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DOE OSTI2024

Large-scale simulation-based parametric analysis of an optimal precooling strategy for demand flexibility in a commercial office building

Achieving success with grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs) is closely tied to the utilization of flexible loads. A valuable strategy involves the implementation of precooling techniques before high-demand events, such as peak hours, by adjusting zone air temperature setpoints. This leads to a reduction in thermal loads and peak electricity demand during these times, as the building’s thermal mass stores and subsequently releases thermal energy. However, the effectiveness of the pre-cooling optimization is highly contingent on specific conditions such as building thermal properties, weather conditions, utility rate structure, HVAC equipment sizing, etc. Therefore, investigating the impacts of these condition-specific factors is crucial, especially when considering precooling strategies that utilize thermal mass in commercial buildings. In this paper, we first devised a novel heuristic control approach that incorporates parameterized optimal precooling thermostat schedules to enhance demand flexibility in a commercial office building. Subsequently, we conducted a thorough performance evaluation of this control strategy. Here, the optimal thermostat schedule was parameterized using three optimization variables: the precooling start time, the precooling end time, and the precooling temperature setpoint. Utilizing the DOE medium-sized office building as the virtual testbed, we showed that the parameterized schedule effectively approximates model predictive control and requires drastically reduced computational overhead. In addition, we investigated the impact of different influencing factors on the optimal precooling strategy. These factors include building thermal mass, outdoor air conditions, and energy price profiles. Using high-performance computing, we simulated a total of 225 scenarios, consisting of three levels of thermal mass, five typical outdoor air temperature profiles, and fifteen time-of-use price plans. The results demonstrate that optimal thermostat scheduling could save substantial energy cost in medium-sized office buildings with heavy thermal mass but with some energy penalty. Although the potential for cost savings is lower in buildings with low and medium thermal mass, the energy penalty remains consistent in all three thermal mass scenarios. The study also highlights the need to account for zone diversity and recognize that a one-size-fits-all-zone setpoint schedule may not be suitable for all zones and can lead to unnecessary energy wastage. Furthermore, the results highlight that while outdoor air conditions play a role in cost and energy performance, the cooling load exerts a more immediate and substantial influence on cost savings in precooling strategies. Although cost savings are comparable under certain conditions with the same cooling load, observed deviations in energy penalty indicate potential disparities in the efficiency of the HVAC system during the load-shifting process. In addition, the duration of peak pricing and the ratio between peak and off-peak times exhibit clear correlations with cost savings and energy consumption, aligning with intuitive expectations. These findings offer valuable insights for optimizing precooling strategies in office buildings.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2024

Coupled management of electric vehicle workplace charging and office building loads

Significant building energy savings are realized through heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) setpoint adjustment and daylighting control. Workplace charging (WPC) enables colocation of electric vehicles (EVs) with office building loads. We proposed managing energy use of workplace EV charging and the office building and determined the number of EVs that building energy savings can facilitate charging. We simulated building energy savings in typical medium offices in Chicago IL, Baltimore MD, and Houston TX, spanning three US climate regions. Considering the EV hosting capacity of the saved building energy and travel patterns of roundtrip commuting, we minimized EV charging costs under time-of-use electricity pricing. Managed WPC can reduce charging electricity bills compared to first-come, first-served charging. The ratio of EVs to chargers, the coincident period of commuters’ dwell time and lower electricity prices, and the number of EVs in the office impacted the economic benefits achieved through charging management.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2024

Energy Saving Estimation of ASHRAE Guideline 36 Supervisory Setpoint Reset Controls in a Commercial Large Office Building

