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At least 721 records · Page 40
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Life after 30 years - a PV system in Colorado

The PV system consisted of 155 monocrystalline Si Arco M53 panels, installed in 1987. 80 were installed on a fixed tilt rack, and 75 on 5 separate dual-axis passive trackers. The system was decommissioned in 2017 due a campus re-design and building expansion at the Platte River Power Authority (PPRA) site. Prior to decommissioning a site visit established the following failure type observations: EVA browning (100%), cracked cells (60%), and cracked wires or grommets (9%, or more if replacements were made selectively on cracked parts). EVA browning is typical in modules of this vintage, whereas the occurrence of so many cracked cells is surprising and is likely weather-related. The fairly frequent occurrence of cracked wires and grommets serves as a reminder that accelerated testing of these components is important for goals of low-cost 50-year energy generation. In smaller numbers, thermal effects (7%), bent frames (1%), and cell corrosion (<1%) were observed. A sample of 20 modules was selected and brought to NREL for in-depth characterization. Because baseline measurements were not available using the nameplate rating, which can be inaccurate, revealed a mean module sample degradation of 0.7 %/year. Sporadic production data during the 30 years determined a system degradation rate closer to 1.2 %/year. Subsequently, four of these modules were re-mounted outdoors at NREL and are now approaching a total lifetime of 34 years.

durability↗
DOE OSTI2026

Cold Weather Impacts on Electric School Bus Performance in Aurora, Colorado

This brief highlight details the key takeaways from a project that utilized NLR's Fleet Research, Energy Data, and Insights (FleetREDI) data analysis pipeline related to electric school bus (ESB) operation. ESBs using battery energy as their primary heating source have a higher energy consumption rate in cold weather, which fleet managers can account for when planning ESB purchases and making dispatching and charging decisions. Researchers found that electric school buses operate 2-5 times more efficiently than conventional buses, on average. Cold weather can double electric school bus energy demands, but strategies such as thermal pre-conditioning significantly reduce this effect. Understanding these impacts can help fleets plan charging, dispatching, and purchase decisions.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2018

DOE Grand Junction Office Marks 75 Years of Contribution to the Nation's Defense Program - 18380

On July 26, 2016, the former US Department of Energy (DOE) Grand Junction Office was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its important, historic roles in the Manhattan Project and the Cold War. The work done from Grand Junction, Colorado, was an important component of the nation's defense program; however, because of the classified nature of the work, little of this history was originally available to the public. In 1943, the privately-owned site that later became the Grand Junction Office was purchased by the US government for the Colorado Area Office for the US Army Corps of Engineers Manhattan Engineer District (MED). The Colorado Area Office's mission was to procure and process uranium as part of a nationwide effort to build an atomic bomb. This race to build a bomb ahead of Nazi Germany became known as the Manhattan Project. Approximately 14% of the uranium obtained for the Manhattan Project was from Colorado Plateau ore-the largest source of domestic uranium ore known at the time. Uranium extracted from vanadium mill tailings was concentrated into uranium oxide, or 'yellowcake,' and shipped by rail to a facility in Tonawanda, New York, for further refinement. At the conclusion of World War II, the military MED mission ended, and the Grand Junction site became the principal US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) office for acquiring and exploring for domestic uranium. The Colorado Raw Materials Office's primary objective was to increase the stockpile of fissionable material as rapidly as possible. To do that, AEC incentivized private industry and invited individual prospectors to locate uranium ores on public lands of the Colorado Plateau. Seemingly overnight, the small city of Grand Junction was transformed into a booming, modern metropolis and the national center of uranium exploration. Program operations in Grand Junction later included those of the National Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) program, the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA), vicinity properties cleanup, decontamination and decommissioning, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of legacy sites. In 2001, DOE transferred most of the original Grand Junction 55.7-acre site to the Riverview Technology Corporation, a business-development nonprofit sponsored by Mesa County and the City of Grand Junction. The US Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management continues to operate from leased facilities onsite. The Office of Legacy Management will host the 2018 Long-Term Stewardship Conference in Grand Junction on August 20-23. Conference attendees are invited to participate in a special 75. anniversary celebration at the Grand Junction Office where they will have the opportunity to learn more about the office's historic past, its ongoing and expanding work, and its goals of informing future generations. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2013

