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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 1,297 records · Page 72

1st Advanced Marine Renewable Energy Instrumentation Experts Workshop

The U.S. marine energy industry is actively pursuing development of offshore wind and marine hydrokinetic (MHK) energy systems. Experience in the wind energy sector demonstrates that new technology development requires thorough measurement and characterization of the environmental conditions prevalent at installation sites and of technology operating in the field. Presently, there are no turn-key instrumentation system solutions that meet the measurement needs of the marine energy industry. The 1st Advanced Marine Renewable Energy Instrumentation Experts Workshop brought together technical experts from government laboratories, academia, and industry representatives from marine energy, wind, offshore oil and gas, and instrumentation developers to present and discuss the instrumentation needs of the marine energy industry. The goals of the meeting were to: 1. Share the latest relevant knowledge among technical experts; 2. Review relevant state-of-the-art field measurement technologies and methods; 3. Review lessons learned from recent field deployments; 4. Identify synergies across different industries; 5. Identify gaps between existing and needed instrumentation capabilities; 6. Understand who are the leading experts; 7. Provide a forum where stakeholders from the marine energy industry could provide substantive input in the development of new marine energy field deployable instrumentation packages.

DOE/GO-102011-3342↗

Offshore Energy Knowledge Exchange Workshop Report

A report detailing the presentations and topics discussed at the Offshore Energy Knowledge Exchange Workshop, an event designed to bring together offshore energy industry representatives to share information, best practices, and lessons learned.

boem↗

Strategy Guideline: Demonstration Home

This guideline will provide a general overview of the different kinds of demonstration home projects, a basic understanding of the different roles and responsibilities involved in the successful completion of a demonstration home, and an introduction into some of the lessons learned from actual demonstration home projects. Also, this guideline will specifically look at the communication methods employed during demonstration home projects. And lastly, we will focus on how to best create a communication plan for including an energy efficient message in a demonstration home project and carry that message to successful completion.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Highly Insulating Windows Volume Purchase Program (Final Report)

This report documents the development, execution outcomes and lessons learned of the Highly Insulating Windows Volume Purchase (WVP) Program carried out over a three-year period from 2009 through 2012. The primary goals of the program were met: 1) reduce the incremental cost of highly insulating windows compared to ENERGY STAR windows; and 2) raise the public and potential buyers’ awareness of highly insulating windows and their benefits. A key outcome of the program is that the 2013 ENERGY STAR Most Efficient criteria for primary residential windows were adopted from the technical specifications set forth in the WVP program.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Implementing a Zero Energy Ready Home Multifamily Project

An objective of this project was to gain a highly visible foothold for residential buildings built to the U.S. Department of Energy's Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) specification that can be used to encourage participation by other California builders. This report briefly describes two single family homes that were ZERH-certified, and focuses on the experience of working with developer Mutual Housing on a 62 unit multi-family community at the Spring Lake subdivision in Woodland, CA. The Spring Lake project is expected to be the first ZERH certified multi-family project nationwide. This report discusses challenges encountered, lessons learned, and how obstacles were overcome.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Field Trial of a Low-Cost, Distributed Plug Load Monitoring System

Researchers have struggled to inventory and characterize the energy use profiles of the ever-growing category of so-called miscellaneous electric loads (MELs) because plug-load monitoring is cost-prohibitive to the researcher and intrusive to the homeowner. However, these data represent a crucial missing link to understanding how homes use energy. Detailed energy use profiles would enable the nascent automated home energy management (AHEM) industry to develop effective control algorithms that target consumer electronics and other plug loads. If utility and other efficiency programs are to incent AHEM devices, they need large-scale datasets that provide statistically meaningful justification of their investments by quantifying the aggregate energy savings achievable. To address this need, NREL researchers investigated a variety of plug-load measuring devices available commercially and tested them in the laboratory to identify the most promising candidates for field applications. This report centers around the lessons learned from a field validation of one proof-of-concept system, called Smartenit (formerly SimpleHomeNet). The system was evaluated based on the rate of successful data queries, reliability over a period of days to weeks, and accuracy. This system offers good overall performance when deployed with up to 10 end nodes in a residential environment, although deployment with more nodes and in a commercial environment is much less robust. NREL concludes that the current system is useful in selected field research projects, with the recommendation that system behavior is observed over time.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Advancing System Flexibility for High Penetration Renewable Integration

