US Energy Department Funds Next-Gen Semiconductor Projects to Improve Power Grids (energy.gov) 20
America's long-standing Advanced Research Projects Agency (or ARPA) developed the foundational technologies for the internet.
This week its energy division announced $42 million for projects enabling a "more secure and reliable" energy grid, "allowing it to utilize more solar, wind, and other clean energy." But specifically, they funded 15 projects across 11 states to improve the reliability, resiliency, and flexibility of the grid "through the next-generation semiconductor technologies." Streamlining the coordinated operation of electricity supply and demand will improve operational efficiency, prevent unforeseen outages, allow faster recovery, minimize the impacts of natural disasters and climate-change fueled extreme weather events, and redcude grid operating costs and carbon intensity.
Some highlights:
This week its energy division announced $42 million for projects enabling a "more secure and reliable" energy grid, "allowing it to utilize more solar, wind, and other clean energy." But specifically, they funded 15 projects across 11 states to improve the reliability, resiliency, and flexibility of the grid "through the next-generation semiconductor technologies." Streamlining the coordinated operation of electricity supply and demand will improve operational efficiency, prevent unforeseen outages, allow faster recovery, minimize the impacts of natural disasters and climate-change fueled extreme weather events, and redcude grid operating costs and carbon intensity.
Some highlights:
- The Georgia Institute of Technology will develop a novel semiconductor switching device to improve grid control, resilience, and reliability.
- Michigan's Great Lakes Crystal Technologies (will develop a diamond semiconductor transistor to support the control infrastructure needed for an energy grid with more distributed generation sources and more variable loads
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will develop an optically-controlled semiconductor transistor to enable future grid control systems to accommodate higher voltage and current than state-of-the-art devices.
- California's Opcondys will develop a light-controlled grid protection device to suppress destructive, sudden transient surges on the grid caused by lightning or electromagnetic pulses.
- Albuquerque's Sandia National Laboratories will develop novel a solid-state surge arrester protecting the grid from very fast electromagnetic pulses that threaten grid reliability and performance.
America's Secretary of Energy said the new investment "will support project teams across the country as they develop the innovative technologies we need to strengthen our grid security and bring reliable clean electricity to more families and businesses — all while combatting the climate crisis."
Time to update your records (Score:4, Informative)
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There is also ARPA-E and a few other agencies similarly modeled after DARPA to add to the confusion. Given the project is DOE, ARPA-E is likely more pertinent.
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Yes, ARPA-E is not at all a "division" of DARPA. It's totally Department of Energy, while DARPA is Department of Defense.
There's also ARPA-H under the National Institutes of Health, and IARPA under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
I may be missing / forgetting others.
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Looks like better grid control... (Score:3)
Seems like what is being worked on is better power conditioning, different HVDC devices, and an optical control plane. Stuff that is important to keeping the grid up and running, but tends to get lost in the shuffle with the need for storage, nuclear, and PV panel research.
Important work, but definitely not stuff that makes front page news.
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Stuff that is important to keeping the grid up and running, but tends to get lost in the shuffle with the need for storage, nuclear, and PV panel research.
I'm not seeing the DOE, or more generally the Biden administration, see much need for nuclear energy research. I've read some news that at COP28 there should be an announcement from John Kerry that the USA will make some pledge to grow nuclear power energy production so perhaps this is changing. Many reports have interpreted these leaks as support for nuclear fusion, as opposed to fission, but there's a big problem with fusion research in the USA and it's name is "ITER". The DOE is not interested in fund
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Vehicle to grid looks good on paper, but people are not going to appreciate the added battery wear, and the range loss, especially if one is getting ready for a long trip, has their vehicle charging overnight, only to find the vehicle is only 50% charged, which means having to figure out how to make the trip, by adding charging stops and hoping there isn't a line, which can kill ETAs. I can see people modifying their chargers to ignore discharge requests, or if that is made illegal, have some sensor to jus
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I can see people modifying their chargers to ignore discharge requests, or if that is made illegal, have some sensor to just disconnect the charger.
Make it illegal to not have vehicle-to-grid? How would that work? If someone was stupid enough to put in some kind of requirement for vehicle-to-grid then it should be trivial enough to circumvent. One is to disconnect the vehicle from the EVSE if there's a power outage or something, the grid can't draw power if the car is disconnected. If someone wants to keep power to the house and the EVSE is the means to make that work then pull out whatever safety disconnect is in place for grid power. Perhaps wor
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That is indeed the case for EVs that get relatively little use, e.g. the owner works mostly from home and uses the car at weekends and for occasional trips to the office. Not periodically cycling the battery a little can cause wear.
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V2G doesn't use 50% of your battery, more like 5% max. It just covers short periods when there is high demand, the very peaks. Those peaks are extremely expensive to cover, with peaker fossil fuel plants getting 1000 Euro/MWh or more at times.
What's more, the load is very low compared to just normal driving, so wear is minimal. You can override it if you want to ensure you are at 100% instead of 95% for your long trip.
The research being done here is needed to help distribute energy from where it is availabl
Fear (Score:1)
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Anything effective should fund itself. (Score:2)
Anything unknown is just a hope. They make it sound like they're buying a new technology when earmarking money for one group to hopefully do something.
Pretending the money spent will all be useful doesn't work. Everyone knows it's a lie.
How we're attempting to progress isn't working. They can't just pour more money in and get more/better technology. You can't dictate progress, only get out of it's way.
Authoritarian systems don't work for research and discovery. Look into the book "Loonshots" for a syst
enabling a "more reliable" energy grid,Not Texas (Score:2)
Match Demand to Supply (Score:2)
Pork-Barrel (Score:1)
All the needed tech can already be bought on the market. This research is just funneling money and pretending to do something.