Establishment of a Bioenergy-Focused Microalgae Strain Collection Using Rapid, High-Throughput Methodologies: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report

This project is part of the overall effort by and among NREL, Colorado State University, University of Colorado, and Colorado School of Mines known as the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels. This is part of a larger statewide effort provided for in House Bill 06-1322, establishing a Colorado Collaboratory that envisions these four institutions working together as part of the state'senergy plan. This individual project with Colorado School of Mines is the first of many envisioned in this overall effort. The project focuses on development of high throughput procedures aimed at rapidly isolating and purifying novel microalgal strains (specifically green alga and diatoms) from water samples obtained from unique aquatic environments.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

An Energy Codes Gap Analysis Field Study in the Southwest (Final Technical Report)

The primary goal of the “An Energy Codes Gap Analysis Field Study in the Southwest” project was to improve housing through strengthened building energy code implementation in two states, Colorado and Nevada, leading to greater energy and utility bill savings for households. Colorado is a home rule state. Nevada adopts a statewide code, but cities and counties must also adopt the code, making the state function like a home rule state. To broaden the impact of the project, an additional goal was to share and amplify project experiences, findings, and lessons that can be applied in other states. To achieve these goals, the project’s key objectives were to examine how residential energy codes are implemented in partner states; to use these findings to strengthen codes implementation through enhanced education, training, and outreach; and to enhance energy code technical assistance capabilities in the two partner states. In both partner states, the project led to the creation of a quantitative baseline understanding of compliance with high-impact energy code requirements, such as foundation, wall, and ceiling R-value; window U-factor and SHGC; envelope air tightness; duct tightness; and high-efficiency lighting. It then applied this baseline information to directly inform training in geographic areas with high levels of building and construction activity. The project has placed Colorado and Nevada among 23 states across the country that have conducted a single-family residential field study based on the established U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) methodology since 2014. It has also helped each State Energy Office test models for partnership- and relationship-building among government agencies and key stakeholder groups, including the State Energy Office and relevant code administration and professional licensing agencies, building officials, designers, builders, trades and utilities. At the national level, the project helped educate and inform State and Territory Energy Offices on a replicable methodology to assess energy code construction practices, effective stakeholder engagement strategies, and tailored energy code education and training. These findings are particularly pertinent for home-rule states, such as Colorado and Nevada, which rely on local government awareness and action to advance and implement building energy codes. By raising awareness of code adoption and compliance, this project has helped to equip each partner state with data on code compliance, strategies, education, and partnership models to advance building energy codes. This in turn will have an important impact on new construction practices in Colorado and Nevada, leading to more energy efficient and affordable housing. Currently, more than 62 percent of Colorado’s population lives in one of the 55 jurisdictions that have adopted the 2021 IECC to date, while nearly 95 percent of the state's population lives in one of the 208 jurisdictions that have adopted a code at 2015 IECC levels or higher. In Nevada, the 2018 IECC was adopted by the Governor’s Office of Energy in July 2018. By July 2020, 47 percent of the adopted energy code in the state was 2018 IECC which covers 96.5 percent of Nevada’s population. The training materials funded by this project focus on the 2021 IECC and will continue to be relevant in the two states as additional jurisdictions update their building energy codes.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2017

Xcel Energy – LBNL ‘Beyond Widgets’ Project. Workstation Specific Lighting with Daylight Dimming Controls System Program Manual

