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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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This document presents a framework for categorizing and understanding different policy and/or program approaches that have been used by communities to support community-scale electrification of existing buildings, illustrated with examples from communities across the United States. It was created for communities participating in the Communities LEAP program.
NREL collaborates with subject matter experts from across the WAP and home performance industry to maintain and develop high-quality, nationally recognized credentials and resources.
In striving for 100% carbon-free energy by 2035, ensuring equitable access and benefits across all populations is crucial. The shift toward clean energy and sustainable transport involves numerous challenges, requiring collective efforts from various stakeholders to develop inclusive strategies and policies. This includes community engagement, equitable funding for technology, and expansion of programs to foster an equitable energy transition. Additionally, while cities have initiated incentive programs to promote electric vehicle (EV) adoption, the effectiveness of these programs in ensuring affordable EV ownership for disadvantaged communities is yet to be fully understood. This paper, using Los Angeles as a case study, highlights the importance of evaluating and refining these incentive programs to enhance EV accessibility for marginalized groups.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), with support from World Resources Institute (WRI), designed and led a six-month peer-learning cohort from January through July 2024 on "Enhancing Resilience at Critical Facilities through Solar, Storage, and Microgrids" as part of the U.S Department of Energy's Clean Energy to Communities (nrel.gov/c2c) (C2C) program. Representatives from 15 municipalities, municipal utilities, colleges, and Tribes from across the United States participated in monthly workshops covering best practices for planning and deploying local resilience projects. This document shares key takeaways, lessons learned, and resources from the cohort including key steps that can be taken to help entities design effective community engagement processes around clean mobility.
The Energy Technology University Prize (EnergyTech UP) was established in 2022 with the goal of challenging student teams to develop impactful business plans for energy technologies of their choosing. EnergyTech UP is part of the The American Made Challenges program portfolio, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. EnergyTech UP is specifically funded by the Department of Energy's Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) and is administrated by staff at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Since its inception, the annual prize has attracted applications from approximately 1,948 students across nearly every U.S. state and territory, awarding over $1 million in funds to student teams. In 2024, the prize expanded to include a Faculty Track, which invited faculty members from degree-granting institutions across the U.S. to design entrepreneurship-based curricula or educational activities. This new track aims to foster innovation in energy entrepreneurship education by leveraging the expertise of faculty to create robust, practical, and inclusive learning experiences. This report summarizes the themes, strategies and impacts identified in proposals from EnergyTech UP's inaugural Faculty Track. Our primary data for organizing insights are the Faculty Track applications themselves. This evaluation of 2024 EnergyTech UP Faculty Track applications aims to support future EnergyTech UP Faculty Track applicants as well as others who are interested in promoting, developing, and/or implementing educational activities that focus on energy commercialization and entrepreneurship at their institutions. By presenting insights from 2024 entries to the Faculty Track, we hope to contribute to a growing inventory of open-source curriculum development resources and provide materials to facilitate the growth of similar programs at a variety of collegiate institutions.
Knowledge is essential for overcoming obstacles in the development and adoption of geothermal technologies, and the geothermal community is home to numerous tools, events and organizations dedicated to sharing knowledge. However, many of these tools can be difficult to find, their resources undiscoverable by search engines, available only to members, or hidden away behind pay walls (Weers et al., 2024). The Department of Energy's (DOE) GeoBridge was developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to help bridge gaps in information and connect the geothermal community to the resources it needs. Launched in October 2024, GeoBridge aspires to expand the pool of geothermal stakeholders by providing in-roads to geothermal information, tools, and community resources. It helps to make these resources available to the broader geothermal community as well as those looking to join, such as entrepreneurs or innovators in adjacent industries looking to expand into geothermal energy. This paper explores a post-launch analysis of GeoBridge including data from analytics, feedback from GeoBridge users, the geothermal community, and the GeoBridge Advisory Group as well as an analysis of efficacy of various promotions for GeoBridge.