Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “energy efficiency programs”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,567 records · Page 87
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Colorado State University Extension Industrial Assessment Center

Since its inception in 1984, the Colorado State University Industrial Assessment Center has performed industrial assessments at more than 720 manufacturing facilities in Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. From 2017 to 2019 there was a funding gap and the IAC shutdown. In 2020 through DOE extension funding the University relaunched the IAC as an extension center in order to provide assessments to underserved areas. Under this award, the CSU Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) was rebuilt with the help of student employees and the director. The CSU team experienced difficulty as the program was in the process of being restarted right as the 2020 pandemic hit. Nonetheless, the CSU IAC was instrumental in providing energy assessments to manufacturers in Colorado and Wyoming during the period of performance of 09/2019 – 12/2022. The Department of Energy's Industrial Assessment Centers (IACs) provide a valuable service to small and medium-sized manufacturers seeking to optimize their operations. These university-based centers offer no-cost, on-site assessments conducted by engineering faculty and students, analyzing energy consumption, production processes, and waste streams. They utilize advanced data acquisition systems to record operational data, and then use the data to create assessment recommendations. These recommendations form the foundation of the comprehensive energy report. The comprehensive report delivers actionable recommendations for enhancing energy efficiency, reducing waste, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving productivity, often identifying significant cost savings. Furthermore, IACs facilitate access to implementation grants, enabling the businesses to readily adopt these improvements. This program not only strengthens individual businesses but also contributes to national goals of training the next generation of energy experts, as well as increasing industrial competitiveness and reduced environmental impact.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2014

Building Energy Benchmarking in India: an Action Plan for Advancing the State-of-the-Art

This document describes an action plan for advancing the state of the art of commercial building energy benchmarking in the Indian context. The document is primarily intended for two audiences: (a) Research and development (R&D) sponsors and researchers can use the action plan to frame, plan, prioritize and scope new energy benchmarking R&D in order to ensure that their research is market relevant; (b) Policy makers and program implementers engaged in the deployment of benchmarking and building efficiency rating programmes can use the action plan for policy formulation and enforcement .

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2011

Renewable Energy Requirements for Future Building Codes: Options for Compliance

As the model energy codes are improved to reach efficiency levels 50 percent greater than current codes, use of on-site renewable energy generation is likely to become a code requirement. This requirement will be needed because traditional mechanisms for code improvement, including envelope, mechanical and lighting, have been pressed to the end of reasonable limits. Research has been conducted to determine the mechanism for implementing this requirement (Kaufman 2011). Kaufmann et al. determined that the most appropriate way to structure an on-site renewable requirement for commercial buildings is to define the requirement in terms of an installed power density per unit of roof area. This provides a mechanism that is suitable for the installation of photovoltaic (PV) systems on future buildings to offset electricity and reduce the total building energy load. Kaufmann et al. suggested that an appropriate maximum for the requirement in the commercial sector would be 4 W/ft 2 of roof area or 0.5 W/ft 2 of conditioned floor area. As with all code requirements, there must be an alternative compliance path for buildings that may not reasonably meet the renewables requirement. This might include conditions like shading (which makes rooftop PV arrays less effective), unusual architecture, undesirable roof pitch, unsuitable building orientation, or other issues. In the short term, alternative compliance paths including high performance mechanical equipment, dramatic envelope changes, or controls changes may be feasible. These options may be less expensive than many renewable systems, which will require careful balance of energy measures when setting the code requirement levels. As the stringency of the code continues to increase however, efficiency trade-offs will be maximized, requiring alternative compliance options to be focused solely on renewable electricity trade-offs or equivalent programs. One alternate compliance path includes purchase of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs). Each REC represents a specified amount of renewable electricity production and provides an offset of environmental externalities associated with non-renewable electricity production. The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible issues with RECs and comparable alternative compliance options. Existing codes have been examined to determine energy equivalence between the energy generation requirement and the RECs alternative over the life of the building. The price equivalence of the requirement and the alternative are determined to consider the economic drivers for a market decision. This research includes case studies that review how the few existing codes have incorporated RECs and some of the issues inherent with REC markets. Section 1 of the report reviews compliance options including RECs, green energy purchase programs, shared solar agreements and leases, and other options. Section 2 provides detailed case studies on codes that include RECs and community based alternative compliance methods. The methods the existing code requirements structure alternative compliance options like RECs are the focus of the case studies. Section 3 explores the possible structure of the renewable energy generation requirement in the context of energy and price equivalence. The price of RECs have shown high variation by market and over time which makes it critical to for code language to be updated frequently for a renewable energy generation requirement or the requirement will not remain price-equivalent over time. Section 4 of the report provides a maximum case estimate for impact to the PV market and the REC market based on the Kaufmann et al. proposed requirement levels. If all new buildings in the commercial sector complied with the requirement to install rooftop PV arrays, nearly 4,700 MW of solar would be installed in 2012, a major increase from EIA estimates of 640 MW of solar generation capacity installed in 2009. The residential sector could contribute roughly an additional 2,300 MW based on the same code requirement levels of 4 W/ft 2 of roof area. Section 5 of the report provides a basic framework for draft code language recommendations based on the analysis of the alternative compliance levels.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2024

