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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Economy-wide evaluation of CO 2 and air quality impacts of electrification in the United States

Adopting electric end-use technologies instead of fossil-fueled alternatives, known as electrification, is an important economy-wide decarbonization strategy that also reduces criteria pollutant emissions and improves air quality. In this study, we evaluate CO 2 and air quality co-benefits of electrification scenarios by linking a detailed energy systems model and a full-form photochemical air quality model in the United States. We find that electrification can substantially lower CO 2 and improve air quality and that decarbonization policy can amplify these trends, which yield immediate and localized benefits. In particular, transport electrification can improve ozone and fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ), though the magnitude of changes varies regionally. However, growing activity from non-energy-related PM 2.5 sources—such as fugitive dust and agricultural emissions—can offset electrification benefits, suggesting that additional measures beyond CO 2 policy and electrification are needed to meet air quality goals. We illustrate how commonly used marginal emissions approaches systematically underestimate reductions from electrification.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Pollution inequality 50 years after the Clean Air Act: the need for hyperlocal data and action

Fifty years ago the Clean Air Act amendments of 1970 were the first major US legislation that authorized regulation of air pollutants, creating National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQSs) to protect public health and the environment. While US air quality has improved, with average PM 2.5 concentrations in 2016 a third of 1981 levels, air pollution remains a major health risk in the US and globally. Moreover, air pollution impacts are still uneven, with the most polluted US communities of 50 years ago still so today. Air pollution “hot spots” result in disproportionate exposure at neighborhood scales within cities, particularly in disadvantaged communities, but an in-depth understanding at these scales is lacking. This policy perspective discusses how trends in sensor technology, spatial data collection, analytics and retrieval are converging to enable the production of hyperlocal air pollution data, and that this needs to be done in a manner that enables marginalized communities to shape decision making.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Institutional and Policy Landscape for Solar-Plus-Storage Deployment by Electric Cooperatives

As co-location with battery storage has become a significant solar project-design trend across the United States, policies at all levels have started to adjust. Generally, these policies address battery storage development in major, urban markets, served by large investor-owned utilities (IOUs). Yet all kinds of utilities nationwide are seeking ways to tap into the fast-growing battery storage market, and they are all stakeholders in the federal, state, and local policies that impact the storage market's development. The electric cooperative sector, which includes some 830 distribution utilities and 63 generating and transmission (G&T) utilities across a mostly rural landscape, is no exception. It is impacted by federal, state, and local government policy requirements and incentives, as well as by policies that are controlled by the sector's own institutions. The objective of this paper is to identify and discuss the various policy and institutional factors that are relevant to the electric cooperative sector, and especially to local, distribution-level electric cooperatives (co-ops) that may be interested in procuring energy storage. Given this, the paper is largely written from the local co-op perspective. It also may be useful to wholesale G&T cooperatives. Other parties that may find the paper useful include storage developers, who are often unfamiliar with co-ops; local and state policymakers addressing policy options for this sector, and local renewable or storage stakeholders, who wish to understand the policy landscape affecting their local utility. Although co-op energy storage programs may tap customer-side batteries, this examination is focused on utility-side "front of the meter" projects and the policy issues they raise.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Distributed Wind Market Report: 2023 Edition

The annual Distributed Wind Market Report provides stakeholders with market statistics and analysis along with insights into market trends and characteristics for wind technologies used as distributed energy resources. This report presents the distributed wind market from 2003 through 2022. Installed capacity, deployment trends, customer types, incentives, policies, installed costs, performance, and the future outlook for the distributed wind market are the key topics included in the report.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Distributed Wind Market Report: 2024 Edition

The annual Distributed Wind Market Report provides stakeholders with market statistics and analysis along with insights into market trends and characteristics for wind technologies used as distributed energy resources. This report presents the distributed wind market from 2003 through 2023. Key findings with respect to installed capacity, deployment trends, customer types, incentives, policies, installed costs and performance, and the future outlook are presented.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Global disease burden linked to diet high in red meat and colorectal cancer from 1990 to 2019 and its prediction up to 2030

