President Obama on Climate Change
President Obama addresses climate change during the State of the Union on January 28, 2014.
03 NATURAL GAS↗
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Cost-effectiveness and Economic Incidence of a Clean Energy Standard
A Clean Energy Standard (CES) is a flexible, market-based policy instrument that could be adopted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. electricity system over time. This paper uses several well-known energy system and electricity models to analyze a CES that reflects broad principles outlined in President Obama's January 2011 State of the Union Address and in the Administration's subsequent Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future. 1 In particular, it examines three different design options for a CES that would each lead to approximately 80% clean electricity by 2035. These different design options provide broadly similar economic incentives for clean energy deployment and yield similar overall welfare impacts, but they exhibit different distributional outcomes. The most inclusive CES crediting approach favors producers over consumers in competitive electricity markets as well as regions with larger initial endowments of clean energy. On the other hand, the most restrictive crediting approach favors consumers over producers and reduces preferences for regions with larger initial endowments of clean energy. While specific technology outcomes vary across the four models used in this study, key insights about cost-effectiveness and economic incidence are largely robust to the underlying modeling platform. These insights may be important considerations in future CES policy design efforts.
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
NREL Quickens its Tech Transfer Efforts
Innovations and 'aha' movements in renewable energy and energy efficiency, while exciting in the lab, only truly live up to their promise once they find a place in homes or business. Late last year President Obama issued a directive to all federal agencies to increase their efforts to transfer technologies to the private sector in order to achieve greater societal and economic impacts of federal research investments. The president's call to action includes efforts to establish technology transfer goals and to measure progress, to engage in efforts to increase the speed of technology transfer and to enhance local and regional innovation partnerships. But, even before the White House began its initiative to restructure the commercialization process, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory had a major effort underway designed to increase the speed and impact of technology transfer activities and had already made sure its innovations had a streamlined path to the private sector. For the last three years, NREL has been actively setting commercialization goals and tracking progress against those goals. For example, NREL sought to triple the number of innovations over a five-year period that began in 2009. Through best practices associated with inventor engagement, education and collaboration, NREL quadrupled the number of innovations in just three years. Similar progress has been made in patenting, licensing transactions, income generation and rewards to inventors. 'NREL is known nationally for our cutting-edge research and companies know to call us when they are ready to collaborate,' William Farris, vice president for commercialization and technology transfer, said. 'Once a team is ready to dive in, they don't want be mired in paperwork. We've worked to make our process for licensing NREL technology faster; it now takes less than 60 days for us to come to an agreement and start work with a company interested in our research.' While NREL maintains a robust patent portfolio, often companies are looking to do more than just license a technology. These relationships are invaluable in successfully moving technologies from NREL to the marketplace. 'We may generate new and potentially valuable innovations, but our commercialization partners do the heavy work of building a successful business around our technology,' Farris said. Tools such as CRADAs (Cooperative Research and Development Agreements) allow NREL to continue working with companies to refine and develop technologies. And, working with businesses is an area where NREL excels. NREL is responsible for one quarter of the CRADAs in the DOE system. 'When you look at the results of our CRADA program, you can demonstrate that we are actively engaged with companies in collaborating on research and moving technologies to market,' Farris said. NREL is first among DOE labs with 186 active CRADAs. And last year, NREL also was first with the number of new CRADAs signed. 'Part of the success in our working with industry goes back to NREL's mission to grow and support new industries,' Farris added. 'NREL has basic research capabilities, but we are never going to be the ultimate producer of a commercial product. That is the role of the private sector.' Farris also credits the advocacy and support that the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at DOE provides for these technology transfer activities. 'EERE's support is critical to our success,' Farris said. To assist the private sector in moving a technology from the lab to the manufacturing line, NREL has a number of programs in place to give that first, or even final, nudge toward commercialization. For instance, the Commercialization Assistance Program helps startups overcome technical barriers by granting free access to 40 hours of work at the lab. Through the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, NREL also helps clean energy businesses develop strong links with the financial community, as well as other key stakeholders in the commercialization process. In March, NREL formally opened the Colorado Center for Renewable Energy and Economic Development a cooperative program with the state of Colorado designed to bring together stakeholders and service providers that support the growth of cleantech companies. CREED currently is working with more than 25 stakeholders - governmental partners, universities, industry associations, venture capital organizations and small businesses - to improve the access these groups have to technologies developed at NREL and to provide services such as classes and workshops for entrepreneurs. When it comes to bringing together cleantech stakeholders, NREL's Industry Growth Forum is the marquee event. At the forum, clean energy entrepreneurs have the opportunity to present their business cases to an expert panel of investors and energy executives. Companies that have presented have raised $3.4 billion in funding to date.
