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At least 199 records · Page 11
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Mobility Energy Productivity Evaluation of On-Demand Transit: A Case Study in Arlington, Texas

On-demand transit (ODT) systems are increasing in number and size. To evaluate and quantify outcomes, the research team utilizes the mobility energy productivity (MEP) metric, which is a holistic accessibility measure, to analyze and compare the mobility of various transportation modes in Arlington, Texas. The MEP tool is applied to the ODT system in Arlington, Texas, as well as to five existing transportation modes (driving, transportation network company, transit, biking, and walking). Six ODT scenarios are also analyzed and compared. The analysis is focused on the opportunities that an ODT system presents for transportation disadvantaged communities (DACs) with low rates of car ownership. Although driving received the highest MEP score—a finding typical for a U.S.A. city— the results for the ODT system reveal that it serves those in DACs effectively, helping to achieve an equity design goal. ODT improved the average MEP score across the service area by 83% when considering only accessible, nonprivate vehicle modes (biking, transit, and ODT). For the ODT scenarios, decreasing the wait time by 50% compared with the baseline scenario led to a nearly 160% increase in the MEP score, whereas increasing the ODT travel speed by 21% led to an 80% improvement in the MEP score. As analyzed through the MEP tool, here this paper demonstrates how ODT can enhance mobility, particularly for DACs. The results of an MEP analysis can be used by researchers and transit agencies to compare transportation modes and improve the effectiveness of transportation systems across a service area.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Accelerating Low-Income Financing and Transactions (LIFT) for Solar Access Everywhere (Final Technical Report)

The Accelerating Low-Income Financing and Transactions (LIFT) for Solar Access Everywhere project’s goal was to expand Low-to-Moderate Income (LMI) solar access for homeowners and renters. The LIFT project researched and gathered data on 453 LMI community solar project across the country. Following three years of research, the project delivered three groundbreaking research papers in June 2022, focused on 1) customer experience, 2) the growth of community solar programs, and 3) project-level financial best practices for serving LMI communities. These were followed by a user-friendly web-based Toolkit allowing users to interact with project data and key findings in November 2022. The customer experience research examined community solar subscribers’ primary motivations to join and remain satisfied with projects. Our research identified 453 projects across the country that dedicated some portion of the system capacity to LMI households. Seventeen of these projects participated in the LIFT customer experience research, allowing the project team to survey their customers and gain insight into how LMI subscribers feel about community solar and the programs that serve them. Subscribers in our sample indicated that the most critical issue that motivated them to participate in their program, however, was not savings but helping the environment. This was true for both LMI and non-LMI subscribers. Helping the environment was also the most important issue for LMI subscribers to measure how well their program was working for them. LIFT also explored how rapidly community solar has grown since its inception in 2006, publishing results in the Growth of U.S. Community Solar Serving LMI Households report. The results showed that community solar projects serving LMI households are one of the fastest growing segments of the solar industry. The report identifies and recommends ways developers should overcome real or perceived risks to LMI customer acquisition and subscriber management. Through the analysis of community solar project finance research, LIFT showed that most community solar projects serving LMI households are financed in the same ways mainstream community solar projects are financed. The value stacks and financial returns are no different, although LMI inclusion and participation rate varied across programs in our sample, ranging from between 10% and 100%. Based on the findings from the LIFT research, the team built a web-based user-friendly Toolkit, consisting of case studies, project finance best practices, and several tools built around the national dataset of 453 community solar projects that serve LMI households. These allow users to engage with the dataset in multiple ways; to explore the landscape of LMI community solar in the U.S., and to design community solar projects to optimize LMI inclusion, equity, and savings levels. The Toolkit also includes a library of LIFT-generated and LIFT-curated resources for users to learn more about how to best serve LMI communities through community solar. LIFT officially published the Toolkit on October 31, 2022, followed by a launch event (public webinar) on November 17, 2022. The core LIFT partners continue to engage in outreach and dissemination efforts to promote the LIFT Toolkit and research publications. Our driving motivation is to continue enabling solar developers to leverage the findings of this three-year research effort. By implication, the LIFT Toolkit is designed for use by utilities, energy service providers, and financiers or investors as a learning and decision-making tool to rapidly scale project models that optimize LMI inclusion and maximize real household savings.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

