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DOE OSTI2024

Measuring Impact: Evaluating Thermal Zoning Simplification on Energy Efficiency Measures Analysis

Building Energy Modeling (BEM) is a versatile tool for designing, retrofitting, ensuring code compliance, obtaining certifications, qualifying for incentives, and enabling real-time building control. However, capturing all the details of building geometry for thermal zoning can be time-consuming, costly, and sometimes computationally challenging. As a result, modelers have been applying zoning simplification based on factors such as space functions and internal loads, as well as relying on their experience and judgment while adhering to zoning rules outlined in industry standards. Despite the prevalence of this common practice, a notable gap exists in the literature regarding studies quantifying the influence of simplified thermal zoning on the evaluation of Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMs). Recognizing this gap, this paper seeks to contribute to the field by enhancing the understanding of how the simplification of thermal zoning influences the evaluation of EEMs against a baseline design. The study utilized a medium office prototype model with a detailed floor plan featuring over 20 zones per floor covering diverse functional spaces with varying internal loads and occupancy schedules. A standard thermal zoning strategy outlined in ASHRAE Standard 90.1 Appendix G was employed as the simplified zoning method. This strategy condenses the zoning into a core zone and four perimeter zones per floor. It was compared with the detailed zoning approach, which involves one zone per space. Common Energy EEMs, such as enhanced envelope, high-efficiency appliances and equipment, and HVAC controls, were individually implemented and evaluated. The results indicate that the performance comparison between the two zoning methods varies depending on the type of measures considered. Basic measures, such as adding wall insulation, demonstrate similar energy impacts, while advanced HVAC control measures, such as static pressure reset, exhibit a more substantial difference that cannot be overlooked.

Xie, Jiarong↗

DOE OSTI2024

Potential for large-scale deployment of offshore wind-to-hydrogen systems in the United States

This study explores the role of producing low-carbon hydrogen using water electrolysis powered by offshore wind in facilitating the United States’ transition to a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. This research introduces an open-source scenario analysis tool for offshore wind-to-hydrogen systems, aiming to assess the impact of technology, regional considerations, and policy incentives on the cost of producing low-carbon hydrogen through offshore wind. Conducting a regional techno-economic analysis at four U.S. coastal sites, the study evaluates two energy transmission configurations and examines associated costs for the years 2025, 2030, and 2035. The results highlight that locations using fixed-bottom technology may achieve cost-competitive water electrolysis hydrogen production by 2030 through leveraging geologic hydrogen storage and federal policy incentives. Furthermore, floating technology locations are expected to see an average 38% reduction in the levelized cost of hydrogen from 2025 to 2035.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2026

Human Factors and Technologies Design to Improve User Acceptance of Pooled Rideshare for Increasing Transportation System Energy Efficiency

This multi-year project delivered a comprehensive, human-factors-driven framework to understand, model, and improve pooled rideshare (PR) adoption in the United States. Through three large-scale national survey studies involving more than 16,000 participants across multiple cities and demographic groups, the research established one of the most extensive datasets to date on user perceptions, behavioral barriers, and service expectations related to pooled rideshare. These data revealed key human factors barriers of user acceptance of PR and suggested potential actionable experience optimizations that could lead to increased PR usage. This foundational knowledge guided the development of novel human-factors models and behavioral choice models that quantify how psychological, demographic, and trip-level factors influence willingness to pool. Building on these empirical insights, the project developed advanced behavioral modeling tools, including mixed logit and integrated choice and latent variable models, to capture both observable and latent influences on PR adoption. These models significantly improved the ability to predict riders’ acceptance of pooled trips, explaining choice heterogeneity through latent constructs such as safety, service experience, privacy concerns, time sensitivity, and environmental attitudes. Together, these models provide a robust analytical foundation for designing PR systems that more effectively meet user needs. The project translated human-factors insights and behavioral models into actionable technology innovations by extending POLARIS—an agent-based, activity-based travel simulation platform—into a fully functional pooled rideshare simulation environment. New PR modules, acceptance models, and regional scenarios were implemented for Greenville, SC and Austin, TX, enabling high-fidelity validation of algorithmic strategies under realistic demand and traffic conditions. The simulation platform supported the development and evaluation of adaptive discount-based assignment algorithms, enhanced willingness-to-pay formulations, demographic-aware incentive mechanisms, and a proactive joint assignment and repositioning strategy. Simulation results demonstrated substantial gains in pooling uptake, average vehicle occupancy, energy efficiency, and fleet profitability. In Greenville, pooling adoption more than doubled, while reductions in vehicle-miles traveled and energy consumption were significant. In Austin, pooling improvements were achieved with minimal service-quality trade-offs, and profitability increased across all fleet sizes. Through this research, we developed a comprehensive understanding of the human factors barriers that limit user acceptance of pooled rideshare services. These insights enabled the design of human-factors-aware pooled rideshare technologies that more effectively address user concerns and improve adoption rates. By integrating these models into an advanced agent-based simulation framework, we demonstrated that higher adoption of pooled rideshare can lead to measurable improvements in energy efficiency and system performance. Together, these contributions establish a validated pathway from human-centered analysis to technology development and energy-saving outcomes, supporting national goals for more sustainable and efficient mobility systems.

