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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,747 records · Page 97
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2015

A Web-Based Simulation Tool on The Performance of Different Roofing Systems

The Roof Savings Calculator (www.roofcalc.com) provides the general public with a web-based program for calculating the energy savings of different roofing and attic systems on four different building types (residential, office, retail, and warehouse) in 239 US TMY2 locations. The core simulation engine of the RSC is doe2attic, which couples the AtticSim program developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory with the DOE-2.1E program originally developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory a widely used whole-building simulation program since the 1980 s. Although simulating heat flows through the roof may seem to be an easy task, simulating the net effect of roofing strategies on building heating and cooling energy use can be quite challenging. Few simulation programs can reliably capture dynamics including an attic or plenum with large day-night temperature swings, high ventilation rates, significant radiant exchange between the roof and the attic floor and thermal interactions when there are ducts in the attic, as is typical in North American buildings. The doe2attic program has been tested against detailed measurements gathered in two residential buildings in Fresno, California from cooling energy use to air and surface temperatures, and heat fluxes of the roof and attic floor. The focus of this paper is on the doe2attic simulation tool, but the user interface of the RSC will also be briefly described.

Huang, Joe↗
DOE OSTI2016

Home Energy Scoring Tools (website) and Application Programming Interfaces, APIs (aka HEScore)

A web-based residential energy rating tool with APIs that runs the LBNL website: Provides customized estimates of residential energy use and energy bills based on building description information provided by the user. Energy use is estimated using engineering models developed at LBNL. Space heating and cooling use is based on the DOE-2. 1E building simulation model. Other end-users (water heating, appliances, lighting, and misc. equipment) are based on engineering models developed by LBNL.

Mills, Evan↗
DOE OSTI2016

U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System Cost Benchmark: Q1 2016

NREL has been modeling U.S. photovoltaic (PV) system costs since 2009. This report benchmarks costs of U.S. solar PV for residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems built in the first quarter of 2016 (Q1 2016). Our methodology includes bottom-up accounting for all system and project-development costs incurred when installing residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems, and it models the capital costs for such systems.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Appraising into the Sun: Six-State Solar Home Paired-Sale Analysis

Although residential solar photovoltaic (PV) installations have proliferated, PV systems on some U.S. homes still receive no value during an appraisal because comparable home sales are lacking. To value residential PV, some previous studies have employed paired-sales appraisal methods to analyze small PV home samples in depth, while others have used statistical methods to analyze large samples. Our first-of-its-kind study connects the two approaches. It uses appraisal methods to evaluate sales price premiums for owned PV systems on single-unit detached houses that were also evaluated in a large statistical study. Independent appraisers evaluated 43 recent home sales pairs in six states: California, Oregon, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. We compare these results with contributory-value estimates—based on income (using the PV Value® tool), gross cost, and net cost—as well as hedonic modeling results from the recent statistical study. The results provide strong, appraisal-based evidence of PV premiums in all states. More importantly, the results support the use of cost- and incomebased PV premium estimates when paired-sales analysis is impossible. PV premiums from the paired-sales analysis are most similar to net PV cost estimates. PV Value® income results generally track the appraised premiums, although conservatively. The appraised premiums are in agreement with the hedonic modeling results as well, which bolsters the suitability of both approaches for estimating PV home premiums. Therefore, these results will benefit valuation professionals and mortgage lenders who increasingly are encountering homes equipped with PV and need to understand the factors that can both contribute to and detract from market value.

