2016 annual report - remnf..." 4"...

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325 Learning and Environmental Sciences 1954 Buford Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55108

Renewable Electricity for Minnesota’s Future Annual Report (January to December 2016) Project Funding provided by customers of Xcel Energy through a grant from the Renewable Development Fund (RDF)

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LEGAL NOTICE This report was prepared as a result of work sponsored by the Renewable Development Fund as managed by Xcel Energy. It does not necessarily represent the views of Xcel Energy, its employees, or the Renewable Development Fund Advisory Group. Xcel Energy, its employees, contractors, and subcontractors make no legal liability for the information in this report; nor does Xcel Energy, its employees or the Renewable Development Fund Advisory Group represent that the use of this information will not infringe upon privately owned rights. This report has not been approved or disapproved by Xcel Energy nor has Xcel Energy passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of the information in this report.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This annual report is submitted in compliance with the Article 7 of the Grant Contract Terms and Conditions as supplemented by Exhibit C (Reporting Requirements and Protocol) covering the project “Renewable Electricity for Minnesota’s Future,” supported by the customers of Xcel Energy through a grant from the Renewable Development Fund. Covering the period January to December 2016, this Annual Report summarizes activities initiated and undertaken during the implementation and early stages of the above-‐mentioned university-‐wide research block grant. It enumerates actions taken to create a REMnF board, select grant recipients from a base of applicants, and gives a detailed update on initial progress of each funded project. The REMnF project strives to advance the same goals put forward in Xcel’s RDF. It is specifically focused on:

• Stimulating renewable electric energy research and development; • Promoting the start-‐up, expansion and attraction of renewable electric energy

projects and companies in the state through commercialization of our developed technologies;

• Developing demonstration scale renewable electric energy projects of near-‐commercial renewable electric generation or near-‐commercial electric infrastructure delivery technologies that enhance the delivery of renewable electric energy within the state;

• Increasing the market penetration of renewable electric energy resources at reasonable costs in the state; and thereby

• Providing benefits to Minnesota citizens, businesses and Xcel Energy’s electric ratepayers.

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2016 HIGHLIGHTS 2016 highlights:

• 1 provisional patent accepted • 13 University of Minnesota Graduate Student Research Assistants hired • 5 Post-‐Doctoral Fellows hired • $60,000 raised in additional project financing , leveraging RDF funds • 3 scientific papers published or accepted • 11 academic presentations outside the University of Minnesota • Partnerships initiated with four Minnesota companies: Cummins, Ten K Solar,

WindLogics, Daikin Applied

Benefits to the state, the private sector, and NSP’s ratepayers: We have worked with all four project teams to identify commercialization strategies and will continue to refine these strategies in the coming year. If any of the technologies being developed are commercialized there is potentially great benefit for the state, private industry, and NSP’s ratepayers. Electricity rates could be lowered if the technologies reduce the cost of producing and/or distributing electricity, and manufacturing and other white collar jobs could be created through startup businesses or patent acquisitions.

• The provisional patent issued to the James/Jalan team is the first step toward technology commercialization. We are excited about the potential of their project just six months into funding. This team is working with Daikin Applied in Plymouth, MN.

• If successuly produced, Leighton’s pyrite (iron-‐disulfide) solar panels could provide a major manufacturing boost to Minnesota’s Iron Range. They have made one of two breakthroughs they view as necessary before they are ready for commercialization. This team is working with Ten K Solar manufacturing in Minneapolis, MN.

• Mohan’s team is working on a technology to reduce wind turbine nacelle weight 10x while improving electric output consistency, a process that can potentially reduce electricity costs and spur manufacturing jobs in Minnesota. This team is working with Cummins Electric, who has multiple locations in the Twin Cities metro area.

• Shen’s team is working on wind farm technology that improve wind farm production, which could ultimately result in reduced costs for consumers. This team is working with WindLogics, a St. Paul subsidiary of NextEra Energy.

