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At least 91 records · Page 5

Clean Energy-Related Economic Development Policy across the States: Establishing a 2016 Baseline

States implement clean energy-related economic development policy to spur innovation, manufacturing, and to address other priorities. This report focuses on those policies most directly related to expanding new and existing manufacturing. The extent to which states invest in this policymaking depends on political drivers and jurisdictional economic development priorities. To date, no one source has collected all of the clean energy-related economic development policies available across the 50 states. Thus, it is unclear how many policies exist within each state and how these policies, when implemented, can drive economic development. Establishing the baseline of existing policy is a critical first step in determining the potential holistic impact of these policies on driving economic growth in a state. The goal of this report is to document the clean energy-related economic development policy landscape across the 50 states with a focus on policy that seeks to expand new or existing manufacturing within a state. States interested in promoting clean energy manufacturing in their jurisdictions may be interested in reviewing this landscape to determine how they compare to peers and to adjust their policies as necessary. This report documents over 900 existing clean energy-related economic development laws, financial incentives (technology-agnostic and clean energy focused), and other policies such as agency-directed programs and initiatives across the states.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Impact of Clean Energy R&D on the U.S. Power Sector

The U.S. government, along with other governments, private corporations and organizations, invests significantly in research, development, demonstration and deployment (RDD&D) activities in clean energy technologies, in part to achieve the goal of a clean, secure, and reliable energy system. While specific outcomes and breakthroughs resulting from RDD&D investment are unpredictable, it can be instructive to explore the potential impacts of clean energy RDD&D activities in the power sector and to place those impacts in the context of current and anticipated market trends. This analysis builds on and leverages analysis by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) titled “Energy CO 2 Emissions Impacts of Clean Energy Technology Innovation and Policy” (DOE 2017). Similar to DOE (2017), we explore how additional improvements in cost and performance of clean energy technologies could impact the future U.S. energy system; however, unlike the economy-wide modeling used in DOE (2017) our analysis is focused solely on the electricity sector and applies a different and more highly spatially-resolved electric sector model. More specifically, we apply a scenario analysis approach to explore how assumed further advancements in clean electricity technologies would impact power sector generation mix, electricity system costs, and power sector carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Closure Report for Corrective Action Unit 413: Clean Slate II Plutonium Dispersion (TTR) Tonopah Test Range, Nevada, Revision 0

This Closure Report (CR) presents information supporting the closure of Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 413: Clean Slate II Plutonium Dispersion (TTR), located on the Tonopah Test Range, Nevada. CAU 413 consists of the release of radionuclides to the surface and shallow subsurface from the conduct of the Clean Slate II storage-transportation test conducted on May 31, 1963. The purpose of this CR is to provide documentation and justification for the clean closure of CAU 413 under the FFACO without further corrective action. This justification is based on historical knowledge of the site, previous site investigations, closure activities conducted at the site, and the results of verification samples. Clean closure activities included excavating and disposing of radiologically contaminated soil and debris in the vicinity of ground zero, and collecting verification samples to support the corrective action of clean closure. Results confirmed that further corrective action is not required at CAU 413. Based on the corrective action activities conducted, clean closure of the site is complete; the closure objectives established in the CADD/CAP have been achieved; and no further corrective action at the site is required.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Benchmarks of Global Clean Energy Manufacturing, 2014-2016

The Clean Energy Manufacturing Analysis Center (CEMAC), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), provides objective analysis and up-to-date data on global supply chains and manufacturing of clean energy technologies. This updated version of the Benchmarks of Global Clean Energy Manufacturing sheds light on several fundamental questions about the global clean technology manufacturing enterprise: How does clean energy technology manufacturing impact national economies? What are the economic opportunities across the manufacturing supply chain? What are the global dynamics of clean energy technology manufacturing?

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

"Soiling, Cleaning, and Abrasion: The Results of the Five-Year Photovoltaic Glass Coating Field Study" [Slides]