Background Numerous studies have already identified an association between excessive consumption of red meat and colorectal cancer (CRC). However, there has been a lack of detailed understanding regarding the disease burden linked to diet high in red meat and CRC. Objective We aim to offer evidence-based guidance for developing effective strategies that can mitigate the elevated CRC burden in certain countries. Methods We used the data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2019 to evaluate global, regional, and national mortality rates and disability-adjusted Life years (DALYs) related to diet high in red meat. We also considered factors such as sex, age, the socio-demographic index (SDI), and evaluated the cross-national inequalities. Furthermore, we utilized DALYs data from 204 countries and regions to measure cross-country inequalities of CRC by calculating the slope index of inequality and concentration index as standard indicators of absolute and relative inequalities. Discussion The results show that globally, the age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR) and age-standardized disability adjusted life year rate (ASDR) related to CRC due to diet high in red meat have decreased, with estimated annual percent change (EAPCs) of −0.32% (95% CI −0.37 to −0.28) and-0.18% (95% CI −0.25 to −0.11). Notably, the burden was higher among males and the elderly. The slope index of inequality rose from 22.0 (95% CI 18.1 to 25.9) in 1990 to 32.9 (95% CI 28.3 to 37.5) in 2019 and the concentration index fell from 59.5 (95% CI 46.4 to 72.6) in 1990 to 48.9 (95% CI 34.6 to 63.1) in 2019. Also, according to our projections, global ASDR and ASMR might tend to increase up to 2030. Conclusion ASMR and ASDR for CRC associated with high red meat diets declined globally from 1990 to 2019, but the absolute number of cases is still rising, with men and the elderly being more affected. CRC associated with diets high in red meat exhibits significant income inequality, placing a disproportionate burden on wealthier countries. Moreover, according to our projections, ASMR and ASDR are likely to increase globally by 2030. In order to address this intractable disease problem, understanding changes in global and regional epidemiologic trends is critical for policy makers and others.

Yang, Xuesong↗
DOE OSTI2021

U.S. Nuclear Declaratory Policy 2021: the Renewed Debate about Sole Purpose and No-First-Use. Annotated Bibliography

Declaratory policy and public statements about the potential use of nuclear weapons serve many important roles. They provide an assessment of the security environment, and inform the public debate. These statements also enhance deterrence messages and signals towards adversaries, and reassure allies and partners. On the global level, U.S. declaratory policy has the potential to shape international trends and norms, influence nuclear proliferation, and it may also affect the policy decisions of other nuclear possessors. As the Biden administration reviews the elements of U.S. nuclear declaratory policy, the issue of sole purpose and no-first-use is likely to resurface. Previous administrations have examined these policies in multiple rounds of review, and they decided that the time was not right for such declarations. This literature review was prepared to inform the debate by collecting some of the most prominent articles on the topic that highlight the potential risks and benefits of these policies.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Cordon screen: A cordon-based congestion pricing policy evaluation method for U.S. cities

Global trends toward urbanization will exacerbate traffic congestion, delays in economic productivity, and air pollution issues for growing cities. Traffic congestion pricing is one method available to help ameliorate these concerns. New York City is on the verge of implementing a cordon-based traffic congestion pricing policy around its central business district. For budget-constrained municipalities, evaluating implementation of such policy could be costly. This article proposes a sketch-planning methodology, called Cordon Screen, for major U.S. cities to evaluate the net income, traffic mitigation, and avoided pollution emissions from cordon-based traffic congestion pricing. This method relies on national datasets and limited user-specific data inputs, along with a range of user-selectable assumptions informed by academic literature to deliver order-of-magnitude results. The numerous limitations of this method are acceptable for preliminary policy evaluation to determine if greater financial investment to obtain more accurate results is justified. The Denver metropolitan area is used to demonstrate Cordon Screen capabilities, with mid-range assumption results suggesting the policy is most effective at generating net income and increasing vehicle speeds on major interstates. For Denver, the policy is comparably less effective at reducing air pollution and increasing speeds on minor roadways. Validation against early implementation results from the London cordon are acceptable. Still, users should discount revenue generation projections. Choice of cordon area may be the most difficult obstacle when using the Cordon Screen. With refinement, Cordon Screen could serve as a low-cost, open-source planning evaluation tool for growing and congested U.S. cities.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Dynamic projection of anthropogenic emissions in China: methodology and 2015–2050 emission pathways under a range of socio-economic, climate policy, and pollution control scenarios