Online Model-Free DER Dispatch Via Adaptive Voltage Sensitivity Estimation and Chance Constrained Programming

This paper proposes an online data-driven distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) for distribution system optimal DER dispatch as well as voltage regulation. Here, the key innovation is to leverage the Local Sensitivity Factor (LSF) for transforming the DER control into a computationally efficient linear programming (LP) problem. By taking real-time measurements, the estimation of LSF eliminates the need for an accurate distribution system model as well as full nodal load information, which is difficult to achieve in practice. A robust recursive least squares method is also developed to ensure the robust estimation of LSF, which is initialized using reasonable values from model-derived LSFs. This allows the system to adapt to changing operational conditions effectively. A scenario-based, chance-constrained framework is further employed to ensure voltage remains within acceptable limits in the presence of measurement and estimation uncertainties. Test results on a real-world, 759-node distribution network located in western Colorado, U.S., validate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control approach and demonstrate its superior performance as compared to alternative methods.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2019

SDN-NGenIA, a Software Defined Next Generation Integrated Architecture for HEP and Data Intensive Science

This project aims to enable the LHC and other leading programs in high energy physics and other global science domains funded by the DOE to operate with a new level of efficiency and control, through the development of a Next Generation Integrated Architecture (NGenIA) based on intelligent software defined network (SDN)-driven network systems coupled to high throughput applications. While the initial focus is on the challenging LHC use case, the systems and products being developed are general, and apply to many fields of data intensive science ranging from astrophysical sky surveys to bioinformatics and earth observation, as well as other organizations facing the challenges of extracting knowledge from distributed multi-petabyte data stores. A central concept in this development program is a new paradigm ‘consistent network operations’ among widely distributed computing and storage facilities, where stable high throughput flows, at set rates, cross load-balanced network paths, up to flexible high water marks that are adjusted in real time to accommodate other network traffic. The large smooth flows are launched and managed by SDN services that act in concert with the experiments’ site-resident data distribution and management systems, to meet the expanding needs of the science programs. The technical goals include the construction of autonomous, intelligent site-resident services that interact dynamically with network-resident services, and with the science programs’ principal data distribution and management tools, to request or command network resources in support of high throughput petascale to exascale workflow Specific work items include: 1. Developing compact Data Transfer Nodes (DTNs) with auto-tuning functions that support data transfer rates in the 100 Gbps to the 1 Tbps range when used with high throughput data transfer applications 2. Deep site orchestration among virtualized clusters, storage subsystems and subnets to successfully coschedule CPU, storage and network resources 3. Science-program designed site architectures, operational modes, and policy and resource usage priorities, adjudicated across multiple network domains and virtual organizations, using the orchestration functions and methods 4. Seamlessly extending end-to-end operation across both extra-site and intra-site boundaries through the use of Open vSwitch (OVS), FireQoS + next generation Science DMZs 5. Novel methods of system integration that enable granular control of extreme scale long distance transfers through flow matching of scattered source-destination address pairs to multi-domain dynamic circuits 6. Funneling massive sets of streams to DTNs at the site edge hosting petascale buffer pools configured for flows of 100 Gbps and up, exploiting state of the art data transfers 7. Adaptive scheduling based on pervasive end-to-end monitoring, including DTN or compute-node resident agents providing comprehensive end-system profiling 8. Developing unsupervised and supervised machine learning and modeling methods to optimize the workflow involving terabyte to multi-petabyte datasets.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2011

National Energy Efficiency Evaluation, Measurement and Verification (EM&V) Standard: Scoping Study of Issues and Implementation Requirements

