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DOE OSTI2017

U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System Cost Benchmark: Q1 2017

This report benchmarks U.S. solar photovoltaic (PV) system installed costs as of the first quarter of 2017 (Q1 2017). We use a bottom-up methodology, accounting for all system and projectdevelopment costs incurred during the installation to model the costs for residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems. In general, we attempt to model the typical installation techniques and business operations from an installed-cost perspective. Costs are represented from the perspective of the developer/installer; thus, all hardware costs represent the price at which components are purchased by the developer/installer, not accounting for preexisting supply agreements or other contracts. Importantly, the benchmark also represents the sales price paid to the installer; therefore, it includes profit in the cost of the hardware, 1 along with the profit the installer/developer receives, as a separate cost category. However, it does not include any additional net profit, such as a developer fee or price gross-up, which is common in the marketplace. We adopt this approach owing to the wide variation in developer profits in all three sectors, where project pricing is highly dependent on region and project specifics such as local retail electricity rate structures, local rebate and incentive structures, competitive environment, and overall project or deal structures. Finally, our benchmarks are national averages weighted by state installed capacities.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Status and Trends in the U.S. Voluntary Green Power Market (2016 Data)

Annual report of sales and number of customers in voluntary green power markets, including utility green pricing programs, utility green partnerships, competitive suppliers, unbundled renewable energy certificates, community choice aggregations, power purchase agreements, and community solar.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Historical Review of the Transportation Analysis Fact of the Week, 1996-2017

The Vehicle Technologies Office in the United States Department of Energy hosts a transportation analysis fact of the week on its webpage. As of October 2017, one thousand facts have been published since 1996. Examining the themes of published facts allows one to trace analytical trends determined to be of interest to the public over this time. The most popular themes addressed in the Fact of the Week were vehicle fuel economy, petroleum use and production, vehicle sales, and traveler behavior. Facts on vehicle electrification and advanced combustion technologies have been more popular in the last few years, showing their relevance to the Department of Energy mission.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Travel patterns and characteristics of foreign-born sub-population in New York state

According to the 2010 Census, over 22% of total New York State (NYS) residents were foreign-born and over one in three persons living in New York City (NYC) were foreign-born. Foreign-born and their dependents impact local economies in many different ways, including purchasing power, transportation service needs, business sales and receipts generated, and workforce. To allow better policy decision making and program planning of transportation developments and investments in NYS, a clear understanding of the foreign-born population’s travel characteristics and behaviors, as well as their unique transportation service needs, are necessary. This report documents the characteristics of the foreign-born population and identified differences in travel behaviors and mobility issues between foreign-born residents of NYS and their U.S.-born counterparts.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2017

Estimating Energy Consumption of Mobile Fluid Power in the United States

This report estimates the market size and energy consumption of mobile off-road applications utilizing hydraulic fluid power, and summarizes technology gaps and implementation barriers. Mobile fluid power is the use of hydraulic fluids under pressure to transmit power in mobile equipment applications. The mobile off-road fluid power sector includes various uses of hydraulic fluid power equipment with fundamentally diverse end-use application and operational requirements, such as a skid steer loader, a wheel loader or an agriculture tractor. The agriculture and construction segments dominate the mobile off-road fluid power market in component unit sales volume. An estimated range of energy consumed by the mobile off-road fluid power sector is 0.36 - 1.8 quads per year, which was 1.3 percent - 6.5 percent of the total energy consumed in 2016 by the transportation sector. Opportunities for efficiency improvements within the fluid power system result from needs to level and reduce the peak system load requirements and develop new technologies to reduce fluid power system level losses, both of which may be facilitated by characterizing duty cycles to define standardized performance test methods. There are currently no commonly accepted standardized test methods for evaluating equipment level efficiency over a duty cycle. The off-road transportation sector currently meets criteria emissions requirements, and there are no efficiency regulations requiring original equipment manufacturers (OEM) to invest in new architecture development to improve the fuel economy of mobile off-road fluid power systems. In addition, the end-user efficiency interests are outweighed by low equipment purchase or lease price concerns, required payback periods, and reliability and durability requirements of new architecture. Current economics, low market volumes with high product diversity, and regulation compliance challenge OEM investment in commercialization of new architecture development.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Assessment of commercially available energy-efficient room air conditioners including models with low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants

Improving the energy efficiency of room air conditioners (RACs) while transitioning to low global-warming-potential (GWP) refrigerants will be a critical step toward reducing the energy, peak load, and emissions impacts of RACs while keeping costs low. Previous research quantified the benefits of leapfrogging to high efficiency in tandem with the transition to low-GWP refrigerants for RACs (Shah et al., 2015) and identified opportunities for initial action to coordinate energy efficiency with refrigerant transition in economies constituting about 65% of the global RAC market (Shah et al., 2017). This report describes further research performed to identify the best-performing (i.e., most efficient and low-GWP-refrigerant using) RACs on the market, to support an understanding of the best available technology (BAT). Understanding BAT can help support market-transformation programs for high-efficiency and low-GWP equipment such as minimum energy performance standards (MEPS), labeling, procurement, and incentive programs. We studied RACs available in six economies—China, Europe, India, Japan, South Korea, and the United States—that together account for about 70% of global RAC demand, as well as other emerging economies. The following are our key findings: • Highly efficient RACs using low-GWP refrigerants, e.g., HFC-32 (R-32) and HC-290 (R-290), are commercially available today at prices comparable to similar RACs using high-GWP HCFC-22 (R-22) or HFC-410A (R-410A). • High efficiency is typically a feature of high-end products. However, highly efficient, cost-competitive (less than 1,000 or 1,500 U.S. dollars in retail price, depending on size) RACs are available. • Where R-22 is being phased out, high GWP R-410A still dominates RAC sales in most mature markets except Japan, where R-32 dominates. • In all of the economies studied except Japan, only a few models are energy efficient and use low-GWP refrigerants. For example, in Europe, India, and Indonesia, the highest-efficiency RAC models employ the low-GWP refrigerants R-32 or R-290. • RACs are available in most regions and worldwide that surpass the highest efficiency levels recognized by labeling programs. • Fixed-speed RACs using high-GWP and ozone-depleting R-22 refrigerant still dominate the market in many emerging economies. There is significant scope to improve RAC efficiency and transition to low-GWP refrigerants using commercially available technology and to design market-transformation programs for high-efficiency, low-GWP equipment including standards, labeling, procurement, and incentive programs.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Sighten Final Technical Report DEEE0006690 Deploying an integrated and comprehensive solar financing software platform

Over the project, Sighten built a comprehensive software-as-a-service (Saas) platform to automate and streamline the residential solar financing workflow. Before the project period, significant time and money was spent by companies on front-end tools related to system design and proposal creation, but comparatively few resources were available to support the many back-end calculations and data management processes that underpin third party financing. Without a tool like Sighten, the solar financing processes involved passing information from the homeowner prospect into separate tools for system design, financing, and then later to reporting tools including Microsoft Excel, CRM software, in-house software, outside software, and offline, manual processes. Passing data between tools and attempting to connect disparate systems results in inefficiency and inaccuracy for the industry. Sighten was built to consolidate all financial and solar-related calculations in a single software platform. It significantly improves upon the accuracy of these calculations and exposes sophisticated new analysis tools resulting in a rigorous, efficient and cost-effective toolset for scaling residential solar. Widely deploying a platform like Sighten’s significantly and immediately impacts the residential solar space in several important ways: 1) standardizing and improving the quality of all quantitative calculations involved in the residential financing process, most notably project finance, system production and reporting calculations; 2) representing a true step change in terms of reporting and analysis capabilities by maintaining more accurate data and exposing sophisticated tools around simulation, tranching, and financial reporting, among others, to all stakeholders in the space; 3) allowing a broader group of developers/installers/finance companies to access the capital markets by providing an out-of-the-box toolset that handles the execution of running investor capital through a rooftop solar financing program. Standardizing and improving all calculations, improving data quality, and exposing new analysis tools previously unavailable affects investment in the residential space in several important ways: 1) lowering the cost of capital for existing capital providers by mitigating uncertainty and de-risking the solar asset class; 2) attracting new, lower cost investors to the solar asset class as reporting and data quality resemble standards of more mature asset classes; 3) increasing the prevalence of liquidity options for investors through back leverage, securitization, or secondary sale by providing the tools necessary for lenders, ratings agencies, etc. to properly understand a portfolio of residential solar assets. During the project period, Sighten successfully built and scaled a commercially ready tool for the residential solar market. The software solution built by Sighten has been deployed with key target customer segments identified in the award deliverables: solar installers, solar developers/channel managers, and solar financiers, including lenders. Each of these segments greatly benefits from the availability of the Sighten toolset.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Atomically Precise Membranes for the Separation of Hydrocarbons