This program manual was developed through a U.S. Department of Energy project to develop streamlined utility program approaches to the deployment of integrated systems in commercial offices. Integrated systems present deep opportunities for energy savings, however by nature these systems have additional levels of complexity and effort required for their design and energy savings assessment, which create barriers for utility incentive programs to develop streamlined cost effective incentive programs to capture these savings. This project worked with Xcel Energy in Colorado and Minnesota to select an integrated system and develop a streamlined approach to its deployment for small and large commercial offices. Xcel Energy worked with LBNL to select a workstation specific lighting system with daylight dimming controls, applied as a retrofit in commercial office spaces. Previous studies indicated a potential lighting annual energy savings of 28-63%, with an average of 47% for this system type, due to reduced fixture LPD and controls only, not including a full fixture replacement from a condition such as T8 to LED. Xcel also had a desire to incorporate this fixture replacement in their integrated system package, and as a result annual energy lighting savings are expected to be higher. FLEXLAB testing of the system for 500 lux minimum output conditions translated into a 94% annual energy savings for this system. Market analysis was developed for large and medium commercial office buildings in Xcel’s Minnesota and Colorado markets showing a potential for 48-295 and 120-672 GWh of energy savings potential for Colorado and Minnesota respectively. Total Resource Costs (TRC) vary by location and technology package used (enterprise versus non-enterprise lighting controls system), and vary from 0.29 to 1.27 and 0.06 and 0.44 for a Retrofit case, and 0.20 to 1.63 and 0.07 to 0.57 for a Replace on Burnout strategy for Colorado and Minnesota respectively. These results indicate good potential for demonstrating a strong technical and economic case for deployment of this system type in Xcel’s Colorado territory, while deployment in the Minnesota market may be advisable as well as part of a portfolio of programs, or as an effort to help shift the market into integrated systems deployment in general. It should be noted that the cost of avoided energy in both markets is significantly low ($0.07/kWh for Minnesota, $0.08/kWh for Colorado), and these TRC values would not be representative of deployment potential in other markets with higher utility rates. In addition, installation costs used for these systems may decrease with time, further enhancing their return on investment. Overall, workstation specific lighting systems with daylight dimming controls present a very strong potential for cost effective lighting energy savings, as demonstrated by the FLEXLAB test results and previous case studies. Further energy savings may be realized from the use of fixture-specific occupancy sensors as well, although this approach was not considered in this study.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2026

CHESS 2025: Spectrometer orthorectified at-sensor radiance from NEON AOP imaging spectroscopy surveys

This dataset provides Level 1 (L1) orthorectified at-sensor radiance derived from measurements collected by the Imaging Spectrometer-1 (NIS-1) onboard the NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) for the 2025 Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study (CHESS). NIS-1 captures light reflected from the Earth’s surface in 426 discrete wavelength bands as raw digital numbers (DNs; Level 0). These data are then calibrated to physical units (uW/cm²·sr·nm) following the processing steps described in the NEON Imaging Spectrometer Level 1B Calibrated Radiance Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document (ATBD; Gallery 2022). The data delivered here are the primary inputs for the surface reflectance product in “Custom surface reflectance, shade masks, and equivalent water thickness maps for the Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study” (Carroll et al. 2026). For intertemporal comparison, the radiance data here are most directly relatable to the v2 radiance data in “NEON AOP Imaging Spectroscopy Survey of Upper East River Colorado Watersheds: Raw-Space Radiance and Observational Variable Dataset” (Goulden et al. 2018), to which the same processing methodology was applied. Together, the radiance and reflectance data enable users to exploit the unique reflection signatures of different surface objects for land cover classification, foliar trait mapping, plant vigor assessment, water content estimation, trace-element identification, and other scientific applications. The data were acquired over three study domains in the Upper Gunnison river basin: the upper East River watershed (CRBU); Almont Triangle and Taylor Canyon (ALMO); and Upper Taylor River watershed (UPTA) between 2025-06-13 and 2025-07-15. Within each domain, data are delivered by flightline as orthorectified and calibrated hyperspectral rasters in Hierarchical Data Format version 5 (HDF5) format, with radiance values provided in uW/cm²·sr·nm on a fixed, uniform Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid at 1 meter spatial resolution. The radiance rasters include all 426 NIS-1 spectral bands, along with associated quality-assurance (QA) and diagnostic and ancillary layers needed for atmospheric correction workflows. Orthorectified radiance is produced from pushbroom spectrometer observations by applying NEON’s radiometric calibration (including bad pixel masking, dark subtract, dark pedestal shift correction, electronic panel ghost correction, grating ghost correction, deblur correction and flat-fielding) and spectral calibration (using spectral response function band centers and full-width at half-maximum intensity), followed by geolocation and regridding to the fixed grid. CHESS Project Description: The Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study (CHESS) comprised a multi-week airborne remote sensing and field observation campaign in the Upper Gunnison Basin, Colorado, conducted in June and July of 2025. Airborne remote sensing was conducted by the National Ecological Observatory Network Airborne Observation Platform (NEON AOP), concurrent with a field campaign run by the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL), the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Watershed Function Science Focus Area (SFA), and NASA-JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) program. Between June 10 and July 18, 2025, the NEON AOP flight team collected high-resolution aerial imaging spectroscopy and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data over three domains: the Upper East River (CRBU), Almont Triangle (ALMO), and the Upper Taylor Basin (UPTA). In coordination with the flights, a field campaign acquired ground-truth observations, including observations of vegetation composition, foliar traits, forest demography, and subsurface properties in 18 core sampling areas within the domains. Additional surface water observations were taken at over 380 point locations. All CHESS campaign datasets can be found within the CHESS ESS-DIVE data portal: https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/portals/chess. Funding Acknowledgement: Field and remote-sensing data acquisition was performed under a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NSSC24K1005). This work was also supported by the Watershed Function Science Focus Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

