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

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At least 1,135 records · Page 63

Overview of the NCSP Nuclear Data Program [Slides]

The mission of the NCSP is to provide sustainable expert leadership, direction and the technical infrastructure necessary to develop, maintain and disseminate the essential technical tools, training and data required to support safe, efficient fissionable material operations within the Department of Energy. The vision of the NCSP is to create a continually improving, adaptable and transparent program that communicates and collaborates globally to incorporate technology, practices and programs to be responsive to the essential technical needs of those responsible for developing, implementing and maintaining nuclear criticality safety.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Impact of E4 Training and Field Auditing of GSA Heartland Region Facilities

To assess the impact of energy efficiency expert evaluation (E4) training and field audits performed since 2007, the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) undertook a follow-up study on the implementation of E4 recommendations and an analysis of energy savings. The building property manager and O and M contractor of each facility were interviewed to obtain feedback and implementation status of the E4 recommendations. Overall, there were more than 160 recommendations documented in the E4 reports; about 50% of these recommendations were fully implemented and the remaining 50% either partially implemented or not implemented. In four buildings, the E4 recommendations were aligned with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) projects replacing HVAC equipment or upgrading the building control system. The E4 recommendations were not followed-up in two buildings because of uncertainty of the long-term use of the facility or personnel changes. Results of this followon study are reported in this document.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Approach to Low-Cost High-Efficiency OLED Lighting. Building Technologies Solid State Lighting (SSL) Program Final Report

This project developed an integrated substrate which organic light emitting diode (OLED) panel developers could employ the integrated substrate to fabricate OLED devices with performance and projected cost meeting the MYPP targets of the Solid State Lighting Program of the Department of Energy. The project optimized the composition and processing conditions of the integrated substrate for OLED light extraction efficiency and overall performance. The process was further developed for scale up to a low-cost process and fabrication of prototype samples. The encapsulation of flexible OLEDs based on this integrated substrate was also investigated using commercial flexible barrier films.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

A Downtown Denver Law Firm Leverages Tenant Improvement Funds to Cut Operating Expenses

Bryan Cave HRO (formerly Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, headquartered in Denver, Colorado), an international law firm, partnered with the U.S Department of Energy (DOE) to develop and implement solutions to retrofit existing buildings to reduce annual energy consumption by at least 30% versus pre-retrofit energy use as part of DOE’s Commercial Building Partnership (CBP) program.

bryan cave↗

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for New Home Construction in Maui

For residential property owners preparing to rebuild homes in Maui, this fact sheet, produced by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), provides a brief introduction to the topics of renewable energy and energy efficiency for new residential construction, presents a few high-level considerations and key concepts, and provides a sampling of information on rebates, incentives, certification programs, standards, and relevant policies. This fact sheet is not intended to be comprehensive nor to replace local resources.

appliances↗

DOE Zero Energy Ready Home Case Study: Alliance Green Builders, Casa Aguila

Alliance Green Builders built this 3,129-ft2 home in the hills above Ramona, California, to the high-performance criteria of the DOE Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) program. The home should perform far better than net zero thanks to a super-efficient building shell, a wind turbine, three suntracking solar photovoltaic arrays, and solar thermal water heating.

Building America↗

Application of Heat Transfer Enhancement (HTE) System for Improved Efficiency of Power Plant Condensers

The mission of the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), a U.S. laboratory under the Department of Energy, is to drive innovation and deliver solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future. Through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)/Fossil Energy’s (FE) Crosscutting Research Program, NETL funded Interphase Materials to develop and demonstrate a technology to improve power plant condenser efficiency. From 2018 through 2021, Interphase Materials developed THERMOPHASE, an advanced material applied to the condenser during plant operation to increase efficiency and lower fuel consumption, CO 2 emissions, and water withdrawal. THERMOPHASE was evaluated in controlled environments where improvements to heat transfer and a reduction in fouling were observed. THERMOPHASE was also applied to the main condenser of the Longview Power plant and changes to the plant performance were monitored. After two years following application of THERMOPHASE, a reduction in condenser back pressure of 0.26 ± 0.13 inHg was observed resulting in an estimated $3.35M in fuel savings, 136 million lbs. of decreased CO 2 emissions, and 1,287 million gallons reduced water withdrawal.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