Separations often account for a majority of process costs. This is because all traditional separation processes have inherent weaknesses that prevent the system from achieving perfect (or even near perfect in many instances) selectivity. These weaknesses result in large recycle streams and require multiple separation units in concert in order to produce a product clean enough for use or sale. An atomically precise membrane capable of allowing passage to only certain molecules would greatly improve process economics. We have synthesized atomically precise, triangular and rectangular-shaped, pore-containing macromolecules (channel molecules) using a unique, stiff, programmable molecular scaffold developed in Prof. Christian Schafmeister’s lab at Temple University. We synthesized porous triangular and rectangular macromolecules from our unique, poly-cyclic, shape-programmable, and functional group-programmable spiroligomer scaffolds. These macromolecules display functional groups pointing outward that will covalently cross-link with other functional groups on other copies of the molecule. The pores are of programmable size and shape to selectively allow some molecules and ions to pass through the pores while resisting others. These molecules were confirmed with H-NMR and HPLC/HRMS. Self-assembled layers of these molecules were fabricated with the use of a Langmuir trough where they were compressed to a mean area that is close to their corresponding macrocycle size (~0.5-1 nm 2 ). We have also demonstrated several strategies for supporting films of these selective membranes on polysulfone.

Amundsen, Ted↗
DOE OSTI2017

An Overview of Natural Gas Conversion Technologies for Co-Production of Hydrogen and Value-Added Solid Carbon Products

This report was prepared in response to the U.S. Department of Energy Fuel Cell Technologies Office Congressional Appropriation language to support research on carbon-free production of hydrogen using new chemical processes that utilize natural gas to produce solid carbon and hydrogen. The U.S. produces 9-10 million tons of hydrogen annually with more than 95% of the hydrogen produced by steam-methane reforming (SMR) of natural gas. SMR is attractive because of its high hydrogen yield; but it also converts the carbon to carbon dioxide. Non-oxidative thermal decomposition of methane to carbon and hydrogen is an alternative to SMR and produces CO 2 -free hydrogen. The produced carbon can be sold as a co-product, thus providing economic credit that reduces the delivered net cost of hydrogen. The combination of producing hydrogen with potentially valuable carbon byproducts has market value in that this allows greater flexibility to match the market prices of hydrogen and carbon. That is, the higher value product can subsidize the other in pricing decisions. In this report we highlight the relevant technologies reported in the literature—primarily thermochemical and plasma conversion processes—and recent research progress and commercial activities. Longstanding technical challenges include the high energetic requirements (e.g., high temperatures and/or electricity requirements) necessary for methane activation and, for some catalytic processes, the separation of solid carbon product from the spent catalyst. We assess current and new carbon product markets that could be served given technological advances, and we discuss technical barriers and potential areas of research to address these needs. We provide preliminary economic analysis for these processes and compare to other emerging (e.g., electrolysis) and conventional (e.g., SMR) processes for hydrogen production. The overarching conclusion of this study is that the cost of hydrogen can be potentially reduced to target levels of $2/kg with the co-production and sale of a sufficiently high-value carbon product. Technological advances are required to understand the reaction conditions and design reactor systems that can achieve high yields of the select carbon products and segregate or separate the high-value carbon products, and optimize the production process for both hydrogen and carbon.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2017

Coeur d’Alene Tribe Benewah Market Energy Efficiency Project Final Technical Report