2018 NEON and 2025 CHESS Campaigns↗
DOE OSTI2023

HarDWR - Raw Water Rights Records

For a detailed description of the database of which this record is only one part, please see the HarDWR meta-record. In order to hold a water right in the western United States, an entity, (e.g., an individual, corporation, municipality, sovereign government, or non-profit) must register a physical document with the state's water regulatory agency. State water agencies each maintain their own database containing all registered water right documents within the state, along with relevant metadata such as the point of diversion and place of use of the water. All western U.S. states have digitized their individual water rights databases, along with the geospatial data describing the spatial units where water rights are managed. Each state maintains and provides their own water rights data in accordance with individual state regulations and standards. We collected water rights databases from 11 western United States states either by downloading them from publicly accessible web portals, or by contacting state water management representatives; detailed descriptions of where and when the data was collected is provided in the README.txt, as well as Lisk et al.(in review). This collection of data are those raw water rights. Each state formats their data differently, meaning that file types, field availability, and names vary from state to state. Note, the data provided here reflects the state of the water rights databases at the time we collected the data; updates have likely occurred in many states. Some pieces of information are common among all states. These are: priority date, volume or flow of water allowed by the right, stated water use of the right, and some means of identifying the geography and source of the water pertaining to the right - typically the coordinates of the Point of Diversion (PoD) of a waterbody or well. Arizona regulates water in a different way than the other 10 states. Outside of some relatively small critical agricultural areas called Active Management Areas (AMAs), Arizona does not maintain any water rights. However, the state does require registration of surface and groundwater pumping devices, which includes disclosing the mechanical specifics of the devices. We used these records as a proxy for water rights. Each state, and their respective water right authorities, have made their water right records available for non-commercial reference uses. In addition, the states make no guarantees as to the completeness, accuracy, or timeliness of their respective databases, let alone the modifications which we, the authors of this paper, have made to the collected records. None of the states should be held liable for using this data outside of its intended use. In addition, the following states have requested specifically worded disclaimers to be included with their data. Colorado: "The data made available here has been modified for use from its original source, which is the State of Colorado. THE STATE OF COLORADO MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTY AS TO THE COMPLETENESS, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, OR CONTENT OF ANY DATA MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THIS SITE. THE STATE OF COLORADO EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The data is subject to change as modifications and updates are complete. It is understood that the information contained in the Web feed is being used at one's own risk." Montana: "The Montana State Library provides this product/service for informational purposes only. The Library did not produce it for, nor is it suitable for legal, engineering, or surveying purposes. Consumers of this information should review or consult the primary data and information sources to ascertain the viability of the information for their purposes. The Library provides these data in good faith but does not represent or warrant its accuracy, adequacy, or completeness. In no event shall the Library be liable for any incorrect results or analysis; any direct, indirect, special, or consequential damages to any party; or any lost profits arising out of or in connection with the