(459b) Clean Energy and Decarbonization Research, Development and Demonstration at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

This talk provides the overview of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) transformational science and technologies towards the clean and decarbonized energy future with capabilities spanning the entire spectrum from clean energy generation to distribution, at-scale storage, and end-use. Being the largest DOE Office of Science Laboratory, ORNL is well-recognized for its energy efficiency research portfolio with the most comprehensive user facilities and capabilities in fundamental science and applied energy space among all the DOE national laboratories. We are accelerating decarbonization in the US with a three-pronged approach with integrated energy systems: 1.) Achieve deeper energy savings through enhanced energy efficiency efforts across all spectrums of the energy service sectors, i.e., buildings, industry, and transportation; 2.) Accelerate net-carbon neutrality by capturing and converting CO₂ into valuable materials, fuels, and feedstocks for downstream utilizations; and 3.) Enable bi-directional electron flows between the grid and end users with at-scale energy storage and transactive controls to enable a sustainable, resilient, and secure energy infrastructure. Exemplary ORNL RD&D advancements in all the areas above will be presented and future opportunities and challenges in the integrated energy systems approach will be discussed.