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Martin Herrera, a deputy division leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory, is well-loved by everyone who meets him. His coworkers refer to him as a “V.I.P.,” and know him for his kindness, positivity and wisdom. Martin is a leader in the Laboratory’s Prototype Fabrication division, which is home to machine shops that manufacture components for programs across the Lab and the nation.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) oversees a system of 17 national laboratories responsible for developing unique scientific capabilities beyond the scope of academic and industrial institutions. These labs strive to keep America at the forefront of discovery and are home to some of the Nation’s best minds and the world’s best scientific and research facilities. Collaborations between national laboratories and academic institutions are critical to develop and recruit talent for the DOE workforce. Academia’s cooperative education model poses challenges for DOE recruitment pipelines centered around traditional internships. This paper discusses a promising DOE recruitment pipeline, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program (PSAAP) initiative. As a part of this, experiences capturing the successes and challenges faced by the University of Utah’s Carbon Capture Multidisciplinary Simulation Center (CCMSC) through their participation in the PSAAP-II initiative are shared. These experiences demonstrate the success of Utah’s PSAAP center as a recruitment pipeline with approximately 43% of CCMSC students going to a national laboratory after graduation. Potential opportunities to strengthen the DOE’s recruitment pipeline are also discussed.
In December, we challenged LANL employees to prepare a recipe that appeared in the recently rediscovered “What’s Cooking” cookbook, created and published in Los Alamos in 1955. This piece of Los Alamos history features recipes from the families of Lab staff and is now a part of the collections in the National Security Research Center, the Lab’s classified library and curator of unclassified relics. Today’s Laboratory home chefs certainly delivered!
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy's Building Technologies Office (BTO) launched the Advanced Building Construction (ABC) Initiative. This initiative aimed to integrate energy efficiency into high-production construction practices. One focus area of the initiative is off-site construction, an approach that may achieve scalable, efficient, and high-performing construction buildings through process standardization. This report presents the findings and recommendations from our ABC Initiative project: A New State of the Art: Zero-Energy Modular Multifamily Construction System. The objectives of the BTO-funded project are to: 1) Achieve energy performance 50% better than the 2018 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). 2) Achieve this level of energy performance at no additional cost VEIC worked with Louisiana State University (LSU), National Renewal Energy Lab (NREL), [the project team], and industry partners at the Mod Coach, KBS, and Solar Home Factory to identify and analyze multifamily business designs and modular construction practices. These designs and processes hold the promise of achieving the goals set out by the DOE.
NREL's Roadmap to decarbonize its campus aligns with Executive Order (EO) 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad and EO 14057 Catalyzing America's Clean Energy Industries and Jobs through Federal Sustainability. NREL's strategic approach to reach net-zero emissions for its operational footprint and will occur in phases over the next decade. Decarbonizing NREL's footprint will require the elimination of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from all campus facilities' energy use and will be achieved through energy efficiency enhancements and the increased integration of clean energy sources. Engaging the private sector through an energy savings performance contract (ESPC) and relationships with NREL's utility providers will be crucial to NREL's implementation strategy.
Gas-separation membranes are a critical industrial component for a low-carbon and energy-efficient future. As a result, many researchers have been testing membrane materials over the past several decades. Unfortunately, almost all membrane-based testing systems are home-built, and there are no widely accepted material standards or testing protocols in the literature, making it challenging to accurately compare experimental results. Further, in this multi-lab study, ten independent laboratories collected high-pressure pure-gas permeation data for H 2 , O 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 in commercial polysulfone (PSf) films. Equipment information, testing procedures, and permeation data from all labs were collected to provide (1) accepted H 2 , O 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 permeability values at 35°C in PSf as a reference standard, (2) statistical analysis of lab-to-lab uncertainties in evaluating permeability, and (3) a list of best practices for sample preparation, equipment set-up, and permeation testing using constant-volume variable-pressure apparatuses. Results summarized in this work provide a reference standard and recommended testing protocols for pure-gas testing of membrane materials.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) is interested in combining community solar with weatherization programs for manufactured homes. To collect program strategies, EGLE made a request for technical assistance from the US Department of Energy’s National Community Solar Partnership (NCSP). Lawrence Berkeley National Lab developed this study in response. It briefly reviews issues relevant to the question, attempts to lay out a methodology for more in-depth analysis, and provides some recommendations for program design and implementation. While the research is specific to Michigan, the recommendations and methodologies could serve as an example for other states and regions. The paper first provides an overview of manufactured home communities in Michigan, with a discussion of demographics and energy issues they face. It then discusses weatherization opportunities for manufactured homes, opportunities for community solar, and opportunities for combining the two. The methodology proposed is intended to help EGLE: -Identify priority locations, -Set eligibility criteria for communities and households, and -Make the most of federal and other funding sources The paper concludes with recommendations for a program that combines community solar with efficient electrification of manufactured homes to reduce the burden of the largest source of energy expenditure in Michigan, winter heating bills. Specifically, it envisions community solar subscriptions for occupants of manufactured homes that have been converted to high-efficiency cold weather heat pumps. The combination can be managed to alleviate seasonal variations in both solar and heating bills, such as through an annualized “budget billing” program.