Jia, Yunyi↗

DOE OSTI2026

Agrivoltaics: Unlocking the Potential of Dual Land Use

This tutorial will delve into the practical and technical considerations for agrivoltaic systems, including crop selection, agricultural practices, and solar energy optimization. Leveraging insights from successful case studies, we'll address challenges such as policy barriers and regulatory gaps while exploring opportunities and incentives for implementation. With a focus on PV expertise, attendees will gain actionable knowledge on designing and evaluating dual-use systems that balance energy generation with agricultural productivity.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Demonstrating Load-Shaping Capabilities of Cost Minimizing Heat Pump Water Heater Controls with Varying Price Profiles

Increased penetration of photovoltaics and electrification of traditionally gas appliances are exacerbating existing challenges in cost-effectively balancing electricity grid supply and demand. Decarbonization without incurring expensive transmission and distribution system capacity increases requires shifting building loads from peak demand times to peak renewable production times. Grid operators are evaluating new ways of encouraging load shifting, including using time-varying price structures to provide a financial incentive. If devices incorporate price-responsive controls, a price profile could be designed to yield a wide variety of load curves as needed to optimize grid functionality. Heat pump water heaters (HPWHs) are an ideal device for price-responsive controls because the storage tank enables them to optimize the timing of electricity consumption without impacting hot water delivery service. This paper presents work demonstrating how price-responsive controls for HPWHs can provide different load profiles, as needed to stabilize the grid, in response to different price profiles. HPWH manufacturers now include web API and CTA-2045 communication capabilities which enable sending load shaping control signals. Pilot studies and preliminary programs have utilized these capabilities with uniform control strategies to reduce 4-9 PM electricity consumption. However, no studies have developed flexible controls capable of both a) responding to constantly varying price profiles and b) customizing logic to match the needs of each HPWH. Berkeley Lab's CalFlexHub project is pioneering price-driven load flexibility by developing and deploying cost-minimizing controls utilizing setpoint setting signals for fleets of HPWHs in response to varying price profiles. Control development is based on simulations using the Flexible Heat Pump Water Heater Performance Predictor which captures the control decisions of a residential, integrated HPWH manufacturer’s on-board controller. The proposed cost-reducing controls respond to constantly changing price profiles, providing the ability to change the price profile to generate load curves as needed to maintain grid stability. Preliminary simulations studying the load shaping capabilities of price-responsive controls on a fleet of 60 HPWHs have demonstrated an average of a) 135.4% increases in load during low-price periods, b) >36.8% reductions in electricity peak-price period, and c) 6.2% electricity cost savings.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

NASA NTRS1979

A study of industrial hydrogen and syngas supply systems

The potential and incentives required for supplying hydrogen and syngas feedstocks to the U.S. chemical industry from coal gasification systems were evaluated. Future hydrogen and syngas demand for chemical manufacture was estimated by geographic area and projected economics for hydrogen and syngas manufacture was estimated with geographic area of manufacture and plant size as parameters. Natural gas, oil and coal feedstocks were considered. Problem areas presently affecting the commercial feasibility of coal gasification discussed include the impact of potential process improvements, factors involved in financing coal gasification plants, regulatory barriers affecting coal gasification, coal mining/transportation, air quality regulations, and competitive feedstock pricing barriers. The potential for making coal gasification the least costly H2 and syngas supply option. Options to stimulate coal gasification system development are discussed.

