Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Clean Energy to Communities”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Clean Energy to Communities: Gap Region Outreach Project

The Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) program provides expertise and tools to local and regional governments, Tribes, community-based organizations, municipal utilities, and rural electric cooperatives to help them achieve their clean energy goals. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched C2C in 2022, following engagement with more than 150 stakeholders representing 95 communities in 40 states and 6 Tribes. The program offers three levels of support: expert match, peer-learning cohorts, and in-depth partnerships. In its first year, C2C worked with over 150 communities. To ensure broad participation, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) examined regional representation. This analysis revealed that four regions are under-represented in program participation: Gulf South, Appalachia, Midwest, and Northern Plains. To help address these gaps, NREL led an effort to identify barriers faced by potential C2C participants from these regions and develop strategies to facilitate participation. This document summarizes findings from this effort and provides recommendations for program changes.

C2C↗
DOE OSTI2024

Lessons Learned from the Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) Peer-Learning Cohort Incorporating Community Priorities into Electric Vehicle Plans and Projects

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), with support from World Resources Institute (WRI), designed and led a six-month peer-learning cohort from January through July 2024 on "Enhancing Resilience at Critical Facilities through Solar, Storage, and Microgrids" as part of the U.S Department of Energy's Clean Energy to Communities (nrel.gov/c2c) (C2C) program. Representatives from 15 municipalities, municipal utilities, colleges, and Tribes from across the United States participated in monthly workshops covering best practices for planning and deploying local resilience projects. This document shares key takeaways, lessons learned, and resources from the cohort including key steps that can be taken to help entities design effective community engagement processes around clean mobility.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,ENERGY PLANNING, POLIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Lessons Learned from the Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) Peer-Learning Cohort Evaluating and Prioritizing Municipal Buildings for Energy Efficiency and Decarbonization Investment

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), with support from World Resources Institute (WRI), designed and led a six-month peer-learning cohort from January through July 2024 on "Enhancing Resilience at Critical Facilities through Solar, Storage, and Microgrids" as part of the U.S Department of Energy's Clean Energy to Communities (nrel.gov/c2c) (C2C) program. Representatives from 15 municipalities, municipal utilities, colleges, and Tribes from across the United States participated in monthly workshops covering best practices for planning and deploying local resilience projects. This document shares key takeaways, lessons learned, and resources from the cohort.

buildings↗
DOE OSTI2024

Lessons Learned from the Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) Peer-Learning Cohort Enhancing Resilience at Critical Facilities through Solar, Storage, and Microgrids

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), with support from World Resources Institute (WRI), designed and led a six-month peer-learning cohort from January through July 2024 on "Enhancing Resilience at Critical Facilities through Solar, Storage, and Microgrids" as part of the U.S Department of Energy's Clean Energy to Communities (nrel.gov/c2c) (C2C) program. Representatives from 15 municipalities, municipal utilities, colleges, and Tribes from across the United States participated in monthly workshops covering best practices for planning and deploying local resilience projects. This document shares key takeaways, lessons learned, and resources from the cohort including considerations for planning, proposing, designing, procuring, and funding microgrid projects for resilience.

C2C↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Clean Energy Deployment Baseline for the Energy Community and Low-Income Tax Credit Bonuses [Slides]

