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The operating phases of an eVTOL need varying amounts of power; some require the battery to discharge high amounts of current rapidly, reducing the distance the vehicle can travel before its battery must be recharged. Credit: Andy Sproles/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Researchers at ORNL are taking cleaner transportation to the skies by creating and evaluating new batteries for airborne electric vehicles that take off and land vertically. 

ORNL researchers achieved the highest wireless power transfer level for a light-duty passenger vehicle when the team demonstrated a 100-kW wireless power transfer to an EV using ORNL’s patented polyphase electromagnetic coupling coil. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

A team of researchers at ORNL demonstrated that a light-duty passenger electric vehicle can be wirelessly charged at 100-kW with 96% efficiency using polyphase electromagnetic coupling coils with rotating magnetic fields.

Chuck Greenfield, former assistant director of the DII-D National Fusion Program at General Atomics, has joined ORNL as ITER R&D Lead.

Chuck Greenfield, former assistant director of the DIII-D National Fusion Program at General Atomics, has joined ORNL as ITER R&D Lead. 
 

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Two different teams that included Oak Ridge National Laboratory employees were honored Feb. 20 with Secretary’s Honor Achievement Awards from the Department of Energy. This is DOE's highest form of employee recognition. 

Mandy Mahoney, third from left, director of the DOE Office Of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Building Technologies Office, welcomed 21 students representing seven universities across the nation to the sixth annual JUMP into STEM finals competition at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Credit: Kurt Weiss/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Students with a focus on building science will spend 10 weeks this summer interning at ORNL, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Pacific Northwest Laboratory as winners of the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Building Technologies Office sixth annual JUMP into STEM finals competition.

An Oak Ridge National Laboratory study projects how geothermal heat pumps that derive heating and cooling from the ground would improve grid reliability and reduce costs and carbon emissions when widely deployed. Credit: Chad Malone, ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

A modeling analysis led by ORNL gives the first detailed look at how geothermal energy can relieve the electric power system and reduce carbon emissions if widely implemented across the United States within the next few decades. 

Three staff members in Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate (FFESD) have moved into newly established roles facilitating communication and program management with sponsors of the directorate’s Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division.

Three staff members in ORNL’s Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate have moved into newly established roles facilitating communication and program management with sponsors of the directorate’s Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division. 

An encapsulation system developed by ORNL researchers prevents salt hydrates, which are environmentally friendly thermal energy storage materials, from leaking and advances their use in heating and cooling applications. Credit: Andy Sproles/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL researchers have developed a novel way to encapsulate salt hydrate phase-change materials within polymer fibers through a coaxial pulling process. The discovery could lead to the widespread use of the low-carbon materials as a source of insulation for a building’s envelope.

NSBP Annual Conference attendees came to ORNL on Nov. 10, 2023. Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

ORNL and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, co-hosted the 2023 National Society of Black Physicists Annual Conference with the theme "Frontiers in Physics: From Quantum to Materials to the Cosmos.” As part of the three-day conference held near UT, attendees took a 30-mile trip to the ORNL campus for facility tours, science talks and workshops.

ORNL’s Tomás Rush examines a culture as part of his research into the plant-fungus relationship that can help or hinder ecosystem health. Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

New computational framework speeds discovery of fungal metabolites, key to plant health and used in drug therapies and for other uses.