Amos, W. J.↗

DOE OSTI2022

Incorporate day-ahead robustness and real-time incentives for electricity market design

In this paper, we propose a two-stage electricity market framework to explore the participation of distributed energy resources (DERs) in a day-ahead (DA) market and a real-time (RT) market. The objective is to determine the optimal bidding strategies of the aggregated DERs in the DA market and generate online incentive signals for DER-owners to optimize the social-welfare taking into account network operational constraints. Distributionally robust optimization is used to explicitly incorporate data-based statistical information of renewable forecasts into the supply/demand decisions in the DA market. We evaluate the conservativeness of bidding strategies distinguished by different risk aversion settings. In the RT market, a bi-level time-varying optimization problem is proposed to design the online incentive signals to tradeoff the RT imbalance penalty for distribution system operators (DSOs) and the costs of individual DER-owners. This enables tracking their optimal dispatch to provide fast balancing services, in the presence of time-varying network states while satisfying the voltage regulation requirement. Simulation results on both DA wholesale market and RT balancing market demonstrate the necessity of this two-stage design, and its robustness to uncertainties, the performance of convergence, the tracking ability and the feasibility of the resulting network operations.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

NASA NTRS2024

A Fair, Economically-Efficient, Incentive-Aligned, Scalable Airspace Auction Mechanism for UAV Traffic Management

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly used in a wide range of applications such as cinematography, package delivery, and surveying. As a result, regulators have become interested in developing UAV Traffic Management (UTM) systems to coordinate UAV traffic. One possible framework for UTM is a combinatorial auction. Under this framework, airspace is modeled as a grid of space-time cells. UAV operators bid on sets of cells which collectively form flight paths for their UAVs. An ideal airspace auction should: be fair, be incentive-aligned, be scalable, allocate airspace economically-efficiently, enable price discovery, and reduce the work required to participate where possible. In this paper, we propose the first auction mechanism for airspace allocation that meets the criteria above. Our mechanism: (a) is provably economically-efficient, fair and incentive-aligned, (b) shares pricing information with bidders and (c) has features which reduce the burden of participating. We evaluate our mechanism on scenarios based on a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) case study and find that it can scale to 26,000 bids.

Robert Allan Morris↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Overview of A Survey Methods Test for the NASA Quesst Community Survey Campaign

In its mission to expand knowledge and improve aviation, NASA conducts research to address sonic boom noise, the prime barrier to overland supersonic flight. NASA is currently preparing for a community survey campaign to assess response to noise from the new X-59 aircraft. During each community survey, a substantial number of observations must be collected over a limited timeframe to generate a dose response relationship. A sample of residents will be recruited in advance to fill out a brief survey each time X-59 flies over, approximately 80 times throughout a month. In preparation NASA conducted a month-long test of survey methods in 2023. A sample of 800 residents was recruited from a simulated fly-over area. Because there were no actual X-59 fly-overs, respondents were asked about their reactions to noise from normal aircraft operations. The respondents chose whether to fill out the survey on the web or via a smartphone application. Evaluating response rates and how they evolved over time was a specific focus of the test. Also, a graduated incentive structure was implemented to keep respondents engaged. Finally, location data was collected from respondents since it will be needed to estimate individual noise exposure from X-59. The results of this survey test will help determine the design of the community survey campaign.

Sonic boom↗

DOE OSTI2023

Performance Assessment of Low-GWP Refrigerated Reach-In Display Cases

This project is part of an effort by Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) to evaluate the energy and peak demand savings potential of emerging technologies in the Chicago area. This document focuses on the assessment of energy-efficient, medium-temperature, self-contained refrigerated display cases utilizing environmentally friendly refrigerants. The results of this evaluation will be considered by ComEd and CLEAResult to develop a new energy efficiency rebate measure for ComEd's incentive programs. This rebate measure will become an addition to the Technical Reference Manual. In 2016, the United Nations passed the Kigali Montreal Protocol Amendment, which placed restrictions on certain types of refrigerants. In compliance with this amendment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) placed a ban on the manufacture of refrigeration systems using hydrofluorocarbons including R134a starting in January 2020. Although the ban has halted manufacture, the EPA continues to allow the use of these refrigerants. Therefore, it is critical to provide incentives for replacing these refrigerants with other environmentally friendly and energy-efficient alternatives.

alternative refrigerants↗

DOE OSTI2021

Assessment of coated cladding impact on large-break LOCA with TRACE-DAKOTA

Since 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy has launched new research and development (R&D) programs for developing new accident tolerant fuels (ATFs). These new fuel concepts are expected to bring several advancements in terms of plant safety. However, development, licensing, as well as deployment of ATF require a substantial investment among fuel vendors, operating utilities, and regulatory authorities. For ATF to be economically feasible, credited safety benefits may be necessary to provide an economic incentive for transition of nuclear power plants from Zr/UO2-based fuel technologies to ATFs. As a result, it is essential to evaluate the economic viability of ATF by conducting a comprehensive safety benefits study informed by R&D and demonstration studies. In the present work, based on the best estimate plus uncertainty methodology, sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification for key safety quantities under LB-LOCA are performed for the Peach Bottom boiling water reactor (BWR) with GE14 nuclear fuel design adopting the ATF concepts. A coupled TRACE-DAKOTA analysis framework is adopted to perform the uncertainty quantification. Based on the computational results and obtained statistics, the coping time increase, fuel performance improvement as well as the most dominating phenomena during the accident for Cr-coated cladding are investigated in detail. Overall, the results obtained are useful for subsequent plant PRA study and support a move to more modernized performance-based regulatory requirements to realize plant economic benefits.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Convincing Clients to Make Zero a Reality: Preprint