This report is a scoping study that identifies issues associated with developing a national evaluation, measurement and verification (EM&V) standard for end-use, non-transportation, energy efficiency activities. The objectives of this study are to identify the scope of such a standard and define EM&V requirements and issues that will need to be addressed in a standard. To explore these issues, we provide and discuss: (1) a set of definitions applicable to an EM&V standard; (2) a literature review of existing guidelines, standards, and 'initiatives' relating to EM&V standards as well as a review of 'bottom-up' versus 'top-down' evaluation approaches; (3) a summary of EM&V related provisions of two recent federal legislative proposals (Congressman Waxman's and Markey's American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 and Senator Bingaman's American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009) that include national efficiency resource requirements; (4) an annotated list of issues that that are likely to be central to, and need to be considered when, developing a national EM&V standard; and (5) a discussion of the implications of such issues. There are three primary reasons for developing a national efficiency EM&V standard. First, some policy makers, regulators and practitioners believe that a national standard would streamline EM&V implementation, reduce costs and complexity, and improve comparability of results across jurisdictions; although there are benefits associated with each jurisdiction setting its own EM&V requirements based on their specific portfolio and evaluation budgets and objectives. Secondly, if energy efficiency is determined by the US Environmental Protection Agency to be a Best Available Control Technology (BACT) for avoiding criteria pollutant and/or greenhouse gas emissions, then a standard can be required for documenting the emission reductions resulting from efficiency actions. The third reason for a national EM&V standard is that such a standard is likely to be required as a result of future federal energy legislation that includes end-use energy efficiency, either as a stand-alone energy-efficiency resource standard (EERS) or as part of a clean energy or renewable energy standard. This study is focused primarily on this third reason and thus explores issues associated with a national EM&V standard if energy efficiency is a qualifying resource in federal clean energy legislation. Developing a national EM&V standard is likely to be a lengthy process; this study focuses on the critical first step of identifying the issues that must be addressed in a future standard. Perhaps the most fundamental of these issues is 'how good is good enough?' This has always been the fundamental issue of EM&V for energy efficiency and is a result of the counter-factual nature of efficiency. Counter-factual in that savings are not measured, but estimated to varying degrees of accuracy by comparing energy consumption after a project (program) is implemented with what is assumed to have been the consumption of energy in the absence of the project (program). Therefore, the how good is good enough question is a short version of asking how certain does one have to be of the energy savings estimate that results from EM&V activities and is that level of certainty properly balanced against the amount of effort (resources, time, money) that is utilized to obtain that level of certainty. The implication is that not only should energy efficiency investments be cost-effective, but EM&V investments should consider risk management principles and thus also balance the costs and value of information derived from EM&V (EM&V should also be cost-effective).

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Searching for multimessenger transients and lensed supernovae with the dark energy survey

Advances in data collection technology for optical astronomy, such as the Dark Energy Camera, have facilitated the collection of some of the largest astronomical datasets in terms of sky area, depth, number of objects, number of observations, and frequency of observations. Consequentially, physical systems that have been historically rare become represented in small, but discoverable, numbers. I have developed techniques to identify rare physical systems (counterparts to high-energy neutrinos, counterparts to gravitational waves, and gravitationally lensed supernovae) that can shed new light on the physical processes that govern the Universe. For each system of interest, I collect new or search archival observations with the Dark Energy Camera, develop selection methodologies to find the system of interest in the observations, and quantify the efficiency of the search using simulations. Each of the three analyses has its own scientific implications: I constrain the observing program required to determine the contribution of supernovae to the diffuse high-energy neutrino flux; I set constraints on the physical properties of an optical counterpart to a compact object merger; and I identify candidate lensed supernovae using a novel machine learning technique. Looking forward, the work presented in this dissertation informs future rare object searches and facilitates measurements of the underlying properties of the Universe during the next era of optical survey astronomy.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

High Performance Flow Battery with Inexpensive Inorganic Reactants: DAYS Program (Final Technical Report)