ES4SE Technical Assistance Program Evaluation

Technical assistance (TA) programs can provide organizations and communities with the information, tools, and resources needed to support their development and resilience goals. The Energy Storage for Social Equity (ES4SE) TA program sought to empower undeserved communities through co-development of energy storage pathways and solutions to address community-defined challenges and needs. Evaluating the design, implementation, and outcomes of TA programs like ES4SE is critical to understanding whether program and participant goals were accomplished and how to adjust the TA approach to better meet participant needs. This evaluation explores the experiences and perceptions of community participants in the ES4SE TA program.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Benefits and Burdens: Exploring the Role of Community Benefits in Wind Energy Development [Slides]

In this webinar hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy's WINDExchange initiative, NREL will provide an introduction to community benefit agreements (CBAs) and related funds and investments that serve as voluntary mechanisms that developers may utilize to provide additional financial and/or non-financial benefits for communities impacted by wind energy projects. Community benefits can come in different forms, be developed through diverse processes, and have varying impacts on key outcomes in the wind industry like project success and equity. This webinar explores the nuances of community benefits from multiple angles and provides insights that are relevant to land-based wind energy, offshore wind energy, and other renewable energy technologies.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

From Silos to Synergy: Identifying a Roadmap for Cross-Sector Research to Accelerate the Clean Energy Transition

The U.S. Department of Energy's blueprints for the transportation, buildings, and electricity sectors call for substantial reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. These plans focus on zero-emission vehicles, investments in transit, energy-efficient buildings, and the widespread adoption and deployment of renewable energy technologies like solar photovoltaics (PV), energy storage and energy-efficient appliances. However, these sectors are often studied and modeled in isolation, overlooking how household decisions to adopt clean technologies in one sector influence others. This study, led by an interdisciplinary team at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), explores opportunities for cross-sector collaboration to drive more effective and equitable decarbonization. Through discussions with 22 NREL researchers across transportation, building, solar, and grid sectors, the study highlights the need for integrated tools and models that capture interactions between these sectors. Key insights include the need for data standardization and interoperability to enable cross-sector analysis and decision-making. Strengthening utility partnerships is also critical to align energy policies with decarbonization goals and manage the increased demand for renewable energy. The study also emphasizes the importance of equity in the clean energy transition, calling for targeted incentives and support to ensure that low-income and underserved communities benefit from clean technologies like electric vehicles and energy-efficient appliances. To support these efforts, innovative funding mechanisms must be expanded to facilitate interdisciplinary research, such as city-specific decarbonization plans and federal projects like DOE"s Standard Scenarios. By encouraging collaboration and integrating cross-sector insights, this study aims to provide a roadmap to accelerate the clean energy transition and ensure it is both sustainable and inclusive.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Climate Adaptation Approaches for Water and Electric Utilities: A compendium of existing strategies in a changing climate

Report analyzes plans developed by water and electric utilities to address the impacts of changes in the climate within their service territories. The analysis identifies the main types of changes that utilities address, such as sea level rise, extreme heat, and compound events such as freezing rain/show and extreme wind events. It then identifies adaptation approaches utilities have proposed or adopted to address the changes that are anticipated in their service territories. The report also identifies the mechanisms utilities (and in some cases the governments which the utilities are part of) use to ensure that energy or environmental equity is increased as a result of the resilience program. In summary, the report provides a compendium of adaptation strategies that can be used by others as they review their own need to increase climate resilience.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Community-Engaged Energy Transition Planning in Holyoke

The overarching motivation of this project is to provide stakeholder-engaged research and education to enable a clean, equitable, and resilient energy transition. Presently, low-income communities and people of color are disproportionately burdened by environmental harm, while also being routinely left out of planning processes and benefits from infrastructure improvements. The Energy Transition Institute (ETI) addresses these issues in three ways: community engagement, educating diverse future leaders, and cutting-edge research. As municipalities across the Commonwealth plan their transition to a climate-friendly energy system, research from ETI will advance technical and social understanding of heating electrification, energy storage, demand flexibility, reliability and resiliency of power distribution infrastructure, with attention to equity. This will benefit surrounding communities, cities and towns across Massachusetts, and the global research community

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Let's Get Greedy: The L-Prize Invites Innovators to 'Have It All'

LEDs have arrived. They’re long-lasting, energy-efficient, and priced competitively with the products they’re replacing. Case closed and let’s move on, right? And yet… transformative lighting has the capacity do more, with excellent energy and application efficiency, data-driven functionality, material sustainability, and the ability to make buildings better places to work, live, learn, and heal – for people in all communities. This article on the DOE L-Prize invites competitors to participate in the $12.2 million L-Prize competition. The competition sets ambitious innovation goals for efficacy, quality of light, connectivity, material sustainability, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. LED lighting offers the opportunity to address all of these - to "have it all". The article will be published in the August edition of Lighting Design and Application (LD&A) magazine.

