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Clean Cities and Communities Overview

Clean Cities and Communities is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) partnership that fosters collaboration and innovation to advance transportation energy choices nationwide. More than 75 DOE-designated Clean Cities and Communities coalitions work in urban, suburban, and rural areas to deliver objective technical expertise based on a unique understanding of local markets. As partners with DOE's Transportation Technologies Office, coalitions build bridges between national priorities and local needs to create transportation energy systems that are affordable, reliable, and secure.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI

Clean Cities and Communities Partnership 2024 Activity Report

Clean Cities and Communities (CC&C) is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) partnership that fosters collaboration and innovation to advance transportation energy choices nationwide. More than 75 DOE-designated CC&C coalitions work in urban, suburban, and rural areas to deliver objective technical expertise based on a unique understanding of local markets. As partners with DOE's Transportation Technologies Office (TTO), coalitions build bridges between national priorities and local needs to create transportation energy systems that are affordable, reliable, and secure. Together, coalitions create compounding impacts nationwide that support locally driven energy choices and benefit regional economic development and job growth. This report summarizes the success and impact of partnership activities based on data and information provided in their annual reports.

2024

Clean Cities and Communities Partnership 2023 Activity Report

This is the 2023 report for the Clean Cities and Communities (CC&C) partnership. It tracks the metrics that have been reported by individual coalitions and aggregated to the national level. It looks at the various outreach activities, grant activities, and implementation of clean transportation technologies. Such technologies include natural gas vehicles, electric vehicles, propane vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, biodiesel, ethanol, idle reduction technologies, fuel economy improvement technologies, vehicle-miles-traveled reduction technologies, and off-road technologies. The CC&C partnership had an energy use impact of over 1 billion gallons in 2023 and reduced emissions by nine million tons. Outreach, engagement, and training activities increased 18% from last year.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY

Clean Cities and Communities Small Project Funding

The presentation will address the varied and diverse ways that NLR provides DOE funding to support Clean Cities and Communities coalition projects. This includes three project approaches: Jumpstart funding, Coalition Building, and Energy to Communities (E2C).

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY

Advancing Affordable, Efficient, and Clean Transportation

Clean Cities and Communities is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) partnership to advance clean transportation nationwide. More than 75 DOE-designated Clean Cities and Communities coalitions work locally in urban, suburban, and rural communities to strengthen the nation's environment, energy security, and economic prosperity. As partners with DOE's Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO), coalitions work to deploy affordable, efficient, and clean transportation; energy efficient mobility systems; and fuel-saving technologies and practices.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS

E2C Cohorts: Implementation Funding Projects - Impact Summary [Slides]

From August 2024 to October 2025, 11 Clean Cities and Communities coalitions supported projects to advance transportation goals by gathering input from local stakeholders, and using the resulting insights to develop new plans and programs for local partners. This effort leveraged information and best practices shared during the 2024 E2C Cohort on Integrating Community Priorities into Electric Vehicle Plans and Projects. These coalitions supported partners across the country to develop plans for electric vehicle integration through one-on-one technical assistance and tailored local engagement. This deck summarizes the individual projects completed by coalitions, and the overall reach and impact of all of this program.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY

Municipal Fleet Action Plan Guide

This action plan template and guide have been designed to support light-duty or medium-duty municipal fleet managers as they plan to adopt electric vehicles. The resource is an adaptation of content created by the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), with support from World Resources Institute (WRI), for participants in the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy to Communities peer-learning cohort, Charting a Path to Municipal Fleet Electrification. Fifteen participating municipalities joined monthly cohort workshops from July through December 2024 to learn and plan for their own fleet electrification. Clean Cities and Communities coalitions supported participating municipalities throughout the cohort series by conducting fleet analysis and planning activities on their behalf. This template is an adapted version of cohort activities.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY

Launch Alaska Transportation and Energy Accelerator (LATEA)

The Launch Alaska Transportation and Energy Accelerator (LATEA), funded through the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Technology Commercialization’s Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC),advanced deployment of innovative and efficient transportation and energy technology in Alaska from October 2021 through June 2025. The project was designed to leverage Launch Alaska’s accelerator model to identify, recruit, and support transportation technology companies with novel solutions to market needs while building the stakeholder networks, demonstration opportunities, and institutional capacity necessary to accelerate commercialization in one of the most challenging operating environments in the United States.

08 HYDROGEN

Community-Informed Urban Flood Modeling for Impact Mitigation

The intensification of the hydrologic cycle due to climate change poses a threat to aging and under-designed water infrastructure systems which cannot adequately manage intense storm events. Developing a comprehensive plan for managing rain-driven flooding events is challenging due to uncertainties in the magnitude and frequency of future storm events and conflicting stakeholder objectives. In the City of Baltimore, Maryland, stormwater infrastructure is struggling to keep up with rainfall-driven (pluvial) flooding events, which regularly damage housing and disrupt transportation for residents. In this study, a hybrid of community engagement, numerical modeling, and artificial intelligence techniques are employed to explore prospective urban flooding adaptations. Community engagement drives the development of an urban flooding model (EPA Storm Water Management Model) for the Baltimore Harbor watershed. The model integrates complex surface and subsurface stormwater infrastructure data from the City, high-resolution spatial data, insights from local public works experts, and the lived experiences of City residents. This co-developed model simulates adaptations of interest to stakeholders in the city, including green and grey infrastructure and operational management strategies. Stormwater management scenarios focused on inlet cleaning and spatially concentrated green infrastructure are found to be the most effective in reducing flood depths in community priority locations. Together, these adaptations can reduce the duration of intersection inundation by more than twenty minutes, allowing for quicker emergency response and restoration of typical transportation systems. Future work will combine this community engaged flooding model with the Deep Uncertainties Pathways framework to explore tradeoffs between adaptations and develop dynamic adaptations which align with community objectives, enhance climate resilience in Baltimore, and can be adjusted in response to changing future conditions.