Vehicle Technologies and Fuel Cell Technologies Office Research and Development Programs: Prospective Benefits Assessment for Medium- and Heavy-duty Vehicles

Through a diverse set of programs, the Vehicle Technologies and Fuel Cell Technologies Offices of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) invest in early-stage vehicle and fuel cell research. The Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) and the Fuel Cell Technologies Office (FCTO) are two offices that are encompassed within EERE’s Sustainable Transportation pillar. VTO conducts research and development (R&D) to provide low-cost, reliable, and efficient energy for the transportation of goods and people across America. FCTO has a comprehensive portfolio of activities that address the barriers facing the development and implementation of hydrogen and fuel cells, with the ultimate goals of decreasing our dependence on oil, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and enabling clean, reliable power generation through both transportation and stationary uses of hydrogen. This report quantifies the vehicle-level and national-level benefits of successful VTO and FCTO R&D applied to medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. The benefits estimated include reductions in energy use and GHG emissions from and changes in expenditures on medium- and heavy-duty vehicles on the road in the United States through the year 2050. The potential future benefits of successfully developing and implementing these technologies were analyzed by comparing a “Program Success” case to a base case (the “No Program” case). The Program Success case represents the future with successful implementation of VTO and FCTO technologies. The No Program case represents a future in which VTO or FCTO do not contribute to these technologies after Fiscal Year (FY) 2019. Three side cases were analyzed to assess the sensitivity of the projections of market adoption to future electricity prices (including infrastructure costs), the availability of electricity and hydrogen at public stations, and fuel cell system efficiency. Advanced vehicle technologies supported by VTO and FCTO programs can greatly increase the fuel economy of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. As a result of EERE-supported technologies, the sales-weighted average fuel economy of the fleet of all new Class 7 and 8 trucks in the Program Success case is projected to be 1.2 times that of the trucks in the No Program case in 2035 and 1.3 times the baseline in 2050. These technologies in Classes 4–6 increase fuel economy by a factor of 1.46 in 2035 and 1.78 in 2050. The fuel economy of the entire on-road medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fleet, including all fuel types, is projected to be higher by 10%, reaching 9.1 mpgde in 2035, and by 25%, reaching 11.0 mpgde in 2050. The resulting petroleum savings in 2050 were estimated to be 0.75 million barrels per day, and reductions in GHG emissions in 2050 were estimated to 110 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 -eq) per year. Such petroleum reductions result in significant reductions in fuel expenditure for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, totaling approximately $37 billion annually by 2035. Figure ES-1 shows the difference in projected consumption of diesel fuel, electricity, and hydrogen in the No Program and Program Success cases. Negative values show the reduction in the Program Success case, relative to the No Program case.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Project Management Plan/Progress Report: UT/GTKS Training Program Development for Commercial Building Operators (Final Report)

Universidad del Turabo (UT), in a collaborative effort with Global Turn Key Services, Inc. (GTKS), proposed to develop a training program and a commercialization plan for the development of Commercial Building Operators (CBOs). The CBOs will operate energy efficient buildings to help maintain existing buildings up to their optimal energy performance level, and ensure that net-zero-energy buildings continuously operate at design specifications, thus helping achieve progress towards meeting BTP Strategic Goals of creating technologies and design approaches that enable net-zero-energy buildings at low incremental costs by 2025. The proposed objectives were then: (1) Develop a Commercial Building Operator (CBO) training program and accreditation that will in turn provide a certification to participants recognized by Accreditation Boards such as the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) and Leadership in Energy & Environmental Designs (LEED). (2) Develop and implement a commercialization and sustainability plan that details marketing, deployment, financial characterization, job placement, and other goals required for long-term sustainability of the project after the funding period. (3) After program development and deployment, provide potential candidates with the knowledge and skill sets to obtain employment in the commercial building green energy (net-zero-energy building) job market. The developed CBO training program will focus on providing skills for participants, such as displaced and unemployed workers, to enter the commercial building green energy (net-zeroenergy building) job market. This course was designed to allow a participant with minimal to no experience in commercial building green technology to obtain the required skill sets to enter the job market in as little as 12 weeks of intensive multi-faceted learning. After completion of the course, the CBO staff concluded the participant will meet minimum established accreditation standards established by UT and will complete the contact hours required of training to apply to the Certification on Energy Management (CEM) offered by the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE). The CBO training program consists of a combination of theory (classroom), online & computer simulation, laboratory & hands on (onsite) training lessons. The training is addressed four basic learning elements: (1) Learn the Technology; (2) Practice Skills with hands-on the Energy Simulation Builder program; (3) Final Project and Presentation; and, (4) Accreditation and Certifications.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