The Coeur d’Alene Reservation has been the home of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe since time immemorial and it is fitting that the Tribe’s name in the Coeur d’Alene language is schitsu’umsh, “the ones who were found here.” The Reservation is located in northern Idaho, is approximately 345,000 acres and is comprised of forest land, agricultural land, several streams, Coeur d’Alene Lake and the St. Joe River and a small amount of developed land. The project area was conducted within the boundaries of the Coeur d’Alene Reservation. The population of the Reservation is 6,760 (2010 Census). Currently, there are approximately 2,463 enrolled Coeur d’Alene Tribal members (Coeur d’Alene Tribe Enrollment 2016). The Benewah Market is a Tribally-owned and operated facility located at 1111 B St. Plummer, ID 83851. The Benewah Market is an approximately 23,500 square foot single-story structure. The majority of the building is occupied by a grocery store with a full meat department, deli, and bakery. Approximately 20% of the floor area at the northeast corner is occupied by an Ace Hardware retailer. The largest part of the building is approximately 17,000 square feet, is separately metered and houses the grocery store which was constructed in 1984. The market is the largest full service market serving the Coeur d’Alene Reservation and is the only full service market in a 35-mile radius. The Tribe has benefited greatly from the Benewah Market Energy Efficiency Project and will continue to do so for many years: The health and safety of the food has been improved greatly now that the refrigeration and freezer cases are at a constant and safe temperature on a monitoring and alarm system. There is no longer a thaw and freeze cycle that allows fluctuations in temperature. If the power goes out, there is an immediate alarm and contact so that time may be tracked and food kept safe during an outage. The overall annual energy use in the Benewah Market has dropped by 22.9% -Energy costs for the Market decreased by an estimated 11,620 dollars in one year due to this project. The Tribe has seen an increase in the cost of energy from Plummer Power and this was offset by the reduction in energy consumed. This estimate assumes that the Tribe would have consumed the same amount of energy as the prior year. -Maintenance costs are estimated to have decreased by $10,000 in just the one year since installation in contract repair and maintenance. The Tribe estimates that it has saved 24,000 dollars over a one-year time period in labor costs to maintain the older system. Due to having a more efficient store, with safer, more attractive display of food and lower energy and maintenance costs, the store is able to be more viable economically. The store has increased its sales and has been able to pass along operations and maintenance savings to its customers and employees. The Tribe hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony on February 28, 2017 at the Benewah Market with Chris Deschene, then Office of Indian Energy Director, as well as representatives from the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and Bonneville Power Administration. While the ribbon-cutting ceremony was going on, the Tribe’s media outlets covered the ceremony and placed information about the project on the Tribe’s Facebook page on two separate occasions. The Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s Natural Resources Department and the Tribe’s Development Corporation are thankful for the opportunity that the Benewah Market Energy Efficiency Project has afforded the Coeur d’Alene Tribal community. Without the U.S. Department of Energy’s Indian Energy Program funding and its dedicated staff, this project would not have been completed. This has been a lot of work for all parties involved but has provided benefits to thousands of people for many years to come.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2018

Optimization of Diode Laser System to Treat Benign Prostate Hyperplasia Final Report CRADA No. TSB-1154-95

Benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) is a pervasive condition of enlargement of the male prostate gland which leads to several urinary difficulties ranging from hesitancy to incontinence to kidney dysfunction in severe cases. Currently the most common therapy is transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) utilizing an electrosurgical device. Although TURP is largely successful, new BPH therapy methods are desired to reduce the cost and recovery time, improve the success rate, and reduce side effects. Recently, lasers have been introduced for this purpose. Indigo Medical Inc. is currently engaged in the development, testing, and preparation for sales of a new diode laser based BPH therapy system. The development is based on laboratory experiments, animal studies, and a limited FDA-approved clinical trial in the US and in other countries. The addition of sophisticated numerical modeling, of the sort that has been highly developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, can greatly aid in the design of the system and treatment protocol. The benefits to DOE include the maintenance and advancement of numerical modeling expertise in radiation-matter interactions of the sort essential for the stockpile stewardship, inertial confinement fusion, and advanced manufacturing, and the push on advanced scientific computational methods, ultimately in areas such as 3-D transport.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2018

Cost-Reduction Roadmap for Residential Solar Photovoltaics (PV), 2017-2030

The installed cost of solar photovoltaics (PV) has fallen rapidly in recent years and is expected to continue declining in the future. In this report, we focus on the potential for continued PV cost reductions in the residential market. From 2010 to 2017, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for residential PV declined from 52 cents per kilowatt-hour (cents/kWh) to 16 cents/kWh (Fu et al. 2017). The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) recently set new LCOE targets for 2030, including a target of 5 cents/kWh for residential PV. We present a roadmap for achieving the SETO 2030 residential PV target. Because the 2030 target likely will not be achieved under business-as-usual trends (NREL 2017), we examine two key market segments that demonstrate significant opportunities for cost savings and market growth: installing PV at the time of roof replacement and installing PV as part of the new home construction process. Within both market segments, we identify four key cost-reduction opportunities: market maturation, business model integration, product innovation, and economies of scale. To assess the potential impact of these cost reductions, we compare modeled residential PV system prices in 2030 to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) quarter one 2017 (Q1 2017) residential PV system price benchmark (Fu et al. 2017). We use a bottom-up accounting framework to model all component and project-development costs incurred when installing a PV system. The result is a granular accounting for 11 direct and indirect costs associated with installing a residential PV system in 2030. All four modeled pathways demonstrate significant installed-system price savings over the Q1 2017 benchmark, with the visionary pathways yielding the greatest price benefits. The largest modeled cost savings are in the supply chain, sales and marketing, overhead, and installation labor cost categories. When we translate these installed-system costs into LCOE, we find that the less-aggressive pathways achieve significant cost reductions, but may not achieve the 2030 LCOE target. On the other hand, both visionary pathways could get very close to (for roof replacement) or achieve (for new construction) the 2030 target. Our analysis has two key implications. First, because installed-system soft cost reductions account for about 65 percent of the LCOE reductions in 2030 for both visionary pathways, residential PV stakeholders may need to emphasize these soft cost reductions to achieve the 2030 target. Second, capturing these savings will likely require considerable innovation in the technologies and business practices employed by the PV industry.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Analysis of hydrogen as a Transportation Fuel FY17 Report