Anyone who has lived in New Mexico for at least a year realizes that the Land of Enchantment has six seasons. In addition to the four seasons everyone else has, we have a wildfire season, which typically comes during late spring and early summer. Wildfires sometimes even last through the monsoon season, when thunderstorms are lighter than usual. Wildfires, it seems, are inevitable in Los Alamos and the surrounding communities that make up part of northern New Mexico. In recent history, the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire destroyed 150,000 acres (including 7,500 acres of Laboratory property) and 235 Los Alamos homes. In 2011, the Las Conchas Fire burned more than 156,000 acres and threatened Los Alamos and the Lab. To minimize the chances of wildfires and to strengthen defenses against wildfires, the Laboratory every year carries out various fire-mitigation strategies throughout its 42 square miles.
Heat pumps offer a great low carbon emission method to heat homes. Thermalize Juneau 2021 was a clean energy campaign that helped homeowners in Juneau, Alaska install heat pumps into their homes. Juneau is located near the climactic limit of many heat pumps, and we were interested in how well the heat pumps can function in cold climates. This was done by using Sense meters to remotely monitor the energy usage of 10 homes with heat pumps. The Sense meters are small devices that connect to the electrical panel and monitor the energy use of multiple appliances through machine learning. First, we recorded the energy usage of a heat pump in the lab using both the Sense meter and the existing lab datalogger. Both recorded very similar energy usage data which confirmed that the Sense meter can accurately measure the fluctuations in the heat pump energy use. Next, we looked at the energy data from the Sense meters in the homes with heat pumps and paired it with local weather data to see how well the heat pumps functioned in the cold weather.
Our research generates a vast amount of data that scientists must gather, store, analyze and interpret. These activities require expertise and the right tools. Fermilab is home to one of the largest tape robotic systems available today, providing more than 800 petabytes of storage capability. The lab is growing the tape facilities to meet expected demands of over 1,000 petabytes of additional data per year by the end of the decade. Fermilab also has the technology and computing power to efficiently pr ocess these data to facilitate scientific discoveries. Our computation al experts work closely with experimenters and the scientific commu - nity at large to provide and facilitate the use of the cutting-edge computing tools necessary for these discoveries.
The California residential building code requires kitchen exhaust ventilation to protect indoor air quality. The requirement can be met with a kitchen exhaust fan or a range hood that conforms to airflow and sound specifications based on certified, standard test results. Appliances that integrate an exhaust fan with an over the range microwave (OTRs) are popular for their space saving utility; but for years there were none with the certified performance data required for building code compliance. This project, initiated during that period, aimed to evaluate OTR models found in new California homes and compare their performance to range hoods that minimally met code requirements. The study aimed to expand on limited information available about OTR performance with a particular focus on measuring the fraction of cooktop-generated air pollutants that are captured and removed by the exhaust devices, a parameter called “capture efficiency”. Airflow and capture efficiency (CE) were measured in a simulated kitchen in Berkeley Lab’s FLEXLAB facility. Airflows were measured using several variations of a balanced-pressure flow method (Walker et al. 2001) including a protocol that had been used in the California Healthy Efficient New Gas Homes (HENGH) field study. Measurements were made for six OTRs observed in the field study, including three with certified test results (published after the start of this project) for airflow and sound. Measurements were also made on two standard range hoods with comparable airflows and costs to the OTRs, when accounting for the microwave functionality. CE was measured using the CO 2 emitted from burners while heating pots of water (POW) as a tracer and calculating the ratio of added CO 2 in the exhaust flow over the total CO 2 generated from burning fuel. Results show that OTRs generally met the California code requirements for airflow, which are the same as those of the residential ventilation standard of ASHRAE. It was determined that the field protocol used in HENGH study homes was biased low by ~14% on average. The CE performance of OTRs tested in this study were consistent with those tested under controlled conditions in prior studies, showing CE increasing with airflow and being higher for emissions occurring at the back cooktop burner(s) compared with front burner emissions. The measured CE covered a range of 40% to 85% for the front burners and 60% to 100% for the back burners. The relationship of CE to airflow for OTRs was within the range of those found for standard range hoods in this study and prior studies, with the key caveat that OTRs appear to have more consistent CE performance for emissions on the front burner.
