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DOE OSTI2025

Illinois Storage Corridor CarbonSAFE Phase III: Stakeholder Engagement and Outreach Plan

The Stakeholder Engagement and Outreach Plan provides a comprehensive framework for engaging stakeholders of the Illinois Storage Corridor (ISC) project. The ISC project is a CarbonSAFE Phase III project designed to facilitate commercial deployment of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) in Illinois. The project aims to establish a multi-industry carbon storage corridor through development of storage sites near the One Earth Energy (OEE) ethanol production facility in north-central Illinois and the Prairie State Generating Company (PSGC) coal-fired power plant in south-central Illinois, with combined annual CO 2 capture ultimately exceeding 8.6 million tons per year. Stakeholder engagement is recognized as a critical component for successful CCUS deployment, alongside technical and economic considerations. As an emerging technology, CCUS may not be well understood by the general population, and lack of public awareness can lead to opposition that poses significant barriers to project development. This plan addresses this challenge through systematic stakeholder identification, analysis, planning, and implementation of engagement actions. The plan is structured around four main sections: Communication, Stakeholder Analysis, Stakeholder Engagement, and Environmental Justice. Activities will be conducted under Tasks 1 and 4 of the project's Statement of Project Objectives, with two key subtasks: (1) developing a stakeholder analysis and engagement plan through face-to-face meetings, facilitated discussions, and surveys; and (2) implementing stakeholder engagement and public outreach activities including meetings, open houses, and permit hearings. The Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) will manage engagement activities following DOE-NETL best practices, focusing on providing objective, fact-based information about CCUS and the ISC project. A comprehensive Communication Plan establishes protocols for media contacts, site visits, and crisis communications. The stakeholder analysis follows a structured workflow process divided into Pre-feasibility and Feasibility phases, incorporating contextual understanding, assessment, data collection, and analysis. Key stakeholder groups include government bodies, educational organizations, conservation and environmental groups, agricultural communities, and religious organizations. The plan addresses common stakeholder questions regarding project risks, benefits, safety, property values, liability, and environmental impacts. Recommendations emphasize developing clear messaging, creating informational materials, and preparing to address both project-specific and broader environmental concerns to ensure transparent communication and build stakeholder support throughout project implementation.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Preliminary Analysis of Nuclear-Powered Data Center Scenarios

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the potential for nuclear energy to meet the growing energy demands of data centers (DCs). It evaluates the technical, economic, and socio-environmental implications of coupling Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) with DCs, providing initial responses to several key research questions: What is the potential increased energy demand from DCs in the U.S., in the short, medium and long term? The U.S. is experiencing a rapid increase in energy demand from DCs, with projections indicating a total increase of 24-74 GWy(e) by 2028. Meeting this demand with nuclear energy would require 27–85 GWe of installed capacity. While this surge is expected to slow in the long term, the DC industry needs reliable, scalable, and clean energy sources. How much nuclear capacity can be deployed to meet DC demand and in which timeframe? Several pathways for increasing nuclear capacity were identified, including uprates, restarts of recently retired reactors, power purchase agreements with existing fleet, and new construction. Approximately 20‒28 GWe of nuclear capacity could be dedicated to DCs by the early 2030s. How much High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) would be needed to support some nuclear deployment scenarios for DCs? Meeting the deployment targets announced by Google and Amazon for the Kairos Power Fluoride-Salt-Cooled High-Temperature Reactor or KP-FHR (~500 MWe by 2035) and the Xe-100 (~1 GWe by 2040), respectively, requires ramping up 19.75% enriched HALEU production to ~6 t/yr by 2040. What types of nuclear energy/DC coupling options exist, and what are the different benefits/challenges? Five coupling options were analyzed, ranging from grid-connected configurations to colocated, behind-the-meter setups. Key design considerations include the proximity to high- and/or medium-voltage transmission lines, the desired internal fault tolerance, and the sources of alternative/backup power during outages. Each coupling option offers unique benefits and challenges in terms of reliability, system costs, regulation, timeline, etc. A list of NPP/DC deployment scenarios was developed, considering existing or newly built NPP or DC projects. Colocated DCs with new small modular reactors or large reactors on greenfield and brownfield sites are the focus of this report. What types of reactors, especially what size, may be incentivized by DCs? Reactor sizing optimization revealed that the ideal reactor size and number of units depend on DC demand, coupling configurations defined in this report, and other economic factors. Larger reactors are preferred for high-demand DCs and grid-connected systems, while larger number of smaller reactors are better suited for DC configurations without grid backup. Which sites may be compatible with co-located nuclear-powered DCs? Siting those projects is a complicated evaluation factoring local water resources, grid connection availability and reliability, IT infrastructure, local work force, proximity to population zones, etc. For this effort greenfield and brownfield sites such as retired coal-fired plants were used to evaluate this question. This evaluation is not meant to recommend any particular site but it highlights key siting criteria and demonstrates large-scale site availability. What are the socio-economic impacts of co-located nuclear-powered DCs? Those projects generate substantial economic benefits to the local economy, particularly in urban settings. Hyperscale DCs colocated with nuclear power plants (sized around 1 GW of power) can create nearly 1,700 jobs for annual operations and more than 7,300 jobs among the supply chain and local businesses as a result of increased household spending. Rural projects also provide significant benefits, but at lower magnitudes compared to urban deployments.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Primer to SWIFt 2.0 Technical Information Sheets

