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Beshilas, Laura

Publications and source records attributed to Beshilas, Laura.

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Resilient Energy Transition Planning for Ouzinkie, Alaska

This report documents an energy system planning study for the village of Ouzinkie, Alaska, conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP). Ouzinkie is a small remote community located on Spruce Island, Alaska, in the Kodiak Archipelago. The Ouzinkie community is served by a local electrical system powered by a combination of diesel generators and a hydroelectric turbine. Due to aging assets, however, the power system reliability has declined in recent years, while the cost of operating the diesel generators has increased significantly. To address these problems, Ouzinkie asked ETIPP to provide technical assistance to develop an updated integrated plan for improvements to the Ouzinkie power system, in order to transition to a more reliable and resilient system powered by renewable energy resources.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Advanced Energy Topics for Hill District Community Leaders [Slides]

Through Communities LEAP, a community coalition focused on the Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh is working with a technical assistance provider network led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The coalition includes community organizations, nonprofits, the city government, and the utility. Technical assistance provides analysis and information to support Hill District stakeholders in their goals to create informed residential energy efficiency and renewable energy transition strategies that improve housing conditions and lower energy bills, incorporate energy efficiency and renewable energy strategies into existing, community-driven development efforts, and generate quality local jobs. The Advanced Energy Topics resource is intended to support Hill District community leaders with strategic planning on energy-related topics. The topics included are intended to serve as a technical reference for community leaders to help inform decision-making around energy. The Advanced Energy Topics resource was informed by engagement through the Communities LEAP pilot program with three Hill District Registered Community Organizations: the Hill District Collaborative, the Hill District Consensus Group, and the Hill Community Development Corporation.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2024

North Birmingham Housing Energy Baseline and Upgrade Strategies [Slides]

The community of North Birmingham, Alabama, participated in the Communities LEAP pilot program. As part of this technical assistance pilot, residential buildings, energy efficiency, and electrification were analyzed. This slide deck details the baseline analysis of residential buildings in the community and potential upgrade strategies.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2023

Centering Energy and Environmental Justice in the Buildings Energy Sector

We face incredible challenges for decarbonizing our economy and raising the standard of living for all members of our society at the same time. Historical energy efficiency efforts have been effective in making small steps, but they fall far short of the massive changes we need to make, and they completely miss helping communities of disadvantage (e.g. low-income, African American, Hispanic American, Native American and tribal nations, etc). Business as usual efforts do not take the time to connect with and understand the challenges of these historical underinvested communities and therefore have not been effective at helping these communities. The Biden Harris Administration has set ambitious goals for decarbonization of our economy that include a requirement that 40% of efforts support energy and environmental justice communities. If we are to meet our decarbonization goals, it is imperative that we change our approach to research, development, and deployment of new technologies. The Department of Energy has set energy justice as a priority and is working with the national laboratories to change our approaches. This paper starts with definitions of what we mean by energy and environmental justice and how they apply to building technologies and deployment efforts. We provide several examples of how historical efforts have succeeded and how they have failed to account for challenges of communities of disadvantage. We identify market and technology barriers to decarbonization and energy efficiency for specific technologies and how these barriers are exacerbated for disadvantaged communities. From these examples, we propose a new framework for integrating energy and environmental justice into all aspects of technology development, deployment, and policy efforts within the building energy sector.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Addressing Regulatory Challenges to Tribal Solar Deployment Summary Slides

Tribal lands represent approximately 6.5% of total U.S. utility-scale renewable energy technical potential, but this resource is largely untapped. This project articulates key regulatory challenges or barriers that affect solar projects specifically or disproportionately because they are on Tribal lands.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Addressing Regulatory Challenges to Tribal Solar Deployment (Abbreviated Final Technical Report)

Tribal land in the United States represents approximately 2% of the country’s total landmass and holds more than 5% of the solar photovoltaic potential (Doris, Lopez, and Beckley 2013). Though many Tribes have explored options to install solar photovoltaic (PV) generation capacity on their land, regulatory hurdles have often prevented them from doing so. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Midwest Tribal Energy Resources Association (MTERA) partnered on this 3-year project, Addressing Regulatory Challenges to Tribal Solar Deployment. The project sought to unlock Tribal solar potential by bringing together Tribal, regulatory, utility, and other stakeholders to articulate key barriers to Tribal solar PV adoption and develop replicable solutions.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Addressing Regulatory Challenges to Tribal Solar Deployment: Key Findings

Tribal land in the United States represents approximately 2% of the country's total landmass and holds more than 5% of solar photovoltaic potential (Doris, Lopez, and Beckley 2013). This resource is largely untapped. Many Tribes note that regulatory challenges often are roadblocks to taking advantage of solar potential. This report serves as a summary of a larger project, Addressing Regulatory Challenges to Tribal Solar Deployment. The project seeks to unlock some of this potential by bringing Tribal, regulatory, utility, and other stakeholders together to articulate key barriers to Tribal solar adoption and develop replicable solutions. By increasing institutional capacity and developing frameworks, trainings, and a technical document repository for regulatory bodies, utilities, and Tribes, this project can help expand an emerging market.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Addressing Regulatory Challenges to Tribal Solar Deployment