Designing, commissioning, and retrofitting HVAC control systems for energy efficiency is crucial, but the use of ad-hoc control sequences by designers and contractors, based on scattered information, results in diverse and sub-optimal sequences. ASHRAE Guideline 36 (G36) addresses the challenge by providing standardized, rule-based HVAC control sequences that prioritize energy efficiency. However, there is limited evaluation of their energy performance at the building level, with only a few studies primarily focused on HVAC airside systems in small-to-medium-sized commercial buildings. In this study, the energy performance of ASHRAE Guideline 36 control sequences was assessed using a large office building emulator in Chicago. The emulator features a central plant system with multiple chillers and boilers as well as multiple variable air volume (VAV) systems with terminal reheat. To achieve a high-fidelity representation, we developed a Spawn-of-EnergyPlus-based model for the large office building, maintaining the DOE prototype large office building setup but substituting the HVAC system with its Modelica counterpart. This substitution ensures that the building thermal load, HVAC system's dynamics, and detailed control sequences are all accurately represented. The study involved evaluating and implementing control strategies outlined in ASHRAE Guideline 36-2021 to replace conventional controls. These strategies include the demand-based supply air temperature and duct static pressure setpoint reset and the request logic for demand-based reset of chilled/hot water supply temperature setpoints and pipe static pressure setpoints. Energy performance was evaluated under various load conditions, including cooling, heating, and transitional seasons, both for individual control strategies and in combination. The results indicate that the collective control strategies retrofit yield greater energy savings than the sum of individual strategies, highlighting the synergistic benefits of incorporating both airside and plant-side control retrofits. Additionally, energy savings of up to 41% in the heating season, 18% in the shoulder season, and 20 % in the cooling season were observed compared to baseline control while maintaining the thermal comfort level.

ASHRAE Guideline 36, Commercial buildings, Control↗

DOE OSTI2025

Community Solar for All: Key Findings for State Energy Offices and State LIHEAP Agencies from the Inclusive Shared Solar Initiative

Despite the significant potential for community solar to reduce energy burdens and costs, it has largely remained out of reach for low-income households. While the U.S. community solar market has grown considerably over the last decade, as of December 2022 low to moderate-income (LMI) community solar represented just 2% of the overall market. Effective community solar policies and program decisions can help address this dynamic. State laws, policies, and program rules are critical to the development of community solar programs and projects that are affordable for and cater to the needs of LMI utility customers, who often face disproportionately high energy costs relative to their incomes. This report explores how two sets of state agencies in particular — State and Territory Energy Offices and State Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) Agencies —can help to streamline and prioritize the delivery of affordable and accessible shared solar. State Energy Offices are often involved in community solar policy and program design from inception, whether by supporting the enactment of enabling legislation or informing the development of program rules and regulations. State Energy Offices may also be charged with administering or overseeing the implementation of statewide community solar programs and, through the U.S. State Energy Program and other sources of funding, can provide resources and loans that enhance community, developer, and utility confidence and capacity to build, host, and derive value from projects. Relatedly, as implementers of federal LIHEAP block grants, State LIHEAP Agencies have a deep understanding of the needs of lower-income households and can help inform the design and delivery of community solar programs.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Meta‐Analysis and Regression Modeling of the Impacts of Four Indoor Environmental Quality Metrics on Office Performance

Awareness of how buildings interact with the occupant experience—especially human performance—is becoming more prevalent, as seen by increasing interest and investment in healthy built environments. However, there is a need to synthesize the wide array of existing indoor environmental assessment and performance research in a way that can translate directly to building design and operation. Existing research in this area typically focuses on a single isolated metric and has not focused on making the results utilizable by building practitioners. The aim of this research is to investigate existing office performance literature through meta‐analyses and produce regression models for four indoor environmental quality (IEQ) metrics to support critical decision‐making for building operation and renovation. To reach this aim, a literature review was conducted to identify studies that measure the impact of changing ventilation rate, temperature, horizontal illuminance, and noise level in offices on occupant task performance. This repository of field and laboratory studies was analyzed to visualize the trends between the selected IEQ metrics and task performance. The temperature, ventilation rate, and horizontal illuminance regression models showed clear improvement potential when modifying indoor conditions toward the defined high‐performance range, while the regression model for noise level was inconclusive. The discussion notes the importance of designing holistically for all components of these IEQ categories to utilize the results, for example, good filtration on outdoor air for quantifying ventilation impact and uniform overhead lighting with low contrast for quantifying horizontal illuminance impact. The novelty of this work is in considering multiple facets of the indoor environment under a single, unified analysis schema and producing IEQ‐based performance gains that can directly inform cost‐benefit analyses of building design and renovation.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2024

Building a Clean Energy Workforce: An Evaluation Framework for State Energy Office Workforce Programs

This fact sheet is a summary of the workforce evaluation framework that was first proposed in the white paper, An Evaluation Framework for State Energy Offices' Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Workforce Program. This evaluation framework was developed to guide State Energy Offices (SEOs) in assessing and enhancing the workforce development programs the manage, fund, or partner on. By following this step-by-step framework, SEOs can evaluate program components, identify areas for improvement, and optimize program outcomes for greater impact.