More than 16,000 publicly owned municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the U.S. treat a wide range of wastewater (WW) flows ranging from <0.5 to >200 MGD. Municipal WWTPs act as the last barrier before exposure to water-borne diseases and contaminants, thus serving as a critical infrastructure protecting human health and the environment. A recent survey by the American Society of Civil Engineers assigned the U.S.’s WW infrastructure a grade of D+ because of the number of improvements needed for end-of-life infrastructure with operating conditions being over or under design capacities. With increasing population growth and urbanization, the municipal WW sector needs to grow resiliently and sustainably to accommodate increasing sewer flows in the wake of new infrastructure needs and global priorities. In addition, this growth will be affected by rising concerns over constrained resources (e.g., electricity, energy, and water) and regulations. This necessitates molding the WW sector toward sustainability- and resiliency-related planning and innovations to address current and future needs while simultaneously producing profitable by-products.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

A method for modeling battery-temperature-aware EV power profiles utilizing Next-Gen Profile data

With the expected increase in the number of electric vehicles (EVs) on the road in the coming years, it is important that analysis tools are capable of modeling and predicting the expected load on the power grid due to both individual EV charging sessions as well as large populations of vehicles. To do this accurately, the power profile of an EV charge session must be accurately modeled, including for scenarios where the temperature is above or below the ideal, and also take into account the nuances of manufacturer charging preferences. This paper introduces a method that utilizes the data in the Next-Gen Profile (NGP) data collection project to build a model of EV charging that takes into account the variations in charging power that occur due to off-nominal battery temperature and manufacturer preferences that limit power due to cold temperatures or high battery state-of-charge.

24 - POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Assessing the Current State of U.S. Energy Equity Regulation and Legislation [Slides]

This report examined state energy equity actions from January 2020 to July 2022. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory partnered with E9 Insight to screen executive, legislative, and regulatory actions focusing on energy equity. A total of 95 actions were identified across 22 states and Washington, DC. Energy equity was most associated with resource planning, decarbonization, and energy efficiency regulatory focus areas. States tended to focus on distributive and procedural justice tenets over recognition and restorative justice tenets. The review also suggested that energy equity metrics are in nascent stages; most outcomes identified in equity actions did not have corresponding metrics. Affordability and energy burden were identified as metrics in multiple cases and appeared in several different forms.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

New Community Center Integrated Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMs) and Solar Photovoltaic Generation System in the Forest County Potawatomi Community

The Forest County Potawatomi Community (“FCPC” or “the Tribe”), is a federally recognized Indian Tribe located in Wisconsin. With the support of the United States Department of Energy, Office of Indian Energy (DOE IE) grant funding, the Tribe implemented their New Community Center Integrated EEMs and Solar Photovoltaic System in the Forest County Potawatomi Community project (the “Project”). The Project was developed and executed with the goal of partially energizing the Community Center while concurrently pursuing Tribal energy sovereignty through cost effective energy efficiency and generation measure.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Artificial Intelligence for Enhancing Multiscale Analysis: Buildings Focus

This project aims to develop multi-scale building energy data, potentially improving the representation of the U.S. buildings sector in GCAM-USA, an U.S.-focused human-energy-Earth systems model. Existing building energy datasets are typically limited to national or regional levels, which constrains the ability of models to capture fine-scale human-energy-Earth systems interactions and reduces their relevance for decision-making on issues such as energy security, resilience, and energy planning. By leveraging AI and advanced data integration methods, this work fuses multiple existing datasets to enhance the physical and geographic representation of both residential and commercial building energy use. So far, progress includes processing residential building data, designing the data structure for commercial buildings, and testing AI approaches for integrating datasets and addressing spatial-temporal gaps. This effort can not only advances GCAM-USA’s capability in modeling the buildings sector but also supports broader DOE missions, such as developing digital testbeds, enhancing grid resilience analysis, and improving building–energy system modeling at decision-relevant scales.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