use or the inability to use the data or the services provided. The Library makes these data and services available as a convenience to the public, and for no other purpose. The Library reserves the right to change or revise published data and/or services at any time." Oregon: "This product is for informational purposes and may not have been prepared for, or be suitable for legal, engineering, or surveying purposes. Users of this information should review or consult the primary data and information sources to ascertain the usability of the information." The available data is provided as a series of compressed files, which each containing the full data collected from each state. Some of the files have been renamed, to more easily know which state the data belongs to. The file renaming was also required as some files from different states had the same name. In other cases, the data for a state has been placed in a folder indicating which state it belongs to - as the state organized its data by selected subregions. Below is a brief description of the format of the collected data from each state. ArizonaRights_StatementOfClaimants: A folder containing a database of interconnected CSV files. The soc_erd.pdf file contains a visual flowchart of how the various files are connected, beginning with SOC_MAIN.csv in the center of the page. ArizonaRights_SurfaceWaterRightsData: A folder containing a database of a single Shapefile and 10 associated CSVs. SurfaceWater.pdf contains a visual flowchart of how the various files are connected, beginning with ADWR_SW_APPL_REGRY.csv. ArizonaRights_Well55Registry: A folder containing a database of a single Shapefile and 59 associated CSVs. Wells55.pdf contains a visual flowchart of how the various files are connected, beginning with WellRegistry.shp. CaliforniaRights_eWRIMS_directDatabase: A folder containing a collection of four "series" Microsoft Excel files, as either XLS or XLSX. The four "series": byCounty, byEntity (what type of legal entity holds the right), byUse (stated water use), and byWatershed, are various methods by which the California water rights are organized within the state's database. However, it was observed that by only collecting a single series, not all water rights were being provided. So, essentially, the majority of records within each "series" are copies of each other, with each "series" containing some unique records. ColoradoRights_NetAmounts: A folder containing 78 CSV files, with one file per Colorado Water District. IdahoRights_PointOfDiversion: A Shapefile containing the Points of Diversion for the entire state of Idaho. IdahoRights_PlaceOfUse: A Shapefile containing the Place of Use polygons for the entire state of Idaho. MontanaRights_WaterRights: A Geodatabase file containing the Points of Diversion and Places of Use for the entire state of Montana. The name of the Points of Diversion Feature Layer within the Geodatabase is "WRDIV", and the name of the Places of Use Feature Layer is "WRPOU". NevadaRights_POD_Sites: A Shapefile containing the Points of Diversion for the entire state of Nevada. NewMexicoRights_Points_of_Diversion: A Shapefile containing the Points of Diversion for the entire state of New Mexico. OregonRights_state_shp: A folder containing 36 Shapefiles and are split between "pod" (Point of Diversion) and "pou" (Place of Use) for each water management basin within Oregon. In other words, each basin has one "pod" file and one "pou" file. The "pod" files are point shapes, and the "pou" files are polygons. UtahRights_Points_of_Diversion: A Shapefile containing the Points of Diversion for the entire state of Utah. WashingtonRights_WaterDiversions_ECY_NHD: A Geodatabase file containing both the Points of Diversion for the entire state of Washington. The name of the Feature Layer within the Geodatabase is "WaterDiversions_ECY_NHD". WyomingRights: A folder containing four subdirectories, one for each Wyoming Water Division. Each Division directory includes a varying number of subdirectories for each Wyoming Water District. Each District folder contains two copies of the Point of Diversion records for that area, with one copying being in CSV and one copy in Microsoft Excel XLS format.

