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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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DOE OSTI2019

SolSmart Issue Brief - Solar and Electrification A Beneficial Partnership

Policies that encourage solar development and policies that encourage electrification can be complementary: low-cost solar power can help make electrification more cost-effective, and electrifying more services can help make solar installations more valuable. Electrification policies also open the door to discussions with the local electric utility regarding how utilities can better support communities’ solar power aspirations. This guide explains how communities can collaborate with their utilities on programs that produce complementary benefits for solar and electrification policies.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Lessons Learned: Community Solar for Municipal Utilities

This report outlines the work that STAT has completed, discusses the range of approaches utilities are taking, and highlights several challenges municipal utilities face in deciding whether and how to pursue community solar. As this report shows, there is no 'silver bullet' in terms of municipal utility community solar design or implementation - programs vary significantly and are highly dependent on localized contexts.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2016

Tracking the Sun IX: The Installed Price of Residential and Non-Residential Photovoltaic Systems in the United States

Now in its ninth edition, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)’s Tracking the Sun report series is dedicated to summarizing trends in the installed price of grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in the United States. The present report focuses on residential and non-residential systems installed through year-end 2015, with preliminary trends for the first half of 2016. An accompanying LBNL report, Utility-Scale Solar, addresses trends in the utility-scale sector. This year’s report incorporates a number of important changes and enhancements from prior editions. Among those changes, LBNL has made available a public data file containing all non-confidential project-level data underlying the analysis in this report. Installed pricing trends presented within this report derive primarily from project-level data reported to state agencies and utilities that administer PV incentive programs, solar renewable energy credit (SREC) registration systems, or interconnection processes. Refer to the text box to the right for several key notes about these data. In total, data were collected and cleaned for more than 820,000 individual PV systems, representing 85% of U.S. residential and non-residential PV systems installed cumulatively through 2015 and 82% of systems installed in 2015. The analysis in this report is based on a subset of this sample, consisting of roughly 450,000 systems with available installed price data.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

ICAST Solar Projects Case Study

ICAST (International Center for Appropriate and Sustainable Technology) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit social enterprise that has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) to implement a ~$2 Million initiative to overcome the hurdles of deploying solar energy for low-income populations. The project will develop, coordinate, and pilot a new approach that partners with local utilities, affordable multifamily housing (MFAH) owners, investors, and other stakeholders, to create a utility-scale program that aggregates demand from MFAH properties into a solar project for the utility to own and manage. This case study is an overview of recent solar efforts by ICAST to inform the current SETO project.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

An Assessment of Evaluation Practices of Low- And Moderate-Income Solar Programs

As concerns about social equity and clean energy rise, state and local governments, utilities, and non-profit organizations are offering at least 41 active programs in 21 states to promote solar adoption as a way to reduce energy bills for low- and moderate-income (LMI) households while meeting other policy goals such as job creation and clean energy generation. A new study from Berkeley Lab looks at how those programs are being evaluated. The report provides background on how they seek to address LMI household energy burdens and gives a brief discussion of the art and science of program evaluation, drawn from decades of experience in energy efficiency programs. It then turns to how LMI solar programs are currently being evaluated, highlighting trends among evaluation methods, metrics tracked, and best practices employed. A few programs are explored in more depth to illustrate notable practices that could be applied to other program evaluations. These LMI solar programs are mostly young, operate on tight budgets, and vary considerably in their design and stated goals. Consequently, well-designed program evaluation is critical to better understand what works, what could be improved, and how to maximize program impacts under budget constraints.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Transforming PV installations toward dispatchable, schedulable energy solutions

The Advanced Energy led SEGIS-AC program represents an industry partnership driven collaborative effort to continue to lower the barriers to increasing penetration of PV on the grid while also lowering overall system cost consistent with the Department of Energy SunShot Initiative. The SEGIS-AC program follows the DOE sponsored three year SEGIS program, which had similar high level goals, but with a broader exploratory scope. In SEGIS-AC, the team carries forward a new communications based islanding detection technology developed during the SEGIS program. Advanced utility interactive controls are further developed, and a storage inverter system is developed focused on intermittency mitigation due to cloud induced transients. Communications based island detection coupled with advanced controls and a storage system are shown to improve utility distribution feeder performance and to enable increased solar PV penetration levels. By the conclusion of the program, multiple utilities and customers have expressed awareness and desire to make use of the technologies developed and demonstrated under this program. This factor has led the Advanced Energy led team to deem the program an overall success. The report following details the technologies developed and demonstrated, as well as industry engagement.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Achieving Cooperative Community Equitable Solar Sources (ACCESS) (Final Technical Report)