This report summarizes the results of literature reviews, surveys and analyses performed to evaluate the potential of hydrogen-fueled vehicles to be an economically viable transportation alternative. Five existing and important drivers of expanding hydrogen-fueled transportation adoption are multi-billion dollar sales reservations of Nikola Class 8 trucks, CALSTART viability analysis of hybrid-hydrogen drayage trucks in the shipyard cargo application, analysis showing economic advantages of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV)s over Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV)s beginning at 150-mile ranges, the announcement of a commercial 5kg electrolyzer, and commercial plans or vehicle availability by nine vehicle manufacturers of FCEV passenger vehicles. But hydrogen infrastructure availability needed to support broad adoption of hydrogen-fueled vehicles is limited to less than 50 publicly-available refueling stations, primarily in California. The demand side (consumer) economics associated with FCEV adoption showed strong economic sensitivity to the original vehicle’s fuel economy (mpg), distance traveled, and hydrogen (H2) generation costs. Seven use cases were used to evaluate the broad range of potential FCEV purchasers, including autonomous vehicle applications. Each consumer use case analysis resulted in a different hydrogen fuel cost that would be equivalent to the current fuel cost being paid by the consumer. The H2 generation costs (supply side) were sensitive to the volume of H2 supplied and H2 production costs needed to repay H2 supply facility capital costs and produce competitively-priced energy. H2FAST was used to more accurately incorporate capital, maintenance and production costs into a viable H2 supply cost to the consumer. When the H2 generation and consumer economics were combined, several applications with positive economics became clear. The availability of low-cost hydrogen pipeline connections, and therefore low-cost hydrogen, greatly benefits the California drayage truck application with hybrid-hydrogen retrofits being repaid within seven years. Class 8 trucks could also take advantage of these low-cost, but regional hydrogen supplies. In addition, the IVYS electrolyzer-based hydrogen generation product showed the potential to deliver hydrogen economically in an urban or freeway off-ramp setting to a limited number of passenger vehicles in areas with low-cost electricity. These positive, manually developed results show the need to develop more advanced tools to provide an expanded evaluation of the economics of hydrogen-based fuel applications. The use cases evaluated showed significant potential for hydrogen-fueled vehicles to have a sustainable impact as a transportation fuel. The positive impact is not limited to transportation fuels, but also grid resilience and flexibility through the use of controllable and variable electrolyzer output to rapidly adjust to changing grid conditions and enable greater integration of solar and wind generated power. This capability would directly enable alternative fuel vehicles to impact energy consumption, GHG emissions, and the economy at the regional and national levels.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2018

Estimating returns to scale and scale efficiency for energy consuming appliances

Energy consuming appliances accounted for over 40% of the energy use and $17 billion in sales in the U.S. in 2014. Whether such amounts of money and energy were optimally combined to produce household energy services is not straightforwardly determined. The efficient allocation of capital and energy to provide an energy service has been previously approached, and solved with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) under constant returns to scale. That approach, however, lacks the scale dimension of the problem and may restrict the economic efficient models of an appliance available in the market when constant returns to scale does not hold. We expand on that approach to estimate returns to scale for energy using appliances. We further calculate DEA scale efficiency scores for the technically efficient models that comprise the economic efficient frontier of the energy service delivered, under different assumptions of returns to scale. We then apply this approach to evaluate dishwashers available in the market in the U.S. Our results show that (a) for the case of dishwashers scale matters, and (b) the dishwashing energy service is delivered under non-decreasing returns to scale. The results further demonstrate that this method contributes to increase consumers’ choice of appliances.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2017

