, and testing grid management technology developed by our scientists and engineers, and partners across the country. We can see a more efficient and secure energy future right now, where predictive algorithms help unlock new value streams, provide more resilient systems and prevent power failures before they happen. The grid of the future provides the platform, where energy supply and demand converge, where we can watch it happening and consumers can help control for more system efficiencies. Through the demonstration project, we’ll learn how to drive scale in markets for new energy technologies and services, and pioneer new methods for integrating clean energy.

While leveraging major public and private partnerships, the demonstration project will allow our partners to capture a share of the market for Smart Grid related software and IT services, a market estimated to grow from $3.6 billion in 2011 to $8.6 billion in 2017. The market for Smart Grid analytics is emerging, with global spending expected to total over $34 billion by 2020.

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CLEAN ENERGY INTEGRATION

Advancements in clean energy present opportunities and challenges; aligning our future energy resources with our aging electrical grid is a highly nuanced proposition. Our energy system is complex, the rate of change in our resource mix has accelerated and the velocity of new data hitting utility control rooms is changing the way we manage grid operations. PNNL researchers are working with some of the nation’s most forward-leaning utilities to ensure we have the tools and systems in place to create an efficient, secure and affordable energy future as clean energy proliferates. Our researchers are working to drive down the costs of clean energy technologies and overcome challenges to large-scale renewable energy deployment. We’re helping optimize siting of energy installations and assessing new opportunities, improving technologies to meet environmental and power production goals, and building tools for resource characterization and advanced forecasting capabilities.

Wind

In 2012, wind power became the number one source for new electricity generation in the U.S., representing 43 percent of all new capacity additions. Wind now produces enough electricity to power 15 million U.S. homes per year, PNNL is working with stakeholders across the spectrum to advance sustainable renewable energy from utility-scale, small-scale distributed and offshore wind.

To improve the performance of utility-scale wind farms, we’re focusing research on better understanding the resource itself so that wind farms harvest energy more efficiently and plant operators can forecast and respond to changes in wind speed and turbulence. Ultimately, that drives down power costs. Meanwhile, small-scale or “distributed wind” is one of the fastest growing sectors of the industry, with projects in all 50 states. PNNL analysts are helping inform this dynamic market through the Department of Energy's distributed wind market report.

Offshore wind represents one of the best opportunities to dramatically increase wind generation. Scientists at PNNL are investigating the challenges to development of the immense wind energy potential off both U.S. coasts. We are supporting Department of Energy-funded offshore wind demonstration projects off the Coast of Oregon, Maine, and in Lake Eerie. PNNL researchers are addressing pressing environmental questions facing early deployment of offshore wind in the U.S., illuminating sustainable pathways towards utility-scale deployment.

Solar

PNNL is taking a systems approach to driving solar development at scale. Our researchers are connecting the dots on how next-generation nanomaterials can improve manufacturing efficiencies and drive down solar panel costs. Since the sun doesn’t shine 24-7, we’re also working on systems that combine solar and clean-burning natural gas to lower carbon emissions and drive up power plant efficiency. Meanwhile, we’re exploring new solar-thermal energy solutions—designed to capture solar energy during the day and release it when it’s dark. PNNL scientists are designing new materials that can store up to 10 times more heat per mass than today’s industry standard, which relies on molten salts and requires large, expensive equipment. Ultimately, the goal is to make thermal energy storage systems smaller and more cost-competitive.

Driving down costs is one key to helping clean energy technologies thrive, and so is understanding how to seamlessly integrate them with the existing electricity infrastructure. PNNL researchers are using Grid Lab-D, an open source tool we’ve developed, to demonstrate how solar generating technologies can be deployed in a variety of contexts including microgrids, and in typical neighborhoods.

Water Power

Much of our work on clean energy is targeted at increasing performance of the Pacific Northwest and the nation’s largest existing renewable resource. PNNL's experts in hydropower—from computer scientists to biologists and engineers—are helping to optimize efficiency and environmental performance of hydroelectric plants. The Columbia River is the nation’s most important hydropower resource, producing 40 percent of the nation’s hydroelectric generation and up to 70 percent of the region’s power. At PNNL, we are working with stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of Energy to ensure that this resource continues to provide its many benefits, while setting a new standard for environmental sustainability. As aging turbines are replaced in existing hydropower dams computational modeling and state of the art fisheries research combine to aid design of the next generation hydro turbine that meets or exceeds current biological performance standards and produces more power. As an example, next-generation turbines at Grant County PUD’s Wanapum Dam are achieving greater than 97 percent fish survival, while producing an additional 132,000,000 kwh annually, enough to power an extra 12,440 homes.