clean energy↗

DOE OSTI2025

Building a Clean Energy Workforce: Best Practices for State Energy Offices

As federal investments into the clean energy economy are underway, State Energy Offices (SEOs) are engaging in efforts to grow the workforce through the creation and/or funding of workforce initiatives that recruit, train and support pathways into energy efficiency and clean energy jobs. This report provides a summary of clean energy workforce development best practices, supplemented by case studies and lessons learned from several SEOs that showcase these strategies in practice. SEOs can reference this resource as they implement, manage, oversee, and/or evaluate efforts their offices are undertaking through various federally funded programs.

clean energy↗

DOE OSTI2025

Thermal performance and energy consumption validation of an occupied local government office building outfitted with ceiling tile phase change materials

Buildings present an opportunity for energy conservation and the modulation of peak energy demand through controlled Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) energy use. The administrative and office building stock in the United States holds potential to achieve energy and demand savings through retrofits such as insulation, weatherization, and thermal energy storage. Specifically, there is a need to validate passive phase change material (PCM) applications in full scale in aging administrative buildings in the US to evaluate the energy benefits. Aim of this study was to conduct a whole building level thermal and energy validation of an operational building and explore an alternative method for evaluating energy efficiency. To accomplish this, the study employed PCMs in the drop ceiling and carry out an energy audit and on-site measurement of HVAC systems' energy demand and consumption. A full-scale EnergyPlus energy model, modeled by the authors, served as a baseline for evaluation. The results show that calibrated model's envelope temperature measures fall within the accepted errors. HVAC energy simulation results also fall within the accepted errors for monthly and hourly pre- and post- PCM retrofit electricity and natural gas data. The novelty of this study is that it employees energy scales per Heating Degree Hour and Cooling Degree Hour, in contrast to the commonly used Heating Degree Days and Cooling Degree Days as reported in the literature to analyze energy savings. These findings underscore the pivotal role of a calibrated model in assessing the efficacy of a singular energy measure, like a PCM-retrofitted ceiling, in an occupied office building.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2025

Development of Metal Boride/Carbide Precursors for MOCVD Applications (Office of Naval Research Research Performance Progress Report)

Annual Report for Office of Naval Research (ONR) program office. Highlights the synthetic and corresponding computational efforts surrounding the synthesis and processing of chemical precursors and their subsequent processing for formation of metal carbide products. Focus of this annual report is largely directed toward the computational effort as that manuscript is being finalized for submission.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2025

2024 Annual Merit Review - Vehicle Technologies Office: Results Report

The 2024 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) Annual Merit Review (AMR) was held June 3-6, 2024, in Arlington, Virginia. The review encompassed work done by VTO: 226 individual activities were reviewed by 218 reviewers. Exactly 888 individual review responses were received for the VTO technical reviews. Each project was reviewed by 2–7 independent reviewers, with a majority of projects having 4–5 reviewers. The objective of the meeting was to review the accomplishments and plans for VTO over the previous 12 months, and provide an opportunity for industry, government, and academia to give inputs to DOE with a structured and formal methodology. The meeting also provided attendees with a forum for interaction and technology information transfer.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

DOE OSTI2025

INL CRMO XRF Report 2025-02: Provenance Determinations for 1,124 Projectile Points from Lands and Collections Managed by the U.S. Department of Energy-Idaho Operations Office (DOE-ID)

This report presents provenance determinations for 1,124 obsidian and fine-grained volcanic (FGV) projectile points from lands and collections managed by the U.S. Department of Energy-Idaho Operations Office (DOE-ID). These determinations were made using energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectrometry at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Cultural Resource Management Office (CRMO) under the direction of Dr. Kyle Freund.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2025

Enabling Solar Cybersecurity Solutions Through State Energy Office and Public Utility Commission Engagement with Private Sector Partners (Final Technical Report)

Between 2020 and 2025, the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO), together with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) established and managed the Enabling Solar Cybersecurity Solutions Through State Energy Office and Public Utility Commission Engagement with Private Sector Partners project, later informally retitled and recognized as the Cybersecurity Advisory Team for State Solar (CATSS). This effort convened State Energy Offices, Public Utility Commissions, and critical private sector and federal partners to inform the development of solar cybersecurity education and action-oriented resources for states. This is the final report.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2026