Abstract. Future trends in air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG)emissions for China are of great concern to the community. A set of globalscenarios regarding future socio-economic and climate developments, combiningshared socio-economic pathways (SSPs) with climate forcing outcomes asdescribed by the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), was createdby the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Chinese researchers have also developed various emission scenarios by considering detailed local environmental and climate policies. However, a comprehensive scenario set connecting SSP–RCP scenarios with local policies and representing dynamic emission changes under local policies is still missing. In this work, to fill this gap, we developed a dynamic projection model, the Dynamic Projection model for Emissions in China (DPEC), to explore China'sfuture anthropogenic emission pathways. The DPEC is designed tointegrate the energy system model, emission inventory model, dynamicprojection model, and parameterized scheme of Chinese policies. The modelcontains two main modules, an energy-model-driven activity rate projectionmodule and a sector-based emission projection module. The activity rateprojection module provides the standardized and unified future energyscenarios after reorganizing and refining the outputs from the energy systemmodel. Here we use a new China-focused version of the Global ChangeAssessment Model (GCAM-China) to project future energy demand and supply inChina under different SSP–RCP scenarios at the provincial level. Theemission projection module links a bottom-up emission inventory model, theMulti-resolution Emission Inventory for China (MEIC), to GCAM-China andaccurately tracks the evolution of future combustion and production technologiesand control measures under different environmental policies. We developedtechnology-based turnover models for several key emitting sectors (e.g.coal-fired power plants, key industries, and on-road transportationsectors), which can simulate the dynamic changes in the unit/vehicle fleetturnover process by tracking the lifespan of each unit/vehicle on an annualbasis. With the integrated modelling framework, we connected five SSP scenarios(SSP1–5), five RCP scenarios (RCP8.5, 7.0, 6.0, 4.5, and 2.6), and threepollution control scenarios (business as usual, BAU; enhanced controlpolicy, ECP; and best health effect, BHE) to produce six combined emissionscenarios. With those scenarios, we presented a wide range of China's futureemissions to 2050 under different development and policy pathways. We foundthat, with a combination of strong low-carbon policy and air pollutioncontrol policy (i.e. SSP1-26-BHE scenario), emissions of major airpollutants (i.e. SO 2 , NO x , PM 2.5 , and non-methane volatile organic compounds – NMVOCs) in China willbe reduced by 34%–66% in 2030 and 58%–87% in 2050 compared to 2015. End-of-pipe control measures are more effective for reducing air pollutant emissions before 2030, while low-carbon policy will play a more important rolein continuous emission reduction until 2050. In contrast, China's emissionswill remain at a high level until 2050 under a reference scenario without activeactions (i.e. SSP3-70-BAU). Compared to similar scenarios set from theCMIP6 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6), our estimates ofemission ranges are much lower than the estimates from the harmonized CMIP6 emissions dataset in2020–2030, but their emission ranges become similar in the year 2050.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

U.S. Renewables Portfolio Standards 2021 Status Update: Early Release

Berkeley Lab’s annual status report on U.S. renewables portfolio standards (RPS) provides an overview of key trends associated with U.S. state RPS policies. The report, published in slide-deck form, describes recent legislative revisions, key policy design features, compliance with interim targets, past and projected impacts on renewables development, and compliance costs. The 2021 Early Release, published in lieu of a 2020 edition, presents historical data through year-end 2019, with some limited results for the year 2020. Key trends from this edition of the report include the following: Evolution of state RPS programs: States continue to refine and revise their RPS policies. Among other significant changes since the start of 2019, eight states enacted higher RPS targets or created new clean-energy/zero-carbon targets (AZ, DC, MD, NM, NV, VA, WA), in most cases setting targets equal to at least 50% of retail sales. Historical impacts on renewables development: Roughly half of all growth in U.S. renewable electricity (RE) generation and capacity since 2000 is associated with state RPS requirements, though that percentage has declined in recent years, representing 23% of all U.S. RE capacity additions in 2019. However, within particular regions-namely, the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic-RPS policies continue to serve a central role in motivating RE growth. Future RPS demand and incremental needs: RPS demand growth through 2030 will require roughly 90 GW of new RE capacity and will require total U.S. non-hydro RE generation to reach 17% of electricity sales (compared to 12% in 2019). Relative to EIA projections, this amounts to roughly one-third of projected RE growth over the next decade. RPS target achievement to-date: States have generally met their interim RPS targets in recent years, with only a few exceptions reflecting unique, state-specific issues. REC pricing trends: Prices for NEPOOL Class I RECs rose steeply over 2019, reaching $40/MWh and remaining at roughly that level over 2020. PJM Tier I REC prices continued to rise at a modest pace over the course of 2020, reaching $10/MWh by year-end. Prices for solar RECs remained relatively stable over 2020, and continue to exhibit wide variation across states, with the highest prices ($200-450/MWh) in NJ, MA, and DC.RPS compliance costs and cost caps: RPS compliance costs in 2019 averaged roughly 2.6% of retail electricity bills in RPS states, compared to 2.3% in 2018, with costs in most states ranging from 0.5% to 4.5% of retail electricity bills.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Transportation Hub Infrastructure Expansion: Decision Support Under Uncertainty