5 post-‐doctoral fellows have been hired and moved to Minnesota to work on the four projects. So far 13 students are directly employed by the projects. Dozens of other students in the classroom and via departmental learning opportunities benefit from the research being conducted by the four research teams. This is an essential factor for the University of Minnesota maintaining its status as a top-‐notch research institution, which in turn draws bright students from throughout Minnesota, the country, and world. It is not quantifiable, but conducting cutting-‐edge research works to increase Minnesota’s intellectual capital,

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which in turn contributes to a vibrant economy. Pursuing basic research into advanced renewable energy technologies is the first stage of the innovation pipeline. Conducting this research is good for Minnesotans in general because it inspires companies like 3M, Cummins, Ten K Solar, WindLogics, Daikin Applied, and many more to invest in Minnesota. It further works to ensure Minnesota is a hub for research innovation inside and outside academia. Lessons learned: We have learned a number of lessons through the first year of Cycle IV. First, we realize the importance of reviewing proposals as early as possible because it took us longer than anticipated to select the four projects we funded from the 23 submitted proposals. In order to ensure an efficient external review process—which we think is essential for the integrity of our selection process—we need to get those external reviewers (non-‐UofM researchers and REMnF board members) lined up and prepared for reviews earlier. This will be beneficial because the external reviewers’ thorough and insightful reviews were an integral component of our selection process. We have also realized that our Principal Investigators (PIs, which is synonomous with lead researchers on each of the four teams)—who all scored well on the commercialization weighting of their proposals—benefit from active support in thinking about ongoing commercialization strategy. We are engaged with all of them now but would start the commercialization engagement earlier next time. We realized that it is easy for the PIs to view the strategy outlined in their proposal as static until their product is fully developed when, in fact, it requires active engagement throughout the technology development phase. We will also put a greater emphasis on established or planned connections with industry partnerships. Each project team has at least one commercial partner but as with any set of relationships, some are stronger than others. We will put more emphasis on the strength and demonstrated relevance of these relationships in subsequent RDF cycles. Finally, we learned how appreciative the four PI teams are of RDF funding. All four teams have conducted numerous internal education sessions related to their projects, a number of which REMnF staff have attended. Each time, the PIs mention the RDF as an important sponsor of their research. All four teams also express their eagerness to work with REMnF staff to complete program requirements and are motivated at the prospect of commercialization. Along with the PIs, we are appreciative of the Higher Education block grant tranche and the RDF program’s current management structure.

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2016 BUDGET Budget overview:

Project Total Budgeted

Total Received

Total Expenses

Pro-‐Rated Expense Goal

Total $3,000,000 $2,000,000 $440,770 $500,000 Jalan/James 750,000 250,000 104,475 125,000 Leighton 750,000 250,000 101,020 125,000 Mohan 750,000 250,000 160,866 125,000 Shen 750,000 250,000 $74,405 125,000

The “Pro-‐Rated Expense Goal” reflects expected expenses over the six months from July-‐December given the three year project duration (i.e. 1/6th of the project’s total expenses). Total expenses are slightly behind because it took the Jalan/James and Leighton teams longer than anticipated to find research assistants. One of Shen’s co-‐PIs who is budgeted to have a research assistant was unable to fill the position during the fall 2016 hiring process due to an insufficient number of students in the department compared to the number of available positions. Inability to hire a student in the fall has prevented the team from hiring someone until more students with subject matter knowledge matriculate in fall 2017. Not filling that position, as well as a 6-‐month delay in hiring an additional post doc accounts for the ~$50,000 shortfall in Shen’s budget. Mohan’s additional $60,000 in leveraged funds (discussed on p.3 and p.10 of this report) are not reflected in his team’s budget numbers above.

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BACKGROUND In 2015, the University of Minnesota, through the Institute on the Environment (IonE), entered into an agreement with the Northern States Power Company (doing business as Xcel Energy in Minnesota), with respect to a research grant with a total amount of $3 Million for a period of three years. The funding was allocated from the Higher Education block grant component of the Renewable Development Fund, supported by the ratepayer Xcel Energy’s ratepayer and managed by said utility company. The University provides this annual report pursuant to the conditions of the grant agreement (Exhibit C, “Reporting Requirements and Protocol), to convey progress made to date in implementing the stated research initiative. The Project “Renewable Electricity for Minnesota’s Future” (REMnF) supports Xcel’s RDF goals by sponsoring University-‐based research that has potential to produce renewable energy innovations with strong potential for commercial viability.