Lisk, Matthew↗
DOE OSTI2026

CHESS 2025: Leaf Area Index (LAI) for meadow, shrub, tree, and understory vegetation

This dataset contains Leaf Area Index (LAI) measurements made as part of the Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study (CHESS) during June and July of 2025. Data were collected in the Upper Gunnison Basin, Colorado, across three study domains: the Upper East River (CRBU), Almont Triangle (ALMO), and the Upper Taylor Basin (UPTA). Field observations of LAI were collected within 72 hours of airborne data collection by the National Ecological Observatory Network’s Aerial Observation Platform (NEON AOP). The NEON AOP collected waveform LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and imaging spectrometer data in 426 spectral bands from the visible to shortwave infrared. LAI measurements were collected using the LICOR LAI-2200C Plant Canopy Analyzer following protocols outlined in the instrument manual (LI-COR 2019). Sampling targeted four distinct vegetation types: meadows, shrubs, trees, and aspen forest understory. We have archived data separately by site type because different field methods were used for each. At meadow sites, measurements were made at the four corners of 1m x 1m plots, with the instrument moving inward toward the center of the plot. At shrub sites, we measured the canopies of individual shrubs. At tree sites, we made measurements within a 10m x 10m subplot centered around a focal tree, with 30 observations taken on a regular grid. At aspen understory sites, we measured overstory trees following the tree protocol and understory herbaceous vegetation following the meadow protocol. All measurements included above-canopy (A) and below-canopy (B) readings, with specific protocols for scattering correction measurements in direct-sun conditions. Data were processed using the R package `rlai` (Worsham 2025). This package includes functions to calculate LAI, gap fraction, apparent clumping factor (Ω), scattering correction, and other canopy metrics. Package contents: Full file descriptions appear in ‘flmd.csv’. Files named according to the convention ‘lai_*_summary_data_cleaned.csv’ contain summary values of LAI, apparent clumping factor (Ωapp), and scattering correction factors for each site. These are the analysis-ready products that most data users will work with. Files named ‘lai_*_metadata_cleaned.csv’ contain additional site-level observations made during field collection. We have also archived intermediate and supplementary data for users who wish to check our processing approach or apply alternative methods. ‘raw_lai_2200C.zip’ contains the raw files as read from the LI-COR instrument, with no processing applied, in TXT format. The zip archive contains subdirectories by site type, which are further subdivided by sampling area. Filenames correspond to the sampling site number. ‘intermediate_results.zip’ contains detailed output from the processing routines, in JSON format. The zip archive contains subdirectories by site type; filenames correspond to the sampling site number. ‘scattering_correction_logs.zip’ contains logfiles from the implementation of Kobayashi et al.'s (2013) scattering correction algorithm. The logfiles report values of several parameters at each iteration of the algorithm, as the model converges toward a stable solution. They are intended for users who want to verify scattering correction performance. The zip archive contains subdirectories by site type; filenames correspond to the sampling site number. ‘spot_checks.csv’ reports LAI and other values for a small number of files processed with LI-COR FV2200 software (LI-COR 2013) using the same control parameters as in our R-based approach. Additional metadata are provided in a data dictionary describing column names and definitions (dd.csv), and in a file-level metadata file (flmd.csv). All zip files can be expanded with common archive utilities. TXT, CSV, and JSON files can be ingested into R or Python computing environments or read in common text editor utilities. Geospatial information: Geospatial data for mapping measurement site locations are in the files CHESS_polygons_lai_UTM.geojson, CHESS_polygons_shrub_UTM.geojson, and CHESS_polygons_meadow_UTM.geojson in the companion geospatial package for the 2025 CHESS campaign, ‘CHESS 2025: Location data for field observations and sampling’ (Henderson et al., 2026). CHESS Project Description: The Colorado Headwaters Ecological Spectroscopy Study (CHESS) comprised a multi-week airborne remote sensing and field observation campaign in the Upper Gunnison Basin, Colorado, conducted in June and July of 2025. Airborne remote sensing was conducted by the National Ecological Observatory Network Airborne Observation Platform (NEON AOP), concurrent with a field campaign run by the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL), the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Watershed Function Science Focus Area (SFA), and NASA-JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) program. Between June 10 and July 18, 2025, the NEON AOP flight team collected high-resolution aerial imaging spectroscopy and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data over three domains: the Upper East River (CRBU), Almont Triangle (ALMO), and the Upper Taylor Basin (UPTA). In coordination with the flights, a field campaign acquired ground-truth observations, including observations of vegetation composition, foliar traits, forest demography, and subsurface properties in 18 core sampling areas within the domains. Additional surface water observations were taken at over 380 point locations. All CHESS campaign datasets can be found within the CHESS ESS-DIVE data portal: https://data.ess-dive.lbl.gov/portals/chess. Funding Acknowledgement: Field and remote-sensing data acquisition was performed under a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NSSC24K1005). This work was also supported by the Watershed Function Science Focus Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. * Todorov and Worsham are co–first authors.

2018 NEON and 2025 CHESS Campaigns↗
DOE OSTI2024

Characterization of Most Promising Sequestration Formations in the Rocky Mountain Region