External contamination ("soiling") of the incident surface is a major limiting factor for solar technologies. A 5-year field glass coupon study was conducted to better understand external contamination and its effects; compare cleaning methods and the use of preventative coatings; and explore the abrasion resulting from cleaning to advise on accelerated abrasion testing. Test sites included the cities of Dubai (UAE), Kuwait City (Kuwait), Mesa (AZ), Mumbai (India), and Sacramento (CA). Through the 5-year cumulative study, dry brush, water spray, and wet sponge and squeegee cleaning methods were compared to no cleaning. Optical microscopy was used to obtain images, including representative color images, grayscale images for object analysis, and oblique images for coating integrity assessment. A thresholding protocol was developed to analyze and distinguish specimens using the ImageJ software. Optical performance was quantified using a spectrophotometer, including comprehensive optical characterization (transmittance, reflectance, and absorptance in addition to forward- and back-scattering). Atomic force microscopy was used to verify the abrasion damage morphology, including the width and depth of surface scratches. Analysis of the results included correlation of optical performance and particle area coverage, rank order (by coating or location), and the acceleration factor for abrasion damage. The efficacy of external cleaning was more readily distinguished from the effectiveness of antisoiling coatings. The acceleration factor for dry brush cleaning of a porous silica coating was found to be on the order of unity.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Delivering Clean Air in Denver: Propane Trucks and Infrastructure in Mail Delivery Application

In 2021, Drive Clean Colorado, a Denver-based Clean Cities coalition, initiated the deployment of five Class 6 medium-duty propane autogas delivery trucks into a United States Postal Service (USPS) mail delivery contractor fleet with the goal of providing a proof-of-concept demonstration for mail delivery fleets nationwide. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, the project, titled "Delivering Clean Air in Denver: Propane Trucks and Infrastructure in Mail Delivery Application," enabled the purchase and deployment of the propane-powered trucks, refueling infrastructure, and supporting analysis by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Key objectives of the analysis included calculating the propane vehicles' emissions reductions, analyzing the costs and operational performance of the propane fleet compared to conventional diesel-powered vehicles, and evaluating the viability of propane as a clean and cost-effective alternative to conventional diesel trucks (AFDC 2023b, 2023c). The primary goal of the project was to demonstrate alternative fuel vehicles in a mail transport application and evaluate the viability of propane as a clean and cost-effective alternative to conventional diesel trucks. This proof-of-concept demonstration is expected to lead to improved understanding of the performance attributes, costs, and operational issues to inform technology adoption decisions, helping to spur market transformation toward lower-emission truck fleets. By reducing the risk of first adoption, potential exists to transform the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) mail delivery system into a lower-carbon national fleet. This technical report details the vehicle duty cycle characterization and fleet cost and performance comparison performed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in addition to estimated emissions reductions for delivery operations.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

PCR-Induced Transitions Are the Major Source of Error in Cleaned Ultra-Deep Pyrosequencing Data

Ultra-deep pyrosequencing (UDPS) is used to identify rare sequence variants. The sequence depth is influenced by several factors including the error frequency of PCR and UDPS. This study investigated the characteristics and source of errors in raw and cleaned UDPS data. UDPS of a 167-nucleotide fragment of the HIV-1 SG3Δenv plasmid was performed on the Roche/454 platform. The plasmid was diluted to one copy, PCR amplified and subjected to bidirectional UDPS on three occasions. The dataset consisted of 47,693 UDPS reads. Raw UDPS data had an average error frequency of 0.30% per nucleotide site. Most errors were insertions and deletions in homopolymeric regions. We used a cleaning strategy that removed almost all indel errors, but had little effect on substitution errors, which reduced the error frequency to 0.056% per nucleotide. In cleaned data the error frequency was similar in homopolymeric and non-homopolymeric regions, but varied considerably across sites. These site-specific error frequencies were moderately, but still significantly, correlated between runs (r = 0.15–0.65) and between forward and reverse sequencing directions within runs (r = 0.33–0.65). Furthermore, transition errors were 48-times more common than transversion errors (0.052% vs. 0.001%; p<0.0001). Collectively the results indicate that a considerable proportion of the sequencing errors that remained after data cleaning were generated during the PCR that preceded UDPS. A majority of the sequencing errors that remained after data cleaning were introduced by PCR prior to sequencing, which means that they will be independent of platform used for next-generation sequencing. The transition vs. transversion error bias in cleaned UDPS data will influence the detection limits of rare mutations and sequence variants.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