This report summarizes some of the issues discussed during the engagement on power system flexibility. By design, the focus is on flexibility options used in the United States. Exploration of whether and how U.S. experiences can inform Chinese energy planning will be part of the continuing project, and will benefit from the knowledge base provided by this report. We believe the initial stage of collaboration represented in this report has successfully started a process of mutual understanding, helping Chinese researchers to begin evaluating how lessons learned in other countries might translate to China's unique geographic, economic, social, and political contexts.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Developing a Natural Gas-Powered Bus Rapid Transit Service. A Case Study

The Roaring Fork Transit Authority (RFTA) and its VelociRFTA Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) program are unique in many ways. For example, VelociRFTA was the first rural BRT system in the United States and the operational environment of the VelociRFTA BRT is one of the most severe in the country, with extreme winter temperatures and altitudes close to 8,000 feet. RFTA viewed high altitude operation as the most challenging characteristic when it began considering the use of natural gas. RFTA is the second-largest public transit system in Colorado behind Denver's Regional Transportation District (RTD), and it is one of the largest rural public transit systems in the country. In 2013, RFTA accepted delivery of 22 new compressed natural gas (CNG) buses that went into service after completion of maintenance and refueling facilities earlier that year. This paper examines the lessons learned from RFTA's experience of investigating--and ultimately choosing--CNG for their new BRT program and focuses on the unique environment of RFTA's BRT application; the decision process to include CNG fueling in the project; unforeseen difficulties encountered in the operation of CNG buses; public perception; cost comparison to competing fuels; and considerations for indoor fueling facilities and project funding.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Fuel Cell Buses in U.S. Transit Fleets: Current Status 2015

This report, published annually, summarizes the progress of fuel cell electric bus (FCEB) development in the United States and discusses the achievements and challenges of introducing fuel cell propulsion in transit. Various stakeholders, including FCEB developers, transit agencies, and system integrators, have expressed the value of this annual status report, which provides a summary of results from evaluations performed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The annual status report tracks the progress of the FCEB industry toward meeting technical targets, documents the lessons learned, and discusses the path forward for commercial viability of fuel cell technology for transit buses. The 2015 summary results primarily focus on the most recent year for each demonstration, from August 2014 through July 2015. The results for these buses account for more than 1,045,000 miles traveled and 83,000 hours of fuel cell power system operation. The primary results presented in the report are from two demonstrations of fuel-cell-dominant bus designs: the Zero Emission Bay Area Demonstration Group led by Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) in California and the American Fuel Cell Bus Project at SunLine Transit Agency in California.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Guidance for the Design and Adoption of Analytic Tools.

The goal is to make software developers aware of common issues that can impede the adoption of analytic tools. This paper provides a summary of guidelines, lessons learned and existing research to explain what is currently known about what analysts want and how to better understand what tools they do and don't need.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Design and construction of coal/biomass to liquids (CBTL) process development unit (PDU) at the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER)

This report describes a first phase of a project to design, construct and commission an integrated coal/biomass-to-liquids facility at a capacity of 1 bbl. /day at the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research (UK-CAER) – specifically for construction of the building and upstream process units for feed handling, gasification, and gas cleaning, conditioning and compression. The deliverables from the operation of this pilot plant [when fully equipped with the downstream process units] will be firstly the liquid FT products and finished fuels which are of interest to UK-CAER’s academic, government and industrial research partners. The facility will produce research quantities of FT liquids and finished fuels for subsequent Fuel Quality Testing, Performance and Acceptability. Moreover, the facility is expected to be employed for a range of research and investigations related to: Feed Preparation, Characteristics and Quality; Coal and Biomass Gasification; Gas Clean-up/ Conditioning; Gas Conversion by FT Synthesis; Product Work-up and Refining; Systems Analysis and Integration; and Scale-up and Demonstration. Environmental Considerations - particularly how to manage and reduce carbon dioxide emissions from CBTL facilities and from use of the fuels - will be a primary research objectives. Such a facility has required significant lead time for environmental review, architectural/building construction, and EPC services. UK, with DOE support, has advanced the facility in several important ways. These include: a formal EA/FONSI, and permits and approvals; construction of a building; selection of a range of technologies and vendors; and completion of the upstream process units. The results of this project are the FEED and detailed engineering studies, the alternate configurations and the as-built plant - its equipment and capabilities for future research and demonstration and its adaptability for re-purposing to meet other needs. These are described in some detail in this report, along with lessons learned.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Experiences from the Consumer Behavior Studies on Engaging Customers

