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A specific role for the HTGR in a national energy strategy is examined. The issue is addressed in two ways. First, the role of the HTGR-GT Binary cycle plant is examined in a national energy strategy based on symbiosis between fast breeder and advanced converter reactors utilizing the thorium U233 fuel cycle. Second, the advantages of the HTGR-GT dry-cooled plant operating in arid regions is examined and compared with a dry-cooled LWR. An event tree analysis of potential benefits is applied.

Solar Decathlon 2005: The Event in Review is a technical report describing the 2005 Solar Decathlon, an event sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy wherein 18 collegiate teams competed in 10 contests to design, build, and operate an attractive, efficient, entirely solar-powered home. The report gives an overview of the competition, including final results, team strategies, and detailed descriptions the 18 homes.

LBNL-57451 Clean Energy Technologies A Preliminary Inventory of the Potential for Electricity Generation Owen Bailey and Ernst Worrell Energy Analysis Department Environmental Energy Technologies Division Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 April 2005 This work was funded by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Atmospheric Programs through the U.S. Department of Energy Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231 .

Three processes developed by Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center (PETC), Ledgemont Laboratories, and Ames Laboratories for the oxydesulfurization of coal were evaluated in continuous processing equipment designed, built, and/or adapted for the purpose at the DOE-owned Multi-Use Fuels and Energy Processes Test Plant (MEP) located at TRW's Capistrano Test Site in California. The three processes differed primarily in the chemical additives (none, sodium carbonate, or ammonia), fed to the 20% to 40% coal/water slurries, and in the oxygen content of the feed gas stream. Temperature, pressure, residence time, flow rates, slurry concentration and stirrer speed were the other primary independent variables. The amount of organic sulfur removed, total sulfur removed and the Btu recovery were the primary dependent variables. Evaluation of the data presented was not part of the test effort.

FINAL REPORT ON : NON-LINEAR WAVES IN CONTINUOUS MEDIA Doe DE FG03-87ER13686 (001312-001) Submitted January 10, 2006 by Seth J. Putterman 310-8252269 Physics Department University of California Los Angeles, CA 90095 puherman@ritva.physics.ucla.edu NON-LINEAR WAVES IN CONTINUOUS MEDIA I am happy to report that this project has been a big success. For over 10 years the DOE [Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering] has funded our research program on the overarching theme of spontaneous energy focusing phenomena. These effects occur when a nonlinear macroscopic system is excited so as to drive it far from equilibrium. The subsequent relaxation to equilibrium does not occur smoothly but instead is accompanied by the formation of structured domains where the energy density is highly concentrated. A signature example is picosecond sonoluminescence [1] wherein a smooth sound wave has its energy density focused by 12 orders of magnitude to generate a clock-like string of picosecond flashes of ultraviolet light. Our earlier work on solitons [2] demonstrated how uniform surface waves break up into stable localized structures. Our experimental work on turbulence produced photos of localized structures lying many standard deviations outside the range of gaussian statistics[3]. This effect is referred to as intermittency. Our recent workmore » on friction finds its motivation in those theories of sonoluminescence which invoke frictional electricity. In its most common form this is the generation of a spark when we touch a doorknob after walking over a carpet. Our reading of the literature on this subject indicated that frictional electricity like sonoluminescence is not understood. So to probe triboelectrification we set up a modern version of an experiment performed by Bernoulli in 1700. Here sparking is caused by the rubbing of glass against mercury. We indeed observed flashes of light which were accompanied by events of stick-slip friction at the interface between the mercury and glass. Furthermore, we found that a very slow relative motion of 1mm/second created repetitive macroscopic picosecond discharges wherein electrons are accelerated to at least 1% of the speed of light[4]. Following up on the Bernoulli-Picard effect we wondered if electrification played a role in ordinary friction and if friction itself might be another example of an energy focusing effect. Indeed we found that dry friction is due to the spontaneous formation of atomic/molecular bonds at the interface of two materials brought into contact. Bond formation provides for the stick in stick-slip friction. When the external force is great enough to rupture the bonds the interface slips. Thus the averaged normal force applied to an interface is focused down to the level of individual bonds where quantum mechanics comes into play in determining the properties of friction in macroscopic systems[5,6,7]. A typical applied stress is about 1bar whereas the focused stress at the bonds which spontaneously form at the interface is about 1Megabar. This stress is so great that it locally distorts the interface and leads to spot cold welding between surfaces in contact. And as these cold welds grow the change in stiffness of the junction displays quantum jumps which we have observed even when the bodies in contact have macroscopic dimensions [7]. The intellectual thrust for all the advances mentioned above has been seeded by the Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering. We believe that our efforts have generated favorable science based publicity for Basic Energy Science. The Principal Investigator has been invited to give colloquia at each of the top 20 universities at least once. The New York Times has written 3 science articles based on our effort on sonoluminescence and the mercury light. Nature has written a news-story about our work on solitons [8] and more recently a news-story about our work on cold welding [9]. Our recent success in scaling up sonoluminescence to pulses with a peak power of 1/2Watt [10] has just been reported by Physics Today[11], and a presentation to the Acoustical Society of America [12] about megakelvin sonoluminescing bubbles has been picked up by Business Week [13]. Additional news articles about our work in Nature, Science, etc. could be cited.« less