IDEA Clean Energy Application Center

The DOE Clean Energy Application Centers were launched with a goal of focusing on important aspects of our nation’s energy supply including Efficiency, Reliability and Resiliency. Clean Energy solutions based on Combined Heat & Power (CHP), District Energy and Waste Heat Recovery are at the core of ensuring a reliable and efficient energy infrastructure for campuses, communities, and industry and public enterprises across the country. IDEA members which include colleges and universities, hospitals, airports, downtown utilities as well as manufacturers, suppliers and service providers have long-standing expertise in the planning, design, construction and operations of Clean Energy systems. They represent an established base of successful projects and systems at scale and serve important and critical energy loads. They also offer experience, lessons learned and best practices which are of immense value to the sustained growth of the Clean Energy sector. IDEA has been able to leverage the funds from the project award to raise the visibility, improve the understanding and increase deployment CHP, District Energy and Waste Heat Recovery solutions across the regions of our nation, in collaboration with the regional CEAC’s. On August 30, 2012, President Obama signed an Executive Order to accelerate investments in industrial energy efficiency (EE), including CHP and set a national goal of 40 GW of new CHP installation over the next decade IDEA is pleased to have been able to support this Executive Order in a variety of ways including raising awareness of the goal through educational workshops and Conferences and recognizing the installation of large scale CHP and district energy systems. A supporting key area of collaboration has involved IDEA providing technical assistance on District Energy/CHP project screenings and feasibility to the CEAC’s for multi building, multi-use projects. The award was instrumental in the development of a first-order screening/feasibility tool for these types of community energy projects. The Excel based tool incorporates hourly climate based building loads data to arrive at the composite energy demand for the district and compares the Net Present Value (NPV) of the costs of CHP/DE alternatives. This tool has been used to provide assistance to several projects in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Intermountain and Pacific Regions. The tool was disseminated to the CEACs and supplemented by a Training Webinar and a How to Guide IDEA produced a US Community Energy Development Guide to support mayors, planners, community leaders, real estate developers and economic development officials who are interested in planning more sustainable urban energy infrastructure, creating community energy master plans and implementing CHP/ District Energy systems in cities, communities and towns. IDEA has collected industry data and provided a comprehensive data set containing information on District Energy installations in the US. District energy systems are present in 49 states and theDistrict of Columbia. Of the 597 systems 55% were DE alone while the remainder was some combination of CHP, district heating, and district cooling. District energy systems that do not currently involve electric generation are strong near-term candidates for the adoption of CHP due to the magnitude of their aggregated thermal load. This data has helped inform specific and targeted initiatives including technical assistance provided by the CEAC’s for EPA’s Boiler MACT Compliance by large District Heating System boilers. These outcomes have been greatly enabled by the close coordination and collaboration with DOE CEAC leadership and with the eight regional US DOE Clean Energy Application Centers and the award’s incremental funding has allowed IDEA to leverage our resources to be an effective champion for Clean Energy.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Final Technical Report - Clean Technology Accelerator Program (CLEANTAP)

Formerly known as the Clean Technology Accelerator Program (CleanTAP), the Incubatenergy Network was proposed via the National Incubator Initiative for Clean Energy (NIICE) to improve coordination and collaboration amongst incubators and accelerators from across the country, and to assist in developing a set of best practices to help improve incubator performance standards. Support networks are in place in many areas around the United States to help guide entrepreneurs along their paths to success. Through knowledge sharing and access to best practices, the clean energy developer community, and thus the public at large, will benefit from improvements in incubators and accelerators to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem and facilitate the commercialization of clean energy technologies. The Incubatenergy Network’s objective was three-fold: It was to serve as a comprehensive source of information about US clean energy incubators, to foster engagement and communication between clean energy incubators, and to provide a rich resource of experts and mentors. Launched in 2014 through a partnership among the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Incubatenergy Network is a network of approximately 25 technology incubators and accelerators located across the U.S., and expanding internationally, that supports more than 500 startup companies focused on a wide variety of cleantech solutions.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Korean Power System Challenges and Opportunities, Priorities for Swift and Successful Clean Energy Deployment at Scale

With South Korea’s electricity demand expected to grow 30% by 2035, transitioning to clean energy resources will be critical in reducing the electric sector emissions and achieving national climate goals. Rapid technological improvements can help keep costs low and maintain grid reliability, if Korea’s government takes a coordinated approach to the clean energy transition. This policy brief identifies key barriers to Korea’s shift toward clean energy, based on the authors’ companion report (A Clean Energy Korea by 2035: Transitioning to 80% Carbon-Free Electricity Generation ), interviews with experts, and the most recent data and literature. It then explores policy solutions for overcoming these technological, economic, and institutional barriers, and suggests market transformation strategies to speed the adoption of clean energy technologies. Amid ongoing cost and technological improvements in wind, solar, and energy storage, advancing this report’s recommended policy actions with maximum coordination among government officials can meaningfully accelerate Korea’s clean energy transition.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Clean Energy Manufacturing: Renewable Energy Technology Benchmarks

