The true cost: Deploying electric vehicle charging infrastructure nationwide
Idaho National Laboratory
Changing the world’s energy future and securing our nation's critical infrastructure ??
When President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021, he announced a goal to install 500,000 new electric vehicle chargers across the nation by 2030. One of the big questions surrounding this goal involves determining the true cost of electric vehicle operation to allow the transportation sector to provide an equitable and affordable solution for all Americans. In response, Idaho National Laboratory researchers published a report demonstrating a model to standardize cost data for charging infrastructure. This report will help policymakers understand how much it would cost to deploy a national charging network. The report’s biggest accomplishment was creating a new protocol for measuring electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) cost figures, outlining a convention for representing these costs more consistently in future research.
INL is seeking a hydropower utility to collaborate on a case study to understand how small hydroelectric plants operating at 10 megawatts or less can be upgraded to provide emergency power to critical loads, such as hospitals and emergency service providers, during outages.
The no cost-share commitment would require the utility to provide plant specifications and data, which will be protected during the project and anonymized when published in the case study to inform other hydropower owners.
Two local high school teams competed in INL's first Pathways Student Challenge, building machines that could continuously grind biomass feedstocks like wood chips, cardboard and chopped-up corncobs, which are used to make biofuels, bioproducts and biopower.
In a head-to-head competition, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Feedstock Conversion Interface Consortium and supported with grants from Battelle Energy Alliance, the teams and their machines were put through their paces and evaluated by a team of experts from INL's Energy Systems Lab.
INL researchers are lending their expertise to two innovative companies, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s GAINnuclear voucher program. The companies 陶氏化学 , a giant plastics and chemicals manufacturer exploring using microreactors to reduce carbon emissions, and Curio Solutions , a startup that hopes to close the nuclear fuel cycle with a process that avoids proliferation concerns.
Vouchers provide innovators funds and access to the world class expertise and capabilities available across DOE's national lab complex to accelerate the innovation and application of advanced nuclear energy.
For the scientist in all of us, Experimental Breeder Reactor-I opened for the 2024 season on Friday, May 24. The museum, located 50 miles west of Idaho Falls, Idaho, at Idaho National Laboratory on U.S. 20, is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Labor Day. There is no cost for admission.
The reactor was completed in 1951, and on Dec. 20 of that year it became the world’s first nuclear power plant. EBR-I operated until late 1963 and was decommissioned in 1964. It was dedicated as a Registered National Historic Landmark on Aug. 25, 1966, by President Lyndon Johnson and Glenn Seaborg, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.
History has a way of sneaking up on a person. In Cuyler Cameron’s case, it was in the summer of 2022, when he was on a road trip from Colorado to Oregon. The sign for Experimental Breeder Reactor No. 1 made him think immediately of his grandfather, Reid Anderson Cameron Jr., who worked for INL in the days when it was the Atomic Energy Commission’s National Reactor Testing Station. Now a tourist attraction, EBR-I is where nuclear energy was harnessed for the first time to create electricity. Right on the wall, written in chalk and now protected by plexiglass, was “R. Cameron,” one of the 16 physicists, engineers and chemists who took EBR-I live.
CELEBRATING 75 YEARS OF INL
The celebration of INL’s 75th anniversary is being felt around the state!
Check out this video of Idaho’s two U.S. senators, Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, recognizing the impact of INL’s nuclear energy development and national security work.
INL recently hosted its 28th annual Laboratory Director Awards ceremony, a night dedicated to celebrating the outstanding achievements of its researchers, technicians, managers and mission-enabling staff members.
Check out this impressive lineup of awardees recognized for their contributions to science, technology and community service.
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Todd Combs , a highly respected leader and seasoned national laboratory expert, was selected as INL’s next deputy laboratory director for science and technology and chief research officer.
Since 2017, Combs has been INL’s associate laboratory director for the Energy and Environment Science and Technology directorate, which oversees a broad clean energy research and development portfolio. Under his leadership, the directorate made measurable progress in several initiatives vital to INL’s mission.
Sarah Creasman is a modeling and simulation engineering postdoc at INL working for the Integrated Energy Systems Program.
Her work helps maximize the use and delivery of nuclear energy to industrial, transportation and commercial sectors.
Congrats to INL scientist Grace Burke for earning the 2024 Mishima Award from the American Nuclear Society!
The Mishima Award recognizes an individual’s outstanding contributions in nuclear fuel and materials research and development, highlighting Grace's nuclear energy science and engineering accomplishments, and her leadership roles at INL and other organizations.
After six decades of service, the longest serving employee in INL’s history has finally decided to call it a career. Following her high school graduation in 1962, Mary Dee Grimm started working at the National Reactor Testing Station, precursor to INL, in Technical Editing and Publications. Over the years, Grimm collaborated on research reports and technical publications with research legends such as Russell Heath and Deslonde de Boisblanc. This was heady stuff for someone in their late teens, but Grimm took it in stride. Over six decades, she has seen seven contractors come and go. As opportunities for women at the lab expanded, she became a supervisor and then a manager. Just short of 62 years, most recently as a business manager in INL’s Facilities and Site Services directorate, Grimm’s contributions at INL will be felt for many years to come.
Meet Ashini Jayasinghe , a Distinguished Seaborg Postdoctoral Scholar at INL.
One of her projects is exploring how the impurities in molten salt fuel could impact the safety and operation of molten salt reactors.
Malachi Nelson joined INL as a graduate fellow to help improve the performance of materials in nuclear power plants, which provide carbon-free energy. His research focuses on how metals evolve with the temperatures and stresses produced during fission in light water reactors. In addition to his doctoral pursuits in nuclear engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, Nelson provides leadership for the lab’s Bike Commuter Resource Center. These two roles have something in common — both are moving us closer to a low-carbon future.
A MARVELOUS REACTOR DESIGN
Microreactors are known to be significantly smaller than full-sized commercial nuclear reactors. But exactly how small are they?
INL's MARVEL microreactor will be about the size of a sedan and will be used to help industry test applications to support the commercialization of their designs.
MARVEL has approval to move forward with limited construction and fabrication activities, with an expected completion in 2026!
LEADING THE CHARGE TO ACHIEVING CARBON NEUTRALITY
INL is leading the charge to achieve carbon neutrality. Through innovative research and on-site progress toward a net-zero campus, the laboratory is a test bed for clean energy solutions.
The effort to achieve net-zero includes converting fossil fuel equipment in our buildings to electric technologies and transitioning our vehicle fleet to electric and other low- and no-carbon energy sources. The lab is also addressing emissions from landfills and looking to source 100% carbon free electricity.
Author, "SAE CyberSecurity for Commercial Vehicles” & “SAE CyberSecurity for Entrepreneurs” in 2023 & The Antenna Lady….
5 个月Would ?? to see the analysis at a detailed level!!!