RTRC’s DAYS projects focused on new flow battery (FB) chemistries for long duration energy storage: one that pairs aqueous polysulfide and manganese active materials in strongly alkaline electrolytes (S/Mn); another explores ligand-modified metal (LMM) chemistries in moderate pH electrolyte conditions. The S/Mn chemistry met durability targets by running for over 500 cycles and 1000 hours. Combined with this durability, power densities of up to 60 mW/cm2 at 80% round-trip efficiency, and exceptionally low-cost S and Mn active materials, the S/Mn FB offers a pathway to meeting the <5¢/kW-hr levelized cost of storage (LCOS) target first proposed by the DAYS Program and accepted by the DOE Energy Storage Grand Challenge. The LMM chemistry made impressive progress as well, including durability tests that retained performance over 600 hours of cycling. Cell optimization allowed this chemistry to operate as high as 500 mW/cm2 at 80% round-trip efficiency, nearly 10x the power density of S/Mn and comparable to the power density achieved in RTRC’s flow battery stacks using acidic vanadium battery solutions. This enabled the LMM chemistry to also offer a pathway to the <5¢/kW-hr LCOS DAYS and DOE targets. The promising results from the LMM chemistry have led to a recent DOE AMO award to advance the technology to a 5 kW, 20 kW-hr prototype.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Predictively Coordinated Vehicle Acceleration and Lane Selection Using Mixed Integer Programming

Autonomous vehicle technology provides the means to optimize motion planning beyond human capacity. In particular, the problem of navigating multi-lane traffic optimally for trip time, energy efficiency, and collision avoidance presents challenges beyond those of single-lane roadways. For example, the host vehicle must simultaneously track multiple obstacles, the drivable region is non-convex, and automated vehicles must obey social expectations. Furthermore, reactive decision-making may result in becoming stuck in an undesirable traffic position. This paper presents a fundamental approach to these problems using model predictive control with a mixed integer quadratic program at its core. Lateral and longitudinal movements are coordinated to avoid collisions, track a velocity and lane, and minimize acceleration. Vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity provides a preview of surrounding vehicles’ motion. Simulation results show a 79% reduction in congestion-induced travel time and an 80% decrease in congestion-induced fuel consumption compared to a rule-based approach.

Dollar, Robert Austin↗
DOE OSTI2015

40-fs hydrogen Raman laser

40-fs first Stokes pulses at a wavelength of 1.2 μm were generated in a hydrogen SRS-converter pumped by orthogonally polarised double chirped pulses of a Ti : sapphire laser. To obtain a Stokes pulse close to a transform-limited one, a programmed acousto-optic dispersive delay line was placed between the master oscillator and regenerative amplifier. The energy efficiency of Stokes radiation conversion reached 22%. (lasers)

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Advanced Inverter Technology for High Penetration Levels of PV Generation in Distribution Systems

This subcontract report was completed under the auspices of the NREL/SCE High-Penetration Photovoltaic (PV) Integration Project, which is co-funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and the California Solar Initiative (CSI) Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment (RD&D) program funded by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) and managed by Itron. This project is focused on modeling, quantifying, and mitigating the impacts of large utility-scale PV systems (generally 1-5 MW in size) that are interconnected to the distribution system. This report discusses the concerns utilities have when interconnecting large PV systems that interconnect using PV inverters (a specific application of frequency converters). Additionally, a number of capabilities of PV inverters are described that could be implemented to mitigate the distribution system-level impacts of high-penetration PV integration. Finally, the main issues that need to be addressed to ease the interconnection of large PV systems to the distribution system are presented.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

National Cost-effectiveness of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2013

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Energy Codes Program supports the upgrade and implementation of building energy codes and standards, which set minimum requirements for energy-efficient design and construction for new and renovated buildings, and impact energy use and greenhouse gas emissions for the life of buildings. Continuous improvement of building energy efficiency is achieved by periodically updating model energy codes for commercial and residential buildings. Through consensus-based code development processes, DOE recommends revisions and amendments, supporting technologically feasible and economically justified energy efficiency measures. Ensuring that model code changes impacting the cost of building construction, maintenance, and energy services are cost-effective also encourages their adoption and implementation at the state and local levels. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) prepared this analysis to support DOE in evaluating the energy and economic impacts associated with updated codes in commercial buildings. The purpose of this analysis is to examine the cost-effectiveness of the 2013 edition of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1 (ANSI/ASHRAE/IES 2013). Standard 90.1 is developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard Standing Project Committee (SSPC) 90.1. It is the model energy standard for commercial and multifamily residential buildings over three floors (42 USC 6833). PNNL analyzed the cost-effectiveness of changes in Standard 90.1 from 90.1-2010 to 90.1-2013, as applied in commercial buildings across the United States. During the development of new editions of Standard 90.1, the cost-effectiveness of individual changes (addenda) is often calculated to support the deliberations of ASHRAE Standard Standing Project Committee (SSPC) 90.1. The ASHRAE process, however, does not include analysis of the cost-effectiveness of 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 costeffectiveness may encourage more rapid adoption of newer editions of energy codes based on Standard 90.1. This information may also inform the development of future editions of Standard 90.1.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2018

