Research Spotlight

Building justice into the clean energy revolution

Sana Sadiq — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 14:40:43 -0400

As climate change intensifies, the world needs to transition to clean energy. However, the pathways chosen to make that transition happen aren’t always equitable.

For example, subsidies for rooftop solar panels systematically exclude non-homeowners. Poorly planned renewable energy projects infringe on Indigenous land rights. Lower-income…

Providing powerful forecasting tools for virtual power plants

Sana Sadiq — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 12:25:20 -0500

Today’s electricity system includes more and more smaller-scale sources of energy, plus more and more electric vehicles (EVs) that act as small-scale storage systems when they’re plugged in. Virtual power plants (VPPs) help manage all those “distributed energy resources” by pooling them into larger packages that can be included in day-ahead…

Why lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen storage work better together

Sana Sadiq — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 19:22:24 -0500

The intermittent nature of wind and solar power means many microgrids still rely on highly polluting diesel generators to fill gaps in supply. But advances in lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen fuel cells — two key energy-storage technologies — could change the game.

WISE researcher Xiao-Yu Wu and his collaborator, Michael Giovanniello, set out…

Smoothing renewable energy connections

Sana Sadiq — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 11:01:03 -0500

The transfer of power from offshore wind farms and other converter-interfaced renewable energy sources (RESs) to remote loads may rely on direct-current (DC) transmission lines. The integration of RESs in the grid via converters and power transfer over DC lines result in the connection of multiple converters to a shared DC point in large-scale…

How eight committed cities are cutting carbon emissions

Sana Sadiq — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 15:08:23 -0400

Urban areas account for roughly three-quarters of global carbon emissions, making local governments key players in the fight against climate change. However, few studies have looked at the best municipal pathways to net zero.

WISE researcher Amelia Clarke and her collaborators set out to address that gap. After reviewing academic research,…

Optimizing the economics of demand response

Sana Sadiq — Fri, 23 Jun 2023 12:00:09 -0400

Right now, energy generators sell their electricity to grid operators in a competitive energy market. Grid operators also oversee a parallel “demand response” procurement program, where big energy consumers like steel plants and pulp and paper mills offer to curb their electricity use during peak time — for a price

This can take a lot of…

Optimizing operations in net-zero buildings

Sana Sadiq — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 23:41:02 -0400

Today, buildings account for nearly a third of global energy consumption. Net-zero energy structures aim to decarbonize the sector by generating as much electricity on site as they use each year. But what happens when their actual energy consumption is initially higher than intended?

In the case of a 100,000-square-foot office building recently…

Insights into China’s energy storage

Sana Sadiq — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 12:03:31 -0500

Socio-political factors can make or break the large-scale deployment of virtually any new technology. Energy storage (e.g., batteries, pumped hydro, and compressed air) is one such technology, requiring broad social acceptance if it is to play an essential role for a sustainable energy transition.

So how are those factors affecting energy…

Building batteries to get flying cars off the ground

Sana Sadiq — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 14:24:52 -0500

Flying cars are no longer reserved for sci-fi novels, with groups like Boeing, Toyota and NASA working to move electric vehicles into the skies. One of the key challenges is ensuring the power batteries in these airborne automobiles don’t overheat during takeoff and landing, when discharge rates peak.

Flat heat pipe (FHP) technology offers a…

Prolonging the life of wind farm transformers

Sana Sadiq — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 13:32:00 -0500

Transformers are a crucial — and expensive — part of wind farm infrastructure, boosting the low-voltage output from turbine generators to the higher voltage required by the grid. But too often, they fail prematurely.

That’s because standard transformers aren’t designed to handle spikes in high-frequency energy that are common in wind farms,…