solar, real estate, home, appraisal, pv, value↗
DOE OSTI2018

National Plug-In Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Analysis

This presentation describes a study conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory quantifying the charging station infrastructure required to serve the growing U.S. fleet of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). PEV sales, which include plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs), have surged recently. Most PEV charging occurs at home, but widespread PEV adoption will require the development of a national network of non-residential charging stations. Installation of these stations strategically would maximize the economic viability of early stations while enabling efficient network growth as the PEV market matures. This document describes what effective co-evolution of the PEV fleet and charging infrastructure might look like under a range of scenarios. To develop the roadmap, NREL analyzed PEV charging requirements along interstate corridors and within urban and rural communities. The results suggest that a few hundred corridor fast-charging stations could enable long-distance BEV travel between U.S. cities. Compared to interstate corridors, urban and rural communities are expected to have significantly larger charging infrastructure requirements. About 8,000 fast-charging stations would be required to provide a minimum level of coverage nationwide. In an expanding PEV market, the total number of non-residential charging outlets or 'plugs' required to meet demand ranges from around 100,000 to more than 1.2 million. Understanding what drives this large range in capacity requirements is critical. For example, whether consumers prefer long-range or short-range PEVs has a larger effect on plug requirements than does the total number of PEVs on the road. The relative success of PHEVs versus BEVs also has a major impact, as does the number of PHEVs that charge away from home. This study shows how important it is to understand consumer preferences and driving behaviors when planning charging networks.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Fast DR: Controlling Small Loads over the Internet

Current state-of-the-art demand response systems are expensive due to extreme reliability constraints in telemetry, control, and metering. The typical cost of enabling a site for regulation services is between $50k and $80k. These costs are orders of magnitude too high for small loads to participate in high-value grid services. Traditional demand response (DR) schedules events in advance and provides basic on/off control. We developed fast DR measurement and communication technologies, which are scalable cost-effective demand response systems with sufficient reliability for real-time control and monitoring of loads over the internet, and we demonstrated an example system for under $100. We installed FastDR systems for lighting, motor, and thermostat control along with power metering at a total of 10 sites, including 6 commercial buildings and 4 residential buildings. This demonstration addressed the following important methodological questions: 1) Can we reliably control loads simultaneously and with low latency across multiple sites within a specified response time; 2) How reliable is using the internet or 4G cellular network as the mode of control and metering; and 3) Can existing Smart Meters provide data for real-time telemetry services. Testing shows fast DR is capable of control to response in 4 seconds and loads complete transition in seconds to less than one minute depending on load type. We demonstrated 4s regulation services and synchronized load control, and we successfully met specifications for ancillary services across the US. Telemetry via the 4G cellular network demonstrated 94.5% success rate, and residential Internet demonstrated a 98% success rate.

Kiliccote, Sila↗
DOE OSTI2018

Developing the Next Generation of Net Zero Professionals through the Race to Zero: Preprint

The U.S. Department of Energy Race to Zero inspires collegiate students to become the next generation of building science professionals through a zero energy ready buildings design challenge. As industry looks to close the gap to more net zero energy construction, Race to Zero teams are tasked with exploring how to apply net zero across climates both nationally and internationally. For the past four annual competition events, teams developed comprehensive, integrated residential designs with industry partners that are market-ready and innovative. While each team addressed home design differently through upgrades to existing production builder plans, new developments to meet community needs, or existing building renovations and retrofits, the competition requires their solutions meet zero energy ready residential standards.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2018

Protection Coordination of an Inverter Generation Based Microgrid for an Unbalanced Distribution System

In this paper we examine the protection issues that must be dealt with, to successfully operate a microgrid when the utility experiences a grid outage. Changes in fault current levels within microgrids under grid-tied and islanded conditions present challenges to developing robust and reliable protection schemes. These schemes must provide an effective response in both grid-connected and islanded mode and the transition between these modes. In this study, a section of an actual residential community located in the western part of the United States (U.S.) was considered as part of the microgrid evaluation. A sizing analysis was conducted to select the appropriate sizes of DER; simulated using DER-CAM analysis. The two DERs considered for the study included solar PV and Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). This paper highlights the protection coordination issues when an existing unbalanced distribution system encompassing a residential subdivision is converted into a microgrid with generation sources with low fault contribution. It further explains the strategy to coordinate protection devices during grid connected and islanded microgrid operating regimes.