PNNL Sequim Campus Radionuclide Air Emissions Report for Calendar Year 2025 : Department of Energy – Office of Science Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Pacific Northwest Site Office has oversight and stewardship duties associated with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Sequim Campus. Facility operations include radiological operations with the potential-to-emit low levels of radioactive materials. This report is prepared to document compliance with the 40 CFR Part 61, National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants, Subpart H, “National Emission Standards for Emissions of Radionuclides Other than Radon from Department of Energy Facilities,” and Washington Administrative Code Chapter 246-247, Radiation Protection–Air Emissions. The PNNL Sequim Campus is in compliance with the federal and state 10 mrem/yr standard for 2025 operations.

40 CFR 61 Subpart H↗

DOE OSTI2026

Energy and Comfort Impacts of High Performance Facades in Office Buildings

Building facades have a major effect on energy use, occupant comfort, and well-being. Yet adoption of high-performance facades is often slowed by limited data and unclear cost benefits. To address this gap, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in collaboration with the Facade Tectonics Institute, conducted whole-building energy simulations to evaluate fenestration technologies for small and medium office buildings across three weather locations: hot (Tampa, Florida, weather zone 2A), mixed (New York, New York, weather zone 4A), and cold (Rochester, Minnesota, weather zone 6A). The simulations included parametric variations in window-to-wall ratio (30%–70%), U-values (0.1–1 Btu/h∙ft 2 ∙°F), solar heat gain coefficients (0.2–0.8), and solar control strategies and devices (e.g., interior shades and switchable glazing). Performance metrics included annual cooling, heating, and total heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) energy use intensity, as well as nonenergy factors such as useful daylight illuminance, glare frequency, and thermal comfort during typical office hours (8 a.m.–6 p.m.). Results indicate that cooling energy consumption is most sensitive to solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) in hot weather, whereas heating energy consumption is strongly influenced by U-value in cold weather. Total HVAC reflects these trade-offs, showing up to 60% difference for a window in total HVAC energy use intensity between different combinations of U-value and SHGC. Daylight dimming generally reduces cooling loads but can increase heating demands in colder locations. Interior solar shades improve useful daylight and reduce discomfort glare, whereas switchable glazing delivers the largest cooling reductions in hot weather but may increase heating loads in winter by limiting passive solar gains. Thermal comfort improves with lower window-to-wall ratios and lower SHGC in hot locations and with lower U-values in cold locations.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2026

Brochure for the DOE Office of Science Workshop on Envisioning Frontiers in AI and Computing for Biological Research

In February of 2025 a joint ASCR/BER workshop was held to identify key transformational research directions for understanding biology using artificial intelligence (AI), digital twins and high-performance (HPC) computational methods to facilitate scientific discovery and innovation in support of the Department of Energy mission. AI technologies offer exciting new groundbreaking methods to analyze large volumes of complex biological data, thereby greatly accelerating the ability to understand, predict, and design biological processes for beneficial purposes. In the laboratory, the bridging of AI-enabled automated experimental technologies, HPC and digital twins will provide potent tools for researchers to explore the fundamental nature of biology and harness its inherent metabolic potential for a variety of beneficial purposes. The focus of this workshop was on how high-performance computational methods can impact this objective by exploring digital twins, foundational models, and data-driven approaches with applications to advance automated laboratory experiments, modeling of complex living systems and engineering new functions into plants and microbial systems relevant to DOE mission. Workshop attendees with expertise in plant science, microbiology, mathematics, computer science, and AI assessed the current state of the science, trends, and AI challenges at the interface of plant and microbial systems biology and computational science to identify opportunities for high-impact research. This collaborative effort capitalized on ASCR's advancements in applied mathematics, computer science, and Exascale systems, and BER's expertise in basic genomics-enabled research on DOE relevant plant and microbial systems. The workshop culminated in four key priority research directions to guide future research and development within DOE Office of Science programs.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2025

Field evaluation of zone temperature response to control actions in cooling systems of small and medium-sized office buildings