This project, Addressing Regulatory Challenges to Tribal Solar Deployment, seeks to unlock some of this potential by bringing Tribal, regulatory, utility, and other stakeholders together to articulate key barriers to Tribal solar adoption and develop replicable solutions. By increasing institutional capacity and developing frameworks, trainings, and a technical document repository for regulatory bodies, utilities, and Tribes, this project can help expand an emerging market.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Proposed Solutions to Regulatory Barriers to Tribal Solar Development

The Tribal Solar Initiative is a partnership between NREL and the Midwest Tribal Energy Resources Association. The Tribal Solar Initiative project goal is to articulate key barriers to Tribal solar and Tribal solar-plus-storage adoption at all scales and to ready stakeholders to implement options to address these challenges. This conference presentation focuses on net-metering and a tribal solar case study regarding net-metering.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY,SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Proposed Solutions to Regulatory Barriers to Tribal Solar Development

Tribal land in the United States represents approximately 2% of the country's total landmass and holds more than 5% percent of solar photovoltaic potential. This resource is largely untapped, and Tribes often cite regulatory hurdles to achieving solar goals. This presentation provides an opportunity for interested stakeholders to better understand those hurdles and possible solutions to help advance Tribal solar adoption as well as weigh in on the findings of the Tribal Solar Initiative.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY,SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Addressing Regulatory Challenges to Tribal Solar Deployment: Preprint

Although Tribal land represents more than 5% of the solar photovoltaic technical potential in the United States, this resource is largely untapped due to a range of barriers, including complex project economics, Tribal technical and human resource capacity, project funding and financing obstacles, and regulatory challenges. To identify and better understand the regulatory barriers, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Midwest Tribal Energy Resources Association (MTERA) engaged Tribes, utilities, and regulators. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the 3-year effort seeks to address regulatory challenges or barriers that affect Tribal solar projects differently - specifically or disproportionately because they are located on Tribal lands. This paper, largely excerpted from a comprehensive (draft) guidebook released by NREL and MTERA, provides an overview of 13 key regulatory barriers identified through this research, as well as potential short- and long-term solutions. In addition, the paper points to potential pathways for addressing key barriers through case studies highlighting successful Tribal solar projects along with considerations for stakeholders working with Tribes. These resources can support stakeholders in creating meaningful relationships and pursuing workable solar projects.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY,SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Enabling Floating Solar Photovoltaic (FPV) Deployment: Review of Barriers to FPV Deployment in Southeast Asia

The purpose of this report is to improve understanding of the policy landscape for FPV systems and identify potential pathways to create an enabling policy and regulatory environment FPV systems in Southeast Asia. In this literature review, we discuss the case for FPVs in Southeast Asia by presenting the energy context and state of the grid in select Southeast Asia countries and conduct a literature review of existing and potential non-technical barriers to FPV deployment, concluding with potential policy pathways to address some of the barriers identified. Given the lack of extensive literature on the policy and regulatory environment for FPVs and the similarity with other RE technologies, this review adapts lessons from other RE technologies to the FPV context.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Smart Grids in Emerging Markets - Private Sector Perspectives

Information presented in this report is based on qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods to provide an empirical understanding of barriers to private sector clean energy investment in emerging markets as it relates to smart grids. Through literature review, a survey, and a series of webinar dialogues, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) solicited input from private sector actors, including developers, project financiers, manufacturers, and technical assistance service providers on the challenges they face to market entry in developing and emerging markets, and their suggestions for improving market competitiveness.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Microgrids in Emerging Markets - Private Sector Perspectives

This quick read assesses the barriers and opportunities for private sector entry into microgrid development. Information presented in this paper is based on qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods to provide an empirical understanding of barriers to private sector clean energy investment in emerging markets.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Scaling Up Energy Efficiency Investment in Emerging Markets - Private Sector Perspectives

Since 2000, electricity demand has flattened and decoupled from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. This trend is anticipated to continue for the next several decades and is largely attributed to the implementation of energy efficiency measures. However, non-OECD countries (emerging markets) have experienced, and are projected to continue experiencing, increasing electricity demands. If the world is to meet the requirements of the Paris Agreement, annual investments in clean energy and energy efficiency need to increase by a factor of six by 2050, compared to 2015. Information presented in this paper is based on qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods to provide an empirical understanding of barriers to private sector clean energy investment including microgrid development, energy efficiency, smart grid development, and utility-scale wind and solar in emerging markets. Through literature review, a survey, and a series of webinar dialogues, USAID and the U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) solicited input from private sector actors, including developers, project financiers, manufacturers and technical assistance service providers, on the challenges they face to market entry in emerging markets, and their suggestions for improving market competitiveness.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