Thermal Energy Storage Apparatus, Controllers and Thermal Energy Storage Control Methods
Thermal energy storage apparatus, controllers and thermal energy storage control methods are described. According to one aspect, a thermal energy storage apparatus controller includes processing circuitry configured to access first information which is indicative of surpluses and deficiencies of electrical energy upon an electrical power system at a plurality of moments in time, access second information which is indicative of temperature of a thermal energy storage medium at a plurality of moments in time, and use the first and second information to control an amount of electrical energy which is utilized by a heating element to heat the thermal energy storage medium at a plurality of moments in time.
Kevin Schneider
Buildings, the Grid, and an Electric Future
PNNL’s extensive portfolio of buildings-grid research included three projects that helped answer some of the technical questions related to leveraging energy consumption in buildings to enhance grid operations.
North to Alaska: Project Tests Electrification Concepts
Researchers from PNNL have been assessing installation and use of electric heat pumps in an Alaskan community that relies on fuel oil for heat. The resulting information could advance electrification in cold rural areas across the nation.
Thermoelectric Devices and Applications for the Same
This invention describes a process for sputter deposition of thin films of alloys of Bi2Te3, Sb2Te3 and Bi2Se3 for thermoelectric energy conversion. The approach allows deposition of these films on glass and flexible substrates such as Kapton. The process was used to deposit n-type and p-type films that exhibit properties nearly as good as measured for bulk materials. A single thermocouple was formed from n-type and p-type films that produced 3 millivolts under a temperature difference of 10 degrees centigrade. This result demonstrates that miniature high-voltage, microwatt power sources can be constructed from thin film arrays deposited as described by the disclosed process.
Metal Fluoride Electrode Protection Layer and Method of Making Same
The present invention discloses a method to modify the titanium oxide based anode materials by coating a thin layer of AlF3 on the particle surface and the excellent battery performance for the thus obtained surface-modified titanium oxide based materials. This method is simple and cost effective. The key aspect of the present invention is to keep the AlF3 coating at low content particularly between 0.1% and 10% and more particularly between 1% and 5%. The thin AlF3-coating layer significantly improves the power performance, capacity retention at elevated temperatures and long term cycle life of the lithium-ion batteries using these surface-modified anode materials.
Improving Grid Reliability in the Face of Extreme Events
PNNL has released the first version of ExaGO, an open-source grid modeling software that can take advantage of emerging heterogeneous computing architecture to help grid operators plan ahead for extreme events.
Solving Scientific Problems with Institutional Collaborations
Brown University Applied Mathematics and Engineering Professor George Karniadakis has driven solutions for science and engineering problems for over ten years with a joint appointment at PNNL.