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 introduced, for the first time, place-based federal tax incentives for projects sited in “Energy Communities,” potentially changing the economic calculus of where projects are best sited. Storage projects can qualify for a 10-percentage-point bonus to the Investment Tax Credit (e.g., from 30% to 40%), while wind and solar projects may qualify for either the ITC bonus or a 10% bonus to the Production Tax Credit (e.g., from $\$27.5$ to $\$30.25$/MWh). Energy Communities are areas with historical ties to fossil fuel industries and above average unemployment levels (FFEU), with closed coal mines or power plants, or contaminated properties. They seek to identify locations across the US that could especially benefit from economic revitalization. This report explores how the new federal tax credit incentives are impacting clean energy deployment patterns and establishes historical baselines against which future changes can be compared. We include a few case studies of clean energy projects going specifically to areas that were recently impacted by coal power plant closures to provide concrete examples of investments in Energy Communities. However, this publication does not assess how much of the incentive benefits pass from clean energy developers to hosting communities, nor does it offer a comprehensive view of the economic effects of clean energy deployment on Energy Communities. Key highlights include: - As clean energy projects take multiple years to conceptualize and develop, it is likely too early to see shifts towards Energy Community locations either among newly built projects or those that entered interconnection queues in 2023. - Approximately 35% of onshore wind, 50% of solar, and 60% of storage capacity built in 2023 and the first half of 2024 are located in Energy Communities, making them likely eligible for bonus incentives. While these bonus incentives were not available to projects coming online before 2023, we used 2023 Energy Community definitions to classify whether past projects were built in what is now considered an Energy Community. The deployment levels for 2023-2024 are similar to recent years (2020-2022) for solar and storage but slightly lower for wind. - Clean energy capacity has surged in the interconnection queues over the last few years, with about 45-50% of both recently proposed and total queued capacity being located in Energy Communities. While the amount of capacity in Energy Communities has also grown, its relative share is either stable (solar and storage) or slightly lower (wind) among projects that entered the queue in 2023. - Clean energy projects can be built at lower costs in Energy Communities. The levelized cost of energy after incentives was on average $\$9$/MWh (24%) lower for solar projects and $\$2$/MWh (6%) lower for wind projects built in 2023, relative to projects not located in Energy Communities. Wholesale electricity values at Energy Community locations relative to the rest of the market vary by region. The average value was often higher for wind projects (-$\$3$ to $\$11$/MWh) but lower for solar projects (-$\$6$ to 0/MWh). - Distributed solar that is owned by commercial entities is eligible for the Energy Community bonus and also, potentially, a Low-Income Community bonus. Residential solar installations in qualifying Energy Communities that are third-party owned represent about 10% of the total residential market. Larger commercial and industrial solar installations in Energy Communities make up 17% of the total market in 2023. Nearly 2 GW of distributed solar was built in areas qualifying as Low-Income Communities in 2023, exceeding the available annual program cap of 700 MW. Continued tracking of these trends will be important for system planners, investors, and local communities.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Agrivoltaics Basics

The first in a series of five fact sheets about agrivoltaics based on themes from U.S. Department of Energy Clean Energy to Communities technical assistance projects, this document includes information about agrivoltaics basics.

agriculture↗
DOE OSTI2024

Agrivoltaics Groundwork

The third in a series of five fact sheets about agrivoltaics based on themes from U.S. Department of Energy Clean Energy to Communities technical assistance projects, this document includes information about agrivoltaics groundwork.

agriculture↗
DOE OSTI2024

Agrivoltaics Technical Assistance

The second in a series of five fact sheets about agrivoltaics based on themes from U.S. Department of Energy Clean Energy to Communities technical assistance projects, this document includes information about agrivoltaics technical assistance.

agriculture↗
DOE OSTI2024

Agrivoltaics Pathway

The fourth in a series of five fact sheets about agrivoltaics based on themes from U.S. Department of Energy Clean Energy to Communities technical assistance projects, this document includes information about the agrivoltaics pathway.

agriculture↗
DOE OSTI2024

Agrivoltaic Designs and Configurations

The fifth in a series of five fact sheets about agrivoltaics based on themes from U.S. Department of Energy Clean Energy to Communities technical assistance projects, this document includes information about agrivoltaic designs and configurations.

agriculture↗
DOE OSTI2024

Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) Study for Vernon County, Wisconsin [Slides]

