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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 451 records · Page 25
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2018

Lessons in Commercial PACE Leadership: The Path from Legislation to Launch

Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing enables building owners to finance energy efficiency, renewable energy, and, in some states, non-energy building improvements through a voluntary special assessment on their properties. For commercial buildings, there are many benefits to using Commercial PACE (C-PACE) financing. Still, using C-PACE financing is a multi-step process and involves diverse stakeholders (see Figure ES-1 for a simplified overview), and the process may vary depending on the state and policy context. The primary audience for this report, Lessons in Commercial PACE Leadership, is state and local decision makers that seek an informed, objective perspective of what it takes to launch a C-PACE program. The report is specifically for those states with enabling legislation and program sponsors (i.e., state or local governments) that are looking to launch or join a C-PACE program. The report is a starting point for understanding what approaches have worked to establish successful C-PACE programs. It examines the experience of programs across the country and provides insights for making the process smoother, and hopefully less cost and time-intensive, for new state and local governments sponsoring C-PACE programs. The report also provides a roadmap to key decision points on the path to setting up a program — the different paths taken and program models employed by those who have blazed the trail. The report is organized into three sections describing the decision points involved, options and considerations, and experience from the field.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Next-Generation Performance-Based Regulation. Volume 1: Introduction - Global Lessons for Success; Volume 2: Primer - Essential Elements of Design and Implementation; Volume 3: Innovative Examples from Around the World

Performance-based regulations (PBRs) provide a regulatory framework to connect goals, targets, and measures to utility performance or executive compensation. Well-designed PBRs provide incentives for utility performance, benefiting consumers and utility owners alike. This report considers the role of both PBRs and more discrete performance incentive mechanisms (PIMs) in 21st century power sector transformation. Innovative technologies are transforming the way electricity is generated, delivered, and consumed. PBRs have the potential to realign utility, investor, and consumer incentives and mitigate emerging challenges to the utility business model, renewable integration, and even cyber security.The goals of PBRs in the form of multi-year rate plans are in many respects the same in terms of providing reasonably priced and reliable service to customers. However, today's technologies have changed, and there is more emphasis on clean energy. Thus, the pathways and the potential outcomes are different than they were in the 20th century when centralized generator stations and large infrastructure additions dominated the utility landscape. Given unprecedented changes underway in the electricity sector, PBRs - by specifying expectations of utility performance and outcomes for consumers, while staying agnostic to the exact means of delivery - constitute a form of prescient regulation that harnesses disruption. PBRs are one tool in a broader toolbox in the transition toward flexible regulatory and market structures that rewards utilities that adapt or evolve in reaction to market and technology change. PBRs and PIMs have great value for the electric industry when designed well and can be applied to many different situations. How exactly PBR mechanisms are most effectively enacted will vary based on the utility ownership model, institutional arrangements, and a variety of other local factors. PBRs should be tailored to the needs and goals of each jurisdiction, and perhaps each utility, to most effectively achieve the needs of a 21st century power grid in that jurisdiction. Presented in three volumes, this report highlights the lessons learned from their evolving history, explores essential elements of their design and implementation as well as considerations for how they may be best applied, and examines leading examples of PBRs from the United Kingdom, New York, Denmark, Mexico, and South Africa. The full report, 'Next-Generation Performance Based Regulation - Emphasizing Utility Performance to Unleash Power Sector Innovation,' published in September 2017, can be accessed at https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy17osti/68512.pdf.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2018

SNL Lesson Learned and Guidance for Data Repositories and Analytic Frameworks

This document represents the results of deliverable D05.02 (Identify relevant efforts at SNL and other institutions) under the activity area Relevant Efforts Review. The goal of the Relevant Efforts Review activity is to identify relevant data integration efforts at SNL and possibly other institutions and compile lessons learned that are relevant to the development of a framework for data integration efforts in support of analysts and decision makers. The intent of this activity is to provide, by examples, context of how the requirements-gathering process has already been implemented in other instances and to guide the development of such a process for OCIA's needs. Information for this report was gathered through SNL staff interviews and the team members' knowledge and project experiences.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2015

Lessons Learned From Incentives Programs for Efficient Air Conditioners: A Review

One of the largest drivers of growing global energy demand is the increasing market penetration of air conditioners (ACs). Global sales of room ACs were up 9% in 2013 compared to 2012, and that growth is expected to accelerate in coming decades, particularly in large metropolitan areas with hot climates. This report focuses on financial incentive programs that aim to mitigate the energy consumption attributable to the growing stock of ACs. Financial incentives leverage private investments to pull higher-efficiency technologies into the market. Through detailed case studies of AC energy-efficiency incentive programs, we show the significance and diversity of these programs and describe and share lessons learned from their design and implementation. The report also describes how incentive programs can be designed to address other pressing concerns related to growing AC use, such as challenges to power supply reliability resulting from increased peak demand and the global warming potential (GWP) of AC refrigerants. For policy makers and program administrators interested in addressing AC energy efficiency through incentive schemes, the report provides examples of past and present programs and highlights challenges that need to be considered when making program design and implementation decisions. The report begins with an overview of AC markets, highlighting their growth and savings potential, recent achievements from minimum energy performance standards, and typical barriers to the penetration of more efficient AC models. Next, we examine six AC incentive programs in depth, based on evaluation reports and/or interviews with program administrators. Finally, we outline program design features that could a) increase penetration of energy-efficient ACs, b) increase utility and customer participation in demand response programs targeted at reducing peak-load impacts, and c) phase out the use of high-GWP refrigerants in ACs. We find that incentive programs are particularly effective when they target emerging technologies that have still a low penetration in the market.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