National Cost-Effectiveness of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2022

The purpose of this analysis is to examine the cost-effectiveness of the 2022 edition of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1, which is developed by the ASHRAE Standard Standing Project Committee (SSPC) 90.1 and is the model energy standard for all commercial buildings and multifamily residential buildings over three floors. PNNL analyzed the cost-effectiveness of changes in Standard 90.1-2022, compared to the previous 90.1-2019 edition, as applied in commercial buildings across the United States. In reviewing proposed changes to Standard 90.1, the SSPC considers the cost-effectiveness of individual changes (addenda). Due to the continuous nature of the development process, however, ASHRAE does not evaluate the entire package of addenda from one edition of the standard to the next, which is of particular interest to adopting state and local governments. Providing states with an analysis of cost-effectiveness facilitates a more comprehensive understanding of the impacts associated with updated model energy codes, informs the state decision-making process and its authorities, and ultimately encourages greater adoption of updated energy codes. This information also informs the development of future editions of Standard 90.1.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Driving Affordable Energy Through Utility Program Design

The presentation is aimed to teach participants about achieving affordable energy through utility program design. Learning objectives include: identify key utility program characteristics that support affordability and consumer choice; apply best practices in outreach, eligibility, and evaluation to improve program design; and evaluate strategies for aligning program design with customer needs and regulatory goals.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

2024 Buildings Technology Baseline: Dataset Documentation

The Buildings Technology Baseline is a curated and regularly updated dataset of current and projected performance, retail, and installed price data for all major building energy technologies needed to enable cost/benefit analyses. Building technology analyses require an up-to-date understanding of installation costs and cost-effectiveness of key building energy efficiency technologies. The dataset was assembled by Guidehouse during fiscal year 2024. Data was gathered from the 2024 National Residential Efficiency Measures Database (NREMDB), the 2023 Energy Information Administration Updated Buildings Sector Appliance and Equipment Costs and Efficiencies ("EIA Building Data Report"), DOE Lighting Market Model, the 2023 RSMeans database, and the 2020 Grid-Interactive Efficient Building Technology Cost, Performance, and Lifetime Characteristics ("GEB Data Report"), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, various literature, as well as new data from online retailers, stakeholder interviews, and contractor databases in 2023 and 2024. The dataset has been reviewed by subject matter experts at NREL and DOE. The 2024 dataset release is intended to be a starting point for interested users to provide feedback. This database is not intended to provide specific cost estimates for a specific project. The cost estimates do not include any rebates or tax incentives that may be available for the measures. Rather, it is meant to help determine which measures may be more cost-effective. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) makes every effort to ensure accuracy of the data; however, NREL does not assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Preliminary Assessment of Renewable Energy Options at the Sravasti Abbey [Slides]

Through the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy to Communities (E2C) program, NREL, other national laboratory experts, and select organizations provide Expert Match - free, short-term technical assistance to address near-term clean energy challenges and questions. Expert Match is for community stakeholders who have decision-making power or influence in their community but need access to additional clean energy expertise to inform key upcoming decisions. This Expert Match request supported the Sravasti Abbey in Washington a preliminary assessment of distributed energy technology financial feasibility for their site. The outcome consists of low estimated savings from these technologies due to their already low energy consumption.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Monitoring for Space Farming Institute [Slides]

Through the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy to Communities (E2C) program, NREL, other national laboratory experts, and select organizations provide Expert Match - free, short-term technical assistance to address near-term energy challenges and questions. Expert Match is for community stakeholders who have decision-making power or influence in their community but need access to additional energy expertise to inform key upcoming decisions. This Expert Match request supported the Space Farming Institute, a nonprofit organization located in Anchorage, AK, with an indoor air quality analysis. The NREL team analyzed indoor air quality data provided by the Space Farming Institute, which experts at PNNL used to design an indoor bioreactor to grow Ulva algae for indoor air quality mitigation purposes.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Energy Technology Innovation Partnership Project

This presentation offers information about the open application for the Energy Technology Innovation Partnership Project (ETIPP). It covers a program overview, information about types of support available through ETIPP, and examples of community technical assistance through ETIPP.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Sitka Energy Inventory