One of the most important aspects for the successful implementation of customer-facing programs is to better understand how to engage and communicate with consumers. Customer-facing programs include time-based rates, information and feedback, load management, and energy efficiency. This report presents lessons learned by utilities through consumer behavior studies (CBS) conducted as part of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) program. The SGIG CBS effort presents a unique opportunity to advance the understanding of consumer behaviors in terms of customer acceptance and retention, and electricity consumption and peak demand impacts. The effort includes eleven comprehensive studies with the aim of evaluating the response of residential and small commercial customers to time-based rate programs implemented in conjunction with advanced metering infrastructure and customer systems such as in-home displays, programmable communicating thermostats, and web portals. DOE set guidelines and protocols that sought to help the utilities design studies that would rigorously test and more precisely estimate the impact of time-based rates on customers’ energy usage patterns, as well as identify the key drivers that motivate behavioral changes.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Interim Report on Customer Acceptance, Retention, and Response to Time-Based Rates from the Consumer Behavior Studies

Time-based rate programs1, enabled by utility investments in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), are increasingly being considered by utilities as tools to reduce peak demand and enable customers to better manage consumption and costs. There are several customer systems that are relatively new to the marketplace and have the potential for improving the effectiveness of these programs, including in-home displays (IHDs), programmable communicating thermostats (PCTs), and web portals. Policy and decision makers are interested in more information about customer acceptance, retention, and response before moving forward with expanded deployments of AMI-enabled new rates and technologies. Under the Smart Grid Investment Grant Program (SGIG), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) partnered with several utilities to conduct consumer behavior studies (CBS). The goals involved applying randomized and controlled experimental designs for estimating customer responses more precisely and credibly to advance understanding of time-based rates and customer systems, and provide new information for improving program designs, implementation strategies, and evaluations. The intent was to produce more robust and credible analysis of impacts, costs, benefits, and lessons learned and assist utility and regulatory decision makers in evaluating investment opportunities involving time-based rates. To help achieve these goals, DOE developed technical guidelines to help the CBS utilities estimate customer acceptance, retention, and response more precisely.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

AGR-1 Post Irradiation Examination Final Report

The post-irradiation examination (PIE) of the Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR)-1 experiment was a multi-year, collaborative effort between Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to study the performance of UCO (uranium carbide, uranium oxide) tristructural isotropic (TRISO) coated particle fuel fabricated in the U.S. and irradiated at the Advanced Test Reactor at INL to a peak burnup of 19.6% fissions per initial metal atom. This work involved a broad array of experiments and analyses to evaluate the level of fission product retention by the fuel particles and compacts (both during irradiation and during post-irradiation heating tests to simulate reactor accident conditions), investigate the kernel and coating layer morphology evolution and the causes of coating failure, and explore the migration of fission products through the coating layers. The results have generally confirmed the excellent performance of the AGR-1 fuel, first indicated during the irradiation by the observation of zero TRISO coated particle failures out of 298,000 particles in the experiment. Overall release of fission products was determined by PIE to have been relatively low during the irradiation. A significant finding was the extremely low levels of cesium released through intact coatings. This was true both during the irradiation and during post-irradiation heating tests to temperatures as high as 1800°C. Post-irradiation safety test fuel performance was generally excellent. Silver release from the particles and compacts during irradiation was often very high. Extensive microanalysis of fuel particles was performed after irradiation and after high-temperature safety testing. The results of particle microanalysis indicate that the UCO fuel is effective at controlling the oxygen partial pressure within the particle and limiting kernel migration. Post-irradiation examination has provided the final body of data that speaks to the quality of the AGR-1 fuel, building on the as-fabricated fuel characterization and irradiation data. In addition to the extensive volume of results generated, the work also resulted in a number of novel analysis techniques and lessons learned that are being applied to the examination of fuel from subsequent TRISO fuel irradiations. This report provides a summary of the results obtained as part of the AGR-1 PIE campaign over its approximately 5-year duration.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Idaho National Laboratory’s FY14 Greenhouse Gas Report

A greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory is a systematic approach to account for the production and release of certain gases generated by an institution from various emission sources. The gases of interest are those that climate science has identified as related to anthropogenic global climate change. This document presents an inventory of GHGs generated during Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 by Idaho National Laboratory (INL), a Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored entity, located in southeastern Idaho. In recent years, concern has grown about the environmental impact of GHGs. This, together with a desire to decrease harmful environmental impacts, would be enough to encourage the calculation of an inventory of the total GHGs generated at INL. Additionally, INL has a desire to see how its emissions compare with similar institutions, including other DOE national laboratories. Executive Order 13514 requires that federal agencies and institutions document reductions in GHG emissions. INL’s GHG inventory was calculated according to methodologies identified in federal GHG guidance documents using operational control boundaries. It measures emissions generated in three scopes: (1) INL emissions produced directly by stationary or mobile combustion and by fugitive emissions, (2) the share of emissions generated by entities from which INL purchased electrical power, and (3) indirect or shared emissions generated by outsourced activities that benefit INL (occur outside INL’s organizational boundaries, but are a consequence of INL’s activities). This inventory found that INL generated 73,521 metric tons (MT) of CO2 equivalent (CO2e ) emissions during FY14. The following conclusions were made from looking at the results of the individual contributors to INL’s FY14 GHG inventory: • Electricity (including the associated transmission and distribution losses) is the largest contributor to INL’s GHG inventory, with over 50% of the CO2e emissions • Other sources with high emissions were stationary combustion (facility fuels), employee commuting, mobile combustion (fleet fuels), business air travel, and waste disposal (including fugitive emissions from the onsite landfill and contracted disposal) • Sources with low emissions were wastewater treatment (onsite and contracted), business ground travel (in personal and rental vehicles), and fugitive emissions from refrigerants. This report details the methods behind quantifying INL’s GHG inventory and discusses lessons learned on better practices by which information important to tracking GHGs can be tracked and recorded. It is important to note that because this report differentiates between those portions of INL that are managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA) and those managed by other contractors, it includes only the large proportion of Laboratory activities overseen by BEA. It is assumed that other contractors will provide similar reporting for those activities they manage, where appropriate.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Sub-Area: 2.5 Demonstration of Promising Energy Storage Technologies - Project Type: Flywheel Energy Storage Demonstration (Revision V1.0)

In this program, Amber Kinetics designed, built, and tested a sub-­scale 5 kWh engineering prototype flywheel system. Applying lessons learned from the engineering prototype, Amber Kinetics then designed, built and tested full-­size, commercial-­scale 25 kWh flywheel systems. The systems underwent basic functional qualification testing before being installed, sequentially, at the company’s outdoor test site in Alameda, CA for full-­speed field-testing. The primary considerations in testing the prototype units were to demonstrate the functionality of the system, verify the frequencies of resonant modes, and quantify spinning losses and motor/generator efficiency.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Performance and Costs of Ductless Heat Pumps in Marine-Climate High-Performance Homes -- Habitat for Humanity The Woods

This final Building America Partnership report focuses on the results of field testing, modeling, and monitoring of ductless mini-split heat pump hybrid heating systems in seven homes built and first occupied at various times between September 2013 and October 2014. The report also provides WSU documentation of high-performance home observations, lessons learned, and stakeholder recommendations for builders of affordable high-performance housing.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