The Athena project (www.athena-mobility.org) has worked to investigate the relationship between the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport (DFW) and the greater Dallas area in order to better understand and therefore better inform future decision-making regarding the critical infrastructure that influence mobility between the airport and the city. Through this work, infrastructure related to curbside pickup and drop-off, parking, public transit, and the road network congestion were identified as critical to the operation of the DFW transportation hub. The infrastructure analysis and expansion aspect of the Athena project is focused on the restructuring of the CTA curb as a hierarchical curb and the building or repurposing of parking infrastructure as the interplay between these two areas. Many sources of uncertainty exist that may impact future airport and transportation hub operations, such as passenger volume growth, population demographic changes over time, electric vehicle (EV) adoption rates, and autonomous vehicle (AV) adoption rates. Due to these sources of uncertainty, we have selected for our research a modeling framework that can capture various types of uncertainty and hedge against those uncertainties in the optimization process. We analyze road network and curb congestion, the rise of transportation networking companies, trends in parking usage, existing policies around this infrastructure, airport revenue streams, and other contributing factors to enable infrastructure decision making with less uncertainty. To accomplish this wholistic analysis, we have developed a novel multi-stage, multi-period stochastic optimization model which considers the airport's decisions from 2025-2045 under different possible future macro trajectories and day-to-day variations in operational conditions captured as "annual representation of operations" scenarios with respective probabilities. This model has also been designed to leverage the outputs of various efforts under the Athena project to create a combined decision framework for infrastructure decisions. These various efforts include the route optimization model, the ASPIRES simulation, the mode choice model, and the SUMO traffic simulation. Our computational experiments of this system at scale have resulted in a working version of our infrastructure model which enables the explicit representation and consideration of various sources of uncertainty in the decision process to enable robust, flexible decision-making. This model has been effectively run on NREL's HPC system, Eagle, with large numbers of stochastic scenarios and shows promise as a scalable tool for robust consideration of uncertainties in airport planning. We have tested our model using 30,240 operational circumstances in total, resulting in a problem with more 200 million variables. This model was solved in several different configurations, and a workflow to simulate the performance of the infrastructure model results was developed and deployed. In general, our results indicate that a combination of remote parking, remote curb infrastructure, and dynamic pricing can generate revenue, reduce emissions, accommodate emerging technologies such as AVs and EVs, and manage airport passenger growth over time. We note the success of the proposed strategy depends on the data collection and forecasting abilities of DFW. We have also seen that the AV adoption by TNCs might necessitate larger amounts of remote curb. The results of this work inform strategies for airport infrastructure decision making, as well as demonstrate the value of an adaptable model, but also indicate that there are avenues remaining where further research would be of value.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

Assessment of Commercial Building Lighting as a Frequency Regulation Resource

This paper evaluates the potential for automated lighting control as a resource for frequency regulation of the electric grid system in the context of current energy policies, economic incentives, and technological trends. The growing prevalence of renewable energy has increased the need for ancillary services to maintain grid frequency and stability. While demand side resources like heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems, as well as water treatment plants are already evaluated as regulation service providers, the potential application to electrical lighting systems has largely been ignored. Yet, aggregations of lighting systems that are retrofitted with intelligent controls could conceivably contribute to frequency regulation services with little impact on user comfort. To further explore the feasibility of lighting potential, this paper explores (1) how lighting control systems are limited by visual comfort perception and acceptability, (2) how such limitations impact the performance of the lighting system as an frequency regulation resource, and (3) how the market potential of lighting systems as demand side resources compares in different regional transmission organizations. Finally, the impact of developing technologies on the application of lighting systems for frequency regulation is discussed.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Implementing Zero Energy Design with the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon® Design Challenge is a collegiate competition that challenges student teams to design high performance buildings that push the boundaries of the industry. In the 2020 competition, DOE is piloting Design Partners, a low-risk opportunity for builders and building owners to harness student innovation and explore zero energy design for current or upcoming projects. Design Partners provide a student team of architects and engineers with project requirements. By the end of the Challenge, Design Partners receive a zero energy alternative and cost estimate for their project. The collaboration allows Design Partners to incorporate innovative concepts such as grid-interactivity, resilience, and low embodied carbon in a low-risk environment and provides the future generation of engineers and architects with invaluable experience designing a building for a client under real-world circumstances. Attendees will leave understanding the “perfect storm” of policy, technology, health, and economic trends that make zero energy buildings desirable and feasible and the value of the U.S. DOE Solar Decathlon to industry. They will also get a sneak peek at innovative solutions 2020 Design Partner pilot projects are bringing to the building industry and how becoming a Design Partner in 2021 could benefit their organization.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2021