Driven by favorable economics, policy factors, and decarbonization goals, large-scale solar (LSS, defined here as ground-mounted photovoltaic projects ≥1 MWDC) has expanded rapidly in recent years, with more than 90 gigawatts (GW) now installed across the United States. Growth in LSS deployment is anticipated to accelerate in response to growing electricity demand and utility, state, and federal decarbonization goals. This continued expansion hinges, in part, on the continued support of local residents and decision-makers in communities hosting LSS projects. Understanding the perceptions and attitudes of existing LSS neighbors is critical to inform and enable future LSS deployment, and to improve outcomes for those host communities. As of 2022, there were more than 10 million U.S. homes within 3 miles of LSS plants. Yet, until recently, no comprehensive study had examined the experiences and perceptions of these LSS neighbors. In 2023, a Berkeley Lab team worked with the University of Michigan and Michigan State University to conduct the first-of-its-kind nationally representative survey of LSS neighbors as part of the Community-Centered Solar Development research project. The survey effort ultimately collected 984 responses from residents within 3 miles of existing LSS projects. The survey results are available for download via the full summary analysis slide deck report, as well as a shorter (~4 page) summary brief. The survey instrument (questionnaire) is also available for download for those interested in understanding the survey design or replicating questions in future research.
Residential buildings, accounting for 37% of the total electricity consumption in the United States, are suitable for demand-side management (DSM) programs to support effective and economical operation of the power system. A home energy management system (HEMS) enables residential buildings to participate in such programs. It is important to account for occupant preferences in HEMS to ensure occupant satisfaction while participating in DSM programs. For example, people who prefer a higher thermal comfort level are likely to consume more energy. In this study, we used foresee™, a HEMS developed by the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), to perform a sensitivity analysis of occupant preferences with the following objectives: minimize utility cost, minimize carbon footprint, and maximize thermal comfort. To incorporate the preferences into the HEMS, the SMARTER method was used to derive a set of weighting factors for each objective. We performed week-long building energy simulations using a model of a home in Fort Collins, Colorado, where there is mandatory time-of-use electricity rate structure. The foreseeTM HEMS was used to control the home with six different sets of occupant preferences. The study shows that occupant preferences can have a significant impact and is important to consider when modeling residential buildings. Results show that the HEMS could achieve energy reduction ranging from 3% to 21%, cost savings ranging from 5% to 24%, and carbon emission reduction ranging from 3% to 21%, while maintaining a low thermal discomfort level ranging from 0.78 K-hour to 6.47 K-hour in a one-week period during winter. These outcomes quantify the impact of varying occupant preferences and will be useful for controlling the electrical grid and developing HEMS solutions.
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The high and rising cost of preserving and delivering housing in the U.S. requires changes to existing practices of finance, design, and construction. Innovative methods such as industrialized construction could offer the means to address housing undersupply while reducing delivery costs, operational costs and material waste in the building industry, but they face challenges to success and to scale. Simultaneously, construction and cleantech innovators themselves face skepticism from the traditional entrepreneurial ecosystem such as incubators and accelerators while attempting to navigate systems level challenges. To respond to this need, various public and private sector stakeholders have launched initiatives to support innovative companies. These include nonprofits such as Terner Labs and Ivory Innovations offering curated programming to architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) startups; housing developers in Minnesota and California "bundling" multiple projects together to reach economies of scale with a consistent project team; public and private sector entities developing "catalogues" of pre-approved home designs in the U.S. and Canada. This exploratory paper documents several of these emerging ecosystem-development efforts to support innovative housing approaches, characterizing them by leading stakeholder and intervention strategy based on publicly available information. The paper finds that these initiatives share similar high level goals but vary in implementation, reflecting different stakeholder priorities, regional market and policy dynamics, and housing typologies. The early stage of these efforts offer limited data for comparing actual outcomes, but the paper highlights common qualitative themes and identifies opportunities for further research and potential coordination among these efforts.