Since 2011, solar has grown from a niche technology to a widely accessible source of power for homes and businesses across the United States and has become a fundamental part of the modern grid. There are still challenges, however, in learning how to integrate and use PV most effectively and how to make PV universally available. Most low- and moderate-income (LMI) customers cannot currently afford PV; capital costs and financing costs are too high to drive significant penetration. Providing access to LMI individuals and communities is a critical and immediate priority, and the focus of this project. The overall objective of the Achieving Cooperative Community Equitable Solar Sources (ACCESS) project is to explore and amplify the use of innovative, cost-effective energy access programs to serve co-ops’ LMI members1. ACCESS will research at least three financing mechanisms and at least six LMI program designs including LMI engagement strategies to maximize participation for these hard-to-reach audiences. ACCESS evaluated the financial mechanisms and program designs from field tests sited at diverse co-ops that provide recognizable models for the broader co-op community to identify optimal solutions for small utilities. The research with these cooperatives allowed testing of concepts and development of models and tools for other utilities to adapt to their own program designs and expansions. ACCESS published results and developed an “ACCESS Solar Access Toolkit” consisting of program designs, LMI engagement strategies, how-to guidance, and other tools to facilitate replication at small utilities across the country. Through the dissemination practices of the ACCESS project team, all NRECA member co-ops (~900) were made aware of the “ACCESS Solar Access Toolkit” and all other ACCESS resources. NRECA and its partners developed innovations to expand co-ops’ solar energy offerings to provide all of a co-op’s members—especially those who struggle to pay their bills—with cost-effective options that meet their needs. ACCESS specifically explored utility financing mechanisms and program designs that, independently or used in combination, increase solar access for rural electric cooperatives’ LMI members/ratepayers and that reduce LMI member/ratepayers’ electricity costs by at least 10%. LMI engagement strategies focused on maximizing the number of members who receive benefits and on the cost savings to LMI participants.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Customer bill impacts of energy efficiency and net-metered photovoltaic system investments

We report utility regulators and policymakers are concerned about potential increases in retail rates driven by energy efficiency (EE) programs and distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, which may adversely affect utility customers that do not invest in these technologies (i.e., non-participants) and more so than those that do (i.e., participants). We assess customer bill impacts of illustrative EE programs and net-metered PV systems for a prototypical northeast utility. We find that the timing of customer EE or PV investments matters and that modest energy savings may fail to yield financial benefits sufficient to offset concomitant increases in retail rates.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Community Solar for All: Key Findings for State Energy Offices and State LIHEAP Agencies from the Inclusive Shared Solar Initiative

Despite the significant potential for community solar to reduce energy burdens and costs, it has largely remained out of reach for low-income households. While the U.S. community solar market has grown considerably over the last decade, as of December 2022 low to moderate-income (LMI) community solar represented just 2% of the overall market. Effective community solar policies and program decisions can help address this dynamic. State laws, policies, and program rules are critical to the development of community solar programs and projects that are affordable for and cater to the needs of LMI utility customers, who often face disproportionately high energy costs relative to their incomes. This report explores how two sets of state agencies in particular — State and Territory Energy Offices and State Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) Agencies —can help to streamline and prioritize the delivery of affordable and accessible shared solar. State Energy Offices are often involved in community solar policy and program design from inception, whether by supporting the enactment of enabling legislation or informing the development of program rules and regulations. State Energy Offices may also be charged with administering or overseeing the implementation of statewide community solar programs and, through the U.S. State Energy Program and other sources of funding, can provide resources and loans that enhance community, developer, and utility confidence and capacity to build, host, and derive value from projects. Relatedly, as implementers of federal LIHEAP block grants, State LIHEAP Agencies have a deep understanding of the needs of lower-income households and can help inform the design and delivery of community solar programs.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Regulators’ Financial Toolbox: Designing Low- and Moderate- Income (LMI) Community Solar Compensation Programs

