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DOE OSTI2018

Appendix B: Commercial Solar Financing Options

As the solar photovoltaic (PV) market in the United States has evolved, so too have the financing mechanisms associated with it. This appendix provides a snapshot of the current commercial solar financing arena and an overview of existing financing mechanisms. While there is significant overlap in solar financing options among the residential, government, and commercial sectors, this report focuses on options and considerations for commercial entities only. Traditional solar financing models are being adapted to encompass increasingly complex relationships between solar energy consumers and solar development. This guide explores the variety of financing options available to commercial entities, ranging from the historical mainstays of the solar financing spectrum - third-party ownership (TPO) models, which include power purchase agreements (PPAs) and leases, in addition to loans and cash purchases - to relatively more recent additions, including property-assessed clean energy (PACE) financing, performance contracting, and green bonds, among others. This appendix ('Appendix B. Commercial Solar Financing Options') is one chapter in the Environmental Protection Agency's broader Guide to Purchasing Green Power, which provides a detailed overview of green power markets and procurement.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Policy, Regulatory, Legal, and Permitting Case Study Subtask 3.2 – Topical Report

This report summarizes the policy, regulatory, legal, and permitting requirements to-date for the siting of a CO 2 injection and storage project in the CarbonSAFE Illinois East Sub-Basin pre-feasibility study area. Where applicable, the East Sub-Basin case study focuses on a proposed carbon capture and storage (CCS) site location in West Terre Haute, Indiana. Indiana has established the legal mechanisms to obtain rights to the subsurface mineral estate with the expectation to apply to reservoir pore space for CO 2 storage in an analogous manner to storage of natural gas, which is a common practice in Indiana. There is, however, no precedent in Indiana to take liability for stored CO 2 . There are currently no Indiana State incentives for CCS, but at the Federal level, tax credits for carbon capture and storage under 26. U.S. Code § 45Q constitute the greatest incentive targeted at CCS projects. The amendment to these credits put forth in the Bipartisan Budget Act (the FUTURE Act) of 2018 substantially increases the per-ton incentive for CCS—from $22.66 per ton in tax year 2017 up to $50 per ton in tax year 2027, for CO 2 not used as an injectant (i.e. saline storage). Additional economic opportunities may exist for the provision of CO 2 for potential EOR in the Illinois Basin. Policies that may support the development of CO 2 pipelines and/or CCS projects in Indiana include: 1) Title 41 of the FAST Act (2015), which created a new governance structure, procedures, and funding authorities in order to improve and expedite Federal review and authorization of covered infrastructure projects, including pipelines, and 2) the Eminent Domain for Transportation of Carbon Dioxide by Pipeline (IC 14-39, Indiana State, 2011), which declares pipeline transportation of CO 2 exclusively to a carbon management application, including sequestration, enhanced oil recovery, and deep saline injection as a benefit to the welfare of Indiana and the people. The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program Class VI rule and permit requirements address all components pertaining to CO 2 injection and monitoring for long-term storage, and outline the minimum technical criteria to protect underground sources of drinking water at, and surrounding, injection well sites. The Class VI requirements also address financial responsibility for corrective action, post-injection site care, and site closure. In addition, UIC Program public notice requirements include that the EPA issue notice of the draft permit preparation to key stakeholders, and open a public comment period of not less than 30 days. A public hearing about the permit would also be held, if specifically requested by the public. A potential Class VI CO 2 injection well permit for the East Sub-Basin case study site would be obtained through the US EPA Region 5, because the State of Indiana does not have UIC Class VI primacy. Although no CO 2 injection wells have been permitted in Indiana, the US EPA Region 5 (which covers Illinois and Indiana) and the East Sub-Basin CarbonSAFE team (via the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium [MGSC]) have Class VI permitting experience from several projects located in Illinois. Based on our experience, applying for a Class VI permit can be an intensive and iterative process requiring clear communication and numerous interactions with EPA staff. In addition to gathering and preparing the data/models and documentation necessary for a permit application’s initial submittal, the subsequent public comments, EPA response and review, and answering of any follow-up questions/requests by the EPA could significantly increase the timeframe of draft permit issuance. The US EPA offers guidance documents regarding the specific Class VI permit requirements, and shows a general permitting timeline example from the FutureGen Alliance 2.0 covering one-and-a-half years from permit submittal to issuance. However, the overall permitting process to-date has a high degree of variability, and in MGSC’s project experience we observed a more extended timeline to receive Class VI permits for each of two CO 2 injection wells.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2018

