Projects

Case studies of research and industry projects, grouped by theme

Case studies by Honglin Li: SMR cogeneration for data centers, hydrogen-integrated nuclear and renewable systems, carbon-aware load, microgrid supply chains and wind uncertainty.

Each project page is a case study: the research question, the key insight, my contribution, the hard parts and how I approached them, the design choices, and the findings with their boundary conditions. Several pages include a small interactive model of the main mechanism. Published and accepted work is shown in full; upcoming work is described in broad terms; the industry project is summarized at the level of methods.

Nuclear & data centers

Small modular reactor cogeneration for a hyperscale data center

Energy Conversion and Management (2026), first author; accepted

Under which reactor-capital, market and policy conditions can a small modular reactor colocated with a hyperscale data center, and using its steam to drive absorption cooling, supply the campus more cheaply than the grid?

Nuclear & data centers

Small modular reactors for data centers

Cell Reports Sustainability (2026), Perspective, co-first author

What would it take for small modular reactors to power data centers, and which economic dimensions must a credible techno-economic assessment capture?

Nuclear & data centers

The cost of delayed grid energization for AI data centers

IEEE North American Power Symposium (NAPS 2026), first author; accepted

What does it cost when a large AI data center must wait for grid energization, and how does the delay affect the developer, electricity ratepayers and society?

Hydrogen systems

Co-located wind and hydrogen energy systems

Journal of Mechanical Design (2024, featured article), first author; TORQUE 2022, first author

How do electrolyzers, hydrogen storage and fuel cells change the cost, curtailment and firm output of a grid-connected wind farm?

Hydrogen systems

Co-located solar and hydrogen plants

European Energy Market Conference (EEM 2023), first author

Is concentrated solar power with thermal storage feeding high-temperature electrolysis more economic than photovoltaics feeding low-temperature electrolysis in West Texas?

Hydrogen systems

Hydrogen's role in expanding renewable energy in Texas

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2025), first author

Where should electrolyzers, hydrogen storage and fuel cells be built in ERCOT, and how should hydrogen move between zones, to absorb surplus renewable generation and supply industrial hydrogen demand under uncertain 2030 renewable build-out?

Hydrogen systems

Hydrogen integration and policy support for U.S. nuclear power plants

Nature Communications (2026), first author

Can existing and new U.S. nuclear power plants improve their economics and operating flexibility by adding high-temperature electrolysis, hydrogen storage and batteries, and by selling energy, hydrogen and ancillary services?

Carbon-aware grid

Emission-intensity-informed load regulation for grid decarbonization

Cell Reports Sustainability (2025), first author

How much do the emissions attributed to electricity consumption fall when load is re-timed according to hourly average grid emission intensity across U.S. regions, and which strategies suit which types of grid?

Microgrids & supply chains

Supply chains with on-site microgrids and transactive energy

Applied Mathematical Modelling (2023) and IEEE SEGRE 2023, first author; Journal of the Operational Research Society (2022), second author

Where should a manufacturing supply chain place its facilities, and how much on-site wind, solar and storage should each facility install when facilities can trade energy with the grid?

Wind uncertainty

Multi-fidelity Gaussian processes for wind power curves

ASME IDETC 2023, first author

Can multi-fidelity Gaussian process regression, combining a theoretical power curve with limited measured data, improve probabilistic wind turbine power-curve estimation?

Wind uncertainty

UQ metrics and surrogate models for plant-level wind power

DOE-funded project (through NREL), 2022–2023; no paper

Can uncertainty metrics of a wind power model's inputs (weather data products, forecast ensembles and turbine-level data) predict calibrated plant-level power uncertainty at wind plants that have no power measurements?

Industry

Industry internship at FM: resilience and operations modeling

Internship, FM (August 2024 – January 2025)

How should solar PV, battery storage and backup generation be sized for an industrial research campus to meet demand through grid outages, and how do equipment failures and maintenance affect a battery production line and a wind farm?

No matching items