Bello, Mobolaji↗
DOE OSTI2018

Developing the Next Generation of Net Zero Professionals through the Race to Zero

The U.S. Department of Energy Race to Zero inspires collegiate students to become the next generation of building science professionals through a zero energy ready buildings design challenge. As industry looks to close the gap to more net zero energy construction, Race to Zero teams are tasked with exploring how to apply net zero across climates both nationally and internationally. For the past four annual competition events, teams developed comprehensive, integrated residential designs with industry partners that are market-ready and innovative. While each team addressed home design differently through upgrades to existing production builder plans, new developments to meet community needs, or existing building renovations and retrofits, the competition requires their solutions meet zero energy ready residential standards.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

Soft costs and knowledge pathways in the US solar photovoltaic ecosystem

An enduring puzzle in the US solar industry is that despite substantial reductions in the cost of photovoltaic hardware, soft costs (defined here as all costs not directly driven by hardware) have not done the same (US DOE, 2012). In fact, soft costs now account for the majority of the cost of total cost of installed solar systems, despite decades of efforts by firms and policy-makers to reduce these costs. In this study, we address two questions: a) what drives soft costs within the US solar industry, and b) how do firms gain the knowledge required to address these costs? We address this question through an explorative inductive multiple-case study (e.g., Eisenhardt, 1989; Appleyard, 1996). Our sample consists of 15 actors from across various roles within the industry, including residential and commercial installers (8), distribution intermediaries (3), and business software vendors (4). We conducted extensive interviews with executives at each firm (76 interviews in total), and supplemented this information with archival resources such as press releases, news coverage, analyst reports, and internet articles. This data was synthesized into a comprehensive case for each actor, detailing the activities conducted within each firm, the drivers of soft costs within that firm, and knowledge flows (e.g., new technologies, best practices, etc) within and across firms. We then compared across these cases to identify common patterns in cost and knowledge dynamics. Our study contributes a nuanced perspective on the drivers of soft costs within the solar industry as well as the patterns and mechanisms of knowledge flows within the industry. We find for example that the majority of the soft costs occur at the interface between firms (e.g., utilities, suppliers). We also observe substantive variation in costs across different types of actors and even within firm types (e.g., small vs. large installers). We also provide insight into how firms acquire knowledge and when they are able to apply it in order to reduce these costs. Our data reveal heterogeneity in a) the types of knowledge, and b) the pathways of knowledge flow between the actors in the industry. For example, we observe that distributors and suppliers play a key role in the dissemination of new technologies as well as general management knowledge for smaller firms. In contrast, informal personal networks and internal experimentation appear to be more important for larger firms. We also reveal critical distinctions across markets – e.g., differences in organizational culture that facilitate learning and experimentation more readily in residential vs. commercial markets. Overall, these results contribute preliminary insights into the knowledge dynamics of the solar industry, the persistence of soft costs over time, heterogeneity across firm types and regions, and the effective design of policy to support the solar industry.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Window Attachments: The Next Big Energy-Savings Measure?

Windows in residential buildings are estimated to generate 29% of all HVAC heating and cooling load, approximately 2.67 quadrillion Btu (Apte and Arasteh 2006). Although more than a third of residential windows are single pane, very few utility programs offer incentives for installation of energy-efficient windows (Bickel et al. 2013). The reason is simple: unless someone is already planning to replace their windows, the payback can often take a decade, if not longer. Preliminary data indicates that some energy-efficient window attachments, such as low- emissivity (low-e) storm windows and interior panels, cellular shades, interior and exterior roller shades and shutters, window films, solar screens, window quilts, and awnings, can deliver cost-effective energy savings. Additionally, the means to reliably identify and compare energy-efficient window attachment products will soon be available through the Attachment Energy Rating Council (AERC), a public interest energy performance rating and certification organization co-funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the window attachment industry. This paper presents, for the first time, national and regional energy savings estimates for cellular shades and low-emissivity storm windows and panels using existing data on household energy savings potential. This paper is an early step in the process of determining the cost-effectiveness of window attachments for utility programs. The next step is for utilities to develop pilot programs to conduct field tests of these products, which will generate the energy savings data to determine if full-scale programs are cost-effective.