In March 2016, REMnF selected four proposals of the 23 that were submitted from University researchers on the Twin Cities, Duluth, and Crookston campuses. The selected proposals cover the following technology fields promoted by the RDF: 1) Photovoltaic Generation; 2) Thermal Electric Generation and; 3) Power electronics, power systems, and transmission of electricity.

Each project was awarded 1/4th of the $3 million grant amount ($750,000) to be distributed evenly over three years. The funded projects are:

Title Lead Principal Investigator (PI) Department

Pyreite FeS2: A Low-‐Cost Earth-‐Abundant Photovoltaic Solution for Renewable Electricity in Minnesota

Chris Leighton Chemical Engineering and Material Sciences

The Direct Conversion of Heat to Electricity Using Fast Switching of

Ferroelectric Oxides

Richard D. James and Bharat Jalan

Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics (James); Chemical Engineering and Material

Sciences (Jalan) Simulation, Measurement,

Modeling, and Control of Wind Plant Power

Lian Shen St. Anthony Falls Laboratory

and Department of Mechanical Engineering

Research on Power Electronics and Control: Grid-‐Interface for

Renewables, Storage and Green Micro-‐Grids

Ned Mohan Electrical and Computer Engineering

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REMnF BOARD COMPOSITION AND MEETINGS The REMnF board was finalized in early 2016. It is charged to stay updated with project progress, help identify external partners and opportunities for collaboration, and ensure each project stays on track. In the event that specific projects are not on track, the board will make recourse recommendations. The board convenes bi-‐annually in June and December.

Institue on the Environment hosted the board’s first meeting on February 25, 2016, before the four projects were selected. At this meeting the board was introduced, given their charge, and updated on the ongoing external review process for all 23 initial proposals.

A second meeting occurred on December 13, 2016 after the projects were selected and had an opportunity to make initial progress. At this meeting each of the four project PIs introduced themselves and their projects to the board with 10-‐minute presentations.

REMnF Board Composition (as of December 2016)

Name Title Organizaiton Nina Axelson Vice-‐President, Public Relations Ever-‐green Energy

Bill Blazar Senior Vice-‐President of Public Affairs and Business Development MN Chamber of Commerce

Amy Fredregill Resource Planning and Strategy Manager Xcel Energy

J. Drake Hamilton Science Policy Director Fresh Energy

Dan King Program Director Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System

Laureen Ross McCalib

Manager, Resource Planning and Regulatory Affairs Great River Energy

Rolf Nordstrom President and CEO Great Plains Institute David Russick Founder, Managing Director Gopher Angels

Kelly Schwinghammer Executive Vice-‐President BlueGreen Alliance

Will Seuffert Executive Director Environmental Quality Board

Doug Shoemaker Vice-‐Chairperson MN Renewable Energy Society

Kaya Tarhan Chief Development Officer SolarStone

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SUMMARY OF PROJECT ACTIVITIES (JUNE TO DECEMBER 2016) 1. Project Progress Overview

All four funded projects are off to strong starts. Aside from successful scientific breakthroughs to develop each technology, REMnF’s long-‐term focus is on technology commercialization, ratepayer and business benefit, and job creation. To this end, each project team has hired graduate research assistants and/or post-‐doctoral fellows to assist with their specific research. They have also reached out to relevant Minnesota businesses as partners for the research and development of their various projects. In order to help expedite the business connection and commercialization aspects of the technologies being developed, REMnF staff have conducted focused meetings with each Principal Investigator (PI) to identify a “commercialization timeline,” which includes potential partners, funding sources, patent process and coordination with the University’s Office of Technology Commercialization. One patent request has already been submitted to the University.

The tables below show a comprehensive summary of our work to-‐date that directly impacts REMnF goals. Scientific Articles

PI Author(s) Article Title Journal Date

Shen

Yang Xiaolei, Jiarong Hong, Matthew Barone, and Fotis Sotiropoulous

Coherent dynamics in the rotor tip shear layer of

utility-‐scale wind turbines

Journal of Fluid

Mechanics

Published 7/1/16

James and Jalan

Xiaoyue Ni, Julia R. Greer, Kaushik Bhattacharya,

Richard D. James, and Xian Chen

Exceptional resilience of small-‐scale Au30Cu25Zn45 under cyclic stress-‐induced phase transformation