South Lake Tahoe, California: Using Energy Data to Partner on Building Energy Efficiency Actions (City Energy: From Data to Decisions)

This fact sheet "South Lake Tahoe, California: Using Energy Data to Partner on Building Energy Efficiency Actions" explains how the City of South Lake Tahoe used data from the U.S. Department of Energy's Cities Leading through Energy Analysis and Planning (Cities-LEAP) and the State and Local Energy Data (SLED) programs to inform its city energy planning. It is one of ten fact sheets in the "City Energy: From Data to Decisions" series.

building energy efficiency actions↗

Piloting the Use of Energy Policy Data to Drive Market Action

Information is only useful when put to use. Across the U.S., an ever-growing number of state and local jurisdictions are implementing building performance reporting laws regarding building energy and water use in the commercial and multifamily sectors. This wealth of performance information is not yet being deployed to its full potential to drive smarter business decisions and increase energy savings. Recognizing that this information can help advance energy efficiency in cities, in 2015 the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) partnered with New York City and the District of Columbia and local groups, NYCEEC and the District of Columbia Sustainable Energy Utility, on a three-year project to understand and document how, exactly, this data can and should be integrated to reap an array of benefits for cities, energy efficiency service providers, utilities, and building owners. This paper examines how local governments, utilities, and program implementers can replicate the success of DC and NYC. It gathers the findings from the Cities’ and their partners’ efforts to fully understand the datasets, overcome integration challenges, and apply the data to visual engagement, strategic outreach, evidence-based policymaking, and retrofit project identification and deployment. The paper goes beyond theoretical discussion by outlining practical application of data using specific examples from NYC and DC, summarizing challenges and findings, and highlighting next steps for other jurisdictions to learn from and build off the work done in those jurisdictions.

Cities↗

Improved charge breeding efficiency of light ions with an electron cyclotron resonance ion source

The Californium Rare Isotope Breeder Upgrade is a new radioactive beam facility for the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS). The facility utilizes a {sup 252}Cf fission source coupled with an electron cyclotron resonance ion source to provide radioactive beam species for the ATLAS experimental program. The californium fission fragment distribution provides nuclei in the mid-mass range which are difficult to extract from production targets using the isotope separation on line technique and are not well populated by low-energy fission of uranium. To date the charge breeding program has focused on optimizing these mid-mass beams, achieving high charge breeding efficiencies of both gaseous and solid species including 14.7% for the radioactive species {sup 143}Ba{sup 27+}. In an effort to better understand the charge breeding mechanism, we have recently focused on the low-mass species sodium and potassium which up to present have been difficult to charge breed efficiently. Unprecedented charge breeding efficiencies of 10.1% for {sup 23}Na{sup 7+} and 17.9% for {sup 39}K{sup 10+} were obtained injecting stable Na{sup +} and K{sup +} beams from a surface ionization source.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Quantum optimization algorithms: Energetic implications

Since the dawn of quantum computing (QC), theoretical developments like Shor's algorithm proved the conceptual superiority of QC over traditional computing. However, such quantum supremacy claims are difficult to achieve in practice because of the technical challenges of realizing noiseless qubits. In the near future, QC applications will need to rely on noisy quantum devices that offload part of their work to classical devices. One way to achieve this is by using parameterized quantum circuits in optimization or even in machine learning tasks. The energy requirements of quantum algorithms have not yet been studied extensively. Here in this article, we explore several optimization algorithms using both theoretical insights and numerical experiments to understand their impact on energy consumption. Specifically, we highlight why and how algorithms like quantum natural gradient descent, simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximations or circuit learning methods, are at least 2x to 4x more energy efficient than their classical counterparts; why feedback-based quantum optimization is energy-inefficient; and how techniques like Rosalin can improve the energy efficiency of other algorithms by a factor of ≥2 0 x. Finally, we use the NchooseK high-level programming model to run optimization problems on both gate-based quantum computers and quantum annealers. Empirical data indicate that these optimization problems run faster, have better success rates, and consume less energy on quantum annealers than on their gate-based counterparts.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Two (or more) for one: Identifying classes of household energy- and water-saving measures to understand the potential for positive spillover