High-Quality Home Performance: Arizona's Home Performance with ENERGY STAR (R) Program

Arizona Public Service (APS) has created a high-quality Home Performance with ENERGY STAR (ENERGY STAR) program. In addition to being based on the ENERGY STAR guidelines developed by the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, they have used two other national guideline/standards to improve quality and contractor satisfaction: DOE's Standard Work Specifications for Home Energy Upgrades (SWS) and the Home Performance Coalition's Home Performance Extensible Markup Language (HPXML). As the program found areas for improvement, they worked with their implementer FSL Home Energy Solutions (FSL) to develop a quality assurance (QA) program based on the SWS. They also worked with energy assessment and other software providers to implement HPXML in a program administration software platform. This gave contractors a choice in what energy assessment software they used - each tool allowed in the program exported HPXML seamlessly to the program administration platform. APS worked closely with FSL and contractors to implement the QA program and roll out the software improvements. After implementing the QA program and software, the program saw approximately 15% improvement in measure and work scope quality.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2017

DOE Zero Energy Ready Homes

This article describes the U.S. Department of Energy's Zero Energy Ready Home Program and Housing Innovation Awards. Since 2013, builders around the country have certified over 1,170 homes to the high performance criteria of the DOE Zero Energy Ready Home program. Each year DOE recognizes the best innovators among this group with the DOE Housing Innovation Awards. 2017 winners will be announced at an awards event taking place at the Energy & Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA) high-performance home summit October 10-12, 2017, in Atlanta, Georgia. Twenty-five builders are expected to take home awards and grand award winners in each of the five competition categories will be revealed at the conference. Participating builders represent every climate zone in the country and DOE Zero Energy Ready labeled homes can be found in 34 states. Homes represent the full spectrum of the U.S. construction industry, from affordable to production to custom homes and from single-family detached to duplexes and up to five-story multifamily buildings as well as some retrofit projects have also met the criteria. Every DOE ZER certified home is certified through the ENERGY STAR Certified Homes (Version 3.0, revision 8) program and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Indoor airPLUS program. Each home must meet the hot water distribution requirements of the EPA’s WaterSense program and the insulation requirements of the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code. If the home has HVAC ducts, they must be installed within the conditioned space of the home. Appliances, exhaust fans, ceiling fans, and most of the lighting should be ENERGY STAR qualified. The DOE Zero Energy Ready Home program also requires homes to have solar electric panels installed or at a minimum to have the conduit and electrical panel space in place for future PV installation, if the home is in a location appropriate for solar power. Homes are constructed with enough energy efficiency built in so that, with a reasonable amount of solar PV panels (i.e., small enough to fit comfortably on the roof), the home could produce enough of its own power to equal the power it uses in a year.

U.S. Department of Energy Building Technologies Pr↗
DOE OSTI2019

Automating the Analysis of GHGRP Data Using Python, to Perform Temporal Analysis on Natural Gas Supply Chain Parameters - LCAXIX

This work was presented at the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment 2019 Conference (LCAXIX) in Tucson, AZ on September 24, 2019. Subpart W of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) consists of facility level greenhouse gas data for petroleum and natural gas systems that emit 25,000 metric tons or more of GHGs per year. Envirofacts is a tool that provides all publicly available data reported to GHGRP and it can be used to customize and download the data. This is one of the most granular datasets available that can be used to perform a detailed cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of the United States natural gas supply chain. However, as robust as this data is, it is not available in a format that can be analyzed easily, and it is especially difficult to perform a temporal analysis on it. NETL's python script downloads all the .csv files for the desired reporting years from the subpart W of GHGRP.

Rai, Srijana↗
DOE OSTI2019

Comparison of Radon Results in 4- Versus 6-Plex Townhouse Units

In this work, to determine whether there were any significant differences in radon frequency between 4-unit (4-plex) and 6- unit (6-plex) multifamily buildings, an analysis was performed on three different populations of townhouses: one located within an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Radon Zone 1 site (Population A) and two others, both located in an EPA Radon Zone 3 site (Populations B and C). Within their respective population grouping, all units were two stories, identical in construction and floor plan, and were constructed by the same contractor over a 1- to 2-year period. In addition, each unit had its own separate, ducted forced-air heat pump. Long-term radon testing was performed using alpha track detectors (ATDs) for a period of 180 days. All detectors were placed in accordance with EPA residential sampling protocols (EPA 402-R-92-003) along the centerline of each unit. Followup testing (short-term, 7-day electret) was performed in all units in which the ATD test results were ≥4 pCi/L, and all elevated results were confirmed.