With electricity consumption across the United States (US) and Canada anticipated to grow, energy efficiency program administrators have a key role to play in helping to ensure energy affordability and reliability in support of the broader economic systems utilities and grid support. Connected, demand side load balancing solutions, such as load shifting heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and managed charging for electric vehicles (EVs), can dynamically manage energy, allowing for more volumetric electricity consumption without incurring the expense of upgraded transmission and distribution capabilities. When combined, or aggregated, many small loads can be managed to have meaningful impact on energy demand on the grid. Utilities and their partners have an opportunity to leverage decades of experience and the infrastructure needed to assess, design, implement, and measure programs to scale up the adoption of equipment with built-in load flexibility capabilities. Current efforts among a wide variety of electricity system service providers, utilities, standards agencies, regulators, national labs and private industry stakeholders aim to identify common standards, metrics, and methodologies for valuing grid services offered by demand side equipment. By combining those efforts with decades of proven energy efficiency resources, utilities are poised to effectuate a scaling up of equipment with energy management capabilities installed in homes and businesses across the US and Canada. This paper will provide an overview of how utilities are approaching this era of load growth and new peak demands across the United States and Canada. It will highlight the specific strategies that program administrators are employing to advance market transformation for grid-enabled products and devices that have the greatest potential to reduce energy use and increase load flexibility.
The report describes income, demographic, and other socio-economic trends among U.S. residential rooftop solar adopters. The report is based on data for roughly 1.9 million residential rooftop solar systems installed through 2019, representing 82% of all U.S. systems. With its unique size, geographic scope, and level of detail, this report is intended to serve as a foundational reference document for policy-makers, industry stakeholders, and researchers. Key findings include the following: Solar adopters generally skew towards higher incomes, though that trend continues to diminish over time. Solar adopter incomes vary considerably and encompass many low-to-moderate income (LMI) households. Solar-adopter incomes are consistently higher for systems paired with battery storage, for host-owned systems, and for systems installed on single-family homes. Solar adopters differ from the broader U.S. population in terms of a variety of other demographic and socioeconomic measures. State-level comparisons indicate that solar-adopters tend to live in neighborhoods with relatively high non-Hispanic White and Asian populations, and with relatively low Hispanic and Black populations. In conjunction with the report, Berkeley Lab has published an updated accompanying set of online data visualizations that allow users to further explore the underlying data. Berkeley Lab is also offering related analytical support to states, local agencies, and other organizations on issues related to solar adoption among low-to-moderate income households.
Washington State's Commercial Energy Code adopted a new energy metric called HVAC Total System Performance Ratio (TSPR) in 2019, a first in the codes world to regulate HVAC system efficiency. TSPR is a ratio of annual heating and cooling loads to the annual carbon emissions associated with the energy consumed by the HVAC system. TSPR provides a performance-based solution to evaluate and improve the overall HVAC design. The TSPR metric and its companion calculation tool were developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) with support from U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) and the City of Seattle. The new metric represents a significant shift in how HVAC design will meet code requirements. Utility programs can also leverage TSPR as a measure to determine energy savings and incentive amounts for HVAC retrofits. This paper describes the efforts by NEEA and its collaborators to prepare the market for TSPR adoption in code. This paper provides the pilot projects led by University of Washington Integrated Design Lab (IDL) to understand potential issues that could be faced by early adopters. This paper also covers how training and outreach provide engagement opportunities that can streamline code compliance, help address issues faced by early adopters and promote participation in utility programs. As Washington State works on the goals of 70% energy reduction and zero fossil-fuel greenhouse gas emission homes and buildings by the year 2031 , system level performance metrics will likely become increasingly more necessary and prevalent. This paper concludes that the HVAC TSPR requirement helps familiarize the HVAC industry with this approach and helps Washington achieve its long-term goals.