R&D to Market Success: BTO-Supported Technologies Commercialized from 2010-2015

Technology commercialization plays an essential role in almost every facet of the U.S. economy. It spurs private sector funding that supports innovative breakthroughs, drives growth through increased productivity and product development, increases American competitiveness, and creates domestic jobs. The BTO Technology Commercialization report is an annual publication offering the latest information on successfully commercialized technologies resulting in part from BTO’s research partnerships. This report defines a “commercialized technology” as a process, technique, design, machine, tool, material, or software that was developed with funds provided at least in part by BTO, and that has resulted in domestic sales or is in use in the U.S. This definition also applies to open-source software products developed with support from BTO, all of which are currently distributed freely but are actively used for commercial purposes.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Employment Effects of Hydrogen and Fuel Cells: Phase 1 Report, Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles

This report describes employment impacts associated with the manufacture, distribution and sale (MDS) of light-duty fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) under a mid-range scenario of market development and uptake. Termed “gross” employment, these estimates include direct and indirect, full-time and part-time jobs associated with manufacturing, distributing and selling FCEVs, but not the consequent reduction in employment resulting from reduced demand for conventional vehicles (i.e., displaced employment). The latter estimates are included in a forthcoming technical memorandum documenting Phase 2 of this study.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2018

Performance-Based Regulation In A High Distributed Energy Resources Future

Performance-based regulation (PBR) of utilities has emerged as an important ratemaking option in the last 25 years. It has been implemented in numerous jurisdictions across the United States and is common in many other advanced industrialized countries. PBR’s appeal lies chiefly in its ability to strengthen utility performance incentives relative to traditional cost-of-service regulation (COSR). Some forms of PBR can streamline regulation and provide utilities with greater operating flexibility. Ideally, the benefits of better performance are shared by the utility and its customers. The shortcomings of traditional COSR in providing electric utilities with incentives that are aligned with certain regulatory goals are becoming increasingly clear. In particular, COSR can provide strong incentives to increase electricity sales and utility rate base. Further, some parties express concern that traditional COSR does not provide utilities with appropriate financial incentives to address evolving industry challenges such as changing customer demands for electricity services, increased levels of distributed energy resources (DERs), and growing pressure to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions. In addition, attention to potential new regulatory models to support the “utility of the future” has renewed interest in PBR. This report describes key elements of PBR and explains some of the advantages and disadvantages of various PBR options. We present pertinent issues from the perspectives of utilities and customers. In practice, these different perspectives are not diametrically opposed. Nonetheless, this framework is useful for illustrating how various aspects of PBR may be viewed by those key groups. Regulators have a unique perspective, in that they must balance consumer, utility, and other interests with the goal of achieving a result that is in the overall public interest.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2018

On-Board Sensor Diagnostics for Catalytic Converters Final Report CRADA No. TC-0882-94

The auto industry is one of the largest and most important sectors of the U;S. economy. At the time of the CRADA, the Big Three U.S. auto makers (Chrysler, Ford and GM) alone employed··608,000 workers·in this country and marketed some eight million new cars and trucks worth approximately $200 billion in sales revenues. When the impact of part suppliers, steel, aluminum, and electronics producers were included, the effect of a downturn in U.S. car manufacturing had a nationwide impact on jobs and the economy. For example, U.S. auto makers used 1/7 of all U.S. steel production and 1/6 of all U.S. aluminum production. Transplant Japanese factories cannot be expected to compensate for reductions by U.S. auto makers; in fact, transplants resulted in a net loss of U.S. jobs. In 1991, the Big Three U.S. auto makers sold 8.8 million new cars and trucks with over 620,000 employees while the Big Three Japanese firms (Toyota, Nissan, and Honda) sold 2.4 million new cars and trucks with only 37,000 U.S. employees. It was estimated that the Japanese­ owned, U.S.-located, auto assembly facilities enjoyed an $8-$9 an hour labor cost advantage over the U.S. Big Three by building new plants in rural areas and hiring young workers with smaller health care and pension needs. Most of the parts in the 2.4 million cars and trucks sold by Japanese auto makers come directly from Japan and the engineering activities were mostly performed in Japan before U.S. assembly began. The effect of these issues was reflected in the U.S. Japan trade imbalance; about two-thirds of Japan's trade surplus was attributable to autos and auto parts.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