As buildings are the largest end-users of carbon-intensive energy in the United States, it is critical that design and construction professionals implement energy-efficient and sustainable building designs and systems. Building owners seeking building energy performance improvements, either with new construction or retrofit of existing facilities, usually need the expertise of design and construction professionals to guide them through the process. These "trusted advisers" make the design decisions that ultimately result in the energy performance of the building. Members of the design and construction community have identified that clients' perception of cost associated with such designs and building upgrades have posed the most significant barrier to increased adoption. If solved, this would enable design and construction firms to better engage as trusted advisors along the lines of energy and carbon reduction of the built environment. NREL has developed a resource that helps design and construction professionals and their clients match their projects with financial incentives. A newly developed cohort of design and construction professionals, as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Better Buildings Initiative, has brought real-world project experiences to the development process, contributing meaningful insights that have been critical to evaluating the successes of and providing direction to this much needed financial guide.

Better Buildings↗

DOE OSTI2023

Parametric analysis on optimized design of hybrid solar power plants

There is increasing interest in utility-scale solar power plants with storage which can flexibly dispatch renewable energy to the grid. However, plant design possesses many degrees of freedom and non-obvious trade-offs in performance. Software tools can estimate or optimize the performance of a specific plant configuration under market and weather conditions of interest; the associated cost parameters and operating assumptions strongly influence estimates of plant performance and decisions regarding optimal sizing. We employ the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Hybrid Optimization and Performance Platform, which incorporates optimal dispatch when evaluating plant performance, and investigate the sensitivity to weather and market conditions, operating limitations, and the presence of a capacity-based incentive. We demonstrate changes in plant performance and optimal sizing with respect to these inputs and discuss implications. Here results show that PV-with-battery designs are more profitable under our assumptions, but that designs including a concentrated solar power (CSP) system produce significantly greater annual energy; and that CSP-with-thermal energy storage designs maximizing the benefit-to-cost ratio have an input-dependent linear relationship between the CSP field solar multiple and the hours of storage as the project budget varies.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2020

Building Tune-Up Accelerator Program (Final Technical Report)

In 2016, the City of Seattle passed a mandatory Building Tune-Up requirement for all commercial buildings 50,000 square feet (SF) and larger as part of its Climate Action strategy. The requirement is phased in by size with large buildings (greater than 200,000 SF) required first. This allowed Seattle’s Office of Sustainability & Environment (OSE) to offer the Building Tune-Up Accelerator (TUA) Program to the “mid-size” building market (less than 100,000 SF) to meet the requirements early. With funding from the US DOE, a package of technical and financial support was developed for building owners and energy service providers to encourage this hard-to-reach market to participate in the tune-up—and even go beyond requirements for greater energy savings. Seattle City Light, the municipal electric utility, offered participants a simple per square foot financial incentive. Partners at the University of Washington Integrated Design Lab, Smart Buildings Center and Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) offered service provider trainings, analytical tools and technical support. This final technical report summarizes the program, projected energy and emissions savings and lessons learned from program development to implementation to final evaluation for the 102 buildings that participated.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2023

A review of neutronics and thermal hydraulics–based screening methods applied to accelerated nuclear fuel qualification

This paper reviews the state-of-the-art engineering approach for using thermal hydraulic (TH) and neutronics modeling and simulation (M&S) tools to perform rapid screening studies of novel nuclear fuel concepts within the context of accelerated fuel qualification. Global research efforts have introduced nuclear fuel and material concepts that mark a significant departure from traditional reactor materials. The number of new technologies being considered for development for light water reactors and advanced reactor types has created the need for an accelerated fuel qualification procedure. A key component of this procedure is the rapid identification of the most promising fuel concepts using computational screening studies. Advanced TH and neutronic M&S tools should be leveraged to efficiently determine whether the reactor performance and safety characteristics of a given concept warrant additional studies or whether the concept requires modification or elimination. This paper reviews best practices for performing these TH and neutronics screening studies at various stages during a fuel concept's progression through the qualification procedure. The motivation behind standardizing this approach is to minimize time and resources spent on qualification activities for fuel concepts that could be quickly refined or eliminated from consideration based on their reactor physics and TH characteristics. Adoption of this screening procedure—which focuses primarily on nuclear fuels but may be applicable to other reactor materials—will also help accelerate new material qualification by generating boundary conditions crucial to fuel performance evaluations and highlighting needed areas of separate effects experimentation. This article reviews the motivation behind the introduction of novel nuclear fuel concepts, provides incentive for utilizing TH- and neutronics-based screening studies, describes the screening approach and methodology, and includes discussion on how to interpret screening results to provide recommendations for the continued development of a given concept.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Linkages between Policy and Business Innovation in the Development of China’s Energy Performance Contracting Market