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ENERGY STORAGE

Advanced energy storage technologies can provide our future energy system with enhanced flexibility, as variable generation like wind and solar come online and energy efficiency on-demand becomes a resource at scale. In fact, PNNL researchers estimate that when Western states reach their renewable energy goals, the market for energy storage will grow to 6.3 Gigawatts—more than three times the capacity of Hoover Dam.

To help meet the demands of the emerging market for balancing resources, PNNL researchers are developing utility-scale storage technology through advances in chemistry and new materials. We are working in tandem with industry partners on projects designed to help utilities manage “ramping” of wind power resources. We’re working to demonstrate how deploying advanced storage technologies can help utilities – and ultimately the customers they serve – avoid other costly infrastructure investments. We’re leading research on faster charging batteries for electric vehicles, phones, and other devices. And we’re even exploring the potential values and markets for alternatives including pumped hydro and Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES).Taken together, these solutions will help pave the way toward the real-time, resilient energy system of the future.

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REINVENTING BUILDINGS AS ENERGY ASSETS

What if your building knew how to save you money? PNNL is inventing systems to turn buildings from passive users of energy into active participants in the power system, making the buildings we work in work for us. We’re researching how buildings can adapt to changes in weather, adjust for time of day, and respond positively to the natural environment, evolving grid conditions, and dynamic occupant demands -- not simply brace for those external factors.

Why do buildings matter to our energy future? Because they account for 75 percent of U.S. electricity consumption and 40 percent of our nation’s energy use overall—to the tune of some $430 billion in energy bills every year. Powering our buildings contributes more than 2,200 million metric tons of CO2 to the atmosphere annually—more than the total emissions of Russia and Canada combined.

Building Codes & Standards

PNNL is a long-standing leader in the U.S. Department of Energy’s efforts to advance building energy codes and equipment standards. Incorporating efficiency into design considerations is key—since it can be significantly more expensive to drive efficiency after buildings have been constructed and commissioned. What’s more, the opportunity is now, since 75 percent of the buildings in the U.S. will be replaced or renovated by 2035. And there’s real money (and energy) at stake. By 2020, U.S. building codes will combine to reduce annual energy consumption by 1.2 quads—and put an estimated $7.4 billion per year back in consumers’ pockets. By 2040, U.S. building codes will contribute CO2 emissions reductions equivalent to 60 coal-fired plants—with costs savings accumulating to $240 billion.

Diagnostics & Controls

Building on successful work in codes and standards, our experts believe we can leverage advances in low-cost sensing, diagnostic, and metering technologies to enable new approaches to energy management that will have major impacts. We’re working with commercial partners on software and diagnostic tools that provide building operators data needed to optimize energy use. We’re using these tools on our own campus, but our vision goes even further. We can harvest savings from systems within buildings, like heating & lighting, and we can coordinate with adjacent resources like electric vehicles, rooftop solar, even the buildings next door. The combination of integrated buildings, dynamic systems, and interconnected grid infrastructure can provide consumers and building owners more control and optimize our energy system to drive up efficiency and drive down cost.

Market Transformation

Once new efficiency technologies have been developed, PNNL works with industry to test them and demonstrate them in the field—key to driving commercial adoption and deployment at scale. In fact, lighting represents the largest source of electricity consumption in U.S. commercial buildings, to the tune of some $38 billion per year. Our researchers are leading efforts to work with manufacturers of new Solid State Lighting (SSL) solutions that can improve efficiency and performance. We’re also working with major building owners and even big cities to demonstrate how new lighting technologies can improve their economics and even public safety.

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AVIATION BIOFUEL

The aviation industry employs more than 135,000 people in Washington, with an estimated $76 billion in economic impacts spread across nearly every corner of the state. Meanwhile, the cost of jet fuel has increased 267 percent in the last decade—and become the number one cost for airlines. Developing affordable alternatives compatible with existing infrastructure is a key strategic priority for maintaining a healthy U.S. aerospace industry. At PNNL we’re working with top universities and industry partners to turn natural waste and regional sources of biomass into the stuff that powers planes, from forest to fuel, farm to flight, barn to Boeing.

Leveraging the capabilities at PNNL’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL)—a Department of Energy national scientific user facility, located on our Richland, WA campus—our researchers are working on the best methods for converting bio-based materials to aviation fuels. Working with Boeing and UOP, we’ve produced 100 percent, bio-based jet fuel and demonstrated it in a hydroplane at Seattle’s Seafair. From testing catalysts at the bench scale, to producing small quantities of finished product for testing and verification, we’re working with our partners to demonstrate performance and drive down costs.

PNNL is part of a team (with Washington State University and MIT) that recently received a ten-year award from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to create a national Center for Excellence for jet biofuel research, to be headquartered at Washington State University's Richland, WA campus. The Center of Excellence includes 16 university partners in total and will bring together industry leaders to expand development and testing of aviation biofuels that meet performance standards and cost targets.

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