This program is focused on solving fundamental research problems, applying scientific knowledge, and developing power and energy technology for Navy and USMC needs. There is a broad array of existing Power and Energy S&T challenges, and this program targets those having the most relevance and highest priority for existing and future missions.
This program is aligned with the Naval R&D Framework’s operational endurance priority, and addresses the Operational Endurance priority, several of the objectives and research sub topics related to energy efficiency, endurance, resilience, improvements to platform-level energy storage, affordability, and high-performance materials. The program supports the Advanced Naval Power Enduring Research Responsibility in the Sea Warfare and Weapons integrated research portfolio.
Research Concentration Areas
Subsea & Seabed Power – The Naval needs in the undersea domain are growing and the means for powering platforms, sensors, and systems by understanding and utilizing the physics of the seabed and water column is ongoing and the interests are expanding. Several seabed energy conversion efforts are underway, and more attention is needed to areas that are unexplored to date. This area is aligned with the Navy’s Subsea and Seabed Warfare (SSW) objectives.
Naval Energy Resilience – The Navy is looking to enhance its energy resilience to improve energy security, operational capability, strategic flexibility and resource availability. Much of this work looks to support the warfighter abroad, but also reinforce the Navy's foundation at home. Energy Resilience fundamental research is of interest for both naval shore-based power consumers and naval operational mission needs. This area is aligned with the 2020 Department of Navy Installation Energy Resilience Strategy.
Naval Superconducting Science & Technology – The Navy has been a leader in this area for decades and has developed important superconducting technology for ship propulsion, degaussing and mine warfare (MIW). Superconducting science and technology has the potential to enable disruptive improvements in warfighting in many areas. This area is aligned with NAVSEA’s 2019 Naval Power & Energy System Technology Development Roadmap (NPES-TDR).
Research Challenges and Opportunities
Subsea & Seabed Power:
- Characterization of phenomena in the undersea domain relevant to energy conversion objectives
- Modeling the physics relevant to undersea power and energy production
- Research pathways to enable a future subsea and seabed energy ecosystem that can serve future fixed and mobile undersea systems and platform needs for power
- Understanding opportunities for energy conversion throughout the undersea domain, both from an oceanographic geographical domain perspective and from an oceanographic physics perspective
- Understanding the temporal variability of processes that impact harvestable phenomena
Naval Energy Resilience:
- Electrical power intermittency, improved micro-grids, effectively integrating alternative energy sources into a grid, grid security, energy storage, local generation of zero-carbon fuels, and inspection and health monitoring of critical energy infrastructure
- Improving the ability to avoid, prepare for, minimize, adapt to, and recover from anticipated and unanticipated energy disruptions to ensure energy availability and reliability sufficient to provide for mission assurance and readiness, including mission essential operations related to readiness, and to execute or rapidly reestablish mission essential requirements
- Improving the ability of naval platforms around the world to accomplish their missions despite the actions by adversaries or other events to deny, disrupt, exploit, or destroy installation-based capabilities
- Efficient, power dense, practical, and robust energy transduction / solid-state energy conversion approaches for platform energy recovery and prime power applications
Naval Superconducting Science & Technology:
- Alternative (non-superconducting) advanced electrical conductor science and technology
- Conductor science addressing improvement to critical temperatures, critical currents, and performance in magnetic fields
- Exploitation of the many unique characteristics of superconductors to enable transformational and disruptive naval capability
- Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) fundamentals including physics-based modeling of conceptual systems, dynamic behavior and performance, magnetic containment/shielding, and innovations for future energy magazine applications
- Superconducting State Protections including novel cryogenic refrigeration cycles, quench detection and mitigation, vacuum-less insulation approaches, and mechanisms for rapid establishment of superconducting state conditions
For More Information
UPDATED: November 2020
How to Submit
For detailed application and submission information for this research topic, please refer to our broad agency announcement (BAA) No. N0001425SB001.
Contracts: All white papers and full proposals for contracts must be submitted through FedConnect; instructions are included in the BAA.
Grants: All white papers for grants must be submitted through FedConnect, and full proposals for grants must be submitted through grants.gov; instructions are included in the BAA.