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Nuclear Energy Model Intercomparison Project

This document summarizes the current status and future plans of the Nuclear Model Intercomparison Project. The objectives of this project are to understand how issues central to nuclear energy are modeled in long-term capacity expansion models, to investigate how model structures and input assumptions impact projections for nuclear’s role, to refine model representations of nuclear energy, and to communicate findings to the research community and decision-makers. High-level goals are discussed for each of the four participating model groups: the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). This document summarizes scenarios and assumptions for the model comparison, outcomes from the first workshop, and next steps.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Testing Rod Seal Leakage of a 700 HP Reciprocating Compressor

Methane emissions from reciprocating compressors in the U.S. natural gas industry account for over 72.4 Bcf per year according to a 2006 statement by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Methane also has a global warming potential 50 times greater than carbon monoxide. Reciprocating compressors are the machinery type with the highest contribution to methane emissions at natural gas transmissions stations. The largest contributing factor comes from the sealing components in the packing components around the piston rod. SwRI, therefore, designed and setup a test loop to perform baseline packing leakage measurements on a four stage 700 HP JGT/4 compressor. The goal was to improve upon current packing leakage models and to compare new seals vs. used seals. The test loop design is described including the limits of operation. The Data Acquisition System (DAQ), including data measurements, is also fully described. The project shows the results of the commissioning process that verified the operation of all the components. Once the loop was commissioned, SwRI performed baseline packing leakage for multiple pressure ratios on each of the four stages of the compressor. The data was collected to develop an analytical model of the packing leakage. Finally, similar testing was performed after replacing the typical rod seal packing with used packing. The used packing leakage was compared to the baseline packing leakage.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Long-term trends in connected thermostat performance

Internet-connected thermostats (CTs) control heating and cooling systems in about 30% of North American homes, and capture half of annual thermostat sales. In 2017 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created a program to certify the performance of ENERGY STAR® Connected Thermostats. To demonstrate compliance with energy-saving criteria, thermostat vendors must submit performance summaries for a representative sample of up to 1250 homes. Vendors must then re-submit results from a new, representative sample every six months in order to maintain their ENERGY STAR certification. This procedure has created a unique record of each thermostat’s long-term performance in response to changes in weather, customer demographics, building stock, and algorithms. Our analysis covers submissions from 13 different vendors, who submitted data up to 7 times over four years. We found that these semi-annual samples generated relatively stable trends for comfort temperatures and Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) runtimes over the study period. However, some vendors achieved consistently more energy-conserving comfort temperatures and shorter HVAC runtimes than others. The most recent submission runtimes averaged 700 hours for heating and 1,300 hours for cooling, but some vendors achieved runtimes as much as 17% below the mean. This implies lower energy consumption is due in large part to more successful algorithms and control strategies used by those vendors.

Meier, Alan↗
DOE OSTI2022

Waste Reduction Network Waste Glossary

This document contains relevant industry definitions to support partners in the Better Buildings, Better Plants Waste Reduction Network. Definitions were compiled using the CalRecycle Glossary, SWANA’s Waste Glossary, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the State of Washington’s Department of Ecology, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and Metro Oregon. Some terms contain multiple complementary definitions.

Better Buildings, waste glossary, compost, waste d↗
DOE OSTI2022

Preprocessing of municipal solid waste towards thermal insulating material

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the significant challenges in today’s world. A continuous surge in population, increasing living standards, and rapid urbanization are generating an enormous quantity of MSW. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that the total generation of MSW in the United States in 2018 was 292.4 million tons. Improper management of this MSW often leads to the release of greenhouse gases, emission of particulate matters, and formation of dioxins, which all ultimately contributes to climate change. Recycling these wastes via landfills with gas recovery and/or energy and material production via thermal and chemical conversions could be viable options to manage these challenges. Depending on the inherent chemical and structural properties of unrecycled wastes, the carbon structures can be tailored for processing and reuse in manufacturing of structural composites, building materials such as insulation, carbon dense reactant materials such as activated carbon, and so on. According to the EPA’s estimation, MSW in the United States is approximately 23% paper and paperboard, 12% plastics, 6% wood and 6% is textiles. Thus, this research focused on the feasibility of using the MSW as insulation material for the construction sector. The goal of this work was to determine the range of particle sizes, consolidation ratios, and component blends that can achieve insulation R-values within at least 70% that of traditional blown cellulose fiber. To achieve this goal, we designed the testing matrix based on five different component blends, three different particle sizes, and three different compaction level. An American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) method (C-739) was used to measure the R-value of the insulation material. Results showed that, adding more paper component in addition to smaller particle size and loose compaction made the insulation similar to the traditional blown cellulose fiber insulation as the R-value was within a range of 2.5-3.0 per inch.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Technical Assistance 101 - How Can the Joint Office Support You?