Nano Lectures

Accepted 12/1/16

Leighton

Zhang, Li, Walter, O'Brien, Manno, Voigt, Mork,

Baryshev, Kaklios, Aydil and Leighton

Potential resolution ot the doping puzzle in iron pyrite: carrier type detemination by Hall efefct and thermopower

Nature Communications

Accepted 12/15/16

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Presentations

PI Paper Title Conference Location Date

Bharat Jalan

Radical-‐based Oxide MBE and Electronic Transport of La-‐doped

BaSnO3 Thin Films

European Materials

Research Society Warsaw, Poland 9/19/16

Richard James Materials from Mathematics

Keble Complexity Cluster Workshop

Keble College, Oxford, England 10/20/16

Ned Mohan

Research on Power

Electronics and Control: Grid-‐Interface for Renewables, Storage and Green Micro-‐

Grids

RDF Board Minneapolis -‐ online 11/8/16

Richard James

Materials and methods for the

direct conversion of heat to electricity

Workshop on Electron

Microscopy and Energy

Conversion

University of Oxford, England 11/11/16

Richard James

Leverhulme Lectures on Mathematical Problems in Materials Science

Mathermatical Institute

University of Oxford, England

11/11/2016-‐11/15/2016

Michael Heisel, Mirko Musa, Jiarong Hong, Michele Guala (Shen Group)

Wind turbine wake

meandering at the laboratory and field scales

69th Annual Meeting of the American

Physical Society Division of Fluid

Dynamics

Portland, OR 11/20/16

Daniel Foti, Xiaolei Yang, Lian Shen, Fotis

Sptiropoulos

A numerical investigation of the role of the turbine rotor scale and the nacelle on wake

69th Annual Meeting of the American

Physical Society Division of Fluid

Dynamics

Portland, OR 11/20/16

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meadndering

Lian Shen and Jefferey Marr

Wind and Water Power Research

Program at St. Anthony Falls

Lab

Invited presentation to the Wind Energy Department at Sandia National

Labs

Sandia National Labs 12/7/16

Ned Mohan

Power Electronics and Control: Grid-‐Interface for Renewables, Storage and Green Micro-‐

Grids

REMnF Board IonE Saint Paul 12/13/16

Richard James

Atomistically inspired origami,

Dynamics and Discretization Seminar

Dynamics and Discretization Seminar

Technical University of

Munich, Germany 12/13/16

Bharat Jalan Multiferroic Energy

conversion ARPA-‐E San Francisco, CA 12/13/16

Other

Project

Student Jobs Created (RAs)

Post-‐Doc Jobs Created

Additional Grants Received (i.e. dollars leveraged)

Patents Approved by Office of Technology Commercialization

James and Jalan 2 2 1 (#20170206)

Leighton 4 Mohan 3 1 $60,000 Shen 4 2

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2. Detailed Project Summaries The summaries below detail scientific progress made by each project from July-‐December 2016. The Direct Conversion of Heat to Electricity Using Fast Switching of Ferroelectric

Oxides

PIs: Richard D. James (AES) and Bharat Jalan (CEMS) Summary of work: According to a 2008 DOE report on waste heat recovery, 25 − 50% of the power consumed by the US industrial sector alone is rejected as waste heat. Our proposed work will tap into these waste energy to convert them into useful electrical energy. A similar potential exists in areas of waste heat production from automobiles, power plants and computers. Automobiles produce exhaust gases in a similar temperature range as that seen in industrial heat emission, while cooling water in the condenser of power plants emerges at a little less than ∼100 °C. The waste heat of computers is a growing problem, also at the rapidly expanding system of clusters containing many thousands of cores. Currently, the energy consumption at major data centers in the U.S. is about 2.5% of the national energy budget, corresponding to the energy used by two medium-‐sized cities. Our work will facilitate chip-‐level integration of our technology via thin film to convert heat into electricity. This will enable the conversion of waste heat-‐to-‐electricity that could, for example, help recharge the battery in handheld electronic devices. Very importantly, our methods of generating energy does not adversely affect the environment, which is unfortunately the most compelling scientific problem of our time. Naturally, the outcomes of this research will have significant impact on society, nation and the world.