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
THE NEXT GENERATION SAFEGUARDS PROFESSIONAL NETWORK: PROGRESS AND NEXT STEPS
President Obama has repeatedly stated that the United States must ensure that the international safeguards regime, as embodied by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has 'the authority, information, people, and technology it needs to do its job.' The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) works to implement the President's vision through the Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI), a program to revitalize the U.S. DOE national laboratories safeguards technology and human capital base so that the United States can more effectively support the IAEA and ensure that it meets current and emerging challenges to the international safeguards system. In 2009, in response to the human capital development goals of NGSI, young safeguards professionals within the Global Nuclear Security Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory launched the Next Generation Safeguards Professional Network (NGSPN). The purpose of this initiative is to establish working relationships and to foster collaboration and communication among the next generation of safeguards leaders. The NGSPN is an organization for, and of, young professionals pursuing careers in nuclear safeguards and nonproliferation - as well as mid-career professionals new to the field - whether working within the U.S. DOE national laboratory complex, U.S. government agencies, academia, or industry or at the IAEA. The NGSPN is actively supported by the NNSA, boasts more than 70 members, maintains a website and newsletter, and has held two national meetings as well as an NGSPN session and panel at the July 2010 Institute of Nuclear Material Management Annual Meeting. This paper discusses the network; its significance, goals and objectives; developments and progress to date; and future plans.
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
RLUOB Celebration
Los Alamos National Laboratory's newest facility, the Radiological Laboratory Utility Office Building (RLUOB), is also its first to achieve both the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) status and LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). From its robust design to its advanced scientific equipment, RLUOB is essential to the Laboratory's national security mission in support of the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) nuclear weapons program. At more than 200,000 square feet, this building is the only radiological facility within the Department of Energy to have attained LEED Gold, which contributes to NNSA's achievement towards the high performance sustainable building goals outlined in Executive Order 13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance. 'As we celebrate RLUOB being completed almost one year ahead of schedule and having achieved LEED certification at the Gold level, we approach our plutonium mission at Los Alamos and NNSA with a great sense of achievement,' said Don Cook, NNSA's deputy administrator for defense programs. 'RLUOB adds a major component to NNSA's plutonium support capability and RLUOB demonstrates our commitment in helping to deliver President Obama's nuclear security agenda which includes ensuring the safety, security and effectiveness of the nuclear deterrent without testing.' The facility contains laboratories for analytical chemistry and materials characterization of special nuclear material, along with space for offices, training and emergency operations. Its multi-functional purpose makes RLUOB a unique project for which LEED certification was sought. 'LEED certification was a huge goal and one we sought from the very beginning of this project,' said Laboratory Director Charlie McMillan. 'It's an important step forward, allowing us to advance national security science in modern, safer, more efficient infrastructure.' The Laboratory's project team and its contractor partners, especially in coordination with Jacobs Engineering, focused on green design and construction in LEED categories, such as sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality and innovation in design. RLUOB's features include: (1) Building envelope design (orientation, materials and insulation) yielded a 20 percent improvement in energy performance; (2) Incorporation of building materials with 24 percent recycled content; (3) Diversion of 72 percent of construction-generated materials through reuse, recycle and salvage; (4) Roofing comprised of 93 percent highly-reflective materials to reduce heat island effects; (5) High efficiency, gas-fired hot water boilers, air-cooled chillers, thermal storage systems and variable frequency drives for compressors, fans and pumps; (6) Energy efficient lighting for interiors, exteriors, process glove boxes and fume hoods; (7) Water efficient fixtures resulting in 30 percent reduction in usage; (8) Low emission paints and carpeting for improved indoor air quality; (9) Landscaping that doesn't require permanent irrigation; (10) Enhanced building system commissioning; and (11) Comprehensive transportation alternatives, including public transportation, bicycle storage and changing rooms, and a refueling station for government vehicles using alternative fuels. 'RLUOB's LEED certification demonstrates tremendous leadership in green building,' says Rick Fedrizzi, president and CEO of USGBC. 'The urgency of our mission has challenged the industry to move faster and reach further than ever before, and RLUOB serves as a prime example of just how much we can accomplish.'