The project Characterization of Most Promising Sequestration Formations in the Rocky Mountain Region is one of 9 site characterization projects that were implemented as part of ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). Data from this project was used to improve resolution of data in NATCARB in the area of study. Data related to this study has already been incorporated in NATCARB Atlas. The Rocky Mountain Carbon Capture and Storage (RMCCS) project investigated multiple geologic formations and characterized a local site on the Colorado Plateau for future CCS opportunities. The RMCCS project focused on the Cretaceous Dakota, Jurassic Entrada, and Pennsylvanian Weber Sandstones, the three largest regional formations. All formations in this project are potential CO2 storage resources for future power plants, natural gas processing plants, cement plants, and oil shale development projects. The area adjacent to Craig, Colorado, (Sand Wash Basin) was the area selected for detailed geologic characterization on the RMCCS project. The basin was selected in part because the geology can be extrapolated to other sites on the Colorado Plateau. Field mapping and seismic surveys were conducted to identify and evaluate the basin's structural configuration. A 9,745-foot deep characterization well was drilled to collect 131 feet of core and a suite of geophysical well log data. Petrophysical tests on samples of core were used to calibrate geophysical log data, which can be used to obtain storage resource estimates and evaluate associated uncertainty as well as simulate the hydrologic behavior of injected CO2. A detailed analysis of the primary formations (Dakota, Entrada and Weber sandstones) yielded a more accurate CO2 storage resource assessment for these formations within the Colorado Plateau; RMCCS estimates indicate a total CO2 storage resource of more than 38,000 million metric tons. The characterization of the Sand Wash Basin (2-D seismic surveys, multiple well logs and lithological, petrophysical and geochemical analyses) allowed for a detailed 3-D model to be constructed. The model served as the framework for analyses ranging from CO2 storage resource, injectivity, and subsurface flow to uncertainty estimates to evaluation of risk.

2-D seismic↗
DOE OSTI2016

Influence of hydrological, biogeochemical and temperature transients on subsurface carbon fluxes in a flood plain environment

Flood plains play a potentially important role in the global carbon cycle. The accumulation of organic matter in flood plains often induces the formation of chemically reduced groundwater and sediments along riverbanks. In this study, our objective is to evaluate the cumulative impact of such reduced zones, water table fluctuations, and temperature gradients on subsurface carbon fluxes in a flood plain at Rifle, Colorado located along the Colorado River. 2-D coupled variably-saturated, non-isothermal flow and biogeochemical reactive transport modeling was applied to improve our understanding of the abiotic and microbially mediated reactions controlling carbon dynamics at the Rifle site. Model simulations considering only abiotic reactions (thus ignoring microbial reactions) underestimated CO 2 partial pressures observed in the unsaturated zone and severely underestimated inorganic (and overestimated organic) carbon fluxes to the river compared to simulations with biotic pathways. Both model simulations and field observations highlighted the need to include microbial contributions from chemolithoautotrophic processes (e.g., Fe +2 and S -2 oxidation) to match locally-observed high CO 2 concentrations above reduced zones. Observed seasonal variations in CO 2 concentrations in the unsaturated zone could not be reproduced without incorporating temperature gradients in the simulations. Incorporating temperature fluctuations resulted in an increase in the annual groundwater carbon fluxes to the river by 170 % to 3.3 g m -2 d -1 , while including water table variations resulted in an overall decrease in the simulated fluxes. We thus conclude that spatial microbial and redox zonation as well as temporal fluctuations of temperature and water table depth contribute significantly to subsurface carbon fluxes in flood plains and need to be represented appropriately in model simulations.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Visual Resource Analysis for Solar Energy Zones in the San Luis Valley

This report summarizes the results of a study conducted by Argonne National Laboratory’s (Argonne’s) Environmental Science Division for the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The study analyzed the regional effects of potential visual impacts of solar energy development on three BLM-designated solar energy zones (SEZs) in the San Luis Valley (SLV) in Colorado, and, based on the analysis, made recommendations for or against regional compensatory mitigation to compensate residents and other stakeholders for the potential visual impacts to the SEZs. The analysis was conducted as part of the solar regional mitigation strategy (SRMS) task conducted by BLM Colorado with assistance from Argonne. Two separate analyses were performed. The first analysis, referred to as the VSA Analysis, analyzed the potential visual impacts of solar energy development in the SEZs on nearby visually sensitive areas (VSAs), and, based on the impact analyses, made recommendations for or against regional compensatory mitigation. VSAs are locations for which some type of visual sensitivity has been identified, either because the location is an area of high scenic value or because it is a location from which people view the surrounding landscape and attach some level of importance or sensitivity to what is seen from the location. The VSA analysis included both BLM-administered lands in Colorado and in the Taos FO in New Mexico. The second analysis, referred to as the SEZ Analysis, used BLM visual resource inventory (VRI) and other data on visual resources in the former Saguache and La Jara Field Offices (FOs), now contained within the San Luis Valley FO (SLFO), to determine whether the changes in scenic values that would result from the development of utility-scale solar energy facilities in the SEZs would affect the quality and quantity of valued scenic resources in the SLV region as a whole. If the regional effects were judged to be significant, regional compensatory mitigation was recommended. VRI data was not available for the Taos FO and it was not included in the SEZ analysis; the SEZ analysis includes BLM-administered lands in Colorado only.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Resilience Roadmap: A Collaborative Approach to Multi-Jurisdictional Resilience Planning