Bickel, Stephen↗
DOE OSTI2014

Use of a State-Level Integrated Assessment Model for Policy Analysis: An Uncertainty Analysis of Energy and Water

This presentation discusses some recent uncertainty assessment work being done on climate policy issues at the state level. The work is being done with the Platform for Regional Integrated Modeling and Analysis (PRIMA), a new climate change policy assessment framework developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland and Seattle, Washington and College Park, Maryland. The central computaional engine of PRIMA is the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM), a dynamic-recursive integrated assessment model of the world economy, climate policy, and climate change that that has been regionalized to provide policy analysis down to the level of U.S. states. The PRIMA framework also includes detailed sectoral models that address issues in the energy-land-water interface geospatially at the sub-national level as the climate change and socioeconomic change occur. This presentation illustrates two uncertainty analyses conducted with GCAM and with water demand and supply components of PRIMA. The energy uncertainty analysis was conducted with GCAM alone and examines the impact of aggressive residential and commercial building equipment standards across the United States in the context of socioeconomic and climate uncertainty. The analysis focuses on the impact on future net energy service costs under aggressive standards in the residential and commercial building sectors from 2005 to 2050. The analysis uses a combination of discrete scenarios and Monte Carlo sampling approaches to address uncertainties. Results for Arizona and Florida are used to illustrate whether aggressive building equipment standards save energy and reduce net energy service costs when compared with current standards. Analysis of the output indicates a robust result under a broad range of future socioeconomic, policy, and climate scenarios. The water uncertainty analysis demonstrates a multi-model approach used to bound the prospects for future water shortages in Florida, given socioeconomic uncertainty and future water supply under a future climate. In this analysis, water demands from GCAM are coupled with a water management model that simulates regulated streamflows and water supply deficits given naturalized streamflows, water demands, and reservoir operating rules. The naturalized streamflows are simulated with a regional earth system model coupled to a river routing model. The climate is obtained from a regional climate projection of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 (RCP 8.5) for all of the river basins in the United States. GCAM is used in Monte Carlo mode to estimate the outer bounds of water demand given socioeconomic uncertainty and RCP 8.5 climate. Future water demand is downscaled to a river basin level for Florida in high, low, and middle cases and is compared with available water supply for the same region for RCP 8.5 climate to identify the potential location and severity of water shortages.

Climate change, policy, mitigation, impacts, uncer↗
DOE OSTI2020

Closing the Loops on Solar Photovoltaics Modules: An Agent-Based Modeling Approach for the Study of Circular Economy Strategies

Solar photovoltaics (PV) installed capacity have grown exponentially since the early 2000s (average annual growth rate of 50%). With 4,700 GW projected installed capacity by 2050, the volume of PV panels waste is also expected to become substantial. Though renewables are a sine qua non to the establishment of a truly circular economy (CE), the issue arising from their end-of-life management needs to be resolved. The management of PV end-of-life also represent a singular opportunity to create value, from recovered valuable, rare or critical materials (e.g. silver, tellurium, indium). Moreover, the PV case illustrates some of the current barriers to CE; for instance, the need for a common definition of waste (PV are defined as e-waste in the European Union but as general waste in the United States) and potential loss of innovations' advantages (PV average efficiency has continuously grown the past 10 years). In this study, an agent-based modeling (ABM) approach is proposed to simulate PV end-of-life management in the United States. The model explores how the decisions of the various actors involved in handling PV waste affect the quantities of PV that are reused, recycled, or land-filled. In the model, manufacturers, residential, and nonresidential PV owners, installers, and recyclers are represented by agents while governmental policies and regulations are treated as exogenous variables. PV-market data are used to define agents' characteristics (e.g., installed PV capacities or producing costs). Agents' decision rules draw on the literature related to industrial symbiosis (IS) and peoples' waste behaviors as they appear as the most widely used model to implement CE principles at a meso level. Specifically, the concepts of mutual trust between IS actors and knowledge about the IS philosophy are yielded to define the agents' decision process. The primary outputs of the ABM are the costs and volume of waste associated with each end-of-life pathway. Preliminaries results indicate recycling of residential PV is affected by the cost, perceived difficulty of recycling behaviors, and social norms. Moreover, the type of network connecting agents and the initial recycling rate strongly influence results. The model also highlights the crucial role of recycling behavior adoption: in case of early failure of PV, recycled volumes increase by about 40%. This represents an additional 5.7 billion USD from potential recovered silver. Finally, although results for the PV case are presented here, the developed ABM aims at being a general tool for the study of CE strategies and the CE transition. Furthermore, steps of this research include extending the model to encompass circular economy strategies (e.g., design for recycling or lifetime extension) and validating its general architecture from various case studies.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