The City and Borough of Sitka was chosen for an Energy Technology Innovation Partner Project award starting in Fall 2023, the third cohort of the program. The scope of the following work was driven by the city, as well as the city-appointed Sustainability Commission. The community asked for a method to track their reliance on outside fuel sources, as well as the emissions associated with those fuels and other processes in Sitka. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) provided research and methodology in line with this community driven ask. This project is a community wide inventory, requiring methods to estimate the fuel usage and emissions from various industries. For each estimate, PNNL presents methodologies that can be repeated by the community in future years to understand how the city is changing.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Integrated Life Cycle and Techno-Economic Assessments of Central Appalachian Legacy Mine Sites for Biomass Development and Waste Coal Utilization

This project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy – National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE-NETL) under award DE-FE0032212, evaluated how legacy coal mine lands and coal refuse piles in Central Appalachia (West Virginia and Pennsylvania) can be reclaimed and repurposed to support biomass development and beneficial utilization of waste coal, with the long-term goal of supporting net-zero or net-negative greenhouse gas (GHG) pathways. The project had two primary objectives: 1. Characterize legacy mine sites (including site conditions, waste coal/refuse resources, and soil/ecosystem indicators) and develop reclamation and best management practices (BMPs) for biomass cultivation; and 2. Conduct integrated machine learning (ML)-assisted life cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA) to quantify environmental and economic outcomes for multiple biomass and waste-coal utilization pathways. Across West Virginia, the team identified ~625 coal refuse sites covering ~19,705 acres, and developed methods to estimate refuse pile volume using digital elevation models (DEMs) and geospatial workflows. A large subset of sites received volume estimates totaling ~1.6 billion m³.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2026

Lahaina Energy Partnership: Tasks 1-5

The Lahaina Energy Partnership (LEP) is an initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) to support energy planning and rebuilding efforts in Hawaii's historic town of Lahaina on Maui as the community recovers from a devastating fire on August 8, 2023, with technical assistance provided by NREL. To inform the scope of technical assistance, NREL has partnered with Hawaii-based community engagement and sustainability-focused organizations to connect with Lahaina residents, business owners to understand the community's energy priorities and vision for the future. This presentation presents a summary of the community's energy priorities and NREL's scope of work for the project, to be completed in early 2027.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Biogas Utilization in Refuse Power Plants (BURP 2 )

The BURP 2 project investigated the technical and financial viability of co firing biogas with waste coal for power generation while using carbon capture and sequestration to achieve net negative emissions. A comparative assessment integrating geospatial mapping, technoeconomic analysis, and life cycle analysis was carried out to evaluate retrofitting an existing coal fired facility in West Virginia, versus developing a new greenfield power plant in Kentucky located near a low quality coal resource. The study found that CO 2 capture rates of 90% or higher, in combination with biogas feedstocks such as animal manure, could significantly reduce global warming potential compared to plants using neither biogas nor CO 2 capture systems. Economic feasibility depended heavily on federal tax credits and proximity to fuel sources. In both greenfield and retrofit scenarios, access to biogas played a key role. Because the retrofit site was located close to existing biogas resources, it represented a feasible option, whereas the greenfield site, being far from pipelines or biogas sources, would require prohibitively expensive biogas transport infrastructure. Overall, the research showed that repurposing waste or low-quality coal with renewable biogas and CO 2 capture systems could provide a viable approach for reducing carbon emissions in power production, if biogas resources are easily accessible and available in sufficient quantities.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2026

JUSTIFI: Software for Improving Performance Objectives via Energy Efficiency

With growing energy supply concerns and rising costs, energy efficiency is a critical component of industrial energy resilience and competitiveness by directly reducing energy operating costs. Energy efficiency projects in manufacturing also yield valuable benefits to other key metrics, such as improved quality, reduced maintenance costs, improved safety, decreased pollution, and enhanced productivity. However, it is difficult to receive approval for energy efficiency projects, so implementation rates are low, even when meeting capital project payback period criteria. The inclusion and quantification of non-energy benefits (NEBs) in the decision-making process for energy efficiency projects can improve the overall financial payback period while demonstrating a positive impact on the firm's key performance metrics and business strategy. Despite their significant financial and strategic value, NEBs are rarely factored into decision-making due to lack of tools to effectively identify and quantify them. Therefore, a comprehensive and integrative approach is needed for the rapidly evolving energy landscape. To address these challenges, through funding from U.S. Department of Energy, our new assessment methodology integrates common continuous improvement six sigma concepts, such as the DMAIC process, and a protocol of guiding questions, into energy efficiency assessments to identify NEBs. We have also developed open-source software, JUSTIFI, to guide users through this process, data collection, and quantification. It is designed to be used concurrently with DOE energy system analysis software suite, MEASUR. Our methodology and tools inform energy assessors, firm engineering, decision makers, and workforce seeking to increase energy resilience and to maximize benefits aligned with performance metrics.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