The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (Joint Office), in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), provides free technical assistance on the planning, deployment, operation, and maintenance of a national network of electric vehicle chargers, zero-emission fueling infrastructure, and zero-emission transit and school buses. This help sheet shares how technical assistance can support stakeholders.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,ENERGY PLANNING, POLIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

Development and Qualification of Advancements in Submersible Transfer Pump Performance and Life, and Implications for Advancing and Supporting Processing Options - 13343

From the 1950's through the 1990's, relatively inexpensive, 'off-the-shelf' type, vertical turbine pumps (VTP) were used to transfer Hanford waste. The technology of those pumps was rooted primarily in the mining and agricultural (irrigation) industries. HNF-3218, Double Shell Tank (DST) Transfer Pump History and Reliability Report, 1998, provides a summary of Hanford DST pump history to that date. Such pumps operated in the Hanford radioactive waste environment for an average of only 400 hours before failure. However, at that time, operating life was not a driving criteria within the Department of Energy (DOE) complex, as the failure of transfer pumps represented a relatively low replacement and disposal cost. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issuance of the 'Debris Rule' in 1992, which mandated that mixed radioactive waste contaminated equipment be decontaminated to a 'low level waste' category prior to burial, elevated the significance of transfer pump reliability and decontamination capability as life-cycle cost criteria. Minimizing the frequency of transfer pump failures and design for decontamination became significantly important and served to drive the need toward specific, designed for application pumps to meet this challenge. To this end, Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) and the supplier, Curtiss-Wright EMD (EMD), have recently collaborated on an intense program to further transfer pump technology and performance. (authors)

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

Revisions to US EPA Superfund Risk and Dose Assessment Models and Guidance - 13403

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund program's six Preliminary Remediation Goal (PRG) and Dose Compliance Concentration (DCC) internet based calculators for risk and dose assessment at Superfund sites are being revised to reflect better science, revisions to existing exposure scenarios and new scenarios, and changes to match up more closely with the EPA chemical regional screening level calculator. A revised version of the 1999 guidance document that provides an overview for the Superfund risk assessment process at radioactively contaminated sites, 'Radiation Risk Assessment At CERCLA Sites: Q and A', is being completed that will reflect Superfund recommended guidance and other technical documents issued over the past 13 years. EPA is also issuing a series of fact sheets in the document 'Superfund Radiation Risk Assessment: A Community Tool-kit'. This presentation would go over those changes that are expected to be finished by this spring. (authors)

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

Improving the Estimates of Waste from the Recycling of Used Nuclear Fuel - 13410

Estimates are presented of wastes arising from the reprocessing of 50 GWD/tonne, 5 year and 50 year cooled used nuclear fuel (UNF) from Light Water Reactors (LWRs), using the 'NUEX' solvent extraction process. NUEX is a fourth generation aqueous based reprocessing system, comprising shearing and dissolution in nitric acid of the UNF, separation of uranium and mixed uranium-plutonium using solvent extraction in a development of the PUREX process using tri-n-butyl phosphate in a kerosene diluent, purification of the plutonium and uranium-plutonium products, and conversion of them to uranium trioxide and mixed uranium-plutonium dioxides respectively. These products are suitable for use as new LWR uranium oxide and mixed oxide fuel, respectively. Each unit process is described and the wastes that it produces are identified and quantified. Quantification of the process wastes was achieved by use of a detailed process model developed using the Aspen Custom Modeler suite of software and based on both first principles equilibrium and rate data, plus practical experience and data from the industrial scale Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) at the Sellafield nuclear site in the United Kingdom. By feeding this model with the known concentrations of all species in the incoming UNF, the species and their concentrations in all product and waste streams were produced as the output. By using these data, along with a defined set of assumptions, including regulatory requirements, it was possible to calculate the waste forms, their radioactivities, volumes and quantities. Quantification of secondary wastes, such as plant maintenance, housekeeping and clean-up wastes, was achieved by reviewing actual operating experience from THORP during its hot operation from 1994 to the present time. This work was carried out under a contract from the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and, so as to enable DOE to make valid comparisons with other similar work, a number of assumptions were agreed. These include an assumed reprocessing capacity of 800 tonnes per year, the requirement to remove as waste forms the volatile fission products carbon-14, iodine-129, krypton-85, tritium and ruthenium-106, the restriction of discharge of any water from the facility unless it meets US Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards, no intentional blending of wastes to lower their classification, and the requirement for the recovered uranium to be sufficiently free from fission products and neutron-absorbing species to allow it to be re-enriched and recycled as nuclear fuel. The results from this work showed that over 99.9% of the radioactivity in the UNF can be concentrated via reprocessing into a fission-product-containing vitrified product, bottles of compressed krypton storage and a cement grout containing the tritium, that together have a volume of only about one eighth the volume of the original UNF. The other waste forms have larger volumes than the original UNF but contain only the remaining 0.1% of the radioactivity. (authors)