The response of zone temperature to control actions in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, known as zone temperature response, has been a central focus of building control research owing to its crucial role in determining control performance. However, existing studies often overlook the representativeness of the buildings being studied, resulting in unclear generalizations. In addition, those studies tend to focus on a single aspect of the response. Furthermore, this paper provides the first comprehensive characterization of zone temperature response applicable to a clearly defined building sector—small and medium-sized office (SMO) buildings (<5000 m 2 ) in the US. Specifically, two representative SMO buildings, selected based on the US Department of Energy’s commercial prototype buildings, were studied. Field tests were conducted over a 2-month period during summer, and the collected data were analyzed with two key metrics—delay time and nonlinearity index—to quantify zone temperature response, capturing both short- and long-term patterns. Beyond this quantitative characterization, the analysis reveals that the HVAC system type, rather than factors like floor area or zone location, is the primary determinant of the zone temperature response. Drawing on the field test results, we recommend that building control strategies monitor zone temperatures at intervals shorter than 10 minutes, configure controls independently for VAV- and RTU-served zones, and implement nonlinear methods at the zone level—particularly for VAV zones—rather than across the entire building.

Building control↗

DOE OSTI2025

Assessing modifications to the Abdul-Razzak and Ghan aerosol activation parameterization (version ARG2000) to improve simulated aerosol–cloud radiative effects in the UK Met Office Unified Model (UM version 13.0)

The representation of aerosol activation is a key source of uncertainty in global composition-climate model simulations of aerosol–cloud interactions. The Abdul-Razzak and Ghan (ARG) activation parameterization is used in several global and regional models that employ modal aerosol microphysics schemes. In this study, we investigate the ability of the ARG parameterization to reproduce simulations with a cloud parcel model and find its performance is sensitive to the geometric standard deviations (widths) of the lognormal aerosol modes. We recommend adjustments to three constant parameters in the ARG equations, which improve the performance of the parameterization for small mode widths and its ability to simulate activation in polluted conditions. For the accumulation mode width of 1.4 used in the Met Office Unified Model (UM), the modifications decrease the mean bias in the activated fraction of aerosols compared to a cloud parcel model from −6.6 % to +1.2 %. We implemented the improvements in the UM and compared simulated global cloud droplet concentrations with satellite observations. The simulated cloud radiative effect changes by −1.43 W m −2 (6 %) and aerosol indirect radiative forcing over the industrial period changes by −0.10 W m −2 (10 %).

Ghosh, Pratapaditya [Carnegie Mellon University, P↗

DOE OSTI2025

Deep reinforcement learning control for co-optimizing energy consumption, thermal comfort, and indoor air quality in an office building

With the recent demand for decarbonization and energy efficiency, advanced HVAC control using Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) becomes a promising solution. Due to its flexible structures, DRL has been successful in energy reduction for many HVAC systems. However, only a few researches applied DRL agents to manage the entire central HVAC system and control multiple components in both the water loop and the air loop, owing to its complex system structures. Moreover, those researches have not extended their applications by incorporating the indoor air quality, especially both CO2 and PM2.5concentrations, on top of energy saving and thermal comfort, as achieving those objectives simultaneously can cause multiple control conflicts. What's more, DRL agents are usually trained on the simulation environment before deployment, so another challenge is to develop an accurate but relatively simple simulator. Therefore, we propose a DRL algorithm for a central HVAC system to co-optimize energy consumption, thermal comfort, indoor CO2 level, and indoor PM2.5 level in an office building. To train the controller, we also developed a hybrid simulator that decoupled the complex system into multiple simulation models, which are calibrated separately using laboratory test data. The hybrid simulator combined the dynamics of the HVAC system, the building envelope, as well as moisture, CO2, and particulate matter transfer. Three control algorithms (rule-based, MPC, and DRL) are developed, and their performances are evaluated on the hybrid simulator environment with a realistic scenario (i.e., with stochastic noises). The test results showed that, the DRL controller can save 21.4 % of energy compared to a rule-based controller, and has improved thermal comfort, reduced indoor CO2 concentration. The MPC controller showed an 18.6 % energy saving compared to the DRL controller, mainly due to savings from comfort and indoor air quality boundary violations caused by unmeasured disturbances, and it also highlights computational challenges in real-time control due to non-linear optimization. Finally, we provide the practical considerations for designing and implementing the DRL and MPC controllers based on their respective pros and cons.

Guo, Fangzhou↗