Extreme weather and aging infrastructure are creating unprecedented challenges in the United States and around the globe. Many communities have suffered damages from a variety of weather-related events, such as severe weather such as hurricanes, droughts, increasing temperatures, wildfires, and storm surges. Numerous efforts exist to improve resilience to protect national security, energy and water security, economic well-being, and quality of life. As severe weather events increase in frequency and severity, many cities, states, tribes, and federal agencies are addressing the impacts through resilience planning and measures. In an effort to support communities with resilience planning, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) initiated preparedness pilot projects designed to showcase community resilience planning in the City of Houston and the State of Colorado. This publication is the full, technical document, for the Colorado pilot project. The process is also summarized in a user-friendly web-version on NREL's website (visit www.nrel.gov/resilience-planning-roadmap) for easier access and replicability. NASA's pilot project with the City of Houston is summarized separately (visit https://toolkit.climate.gov/case-studies/climate-resilience to learn more). water security, economic well-being, and quality of life. As severe weather events increase in frequency and severity, many cities, states, tribes, and federal agencies are addressing the impacts through resilience planning and measures. In an effort to support communities with resilience planning, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) initiated preparedness pilot projects designed to showcase community resilience planning in the City of Houston and the State of Colorado. This publication is the full, technical document, for the Colorado pilot project. The process is also summarized in a user-friendly web-version on NREL's website (visit www.nrel.gov/resilience-planning-roadmap) for easier access and replicability. NASA's pilot project with the City of Houston is summarized separately (visit https://toolkit.climate.gov/case-studies/climate-resilience to learn more).

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

GATE Center of Excellence in Innovative Drivetrains in Electric Automotive Technology Education (IDEATE) (Final Report)

The IDEATE project recognized that this is a critical point in history where advanced engineering solutions are required to propel the U.S. automotive industry irrevocably to the next level: the electrified drivetrain. The existing workforce is not sufficient to this task. It is imperative that automotive engineers with traditional backgrounds focused on internal-combustion and mechanical-drivetrain technologies be retrained with the most current advanced solutions in battery controls and vehicle power electronics. For the long-term success of the U.S. automakers, it is even more important that a future workforce be developed that has both broad and deep comprehension of the issues involved and the most advanced solutions known to these problems. Two campuses of the University of Colorado system joined forces to establish the GATE Center of Excellence in Innovative Drivetrains in Electric Automotive Technology Education (IDEATE). The University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder) is widely regarded as having one of the top graduate programs in power electronics in the country; the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) has unrivaled expertise in algorithms for automotive battery control. By collaborating, IDEATE built on our team’s proven strengths to develop innovative curricula and to initiate courses and programs that have provided (and continue to provide) students with a unique opportunity for holistic and specialty education in electric drivetrain technology (part-way through the project, we invited Utah State University to join the project, adding to our strength in power electronics for battery application).

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory

To help improve understanding and modeling of processes connected to mountain hydrology, the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility will operate the Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory (SAIL) field campaign in central Colorado. From September 2021 to June 2023, an ARM Mobile Facility will collect measurements with a focus on the 300-square-kilometer (116-square-mile) East River Watershed within the Upper Colorado River Basin. SAIL will combine atmospheric measurements from ARM, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) scientific user facility, with existing surface and subsurface data from partner research organizations. Researchers will develop detailed measurements of mountainous water-cycle processes as they pertain to the Colorado River, which supplies water for 40 million people in the American West. Through SAIL, researchers from DOE national laboratories, universities, and research centers and agencies will enable an atmosphere-through-bedrock understanding of mountainous water cycles. By observing what is happening above and below ground to influence hydrology at various scales across the East River Watershed, SAIL will provide insights into how Upper Colorado River watersheds interact with the atmosphere to produce water.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