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Continuous Improvement and the Safety Case for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Geologic Repository - 13467

The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is a geologic repository 2150 feet (650 m) below the surface of the Chihuahuan desert near Carlsbad, New Mexico. WIPP permanently disposes of transuranic waste from national defense programs. Every five years, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) submits an application to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to request regulatory-compliance re-certification of the facility for another five years. Every ten years, DOE submits an application to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) for the renewal of its hazardous waste disposal permit. The content of the applications made by DOE to the EPA for re-certification, and to the NMED for permit-renewal, reflect any optimization changes made to the facility, with regulatory concurrence if warranted by the nature of the change. DOE points to such changes as evidence for its having taken seriously its 'continuous improvement' operations and management philosophy. Another opportunity for continuous improvement is to look at any delta that may exist between the re-certification and re-permitting cases for system safety and the consensus advice on the nature and content of a safety case as being developed and published by the Nuclear Energy Agency's Integration Group for the Safety Case (IGSC) expert group. DOE at WIPP, with the aid of its Science Advisor and teammate, Sandia National Laboratories, is in the process of discerning what can be done, in a reasonably paced and cost-conscious manner, to continually improve the case for repository safety that is being made to the two primary regulators on a recurring basis. This paper will discuss some aspects of that delta and potential paths forward to addressing them. (authors)

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

Treatment of Bottled Liquid Waste During Remediation of the Hanford 618-10 Burial Ground - 13001

A problematic waste form encountered during remediation of the Hanford Site 618-10 burial ground consists of bottled aqueous waste potentially contaminated with regulated metals. The liquid waste requires stabilization prior to landfill disposal. Prior remediation activities at other Hanford burial grounds resulted in a standard process for sampling and analyzing liquid waste using manual methods. Due to the highly dispersible characteristics of alpha contamination, and the potential for shock sensitive chemicals, a different method for bottle processing was needed for the 618-10 burial ground. Discussions with the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) led to development of a modified approach. The modified approach involves treatment of liquid waste in bottles, up to one gallon per bottle, in a tray or box within the excavation of the remediation site. Bottles are placed in the box, covered with soil and fixative, crushed, and mixed with a Portland cement grout. The potential hazards of the liquid waste preclude sampling prior to treatment. Post treatment verification sampling is performed to demonstrate compliance with land disposal restrictions and disposal facility acceptance criteria. (authors)

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

Applying Lean Concepts to Waste Site Closure - 13137

Washington Closure Hanford (WCH) was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office to manage the River Corridor Closure Project, a 10-year contract in which WCH will clean up 220 mi{sup 2} of contaminated land at the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington. In the summer of 2011, with Tri-Party (DOE-RL, Environmental Protection Agency and Washington State Department of Ecology) Agreement Milestones due at the end of the calendar year, standard work practices were challenged in regards to closure documentation development. The Lean process, a concept that maximizes customer value while minimizing waste, was introduced to WCH's Sample Design and Cleanup Verification organization with the intention of eliminating waste and maximizing efficiencies. The outcome of implementing Lean processes and concepts was impressive. It was determined that the number of non-value added steps far outnumbered the value added steps. Internal processing time, document size, and review times were all reduced significantly; relationships with the customer and the regulators were also improved; and collaborative working relationships with the Tri Parties have been strengthened by working together on Lean initiatives. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