25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
R and D ekes out an increase in FY 2015 budget request
With spending caps in place, President Obama proposes an off-budget fund to support additional R and D. NASA would ground a flying observatory, and DOE would sharply curtail its nonproliferation programs.
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL P↗
Berni Julian Alder, theoretical physicist and inventor of molecular dynamics, 1925–2020
Berni Julian Alder, one of the leading figures in the invention of molecular dynamics simulations used for a wide array of problems in physics and chemistry, died on September 7th, 2020. His career, spanning more than 65 years, transformed statistical mechanics, many body physics, the study of chemistry and the microscopic dynamics of fluids, by making atomistic computational simulation (in parallel with traditional theory and experiment) a new pathway to unexpected discoveries. Among his many honors, the CECAM prize, recognizing exceptional contributions to the simulation of the microscopic properties of matter is named for him. He was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Obama in 2008.
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
Developing a concept for a national used fuel interim storage facility in the United States
In the United States (U.S.) the nuclear waste issue has plagued the nuclear industry for decades. Originally, spent fuel was to be reprocessed but with the threat of nuclear proliferation, spent fuel reprocessing has been eliminated, at least for now. In 1983, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 [1] was established, authorizing development of one or more spent fuel and high-level nuclear waste geological repositories and a consolidated national storage facility, called a 'Monitored Retrievable Storage' facility, that could store the spent nuclear fuel until it could be placed into the geological repository. Plans were under way to build a geological repository, Yucca Mountain, but with the decision by President Obama to terminate the development of Yucca Mountain, a consolidated national storage facility that can store spent fuel for an interim period until a new repository is established has become very important. Since reactor sites have not been able to wait for the government to come up with a storage or disposal location, spent fuel remains in wet or dry storage at each nuclear plant. The purpose of this paper is to present a concept developed to address the DOE's goals stated above. This concept was developed over the past few months by collaboration between the DOE and industry experts that have experience in designing spent nuclear fuel facilities. The paper examines the current spent fuel storage conditions at shutdown reactor sites, operating reactor sites, and the type of storage systems (transportable versus non-transportable, welded or bolted). The concept lays out the basis for a pilot storage facility to house spent fuel from shutdown reactor sites and then how the pilot facility can be enlarged to a larger full scale consolidated interim storage facility. (authors)
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
Resilience Measurement Index: An Indicator of Critical Infrastructure Resilience
The world faces numerous threats from both natural and man-made sources. Since the beginning of the 21 st century, in the United States alone, we have experienced several devastating events. Incidents such as the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, the Northeast blackout in 2003, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Superstorm Sandy in 2012 have had far-reaching impacts that have directly affected our society’s well-being. Although current efforts that have focused on preventing or mitigating the impact of incidents have achieved admirable results, a more comprehensive approach is needed to improve the nation’s overall resilience. An all-hazards methodology that emphasizes not only protection but also preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery programs and capabilities is desired. Presidential Policy Directive 21 defines 16 critical infrastructure sectors that are essential to the nation’s security, public health and safety, economic vitality, and general quality of life (White House, 2013). If the operations of these critical infrastructure sectors are essential, their protection and resilience is paramount. As stated by President Obama, “Our goal is to ensure a more resilient Nation—one in which individuals, communities, and our economy can adapt to changing conditions as well as withstand and rapidly recover from disruption due to emergencies” (Department of Homeland Security, 2010a). Enhancing the resilience of critical infrastructure requires its owners/operators to determine the ability of the system to withstand specific threats, minimize or mitigate potential impacts, and to return to normal operations if degradation occurs. Thus, a resilience methodology requires the comprehensive assessment of critical infrastructure systems/assets—from threat to consequence. The methodology needs to support decision-making for risk management, disaster response, and business continuity. Considering these issues, the Infrastructure Assurance Center at Argonne National Laboratory, in partnership with the Protective Security Coordination Division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has developed an index, the Resilience Measurement Index (RMI), to characterize the resilience of critical infrastructure.