Best Practices for Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment Installations in the National Parks: Challenges, Lessons Learned, Installation Best Practices, and Recommendations for the National Park Service

In recent years, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the National Park Service (NPS) have partnered to undertake a variety of projects intended to provide electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) to park visitors. Efforts to install charging infrastructure in the national parks have been underway for almost a decade, with installation projects as part of NPS partnerships with several organizations. These projects have been initiated through a variety of funding sources, such as coordinated donations and agreements with other governmental agencies including the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This report captures challenges, lessons learned, and best practices from recent NPS EVSE projects based on interviews with NPS employees and stakeholders involved in the projects. The report summarizes notable takeaways and makes recommendations to help ensure the success of future charging installation projects. Preserving this information will be valuable for informing and ensuring the success of future charging installation efforts at national parks, as well as for organizations outside of NPS. Note that this report focuses on light-duty plug-in electric vehicle (EV) projects, though NPS is also pursuing medium- and heavy-duty EV efforts.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Microgrids for Energy Resilience: A Guide to Conceptual Design and Lessons from Defense Projects

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has long recognized the strategic value of energy to its missions, and the energy resilience of DoD installations has become of increasing concern. Department of Defense Instruction 4170 requires installations to be more energy resilient, and as a result, many installations are pursuing microgrids to meet their energy resiliency goals and requirements. This report provides a resource for stakeholders involved in analyzing and developing microgrid projects at DoD installations. It builds on experience and lessons from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in supporting numerous DoD projects, including the microgrid at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.(1)The report is structured following NREL's microgrid design process.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

U.S. Department of Energy Free-Air CO 2 Enrichment Experiments: FACE Results, Lessons, and Legacy

In the 1970s, growing concern about potential long-range consequences of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels prompted the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to begin developing a CO 2 research program. The goal was to obtain the scientific information needed to reduce uncertainty and develop a knowledgebase for decision-making. At its start in 1980, this program had three components: the global carbon cycle, climate effects, and vegetation effects. The vegetation effects component recognized that increased atmospheric CO 2 could be a potential benefit to vegetation and crops because CO 2 is an essential resource for plant growth. In addition to increasing crop yield, program developers and researchers recognized that this fertilizer effect could also result in greater storage of fossil fuel CO 2 by forests. Initial experiments were small in scale and scope and focused on the photosynthesis, physiology, and water use of crop plants, but the focus shifted toward responses of plants in natural systems, as needed for connections to the global carbon cycle. Program research investigated CO 2 interactions with other environmental variables, emphasizing field research whenever possible and recognizing that exposure to elevated CO 2 concentrations under realistic field conditions should lead to better predictions of plant response. Whole-ecosystem field experiments were instituted in low-stature ecosystems, but experiments to address forest responses necessarily relied on tree seedlings or saplings in open-top chambers (OTCs) and not within intact forest ecosystems. The need for larger-scale, longer-duration experiments in each of the world’s six major biomes (tundra, boreal forest, temperate forest, tropical forest, grassland, and desert) became clear, and for these experiments, free-air CO 2 exposure facilities were necessary. This report summarizes the objectives and main results of DOE-sponsored experiments employing such facilities, along with the outcomes from research on ecosystem responses using field chambers (see Fig. ES.1, p. x). Additionally, this report highlights the many successes of DOE CO 2 enrichment studies and considers the lessons learned that can be used to guide future initiatives.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Lessons in Commercial PACE Leadership: The Path from Legislation to Launch

This resource from the U.S. Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory aims to fast track the set-up of commercial property assessed clean energy (C-PACE) programs for state and local governments by capturing the lessons learned from leaders.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

Lessons Learned from Historical Counterintelligence Case Studies

This report analyzes lessons learned from significant counterintelligence case studies, including espionage motivation, characteristics of spies, and successes and failures of preventive, protective, and investigative measures. The case studies span a 60-year period between 1941 and 2011, representing cases of both wartime and peacetime espionage. The spies comprise a range of nationalities, including German, Turkish, Swedish, and American. Additionally, the outcomes of the cases vary widely. While some spies were successfully investigated and prosecuted, others defected to another country or evaded suspicion entirely. The information included in these case studies provides a wealth of useful historical data for R&D efforts at Sandia. For example, the information contained in these case studies provides the basis for an ongoing (FY2019) comparative analysis of counterintelligence and insider threat mitigation in nuclear facilities. This page left blank

98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
DOE OSTI2021

Critical steps in preventing future pandemics. Early lessons from the Covid-19 crisis for addressing natural and deliberate biological threats.