LED Lighting, Efficacy, Lighting Quality, Connecte↗
DOE OSTI2022

Engaging a Diverse Workforce in the Building Sciences Through the JUMP Into STEM Program: Impact Study; Preprint

Ensuring inclusivity in building science professions requires engaging people from underrepresented demographics; unfortunately, many races, ethnicities, and genders continue to be underrepresented. The JUMP into STEM program works to rectify this, encouraging creative ideation and highlighting the unique perspectives of a diverse array of students. The top students are awarded internships that provide opportunities to work in building science research with close supervision from mentors in the field. In the research presented here, we investigate the impact of participation in JUMP into STEM on students' careers, including the impact on students from diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, we research students' awareness of career opportunities in building science, students' perception of their ability to meaningfully contribute to this field, and the career building opportunities that JUMP into STEM provides for students. Through participant interviews and data analysis, we measure program diversity, inclusion, and effectiveness at achieving goals. We find that among the hundreds of students who have participated in this program, more than 25 different majors and/or educational degree programs are represented and more than 45% of students attend minority serving institutions or historically black colleges and universities. The JUMP into STEM experience had a significant effect on career choices or career development for more than 80% of participants. Our results also indicate that the JUMP into STEM program is effective at promoting diversity in the building sciences and is successfully contributing to the larger effort within the building science industry to promote and ensure equity in technological progress and innovation.

building energy science↗
DOE OSTI2022

Electrifying Road Trips to and from National Parks in the Western United States

We evaluate charging infrastructure requirement for electrified long-distance travels to/from national parks in the Western U.S. We conduct a high-resolution spatial and temporal analysis of road trips in the region, accounting for detailed travel volume and pattern, the type of electric vehicles, heterogeneous energy consumption rates depending on driving conditions, charging technology (e.g., power and speed), and charging behavior. The scope includes on-route (or way-point) charging as well as destination charging (in national parks). We estimate the locations and sizes of required charging stations in the entire Western U.S. to enable electrified road trips to/from national parks. We also examine environmental justice and energy equity aspects of projected charging infrastructure (for national parks) in the context of the overall vehicle electrification and charging infrastructure build-out.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,ENERGY PLANNING, POLIC↗
DOE OSTI2023

Quantifying and Understanding the Access Time to Dockless Micromobility: A Case Study in Washington, D.C.

Micromobility has been widely deployed in many cities. Similar as how access time/distance affects the travel demand to use public transit and informs transit system design, access time/distance to micromobility service measures its service efficiency and also serves as an equity indicator to inform city agencies from a regulation perspective. Though there is an increasing need to understand it, access to micromobility has not been sufficiently studied. This paper developed a framework to quantity the access time to dockless micromobility service (i.e., the minimum time needed to walk to reach the closest dockless micromobility vehicles). Based on the real-time vehicle location data collected from Washington, DC, this research quantified the access time to dockless micromobility, analyzed its spatial and temporal variation patterns and investigated its relationship with socio-demographic variables (i.e., population density, employment density and low-income population). The results revealed that the access time to dockless micromobility ranges between 0 to 4 minutes with the most frequently observed range of 0.5 to 1 minutes, and the city center area tends to have shorter access time than the outskirts areas. Results also indicate a quite stable access time level in DC with access time standard deviation of 0.2 to 0.5 minutes. After correlating the access time at census-block-group level with socio-demographic data, it was discovered that shorter access time usually aligns with larger population and employment density, and the proportion of low-income population was found not helpful with explaining the access time variation, which indicating a relatively equitable micromobility program.

access time↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Mobility Energy Productivity Evaluation of On-Demand Transit: A Case Study in Arlington, Texas