Project Update:

As outlined in the original proposal, the overall goal of this project is to develop energy conversion devices based on phase transformation in ferroelectric films through the establishment of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth and the computational approaches. We proposed to predict phase change ferroelectric materials of exceptional reversibility and to exploit these structures by conducting detailed structural and electronic transport studies in order to understand, and eventually control local structure, and phase transformation. Structures incorporating different compositions were also emphasized which meet our theoretical conditions of compatibility for highly reversible phase transition. Partnership with Daikin Applied was also emphasized for guiding applications of our work.

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Progress over the last three months has been achieved in the following areas: 1) Recruitment and Training We have kick-‐started this project with the recruitment of grad students (Hanlin Gu , 3rd year, and William Nunn, 2nd year) and a postdoc (Ryan Haislmaier, PhD from Penn State). A second postdoc (Paul Plucinsky, PhD from Caltech) has been recruited to work ½ time for this project and he will join in May, 2017. Hanlin works on the implementation of theoretical/computational approaches whereas William has been working on the experimental effort of the proposed work. Ryan Haislmaier begins his appointment on Dec. 1. He will work on the synthesis, characterization and device fabrication of materials in very close collaboration with Hanlin. Initial progress is achieved through training of students. Both grad students are now very well equipped with the knowledge required to perform the proposed work. We have been surveying lattice parameters of a large number of ferroelectric phase transformations in the literature, and we have located some promising starting points for our devices. In particular, substitutional variants of BaTiO3 and promising from both a theoretical and experimental viewpoint. Hanlin Gu has gained extensive knowledge of lattice parameter tuning, and has developed new methods for analyzing and representing the special lattice parameters that satisfy conditions for single interface transformation. She is also becoming expert on the electro-‐thermodynamic analysis of our proposed device. William Nunn is now trained on the molecular beam epitaxy method for materials synthesis including various characterization tools (X-‐ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, X-‐ray spectroscopy). In fact, both Hanlin and William have already made good progress with calculations and synthesize of BaTiO3 (discussed below). 2) Preliminary Results We have recently started the synthesis of stoichiometric BaTiO3 films. In this study, we showed the growth of phase-‐pure, epitaxial BaTiO3 films grown on SrTiO3 (001) substrates using hybrid MBE approach. Structure was characterized using a range of characterization techniques. Figure 1 shows atomic force microscopy (AFM) image and reflection high-‐energy diffraction (RHEED) patterns of BaTiO3 film after growth. AFM showed atomically flat surface morphology (Figure 1a). RHEED showed streaky patterns along both [100] and [110] azimuths of the substrate, establishing a cube-‐on-‐cube epitaxial relationship and smooth surface morphology consistent with the AFM result (Figure 1b and c).

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Figure 1: (a) Contact mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) of a ~ 40 nm thick BaTiO3 film on SrTiO3 (001) substrate. RHEED patterns after growth along (b) [100] and (c) [110] azimuths of the substrate.

Figure 2 shows a wide-‐angle X-‐ray diffraction (XRD) 2θ-‐ω scan for the sample grown on (001) SrTiO3. The data is consistent with phase-‐pure BaTiO3 film with an out-‐of-‐plane lattice parameter of film close to 4.00 Å indicating that film is nearly relaxed film. Future investigation will be directed towards stoichiometry optimization of films using both XRD and the Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy. A series of films with different growth parameters including Ba/Ti BEP ratio, oxygen pressure, and substrate temperature will be grown on different substrates to establish conditions for stoichiometric film. We will then explore dielectric/electronic properties of these films.

Figure 2: On-‐axis high-‐resolution x-‐ray diffraction 2θ-‐ω scan for BaTiO3 film grown on SrTiO3 001() substrate. Inset: close-‐ups along (002) film/substrate diffraction peaks.

Further detailed information on our simulations for material design are available.