Viroqua is a town in Wisconsin with a population of approximately 4,500. The Vernon County Energy district is a local nonprofit in Viroqua that provides energy education, individualized energy consulting and coaching to residents and businesses. They have a very good relationship with our county government and wish to support their efforts. The Vernon County government is currently working on a comprehensive plan and would like to include planning for electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure in the plan. They are seeking guidance on logical phases for implementation and identifying the best locations for Level 2 and Level 3 EV chargers. NREL provided technical input on strategic planning for electric vehicle (EV) adoption and electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) expansion in Vernon County through the Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) Expert Match technical assistance program. NREL provided strategic planning support for EV expansion planning in Vernon County and siting considerations for locating EVSE.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Strategies for Residential Energy Efficiency and Community Resilience for Floyd County, Kentucky

This report outlines the technical assistance provided to Floyd County Fiscal Court, Kentucky, and Vision Granted through the U.S. Department of Energy Clean Energy to Communities Expert Match Program. Floyd County, designated as “distressed” and “disadvantaged,” faces significant economic challenges, including limited job prospects, high energy costs, and youth “brain drain.” This technical assistance aims to address these pressing issues by implementing strategies to enhance home energy efficiency and livability while also aligning retrofit efforts with goals for resilience and workforce development. Through targeted guidance, this report aims to empower Floyd County residents and organizations in navigating resources for improving housing conditions, creating workforce opportunities, and enhancing resilience.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2026

Green Era Anaerobic Digester

Green Era Educational NFP constructed and commissioned the Green Era Renewable Energy & Urban Farming Campus in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood. The project transformed a long-vacant brownfield site into a commercial-scale anaerobic digestion facility that converts food waste into renewable natural gas and nutrient-rich material for agricultural use. The facility can process up to 80,000 wet tons of food waste annually and supports approximately 15 permanent jobs while advancing food waste diversion, renewable energy production, nutrient recovery and community revitalization.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Developing socially and economically generative, resilient PV-energy systems for low- and moderate-income communities: Applications for Puerto Rico (Final Technical Report)

The nexus of energy and poverty is one of the most significant long-term challenges facing the energy and electricity sectors, with negative feedback loops between energy-related costs, risks, and insecurities, on the one hand, and diverse other social and economic insecurities, on the other, helping to undermine health, wellbeing, and resilience in low- and moderate-income communities around the US and the world (Biswas et al. 2022). The transition of energy systems to clean energy alternatives offers a potential opportunity to redesign future energy arrangements in ways that, instead, create beneficial social value for communities, reverses the energy-poverty nexus, and enhances community wellbeing (Biswas et al. 2020; Miller et al. 2018). The promise of clean energy transitions to address the energy-poverty nexus is especially significant when designed using principles of just energy transitions. To leverage just clean energy transitions to accomplish a reversal of the energy-poverty nexus requires improvement in three capabilities: (1) Understanding and mapping the community-scale dynamics and variability of the energy-poverty nexus, which vary considerably from community to community; (2) Evaluating the technical, social, and economic potential for different clean energy system designs to deliver social value to specific communities; and (3) Working collaboratively with communities to imagine and design clean energy systems solutions that meet their needs, fit their capabilities and contexts, and deliver multiple forms of community-desired social value/benefits that help reverse key facets of the energy-poverty nexus. This project developed a portfolio of novel tools, methodological approaches, and collaborative partnerships with four communities in Puerto Rico that further the objective of building these three capabilities.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Zero-Emissions Roadmap for Oakland County

This document outlines a strategic pathway for Oakland County, Michigan to achieve zero emissions by 2050 under the Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) Program. The report encompasses analyses and high-level modeling to guide Oakland County in its emission reduction goals. Key methods include establishing an emissions inventory baseline with ongoing evaluation of future projects’ emissions impacts. Core elements include decommissioning old infrastructure, enhancing energy efficiency, deploying hybrid and ground-source heat pumps, and transitioning to electric fleets. It is proposed to structure the planning process into 5-year strategic plans to make the decarbonization process manageable. The document also emphasizes the need for reassessment of goals and periodic updates to remain adaptive to technological advancements and funding considerations. A matrixed approach for evaluating projects by cost and emissions savings is suggested to optimize decision-making given finite resources.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

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↗