On February 9, 2022, as part of the NARUC Winter Policy Summit, five NARUC Staff Subcommittees (Energy Resources and the Environment, Rate Design, Electricity, Electric Reliability and Resilience, and Consumers and the Public Interest) co-hosted two sessions on community solar. The first panel was Community Solar I: Benefits for Low- and Moderate-Income Consumers, featuring opening remarks from moderator Hon. Eric Blank, Chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, and presentations from Richard Caperton, Vice President, Policy and Market Development, Arcadia, on behalf of the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA); Chris Nichols, Senior Program Director, Groundswell; and Ted Trabue, Managing Director, DC Sustainable Energy Utility. See presentations and recordings. The second panel, titled What is Community Solar 2: Cost Impacts to Participants and Non-Participants, featured opening remarks from moderator Jamie Barber, Director of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Unit at the Georgia Public Service Commission, and presentations from Dr. Gabriel Chan, Associate Professor, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota; Matthew McDonnell, Managing Director, Strategen Consulting; and Katie Chiles Ottenweller, Southeast Director, Vote Solar. See presentations and recordings.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

New Pathways for Equitable Solar Adoption in Texas

As part of the SEIN Round 3 program, a diverse group of energy stakeholders in Texas set out to develop and pilot new pathways to increase rooftop solar adoption at no upfront cost to lowincome households. One potentially promising pathway we identified involved combining funding from existing utility and federal programs promoting weatherization and energy efficiency. Our objective was to demonstrate pilot projects that equitably deployed rooftop solar to properties owned or rented by families in disadvantaged communities. Our goal was to create a clear path for lowincome households to achieve electricity bill relief and to access clean energy by leveraging existing utility energy efficiency programs with existing federal resources, such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and/or U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) funding in Texas. This has been attempted in a few other states with varying degrees of success, but not yet in Texas.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Current State of the Voluntary Renewable Energy Market (Presentation)

This presentation highlights the status of the voluntary green power market in 2012. The voluntary green power market totaled more than 48 million MWh in 2012, with about 1.9 million customers participating. The supply continues to be dominated by wind, though solar is increasing its share of utility green pricing programs. Prices for voluntary renewable energy certificates (RECs) increased to above $1/MWh.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2015

Bibliography of Literature for Avian Issues in Solar and Wind Energy and Other Activities

Utility-scale solar energy has been a rapidly expanding energy sector in the United States in recent years and is expected to continue to grow. In 2014, concerns were raised over the risk of avian fatalities associated with utility-scale solar plants. With funding from the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Program, Argonne National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory studied the issue and released A Review of Avian Monitoring and Mitigation Information at Existing Utility-Scale Solar Facilities (ANL/EVS-15/2, March 2015). A comprehensive literature review included peer-reviewed journal articles on avian fatalities from solar energy facilities and other sources (e.g., wind energy, building collisions, etc.), project-specific technical reports on avian monitoring and fatality at solar facilities, information on mitigation measures and best management practices, and literature pertaining to avian behavioral patterns and habitat use. The source citations are listed in this bibliography; they are current through December 2014.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Better Buildings NW Ohio