Ava, Spangler [Pennsylvania State University]

LNPK 156 Geothermal Coalition: Designing and Deploying Clean Energy in a Justice40 Cold Climate Community

The LNPK 156 Geothermal Coalition formed around the idea of building a new geothermal heating and cooling system in Duluth, MN for the Lincoln Park Justice40 neighborhood. The Coalition has been spearheaded by the City of Duluth and the local non-profit Ecolibrium3, and is named after the census tract of the neighborhood containing large portions of Lincoln Park, as well as a wastewater treatment plant, managed by the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD). The idea of building a geothermal system came to fruition over the period of about a decade, with repeated observations that the warm water discharged from the wastewater treatment plant was an energy-rich resource that has currently been untapped and released into the St. Louis River. The objective of this project was to build a geothermal system that harnesses wastewater heat recovery methods and satisfies the demand in a portion of Lincoln Park – a neighborhood experiencing high energy burdens, low life-expectancy, and where the natural gas and fuel oil used to heat homes and businesses results in decreased air quality and increased carbon emissions. The goal was to utilize this wastewater heat recovery method to benefit the neighborhood hosting the wastewater plant itself.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

Electrifying New York’s Affordable Housing

Enterprise Community Partners (Enterprise) joined forces with the Association for Energy Affordability (AEA), with support from the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR). Through this 3-year pilot project, the project partners collaborated to develop tools and processes that efficiently utilize New York State Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) funding to both improve energy efficiency through weatherization and to convert to clean heating systems through electrification. We developed and piloted this approach on five multifamily dwelling buildings, totaling 154 units in New York City, using the energy audit protocol that was developed as part of this project. Our goal was to develop a basis of knowledge for pursuing similar retrofits nationwide.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY

From Silos to Synergy: Identifying a Roadmap for Cross-Sector Research to Accelerate the Clean Energy Transition

The U.S. Department of Energy's blueprints for the transportation, buildings, and electricity sectors call for substantial reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. These plans focus on zero-emission vehicles, investments in transit, energy-efficient buildings, and the widespread adoption and deployment of renewable energy technologies like solar photovoltaics (PV), energy storage and energy-efficient appliances. However, these sectors are often studied and modeled in isolation, overlooking how household decisions to adopt clean technologies in one sector influence others. This study, led by an interdisciplinary team at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), explores opportunities for cross-sector collaboration to drive more effective and equitable decarbonization. Through discussions with 22 NREL researchers across transportation, building, solar, and grid sectors, the study highlights the need for integrated tools and models that capture interactions between these sectors. Key insights include the need for data standardization and interoperability to enable cross-sector analysis and decision-making. Strengthening utility partnerships is also critical to align energy policies with decarbonization goals and manage the increased demand for renewable energy. The study also emphasizes the importance of equity in the clean energy transition, calling for targeted incentives and support to ensure that low-income and underserved communities benefit from clean technologies like electric vehicles and energy-efficient appliances. To support these efforts, innovative funding mechanisms must be expanded to facilitate interdisciplinary research, such as city-specific decarbonization plans and federal projects like DOE"s Standard Scenarios. By encouraging collaboration and integrating cross-sector insights, this study aims to provide a roadmap to accelerate the clean energy transition and ensure it is both sustainable and inclusive.

14 SOLAR ENERGY

New Mobility Technology Assessment - Benefits, Risks, and Safety

The age of vehicle automation is upon us. The fundamental perception and control technology is maturing as we speak (and write) with robo-taxis proliferating in select US cities. The news cycle is no longer filled with technological skepticism, but rather societal commentary on our collective response and use of the technology. This maturing of the technology is also accompanied by a renaissance in new types of urban movement technology to more effectively link people with goods, services, and employment, particularly in dense development areas where vehicle congestion (even automated vehicles) prevents high quality mobility. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, through the DOE Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) program has worked with two jurisdictions to assess the benefits, risks, and safety concerns for a new product offering based on suspended cable technology which is fully automated and proposes an aerial network of self-propelled gondolas. The recognized need, independent of the technology, is to fairly assess the benefits of the proposed transportation system, assess its technical maturity, as well as risks and safety concerns. Using this new technology as an example, a technology represented by Swyft Cities, NREL developed a succession of mini-studies that characterized the technical maturity level, assessed the proposed benefits for Greenville, SC, examined the risks involved in moving forward with an emerging mobility technology, and determined the governing safety protocols and standards that are applicable to the space. These mini-case studies, though centered on Swyft Cities aerial automated gondola technology, are highly transferable to any type of new mobility technology and lays out a repeatable process for assessing new technology within an city or community context.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS

Community-Engaged Energy Transition Planning in Holyoke

The overarching motivation of this project is to provide stakeholder-engaged research and education to enable a clean, equitable, and resilient energy transition. Presently, low-income communities and people of color are disproportionately burdened by environmental harm, while also being routinely left out of planning processes and benefits from infrastructure improvements. The Energy Transition Institute (ETI) addresses these issues in three ways: community engagement, educating diverse future leaders, and cutting-edge research. As municipalities across the Commonwealth plan their transition to a climate-friendly energy system, research from ETI will advance technical and social understanding of heating electrification, energy storage, demand flexibility, reliability and resiliency of power distribution infrastructure, with attention to equity. This will benefit surrounding communities, cities and towns across Massachusetts, and the global research community

14 SOLAR ENERGY