ITN Energy Systems, Inc., and Global Solar Energy, Inc., with the assistance of NREL's PV Manufacturing R&D program, have continued the advancement of CIGS production technology through the development of trajectory-oriented predictive/control models, fault-tolerance control, control-platform development, in-situ sensors, and process improvements. Modeling activities to date include the development of physics-based and empirical models for CIGS and sputter-deposition processing, implementation of model-based control, and application of predictive models to the construction of new evaporation sources and for control. Model-based control is enabled through implementation of reduced or empirical models into a control platform. Reliability improvement activities include implementation of preventive maintenance schedules; detection of failed sensors/equipment and reconfiguration to continue processing; and systematic development of fault prevention and reconfiguration strategies for the full range of CIGS PV production deposition processes. In-situ sensor development activities have resulted in improved control and indicated the potential for enhanced process status monitoring and control of the deposition processes. Substantial process improvements have been made, including significant improvement in CIGS uniformity, thickness control, efficiency, yield, and throughput. In large measure, these gains have been driven by process optimization, which, in turn, have been enabled by control and reliability improvements due to this PV Manufacturing R&D program. This has resulted in substantial improvements of flexible CIGS PV module performance and efficiency.

High initial costs can impede the deployment of clean energy technologies. Financing can reduce these costs. And, state, municipal, and utility-sponsored loan programs have emerged to fill the gap between clean energy technology financing needs and private sector lending. In general, public loan programs are more favorable to clean energy technologies than are those offered by traditional lending institutions; however, public loan programs address only the high up-front costs of clean energy systems, and the technology installed under these loan programs rarely supports clean energy production at levels that have a notable impact on the broader energy sector. This report discusses ways to increase the impact of these loan programs and suggests related policy design considerations.

This report describes work done by the Syracuse University during Phase 1 of this subcontract. Researchers performed work in the following areas: (1) In ``Electroabsorption measurements and built-in potentials in a-Si:H-based solar cells and devices'', researchers obtained an estimate of Vbi = 1.17 V in cells with a-SiGe:H absorber layers from United Solar Systems Corp. (2) In ``Solar cell modeling employing the AMPS computer program'', researchers began operating a simple AMPS modeling site and explored the effect of conduction bandtail width on Voc computed analytical approximations and the AMPS program. The quantitative differences between the two procedures are discussed. (3) In ``Drift mobility measurements in a-Si:H made with high hydrogen dilution'', researchers measured electron and hole mobilities in several n/i/Ni (semitransparent) cells from Pennsylvania State University with a-Si absorber layers made under maximal hydrogen dilution and found a modest increase in hole mobility in these materials compared to conventional a-Si:H. (4) In ``Electroabsorption spectroscopy in solar cells'', researchers discovered and interpreted an infrared absorption band near 1.0 eV, which they believe is caused by dopants and defects at the n/i interface of cells, and which also has interesting implications for the nature of electroabsorption and for the doping mechanism in n-type material.

The objective of this research is to elucidate the role of various chemical additives on ethanol synthesis over Rh- and Ni-based catalysts. Chemical additives used for this study will include S, P, Ag, Cu, Mn, and Na which have different electronegativeities. The effect of additives on the surface state of the catalysts, heat of adsorption of reactant molecules, reaction intermediates, reaction pathways, reaction kinetics, and product distributions is/will be investigated by a series of experimental studies of NO adsorption, reactive probing, steady state rate measurement, and transient kinetic study. CO insertion is known to be a key step to the formation of acetaldehyde and ethanol from CO hydrogenation. Reaction of ethylene with syngas is used as a probe to determine CO insertion capabilities of metal catalysts. During the sixth quarter of the project, the mechanism of CO insertion on Ni/SiO{sub 2} was investigated by in-situ infrared spectroscopy. Ni/SiO{sub 2}, a methanation catalyst, has been shown to exhibit CO insertion activity. In situ infrared studies of CO/H{sub 2} and C{sub 2}H{sub 4}/CO/H{sub 2} reactions show that the carbonylation of Ni/SiO{sub 2} to Ni(CO){sub 4} leads to an inhibition of methanation in CO hydrogenation but an enhancement of formation of propionaldehyde in C{sub 2}H{sub 4}/CO/H{sub 2} reaction. The results suggest that the sites for propionaldehyde formation is different from those for methanation.