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Pyrite FeS2: A Low-‐Cost Earth-‐Abundant Photovoltaic Solution for Renewable Electricity in Minnesota

PIs: Chris Leighton (CEMS), Eray Aydil (CEMS), Laura Gagliardi (Chemistry)

In terms of research accomplishments, there are two major items of note. The first is that our publication on understanding and controlling doping in pyrite FeS2 is now substantially complete and is being finalized. This work is in preparation for submission to the journal Nature Communications, one of the very highest impact journals in science and engineering. The work will also be presented at the Spring Meeting of the Materials Research Society in 2017. The second accomplishment is that the research described in our last quarterly report has progressed remarkably well. In our quest to establish sulfur vacancies as the primary dopants in pyrite crystals we have now essentially eliminated the Ni impurities in our materials and have obtained compelling data as a consequence. It is hoped that within the next few months a strong case can be built that we now have the best evidence to date of sulfur-‐vacancy-‐controlled doping. This is a truly important step towards understanding doping in FeS2, a significant advance towards pyrite p-‐n junctions and thus homojunction solar cells. This work has been driven by graduate student Bryan Voigt (doing experiments), working in collaboration with graduate student Debmalya Ray (doing theoretical calculations), both of which are supported by this RDF award.

In terms of personnel, we have also added another graduate student to the project. Linmin Wang, pursuing a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering, will be working on this project from Spring 2017 onwards. Linmin will focus on thin film pyrite for photovoltaic applications. Finally, on February 10th 2017 we will host our first external technical review of this project. As laid out in our proposal we plan on regular review of our work by Colin Wolden (Colorado School of Mines) and Dmitri Maroudas (U. Massachusetts Amherst), two renowned experts on photovoltaics. The schedule for our review includes technical talks from all three faculty, and three graduate students. We hope to obtain detailed feedback on progress, and advice on future directions. Christov Churchward will also attend to represent the Institute on the Environment.

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Research on Power Electronics and Control: Grid-‐Interface for Renewables, Storage and Green Micro-‐Grid

PI: Ned Mohan (ECE)

The team completed its hiring and training of four graduate assistants and one post doc. They investigated various wind turbine topologies that will allow grid interconnection using a high-‐frequency transformer, thereby avoiding the connection of semiconductor devices in series, which is not efficient. To this end, they researched various magnetic-‐design software packages to design the high-‐frequency transformer. They are also extending prior research on avoiding bearing currents in generators, supplied by power-‐electronic converters, for this application by using high-‐frequency transformers. To advance this research, they have supplemented their RDF support by securing the requisite funding from supplemental sources to acquire a real-‐time simulator and a controller, costing approximately $120,000, which will significantly expedite their research. The team is in the process of submitting 2-‐3 abstracts for papers in the 2017 IEEE-‐ECCE conference.

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Simulation, Measurement, Modeling, and Control of Wind Plant Power

PIs: Lian Shen (ME), Michele Guala (CEGE), Jiarong Hong (ME), Jeffery Marr (SAFL), Joseph Nichols (AEM), and Peter Seiler (AEM)

The quarter of October to December is the second quarter of this project. We made very good progresses in this period. We conducted two field deployments to obtain more data of wind flow fields in the near wake region of the EOLOS wind turbine. Our analysis on the past deployment data was able to determine the statistics correlation between wake disturbance and turbine operational conditions. We have also investigated wake meandering in the wind tunnel. We compared wavelengths and amplitudes, and defined a dimensionless phase space to study Reynolds number and scale-‐dependent effects. With the help of an undergrad student, we further investigated modifications of the nacelle geometry to control the onset of the far wake oscillation. This work will continue in the spring semester 2017. On the computation side, we have performed simulations for the Horns Rev offshore wind plant and an array of 80 wind turbine, with two approaches: a simulations utilizing the actuator surface model and nacelle model to parameterize the turbine blades and nacelle, and a simulation utilizing just the actuator surface model. The simulation data suggest that including the nacelles can improve the results. Moreover, we investigated a simplified, physics-‐based model of the flow through a wind farm developed by Shapiro and co-‐workers. We are currently comparing this model with other models developed from simulation data. We will select an appropriate low-‐order model (physics-‐based or data-‐driven) at the conclusion of this investigation. In addition to the above research activities, Lian Shen and Jeffery Marr visited Sandia National Labs, which is an external collaborator of this project, to present our work and discuss collaborations in the next period.

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CONCLUSION: 2017 AND BEYOND REMnF looks to build upon the success we had in 2016. Our main focus this year is two-‐fold 1) continued research breakthroughs and 2) solidified commercialization strategies uniquely developed for each of the four technologies.

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