The manufacturing of clean energy technologies has become a global enterprise. An analysis of four clean energy technology manufacturing processes—wind turbine components, crystalline silicon solar photovoltaic modules, light-duty vehicle lithium-ion battery cells, and light-emitting diodes—was conducted to provide a reference point for comparison over time as this sector evolves. The manufacturing supply chain analysis included processing of raw materials, making required subcomponents, and assembling final products, using benchmarks that crossed 12 economies: Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Republic of China (Taiwan), the United Kingdom, and the United States. Larger economies, with extensive manufacturing supply chains and high prevailing wages, tend to retain more value added from clean energy manufacturing than small economies. Manufacturing of clean energy technologies drives extensive trade among economies to support the widely distributed supply chain links. Production of wind turbine components and photovoltaic modules is more centralized than production of light-emitting diodes and lithium-ion battery cells. Across the four clean energy technologies evaluated, there was generally an excess of manufacturing capacity relative to global supply.

benchmarks↗

Numerical Simulation of Metal Melt Flow in a One-Strand Tundish Regarding Active Filtration and Reactive Cleaning

In the paper, two different cleaning strategies for nonmetallic inclusions in steel melts, active filtration and reactive cleaning, are examined in a prototype tundish configuration. In active filtration, nonmetallic inclusions are deposited at the filter surfaces. In reactive cleaning, nonmetallic inclusions stick to the filter surfaces, too. In addition, they are floated by the action of carbon monoxide bubbles, which are generated by reaction between carbon and oxygen in the steel melt. In order to compare the performance of both strategies, numerical simulations of the two-phase flows of steel melt and dispersed nonmetallic inclusions are performed. Turbulence is resolved with implicit large eddy simulation. If necessary, species transports of dissolved carbon in the melt and reaction with oxygen are employed. Cleaning efficiencies are deduced from the simulations which demonstrate that reactive cleaning is much more efficient than active filtration.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Annealing temperature variation and its influence on the self-cleaning properties of TiO 2 thin films

Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) is an important material in science and engineering because of its basic and synthetic properties. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of reports in the open literature focusing on its ability to self-clean under temperature changes. In this study, we used the spin coating technique to produce TiO 2 thin films to evaluate its self-cleaning ability after annealing at different temperatures. The TiO 2 sol was obtained through an endothermal sol-gel process, and the gel was coated on a glass substrate using a spin coater. The deposited films were then annealed at 400 °C, 600 °C, and 800 °C for 1 h. The influence of annealing temperature variation on the self-cleaning properties of the thin film was characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope; Fourier transformed infrared spectrometric analysis and UV-vis spectrophotometer. A test to ascertain self-cleaning was conducted using the degradation of methylene blue, and the different films were tested for durability. The durability test confirmed the connection between solid coating and substrate at all annealing temperatures. Thin films annealed at 600 °C revealed the best self-cleaning properties. The morphological analysis revealed snowflake shapes uniformly distributed over the substrate at 400 °C, and agglomeration improved as the annealing temperature increased. Structural analysis showed an increase in crystallinity with an increase in annealing temperature for both rutile and anatase phases. At three different temperatures, the chemical bond and the absorption band pattern followed the same path, although the peak intensity declined with temperature rise. Finally, the optical bandgap of the thin coated TiO 2 declined from 3.39 eV to 3.20 eV as the binding temperature increased from 400 to 800 °C.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

The impact of market design and clean energy incentives on strategic generation investments and resource adequacy in low-carbon electricity markets

Well-designed electricity markets play a crucial role in maintaining reliable electric power systems, which are critical in modern society. Here, this study examines the impact of different electricity market designs and clean energy incentive schemes on supporting renewable energy integration and achieving clean energy goals. To this end, we utilize a game-theoretical generation expansion planning model where generation companies make investment and retirement decisions to maximize their expected profit. The model is structured as an equilibrium problem with equilibrium constraints (EPEC) and solved using a diagonalization approach combined with progressive hedging. We analyze three types of electricity market designs: an energy-only market, a capacity market, and a clean energy market, and consider a wide range of market parameters resulting in 14 total scenarios. Wind and solar capacity comprise the majority of new investments in all considered scenarios, but the resultant system planning reserve margin (PRM) can differ significantly depending on market parameters. We also find that profit-driven investments lead to lower PRMs than a traditional system cost minimization approach. These individual scenario results further demonstrate how different market designs and clean energy incentive schemes may influence investor decision-making and impact resource adequacy throughout the clean energy transition.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Investigation of aluminum surface cleaning using cavitating fluid flow