On-demand transit (ODT) systems are increasing in number and size. In order to evaluate and quantify outcomes, we use the Mobility Energy Productivity (MEP) metric, a holistic tool to analyze, quantify, and compare the mobility and accessibility of various transportation modes in a specific area. In this paper, we apply the MEP tool to the ODT system in Arlington, Texas, and compare the results among four existing transportation modes (drive, transportation network company, transit, and bike) and five additional ODT scenarios. We focus our analysis on the opportunities that an ODT system presents such as serving disadvantages communities. While the results in Arlington show the typical U.S. pattern of driving receiving the highest MEP score, the ODT system best serves those in disadvantaged communities, helping with an equity design goal. ODT improved the average MEP score across the service area by 100% when considering only non-private vehicle modes (bike, transit, and ODT). For the ODT scenarios, decreasing the wait time 50% compared to the baseline scenario led to a nearly 160% increase in MEP score, while increasing the ODT travel speed by 21% led to an 80% improvement in MEP score. The decreased wait time scenario had the highest MEP score out of the six ODT scenarios. This paper demonstrates how ODT can enhance mobility, particularly for disadvantaged communities. The results of a MEP analysis can be used by researchers and transit agencies to compare transportation modes and improve the effectiveness of transportation systems in subareas across a service area.

accessibility↗
DOE OSTI2024

Leveraging NREL's ResStock & ComStock Dataset to Evaluate Building Stock Electrification: Preprint

Residential and commercial buildings accounted for 40% of U.S. energy consumption in 2022 and represent a significant opportunity for decarbonization through energy efficiency and electrification, and for grid planning. Building stock energy modeling is a powerful tool that can evaluate what-if scenarios as utilities, municipalities, policymakers, building owners and others work towards equitable building decarbonization and climate goals. This presentation will highlight several high-impact use cases of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)'s highly granular, bottom-up building stock energy modeling tools, ResStock and ComStock. These use cases cover a wide range of project scale, from neighborhood electrification analysis and municipality long-term energy planning, to state energy code development and national policy evaluation. This presentation will showcase specific real-world applications for which ResStock and ComStock have been utilized across the country, including California codes and standards cost-effectiveness analysis, New York City affordable housing electrification cost gap analysis, and California targeted electrification and gas decommissioning analysis. For each use case, this presentation will illustrate how ResStock and ComStock played a crucial role in accurately characterizing regional building stocks, providing discrete and aggregated end-use load shapes, and calculating lifecycle consumption, emissions, and costs for a variety of building electrification strategies and scenarios. Finally, this presentation will demonstrate how the data provided by ResStock and ComStock can help unlock significant outcomes for these use cases, including but not limited to, customer bill impact, incentive and program design, and energy equity analyses.

building stock modeling↗
DOE OSTI2024

An Open-Source Framework for Characterizing Urban Energy Models: Integrating Top-Down and Bottom-Up Methods to Predict Residential Buildings Characteristics: Preprint

Bottom-up urban energy models are crucial for understanding current energy use patterns and informing design strategies. However, accurately characterizing these models to represent different communities remains a challenge due to the extensive data needed for simulating existing energy use behavior. This data includes information related to human activities and building characteristics, all of which correlate with socioeconomic factors. To overcome this challenge, we developed an automated framework that utilizes both top-down and bottom-up data, to predict unknown building and occupant characteristics that are needed for more accurate and equitable modeling and analytics. Our framework, integrated into the URBANopt district energy modeling platform, uses statistical data models from ResStock. URBANopt models co-located buildings and neighborhoods. At this scale there are data gaps in building characteristic data, such as materials, insulation, occupancy, income, and energy usage of the buildings. To address this data gap, we use ResStock data, representative at the census tract scale, and develop machine-learning and deeplearning techniques to disaggregate it to individual buildings. By mapping unique occupant, building and economic properties to URBANopt energy models, we gain detailed insights into the variability of building energy use across different neighborhoods. This insight helps deploy technologies for co-located buildings and supports targeted upgrades for communities with unique economic and demographic characteristics, ensuring energy equity. Accurate characterization of energy models allows us to develop equitable strategies tailored to diverse neighborhoods, whether underserved or affluent. Our automated framework streamlines energy modeling and provides a reliable tool for building energy characterization.

ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Blending Behavioral Science and Physics-Based Models Inform Equitable Decarbonization Pathways in the US Housing Stock: Preprint

A just energy transition is an imperative of the Biden-Harris Administration, emphasizing the equitable distribution of benefits through energy-efficient and decarbonizing household technologies. Understanding the factors that increase a household's willingness to adopt these technologies helps policymakers implement more targeted and effective approaches. Our research addresses this by blending 550,000 housing stock types and energy simulation data with a nationally representative survey on residential technology adoption and decision-making (n=10,000). We identify energy equity gaps across tenure and income, highlighting disparities in energy burdens and insecurity. Findings show that households with prior modification experience are more willing to renovate, suggesting that small-scale retrofit programs could foster greater willingness. Energy secure but burdened homeowners are least willing to modify, highlighting the need to consider energy bill perceptions in policy design. Nearly half of US households that are energy burdened also face energy insecurity, with a significant gap in assistance for low-income households. We emphasize the need to understand household perceptions to improve policy. This research underscores the importance of understanding household behaviors to improve policy effectiveness, offering actionable insights for policymakers to promote equitable housing upgrades and advance a decarbonized future.

behavioral science↗
DOE OSTI2024

Equitable Energy Metrics for Integration into Building Performance Standard Tracking Platforms: Preprint

Building Performance Standards (BPS) are being adopted globally and in the United States of America, where 14 different states and jurisdictions have a policy in place and many others are under development (Department of Energy (DOE) 2023). Accurate and equitable data sources are essential to make informed decisions about focusing investment on upgrading buildings to meet jurisdictional goals. There have been multiple new tools developed related to Energy Equity and Environmental Justice (EEEJ) and the resulting datasets need to be integrated into large building port-folios for quick access and better scalability. Integrating EEEJ data in a user-friendly format can help decision makers more quickly assess impacts and analyze the multitude of potentially significant metrics for which there is not yet consensus. In the U.S. and Canada, many BPS ordinances rely primarily on ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager (ESPM) to capture building characteristics and energy and water consumption data. These datasets can then be imported into city-specific building tracking tools like the Standard Energy Efficiency Data Platform (SEED). Crucially, BPS decision makers require an efficient means of identifying buildings in priority communities to effectively allocate resources and funding. This process must integrate seamlessly with existing jurisdictional toolsets for optimal utility. This paper will demonstrate, for the case of Washington D.C.'s (the District) data, a workflow that provides actionable data for building upgrade investment prioritization in disadvantaged communities.

BPS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Increasing Electric Vehicle Adoption Among Disadvantaged Populations: A Case Study in LA

In the shift towards 100% carbon-free energy, ensuring equitable access to clean energy benefits is crucial. The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), particularly in the personal light-duty vehicle segment, has gained traction, driven by various incentives at the federal, state, and local levels. However, disadvantaged populations face unique challenges in embracing EVs. This paper, using Los Angeles as a case study, explores EV adoption patterns among disadvantaged population groups in both a business-as-usual scenario and an equity scenario. Modeling reveals that by 2035, over half of EV owners will be from low- to middle income backgrounds with limited access to home charging. Strategies such as increasing incentives for used EV purchase from $2500 to $4000, targeted for disadvantaged communities, can boost EV adoption among low-middle income groups by 2%, while providing a $300 annual voucher to households using public charging can further facilitate equitable EV adoption.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Exploring young adult texts within the Historically Responsive Literacy Framework with preservice teachers

Abstract While culturally responsive texts have become more common in teacher education, too often, preservice teachers (PTs) are not asked to examine how to use these books pedagogically. To address this issue, in a young adult (YA) literature course, the Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy (HRL) (Muhammad, 2000) Cultivating genius: An equity framework for culturally and historically responsive literac y, 2020; Scholastic) was used in conjunction with representative and inclusive YA trade books. Data analysis was conducted on PT's course work, including HRL unit plans, to determine whether PTs were able to implement Muhammad's (2020) framework using YA texts. The findings of this study show that PTs' understanding of the HRL tenets was at varying levels. While there were unit plans with learning goals that matched Muhammad's purpose and definition for each tenet and YA connections for every tenet, PTs showed a better understanding of the tenets of identity and intellect than skills and Criticality. Implications of these findings including exposing PTs to learning frameworks “written by people of color and designed for children of color” (Muhammad, 2020, p. 11) to create instruction that meets their future students' needs and does not just skim the surface of culturally responsive pedagogies.

Pule, Heather↗