China has a large and growing energy performance contracting (EPC) market, which has played a significant role in driving energy efficiency retrofits and improvements This paper evaluates how policies and business innovations have worked synergistically to expand China’s EPC market. We analyze the interconnected roles of four key factors: incentive policies, China’s Five-Year Plans, and business innovations in diversifying contract models and strengthening measurement and verification. We use multiple data sources for the analysis, including detailed information on business choices in 21 pilot projects, industry-wide surveys, and policy information. Our study indicates that supportive policies were important for the initial market development. As the market was established and continued to grow, the private sector started to take initiatives to address the issues that are left out of the policies, which helped overcome certain market barriers and enabled the sustainable growth of the market. Future policies could incorporate the successful innovations from the businesses to ensure long-term development of China’s EPC market. Understanding these policy and business drivers in a holistic way is critical to understanding how China was able to leverage its relatively small policy investments into much larger transformation of its existing buildings and industrial facilities through energy efficiency retrofits. This in turn can be informative for other countries seeking to achieve large-scale energy efficiency improvements.

Zhou, Yuanrong↗

DOE OSTI2020

Environmental and economic optima of solar home systems design: A combined LCA and LCC approach

Here, we compare the economic and environmental optimal design of Solar Home Systems (SHSs) and explore the role of economic incentives (such as tariffs and technology costs) in approximating the two optima. To achieve that, we present a methodology for the environmental and economic evaluation of grid-connected SHSs: user-scale electric systems involving a photovoltaic (PV) power system and a battery energy storage system. The proposed methodology is based on a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) optimization, life cycle assessment and life cycle costing. This methodological framework is applied to a case study involving a typical SHS installation in Italy. The results of the environmental optimal design brought to the evaluation of a 3.25 kW PV assisted by 8.66 kWh of nickel cobalt manganese batteries, whereas the costs of the SHS are minimized by a small PV system (less than 1 kW). Results underline that the environmental optimal configurations rely on battery technologies, which entails a significant cost compared to the grid connection. In contrast, the economic optimal design solutions is less impactful than the grid mix both from an environmental and economic points of view. Thanks to a reduction of batteries and PV costs, the environmental impact of the economic optimal design is expected to decrease in the future.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2024

Baseload Hydrogen Production Using Nuclear and Renewable Energy: A Comparative Analysis

As the global push towards net zero carbon gains momentum, the demand for clean hydrogen is expected to grow rapidly across various sectors, including transportation, industries and electrical grids. To meet this growing hydrogen demand, baseload hydrogen production facilities capable of providing a continuous and reliable supply of hydrogen will be necessary throughout the world. This paper explores the technoeconomic feasibility of establishing baseload electrolytic hydrogen production facilities in the United States, utilizing different clean generation resources. The key criteria include maintaining a consistent supply of clean hydrogen without putting baseload demand stress to already vulnerable power grid. In order to do that, the proposed facilities will host onsite clean power generation and energy storage technologies. The proposed facilities can capitalize on available investment and production incentives and have ability to export excess electricity to the utility at a bulk price. Several scenarios are considered based on the clean energy resources to support the electrolysis process including light water reactors (LWRs) currently evaluating retirement options, wind, solar PVs, and advanced small modular reactors (SMRs). For each scenario, a hypothetical hydrogen production facility is considered in a location in the US where the primary generation resource is at its peak strength. Comparative analysis in this paper reveal that the nuclear power plants are most economically viable for baseload hydrogen production facilities, outperforming renewable-based facilities with significantly lower levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH). Even under best-case scenarios for resource availability, incentives and export prices, renewable-based facilities face challenges due to daily and seasonal generation variability, resulting in large installation sizes and lower capacity factors. Among renewable-based facilities, complementarity hybrids, providing more stable power supply, demonstrate superior economics compared to facilities based on a single renewable technology. While LWR-powered facility can achieve a negative LCOH with incentives, SMR-powered facilities can provide economic hydrogen supply with LCOH below $1/kg with high temperature electrolysis option. The analysis in this paper underscores the pivotal role of nuclear energy in the future hydrogen economy.

08 - HYDROGEN↗