When the Toledo Lucas County Port Authority (TLCPA) filed for the Department of Energy EECBG grant in late 2009, it was part of a strategic and Board backed objective to expand the organization’s economic development and financing programs into alternative energy and energy efficiency. This plan was filed with the knowledge and support of the areas key economic development agencies. The City of Toledo was also a key partner with the Mayor designating a committee to develop a Strategic Energy Policy for the City. This would later give rise to a Community Sustainability Strategic Plan for Toledo, Lucas County and the surrounding region with energy efficiency as a key pillar. When the TLCPA signed the grant documents with the DOE in June of 2010, the geographic area was severely distressed economically, in the early stages of a recovery from over a 30% drop in business activity and high unemployment. The TLCPA and its partners began identifying potential project areas well before the filing of the application, continuing to work diligently before the formal award and signing of the grant documents. Strong implementation and actions plans and business and financing models were developed and revised throughout the 3 year grant period with the long term goal of creating a sustainable program. The TLCPA and the City of Toledo demonstrated early leadership by forming the energy improvement district and evaluating buildings under their control including transportation infrastructure and logistics, government services buildings and buildings which housed several for profit and not for profit tenants while completing significant energy efficiency projects that created public awareness and confidence and solid examples of various technologies and energy savings. As was stated in the DOE Award Summary, the undertaking was focused as a commercial program delving into Alternative Energy Utility Districts; what are referred to in Ohio Statute as Energy Special Improvement Districts or ESIDs and what is nationally known as Property Assessed Clean Energy or PACE districts and PACE financing. The project methodology followed the identify, develop, implement, monitor and measure format. These districts began in Toledo and adjoining areas and are expanding to TLCPA’s 28 county financing agency geographic footprint. What began as the Toledo Ohio Advanced Energy Improvement Corporation is now doing business as the Northwest Ohio Advanced Energy Improvement District recognizing it expansion into creating and financing other districts in NW Ohio. The program has been sought out as an advisor by major communities and states in the process of developing similar legislation and programs and has become one of the largest most successful PACE energy improvement and financing districts in the US. The program and the energy district focused on transforming energy use, delivery, conservation and renewable energy as “options of first choice”. The significant energy savings paid for many of the improvements and created a financially viable program well beyond the grant period. The program has become a model within the State of Ohio and Nationally on how to implement and finance projects in broad energy districts including how to evolve and integrate several financing methodologies. It is a unique utilization of revolving loan funds and energy bond pooling with revenue backing primarily from energy improvement special assessments on commercial properties along with some power purchase agreement (PPA) and loan agreement revenue. The program has also incorporated Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds, State of Ohio Energy Loans (SEP), utility rebates, solar and renewable energy certificates, renewable tax incentives and grants, and owner funded equity as additional program leverage and funding. Other keys to this success have been a continual simplification and refinement of the application and documentation process to make funding available easily and quickly to building owners when they are prepared to commit to the project as well as act as a trusted facilitator and advisor to both building owners and other stakeholders. Taking a flexible and pragmatic approach to project evaluation and implementation that matches time and expense to the complexity of the project has been another key learning. To date the program has closed 3 energy bond issues through the TLCPA sponsored and managed NW Ohio Bond Fund totaling $16.54 million (of which $3.34 million were QECB qualified). The program has turned over its $3.0 million revolving loan fund twice as construction financing in advance of bond issuance and currently has issued $1.25 million in revolving term loans. The program has $1.66 million of remaining capacity for QECB qualified bonds. The program can issue an additional $13.46 million in energy bonds continuing to utilize its DOE EECBG loan loss reserves. In addition, the program has available $3.6 million of loan loss reserves from the State of Ohio, as an eligible Port Authority, that can back the issuance of an additional $7.2 to $14.4 million of energy bonds. This does not include additional bond capacity is available from the NW Ohio Bond Fund. The program is the master escrow agent for $18 million of loan loss reserves from the State of Ohio for eligible Port Authorities that can be utilized to assist the formation of energy districts and financing programs in major metropolitan areas and regions around the State of Ohio. Other leveraged funds now total $10 million; placing the total project value completed and financed at over $30 million. In addition that program has generated an active pipeline of projects in various stages that total $25 – $30 million.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2020

Optimal Heliostat Assignment Strategy for Multiple-Receiver Systems

Next-generation concentrating solar power concepts currently being developed under the U.S. Department of Energy's Gen3 program include several novel heliostat field and receiver arrangements. Among these concepts are solar fields utilizing multiple receivers or several distinct receiver flux control zones, and each of which has particular power or peak flux constraints. In this paper, we present a linear program that identifies optimal heliostat-to-receiver assignment strategies for multi-receiver or multi-zone solar fields based on detailed calculations made by an optics modeling package. Two distinct problems are addressed: namely, (1) a design problem that chooses the optimal set of heliostats to include in a final layout given receiver constraints and performance, and (2) an operations problem that assigns existing heliostats to a receiver, maximizing field power output while maintaining receiver power constraints. The optimization methodology is integrated into the concentrating solar power tower modeling package SolarPILOTTM, and results are presented showing that heliostat assignment strategies can impact both initial heliostat field layout characteristics and the cost of thermal energy produced by the field. The methodology succeeds in maintaining power requirements but at the expense of producing different flux profiles on each receiver surface. Consequently, the paper also discusses additional measures that are applied to ensure that desirable flux distribution properties are maintained, reducing local flux mean-absolute-deviation values from a baseline of 17% or greater to less than 5% compared to a desired reference flux profile.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗
DOE OSTI2026