This report summarizes a virtual workshop on early lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic as they pertain to proactively addressing future biological threats. Co-hosted by Sandia National Laboratory (Sandia) and the Council on Strategic Risks (CSR) in August 2020, the discussion involved experts who at that time were leading innovative efforts in various U.S. government agencies, industry, and academia sharing observations from their ongoing pandemic response efforts. Based on the input by these expert participants, it is clear that even though the pandemic response is ongoing, the following recommendations will be important to consider for more successfully addressing biological threats in the future: Continue building on the cross-sector collaboration and agility shown in the COVID-19 response; Expand capabilities for detecting biological threats early; Prioritize ways to create and disseminate medical countermeasures even faster; Create the U.S. bio industrial base needed for rapid response to biological threats, and keep it healthy; and, Major government reorganization may not be needed if there is effective work to form coalitions, improve coordination, and expand steady-state and surge capacities.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Lessons from the COVID Era and Visions for the Future

In December 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science convened a virtual Roundtable of its 27 operating scientific user facilities to discuss facility challenges and lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as facility responses, best practices, and innovations that could be adopted going forward. Roundtable participants included facility staff, users, and user executive committee chairs. This report summarizes their discussions, which encompassed topics such as user research and facility operations in virtual and physically distanced contexts; user training and engagement; computation, data, and network resources; and crosscutting issues.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

DARHT : Enduring Lessons from a Technical Project in a National Laboratory Context [Slides]

The Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test (DARHT) facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is the world’s first flash x-ray facility able to take multiple high-resolution radiographs of the interior features of fast-moving dense objects during a single experiment. DARHT’s radiography and complimentary diagnostics makes it an important diagnostic tool in support of the US Department of Energy’s (DOE)/National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)’s stewardship of the US nuclear deterrent. The project to construct DARHT ran from 1988 through 2003. Initial Operating Capability along a single axis began in 1999. A technical issue delayed Critical Decision 4 for the full dual-axis capability until 2008. DARHT was characterized by several directed changes resulting from an environmental impact study, changes to the global security context resulting from the end of underground nuclear testing, and rapid evolution of applicable technology. Conventional building and lab-space construction were part of the project, but the project was dominated by Special Facility Equipment that, together with the mission to support the nuclear weapons program, required the project to be completed by national laboratories. Although the project pre-dated implementation of DOE Order 413.3, several important lessons for national laboratory projects remain applicable today and will be discussed here, including projects appropriate for the national laboratory environment, scope stability, risk acceptance and mitigation, communication, and collaboration. Finally, considerations for DOE contractor project managers are offered based upon the DARHT experience.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2022

Finding my drumbeat: applying lessons learned from Remo Ruffini to understanding astrophysical transients [Slides]

Lessons Learned: Bandwagon science can miss key physics; Bandwagon scientists cling to their bandwagon, oftentimes denying fundamental physics; and, Better approach: Be aware of the physical limitations of a paradigm. What assumptions have been made? How can this be different in Nature?; Be cognizant of alternative models; Encourage the development of those models; and, Although validation is important, fundamental physics forms the basis for Occam’s razor, not whether a toy model fits the data well.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

The 5 Cs of Agrivoltaic Success Factors in the United States: Lessons from the InSPIRE Research Study

The concept of agrivoltaics (combining agriculture and solar photovoltaics technologies on the same land in novel configurations) has emerged as an approach to mitigate conflicts between solar and agricultural activities by providing mutual benefits and added values to each sector. The U.S. Department of Energy has supported agrivoltaics research since 2015 through its Innovative Solar Practices Integrated with Rural Economies and Ecosystems (InSPIRE) research project (National Renewable Energy Laboratory 2022). The InSPIRE project is the most comprehensive coordinated research effort on agrivoltaics in the United States and has examined opportunities and tradeoffs at over 25 sites across the country that span crop production, pollinator habitat, ecosystem services, animal husbandry, and d. Integrating research sites with active commercial agricultural operations can introduce unique challenges for conducting research. This synthesis aims to highlight the technical and non-technical insights from InSPIRE agrivoltaic field research sites from 2015-2021 to support i) appropriate deployment of agrivoltaic projects; ii) more successful research on agrivoltaics; and iii) more effective partnerships on agrivoltaic projects. The synthesized lessons discussed here are focused less on specific case study outcomes (i.e., the percent change in crop yield in an agrivoltaics configuration), and instead more on the elements that enable and facilitate agrivoltaics projects to be installed and operated along with research to be conducted at those sites. We find that there are some insights that are applicable across all types of agrivoltaic projects, while ecosystem service projects and crop production agrivoltaic projects can often have other unique considerations.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Sharing of Good Practices and Lessons Learned [Slides]

This presentation shares good practices and lessons that were learned. Particularly highlighted is the Learning from Experience Database (LFE). Provided are additional slides walking through a visual representation of this system.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