This paper investigates efficiency of specially designed atomizer used to spray water and cavitate microbubbles in water flow. Surface cleaning system was used to clean machined (grinded) aluminum surface from abrasive particles. It is established that cleaning efficiency depends on diameter of the diffuser, water pressure and distance between nozzle and metal surface. It is obtained that the best cleaning efficiency (100%) is achieved at pressure 36 bar, when diameter of diffuser is 0.4 mm and distance between nozzle and surface is 1 mm. It is also established that satisfactory cleaning efficiency (80%) is achieved not only when atomizer is placed closer to metal surface, but also at larger (120 mm) distances.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Effect of cleaning procedures on the electrical properties of carbon nanotube transistors—A statistical study

The interface between a carbon nanotube (CNT) and its environment can dramatically affect the electrical properties of CNT-based field-effect transistors (FETs). For such devices, the channel environment plays a significant role inducing doping or charge traps giving rise to hysteresis in the transistor characteristics. Thereby the fabrication process strongly determines the extent of those effects and the final device performance. In CNT-based devices obtained from dispersions, a proper individualization of the nanotubes is mandatory. This is generally realized by an ultrasonic treatment combined with surfactant molecules, which enwrap nanotubes forming micelle aggregates. To minimize impact on device performance, it is of vital importance to consider post-deposition treatments for removal of surfactant molecules and other impurities. In this context, we investigated the effect of several wet chemical cleaning and thermal post treatments on the electrical characteristics as well as physical properties of more than 600 devices fabricated only by wafer-level compatible technologies. We observed that nitric acid and water treatments improved the maximum-current of devices. Additionally, we found that the ethanol treatment successfully lowered hysteresis in the transfer characteristics. The effect of the chemical cleaning procedures was found to be more significant on CNT-metal contacts than for the FET channels. Moreover, we investigated the effect of an additional thermal cleaning step under vacuum after the chemical cleaning, which had an exceptional impact on the hysteresis behavior including hysteresis reversal. The presence of surfactant molecules on CNT was evidenced by X-ray photoelectron and Raman spectroscopies. By identifying the role of surfactant molecules and assessing the enhancement of device performance as a direct consequence of several cleaning procedures, these results are important for the development of CNT-based electronics at the wafer-level.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Surface oxidation of GaN(0001): Nitrogen plasma-assisted cleaning for ultrahigh vacuum applications

The cleaning of metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxial GaN(0001) template layers grown on sapphire has been investigated. Different procedures, performed under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, including degassing and exposure to active nitrogen from a radio frequency nitrogen plasma source have been compared. For this purpose, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, reflection high-energy electron diffraction, and scanning tunneling microscopy have been employed in order to assess chemical as well as structural and morphological surface properties. Initial degassing at 600 °C under ultrahigh vacuum conditions only partially eliminates the surface contaminants. In contrast to plasma assisted nitrogen cleaning at temperatures as low as 300 °C, active-nitrogen exposure at temperatures as high as 700 °C removes the majority of oxide species from the surface. However, extended high-temperature active-nitrogen cleaning leads to severe surface roughening. Optimum results regarding both the removal of surface oxides as well as the surface structural and morphological quality have been achieved for a combination of initial low-temperature plasma-assisted cleaning, followed by a rapid nitrogen plasma-assisted cleaning at high temperature.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Combined wet and dry cleaning of SiGe(001)

Combined wet and dry cleaning via hydrofluoric acid (HF) and atomic hydrogen on Si{sub 0.6}Ge{sub 0.4}(001) surface was studied at the atomic level using ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS), and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to understand the chemical transformations of the surface. Aqueous HF removes native oxide, but residual carbon and oxygen are still observed on Si{sub 0.6}Ge{sub 0.4}(001) due to hydrocarbon contamination from post HF exposure to ambient. The oxygen contamination can be eliminated by shielding the sample from ambient via covering the sample in the HF cleaning solution until the sample is introduced to the vacuum chamber or by transferring the sample in an inert environment; however, both processes still leave carbon contaminant. Dry in-situ atomic hydrogen cleaning above 330 °C removes the carbon contamination on the surface consistent with a thermally activated atomic hydrogen reaction with surface hydrocarbon. A postdeposition anneal at 550 °C induces formation of an atomically flat and ordered SiGe surface observed by STM. STS verifies that the wet and dry cleaned surface has an unpinned Fermi level with no states between the conduction and valence band edge comparable to sputter cleaned SiGe surfaces.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