Energy and Energy Cost Savings Analysis of the 2018 IECC for Commercial Buildings

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Energy Codes Program supports the development and implementation of building energy codes and standards, which set minimum requirements for energy-efficient design and construction for new and renovated buildings, and impact energy use and greenhouse gas emissions for the life of buildings. As required by federal statute (42 USC 6833), DOE recently issued a determination that ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2016 would achieve greater energy efficiency in buildings compared to the 2013 edition of the standard. In support of DOE’s determination, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) conducted an energy savings analysis for Standard 90.1-2016 (DOE 2017). While Standard 90.1 is the national model energy standard for commercial buildings (42 USC 6833), many states have historically adopted the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) for both residential and commercial buildings. This report provides an assessment as to whether new buildings constructed to the commercial energy efficiency provisions of the 2018 IECC would save energy and energy costs as compared to the 2015 IECC.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Better Buildings Workforce Accelerator – Technical Assistance Project: Northwest Energy Efficiency Council – A Replicable Analysis for Building Operator Certification Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Objectives

The Northwest Energy Efficiency Council (NEEC) requested technical assistance through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Better Buildings Workforce Accelerator (BBWA) program, with the objective of developing a replicable analytical approach to understanding Building Operator Certification (BOC) program participants and measure progress towards diversity, equity, and inclusion objectives. The technical assistance advances NEEC’s progress towards their goal of recruiting more diverse students to the BOC training and certification program. This report develops a replicable geospatial analysis of BOC program participants based on DEI indicators that can be applied at a national level, provides a step-by-step guide on repeating and updating the analysis, and presents recommendations for future data collection and analysis.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Accelerator Science & Engineering (AS&E) Workforce Roundtable and AS&E Traineeship Principal Investigator Meeting

A one-and-half-day meeting on the Accelerator Science & Engineering (AS&E) Workforce Roundtable and a one-day meeting of Traineeship Principal Investigators took place at Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University on January 21-23, 2025. The meeting identified critical issues in the AS&E workforce and potential solutions, with a focus on DOE’s major accelerator facilities. The Traineeship PIs meeting focused on sharing experience, efficiency, and improvements of the Traineeship Programs conducted in six US universities. Several managers from the DOE High Energy Physics Office participated in the meetings. The discussions resulted in a decision to conduct similar meetings every year.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
NASA NTRS1984

Comparison of full-scale engine and subscale model performance of a mixed flow exhaust system for an energy efficient engine (E3) propulsion system

A full scale engine test of the NASA/General Electric Company (GE) Energy Efficient Engine (E3) was conducted to demonstrate the E3 engine concept and evaluate its performance. The test program, performed at the GE outdoor engine test facilities in Peebles, OH, included a detailed evaluation of the total pressure and temperature profiles at the exit of the mixed flow exhaust system to determine its mixing effectiveness. Subscale model tests of the same mixed flow exhaust system had been previously conducted at FluiDyne Engineering Corporation in Minneapolis, Minnesota as part of the GE E3 mixer aerodynamic technology development program. The scale model and full scale engine nozzle exit survey data and the calculated mixing effectiveness are compared and discussed. Results indicate the full scale engine mixing effectiveness to be five percent higher than the scale model as a result of a geometric difference and higher turbulence levels in the engne exhaust flowfield.

Kuchar, A. P.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Silicon-sheet and thin-film cell and module technology potential: Issue study

The development of high-efficiency low-cost crystalline silicon ribbon and thih-film solar cells for the energy national photovoltaics program was examined. The findings of an issue study conducted are presented. The collected data identified the status of the technology, future research needs, and problems experienced. The potentials of present research activities to meet the Federal/industry long-term technical goal of achieving 15 cents per kilowatt-hour levelized PV energy cost are assessed. Recommendations for future research needs related to crystalline silicon ribbon and thin-film technologies for flat-plate collectors are also included.

Shimada, K.↗