U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Decathlon® Design Challenge is a collegiate competition that challenges student teams to design high-performance buildings that push the boundaries of the industry. In the 2020 Design Challenge, DOE piloted the Design Partners Program, a low-risk opportunity for builders and building owners to harness student innovation and explore zero energy design for current or upcoming projects. Design Partners provide a student team of architects and engineers with project requirements. By the end of the Design Challenge, Design Partners receive a zero-energy design alternative and cost estimate for their project. The collaboration allows Design Partners to incorporate innovative concepts such as grid-interactivity, resilience, and low embodied carbon in a low-risk environment. It also provides the future generation of engineers and architects with invaluable experience designing a building for a client under real-world circumstances. This article summarizes the current policy, technology, health, and economic trends that make zero energy buildings desirable and feasible, and presents the value of the Solar Decathlon to industry. We highlight innovative solutions 2020 Design Partner pilot projects are bringing to the building industry.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Categorizing distributed wind energy installations in the United States to inform research and stakeholder priorities

Abstract Background Distributed wind energy adoption in the United States can contribute to the diverse portfolio of energy technologies needed to achieve ambitious decarbonization goals. However, with limited deployment to date, the current distributed wind market must be better understood; these efforts will support the range of stakeholders who will drive successful deployment. This article first distinguishes three categories of distributed wind from existing literature: (1) behind the meter, (2) intended for explicit local load, and (3) physically distributed. A novel methodology to classify individual wind installations into each of these categories is then presented and applied to two data sets of wind installations in the United States to categorize and illuminate distinct segments in the distributed wind market. Results Physically distributed installations, constituted by small to moderately sized projects serving local loads on distribution systems solely because of their proximity to them, account for the highest amount of capacity but the lowest number of installations out of the three categories. The inverse is true for behind-the-meter installations, which are used to serve on-site loads. Installations intended for explicit local load, which are interconnected on the utility side of the distribution system and intentionally built to provide energy to loads on the same distribution system, rank in the middle for both installed capacity and number of installations. Conclusions Distributed wind energy deployment in the United States is geographically widespread, but the extent to which a single category is developed in each state varies. Policies, wind resources, and broad energy technology trends contribute to these deployment patterns. By identifying the extent to which each category of installations exists, decision-makers are empowered with data necessary to tailor research and development programs and address stakeholder priorities through policy and other means, ultimately supporting future deployment.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

1994 Household Travel Survey

The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments/National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (COG/TPB) periodically conducts regional household travel surveys to monitor changes in daily travel and to gather information on the demographic, socioeconomic, and trip-making characteristics of Washington, D.C.-area residents. Information collected in the 1994 Household Travel Survey was an important component in the development of regional travel demand forecasting models used to predict changes in daily travel in response to current development trends and changes in regional transportation policies and programs. In two waves during the spring and fall of 1994, consultants for COG/TPB conducted a survey of daily travel by persons living in area households. The survey file contains travel information associated with 4,863 households residing in 13 jurisdictions comprising the greater Washington, D.C., region (approximately a 1-in-300 sample). The survey file contains 39,800 internal trip records with respect to the expanded cordon.

1Hz data↗
DOE OSTI2026

1968 Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments/National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board Home Interview Survey

The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments/National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board periodically conducts regional household travel surveys to monitor changes in daily travel and to gather information on the demographic, socioeconomic, and trip-making characteristics of Washington, D.C.-area residents. Information collected in the 1968 Home Interview Survey was an important component in the development of regional travel demand forecasting models used to predict changes in daily travel in response to current development trends and changes in regional transportation policies and programs. The survey sampled 26,000 households residing in six jurisdictions comprising the greater Washington, D.C. region (an approximately 1-in-20 sample).

1Hz data↗