An Educational Program on Concentrated Solar Power and Heliostats for Power Generation and Industrial Processes

The objective of this project was to design and implement a comprehensive educational and applied research program in Concentrated Solar Thermal Power (CSTP) and heliostat technologies at Northeastern University. In alignment with the U.S. Department of Energy's Heliostat Consortium (HelioCon) goals, the project aimed to expand student and public understanding of CSTP systems while simultaneously contributing to workforce development and the broader decarbonization strategy. A particular emphasis was placed on integrating hands-on student design projects and publicly disseminating educational content relevant to CSTP systems. The project addressed a critical gap in renewable energy education: CSTP and heliostats, despite their importance in utility-scale solar energy, are rarely included in standard mechanical engineering programs. This project established new pathways for students to engage with the topic through the creation of a 4-credit graduate/senior elective course, development of five industry-facing short courses, and the inclusion of CSTP-based capstone design projects. Over two academic years, 36 students across six senior design teams developed and tested technologies such as deformable heliostats, beacon-based tracking systems, and solar-powered pyrolizers for biomass-to-biochar conversion. Concurrently, 30 undergraduate and graduate students were enrolled in the new academic course centered around CSTP principles. To ensure the relevance and accessibility of the short course content, the project team engaged with industry professionals, technical policy stakeholders, and potential course participants through structured surveys and informal consultations. Feedback from 28 respondents guided the structure, length, and delivery format of the courses - resulting in a modular design broken into five workshops. The feedback emphasized the need for flexible, asynchronous delivery and practical case studies, particularly in areas such as heliostat control, thermal storage, and solar fuel production. This engagement helped align the courses with the evolving knowledge demands of the renewable energy workforce and ensured that participants from both technical and policy backgrounds could meaningfully benefit from the material. The research and educational activities advanced the understanding of heliostat control systems, optical performance under misalignment, and thermal system integration in solar-driven pyrolysis applications. Methods and designs explored in this project proved to be both technically effective and economically feasible at the lab scale. Prototypes were constructed using commercially available components and custom-fabricated elements, demonstrating that meaningful performance improvements can be achieved with modest material and fabrication costs, supporting the feasibility of student-led research in this field. The public benefit of this project is twofold. First, it cultivates a pipeline of engineers trained to be familiar with CSTP principles, an essential workforce need identified by the Department of Energy for achieving its 2030 cost and deployment targets. Second, it contributes openly accessible educational materials, course content, and experimental frameworks to the broader community, enabling other institutions to adopt or adapt similar programming. Through outreach activities, curriculum integration, and technical exposure, this project contributes to a more informed and capable renewable energy workforce while supporting innovation in heliostat and CSTP system design. A new technical report is being prepared to document the development of the course and its outcomes, with plans to publish it in the ASME Open Access Journal of Engineering to ensure global accessibility, free of cost.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Factors influencing recent trends in retail electricity prices in the United States

This study analyzes the primary drivers of recent state-level trends in U.S. retail electricity prices. We summarize pricing trends, explore descriptive relationships, and employ regression models to quantify the influence of various factors. Although the recent national rise in retail prices has largely tracked inflation, state-level trends vary widely. We identify a number of factors that explain trends in subsets of states. States with the greatest price increases typically exhibited shrinking customer loads—partially linked to growth in net metered behind-the-meter solar—and had renewables portfolio standards (RPS) in concert with relatively costly incremental renewable energy supplies. By contrast, recent utility-scale wind and solar deployment that occurred outside RPS programs (but that benefited from tax incentives) had no discernible impact on increased retail prices. Hurricanes, storms and wildfires also contributed to sizable price increases in some states, most notably in California, where wildfire risk mitigation and liability insurance were major cost drivers. Fluctuations in natural gas prices—particularly following the onset of the Ukraine-Russia war—further contributed to sharp price increases through 2022–2023 in many states, with moderation in 2024. The relative influence of these factors varies across states and over time, and relationships may change in the future. Nonetheless, the findings underscore the diverse set of price determinants and highlight the need for continued research to inform effective policy and ensure customer affordability.

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