A Preliminary Study of a Novel Heat Pump Integrated Underground Thermal Energy Storage for Shaping Electric Demand of Buildings

A Dual-Purpose Underground Thermal Battery (DPUTB) innovatively integrates a ground heat exchanger with underground thermal energy storage. The DPUTB can be integrated with an Electric-Driven Heat Pump (EDHP) to enable more flexible electric load for meeting the thermal demands of a building (e.g., space cooling and space heating). A one-dimensional numerical model of the DPUTB is developed and validated against measured performance data of a small-scale DPUTB prototype. The validated DPUTB model is integrated with a heat pump model and a building energy simulation model to predict the load shifting performance and energy consumption of an integrated EDHP and DPUTB system. Preliminary simulation results indicate that the integrated system can flatten the electric load profile of a typical residential building and reduce the electric demand during peak hours by 37% on a typical summer day. In addition, the integrated EDHP and DPUTB system also reduces the daily power consumption of the building by 11% compared with a conventional residential space heating and cooling system.

Liu, Xiaobing↗
DOE OSTI2020

Energy Snapshot - Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

This profile provides a snapshot of the energy landscape of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a commonwealth in political union with the United States that is located in the northern Pacific Ocean. CNMI's electricity rates for residential customers range from $0.21 to $0.35 U.S. dollars (USD) per kilowatt-hour (kWh), above the average U.S. residential rate of $0.13 USD/kWh.

44 EE - Strategic Programs, Energy Transition Init↗
DOE OSTI2020

Energy Snapshot - American Samoa

This profile provides a snapshot of the energy landscape of American Samoa, the southernmost territory of the United States. American Samoa's residential electricity rates are approximately $0.33 U.S. dollars (USD) per kilowatt-hour (kWh), more than twice the average U.S. residential rate of $0.13 USD/kWh.

44 EE - Strategic Programs, Energy Transition Init↗
DOE OSTI2020

Energy Snapshot - Marshall Islands

This profile provides a snapshot of the energy landscape of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, an island country and a United States associated state near the equator in the Pacific Ocean. Geographically, the country is part of the larger island group of Micronesia. The Marshall Islands electricity rates for residential customers average $0.36 U.S. dollars (USD) per kilowatt-hour (kWh), nearly 3 times the average U.S. residential rate of $0.13 USD/kWh.

44 EE - Strategic Programs, Energy Transition Init↗
DOE OSTI2020

We Just Want to Pump…You Up! Forecasting Grid-Connected Heat Pump Water Heater Energy Savings and Load Shifting Potential for the Southeast U.S.

Heat pump water heaters (HPWH) can achieve energy savings of 60-70% compared to conventional electric-resistance water heaters. However, even with a favorable simple payback period within the typical product lifetime, HPWHs make up only 1% of all electric water heaters sold in the residential sector. Market adoption is challenged, in part, by the lack of effective energy efficiency programs in the U.S. region with the greatest amount of residential electric water heaters. The recent integration of connected functionality into HPWHs offers the capability to shift load without undue negative impact on customers. This capability can provide value to utilities with peak load constraints, motivating them to promote HPWHs for the first time. This paper will present a methodology to forecast connected HPWH energy use and extrapolate load shifting potential for the Southeast U.S. region. The methodology leverages data from a robust connected HPWH field study conducted in the Pacific Northwest. A coefficient of performance (COP) relationship for HPWHs was developed using ambient and inlet water temperature data to forecast HPWH performance on a month-by-month basis. Using the forecasted COP, HPWH operating hours were calculated for meeting load, which serve as the proxy to extrapolate load shifting potential from the Pacific Northwest to the Southeast. As a use case, analytical results are presented for a specific utility. This methodology, in combination with market analysis, facilitates the development of customized energy savings and load shifting forecasts to understand the potential impacts of launching connected HPWH programs in specific utility service territories.

heat pump water heater, energy savings, load shift↗