ETA 2021 Strategic Plan - Flipbook - Page 94
Customer Adoption Model (DER-CAM), an
optimization planning and design tool for
microgrids, and the Integrated Modeling Tool
(IMT), a decision-planning tool to support utility
and regulatory decisions around electricity rate
structures and cost recovery. GIG’s cybersecurity
and power system stability researchers are
playing an increasingly significant role in
developing strategies using tools from dynamic
systems and control, optimization and machine
learning to mitigate the risk of blackouts and
grid-destabilizing cybersecurity attacks. Working
with industry and utility partners, GIG is also
developing and deploying smart charging
systems that minimize charging costs for fleet
EVs and EVs charging at public stations. GIG’s
wide-ranging competencies support the Grid
2030, Urban Building energy Infrastructure, and
Sustainable Transportation Strategic Initiatives
of ETA.
Applied Energy Materials Group
The Applied Energy Materials Group specializes
in new materials design using techniques
ranging from fundamental theory to applied
experiments. Researchers in the group design,
develop, and test materials technologies for a
variety of applications crosscutting into electrical
energy conversion and storage, thermal energy
storage, the water–energy nexus, and building
resiliency. The Materials Project Center — a
consortium of principal investigators at Berkeley
Lab and the University of California, Berkeley,
and external partners — is mapping the
“genome” of materials science by computing
the properties of all known materials, thereby
enabling researchers to learn the fundamental
factors underpinning useful materials properties.
The Materials Project Center generates and
maintains a database that currently contains
theoretical computations of millions of materials
properties for ~130,000 unique compounds
and has a registered user base of more than
>150,000 researchers. Highlights include theoryguided, experimentally validated discoveries of
several new materials in disparate applications,
as well as extensive usage of the database
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in research studies conducted by external
users. The project also can accept external
contributions to its database. The group’s major
core capabilities include: theory of materials,
joint theory-experimental collaboration, data
dissemination and visualization, software toolkit
development, large-scale and high-throughput
computing, and data analytics / data mining.
Energy Conversion Group
The Energy Conversion Group uses highfidelity mathematical simulation and highperformance computing to understand and
optimize performance and durability of fuel cells
and fuel-cell like cells and components. Within
the Million Mile Fuel Cell Truck Consortium
that ESDR co-leads, researchers are designing
next-generation fuel cells for heavy-duty
applications in sectors where the hydrogenbased technologies complement EVs. Similarly,
research is conducted to reduce the cost of
water electrolyzers, thereby making a hydrogen
economy a feasible goal and realizing hydrogen
at scale. Key in these ESDR advancements is a
focus on advanced manufacturing, to develop
new, greener, and more energy-efficient
technologies and processes. One concept is
the electrochemical refinery, where excess
renewably sourced electrons are used to
electrochemically synthesize high-value and
high-volume chemicals and chemical precursors,
thereby enabling a new green manufacturing
paradigm based on electrons rather than
heat. Likewise, the group is undertaking work
to design plastics that are reconfigurable and
reusable from their basic chemical constituents.
Critical materials are used in many energy
storage products, and at present the United
States is a net importer of most of these
materials. ESDR aims to leverage the robust
ongoing research in electrochemical processes
and devices, including Li-ion batteries, redox
flow batteries, and polymer membrane fuel cells
to overcome technical challenges associated
with existing extraction processes, to provide
solutions that are essential for a successful U.S.
green economy.