A key component of behavior-based energy conservation programs is the identification of target behaviors. A common approach is to target behaviors with the greatest energy-saving potential. The concept of behavioral spillover introduces further considerations, namely that adoption of one energy-saving behavior may increase (or decrease) the likelihood of other energy-saving behaviors. This research aimed to identify and describe household energy- and water-saving measure classes within which positive spillover is likely to occur (e.g., adoption of energy-efficient appliances may correlate with adoption of water-efficient appliances), and explore demographic and psychographic predictors of each. Nearly 1,000 households in a California city were surveyed and asked to report whether they had adopted 75 different energy- and/or water-saving measures. Principal Component Analysis and Network Analysis based on correlations between adoption of these diverse measures revealed and characterized eight water-energy-saving measure classes: Water Conservation, Energy Conservation, Maintenance and Management, Efficient Appliance, Advanced Efficiency, Efficient Irrigation, Green Gardening, and Green Landscaping. Understanding these measure classes can help guide behavior-based energy program developers in selecting target behaviors and designing interventions.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Carrboro, North Carolina: Achieving Building Efficiencies for Low-Income Households (City Energy: From Data to Decisions)

This fact sheet "Carrboro, North Carolina: Achieving Building Efficiencies for Low-Income Households" explains how the Town of Carrboro used data from the U.S. Department of Energy's Cities Leading through Energy Analysis and Planning (Cities-LEAP) and the State and Local Energy Data (SLED) programs to inform its city energy planning. It is one of ten fact sheets in the "City Energy: From Data to Decisions" series.

bedroom community↗

Incorporating Valve Switching Losses Into a Static Optimal Control Algorithm for the Hybrid Hydraulic-Electric Architecture (HHEA)

The Hybrid Hydraulic-Electric Architecture (HHEA) has, in recent years, been proposed as an energy efficient alternative to conventional load-sensing architectures in mobile machines such as excavators and wheel-loaders. HHEA leverages the advantages of hydraulic power and electric power to eliminate throttling valves while also improving the energy and control performance of the system. The architecture utilizes a set of common pressure rails to provide a majority of power and and a small electric motor driven pump to modulate this power to meet the exact demand. Previous work has developed a computationally efficient Lagrange Multiplier approach for determining the optimal pressure rail selections that minimizes the energy losses in the system. The static model used considers only the energy use for each pressure rail selection but not the losses associated with the valves during the transition. This paper presents an approach to include the switching losses in the model and in the optimization procedure. To capture the switching losses, switching events between different rails and at various input and output flow rates were simulated with consideration of valve spool dynamics. A parameterized model that summarizes the losses is then obtained, allowing switching losses to be added to the previous energy analysis. The performance of the switching loss model was compared with reference data obtained from a high-fidelity simulation model. To incorporate the switching losses into optimal control algorithm, an efficient dynamic programming approach that prevents frequent switching is adopted in place of the Lagrange multiplier approach. The overall effect of switching losses on the energy consumption and optimal control decisions is presented. In general, switching losses contribute to about 9–10% of input energy.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

A New Gold Mine? Achieving HVAC Energy Efficiency Through a System Metric

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.

Liu, Bing↗

Clean Energy in City Codes: A Baseline Analysis of Municipal Codification across the United States

Municipal governments in the United States are well positioned to influence clean energy (energy efficiency and alternative energy) and transportation technology and strategy implementation within their jurisdictions through planning, programs, and codification. Municipal governments are leveraging planning processes and programs to shape their energy futures. There is limited understanding in the literature related to codification, the primary way that municipal governments enact enforceable policies. The authors fill the gap in the literature by documenting the status of municipal codification of clean energy and transportation across the United States. More directly, we leverage online databases of municipal codes to develop national and state-specific representative samples of municipal governments by population size. Our analysis finds that municipal governments with the authority to set residential building energy codes within their jurisdictions frequently do so. In some cases, communities set codes higher than their respective state governments. Examination of codes across the nation indicates that municipal governments are employing their code as a policy mechanism to address clean energy and transportation.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