Petit, F. D. P.↗
Technoeconomic Evaluation of MEA versus Mixed Amines for CO 2 Removal at Near-Commercial Scale at Duke Energy Gibson 3 Plant
The US-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC) was established in November 2009 by Presidents Obama and Hu. CERC is made up of three consortia focused on building efficiency, clean vehicles and advanced coal technologies. The Advanced Coal Technology Consortium (ACTC) brings together many of the top scientists and leading companies in the power sector, who work together collaboratively to accelerate deployment of the most promising technologies and tackle some of the most pressing issues in making coal plants more efficient and environmentally friendly. Reducing carbon emissions in the power sector is a central goal for both US and Chinese decision makers and industrial leaders, since, worldwide, coal power plants produce nearly 40% of greenhouse gases. In order to deeply reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, many utilities are considering carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS). CCUS can enable the current fossil fuel infrastructure to be utilized while non-fossil fuel based energy supplies evolve to replace fossil fuels. For the existing US and Chinese coal-burning fleets, post-combustion capture (PCC) remains a critically important option and viable approach. While companies provide technology for PCC retrofits, the costs and performance of these systems remain largely untested in commercial settings. As such, power generation companies have very few technical or economic data sets on which to base large capital decisions. Moreover, initial estimates suggest the costs will prove prohibitively high in many settings.
20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
NSO News October 2013
In this month’s newsletter, we have chosen to highlight some of the Russian responses to President Obama’s Berlin speech. These responses have been only lightly covered in the US press, but illustrate some of the challenges that the United States will face in future nuclear weapons arms control treaties and negotiations.
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
Clean Energy Works Oregon (Final Technical Report)
In April 2010, the City of Portland received a $20 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy, as part of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program. This award was appropriated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), passed by President Obama in 2009. DOE’s program became known as the Better Buildings Neighborhood Program (BBNP). The BBNP grant objectives directed the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) as the primary grantee to expand the BPS-led pilot program, Clean Energy Works Portland, into Clean Energy Works Oregon (CEWO), with the mission to deliver thousands of home energy retrofits, create jobs, save energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.The Final Technical Report explores the successes and lessons learned from the first 3 years of program implementation.
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IDEA Clean Energy Application Center
The DOE Clean Energy Application Centers were launched with a goal of focusing on important aspects of our nation’s energy supply including Efficiency, Reliability and Resiliency. Clean Energy solutions based on Combined Heat & Power (CHP), District Energy and Waste Heat Recovery are at the core of ensuring a reliable and efficient energy infrastructure for campuses, communities, and industry and public enterprises across the country. IDEA members which include colleges and universities, hospitals, airports, downtown utilities as well as manufacturers, suppliers and service providers have long-standing expertise in the planning, design, construction and operations of Clean Energy systems. They represent an established base of successful projects and systems at scale and serve important and critical energy loads. They also offer experience, lessons learned and best practices which are of immense value to the sustained growth of the Clean Energy sector. IDEA has been able to leverage the funds from the project award to raise the visibility, improve the understanding and increase deployment CHP, District Energy and Waste Heat Recovery solutions across the regions of our nation, in collaboration with the regional CEAC’s. On August 30, 2012, President Obama signed an Executive Order to accelerate investments in industrial energy efficiency (EE), including CHP and set a national goal of 40 GW of new CHP installation over the next decade IDEA is pleased to have been able to support this Executive Order in a variety of ways including raising awareness of the goal through educational workshops and Conferences and recognizing the installation of large scale CHP and district energy systems. A supporting key area of collaboration has involved IDEA providing technical assistance on District Energy/CHP project screenings and feasibility to the CEAC’s for multi building, multi-use projects. The award was instrumental in the development of a first-order screening/feasibility tool for these types of community energy projects. The Excel based tool incorporates hourly climate based building loads data to arrive at the composite energy demand for the district and compares the Net Present Value (NPV) of the costs of CHP/DE alternatives. This tool has been used to provide assistance to several projects in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Intermountain and Pacific Regions. The tool was disseminated to the CEACs and supplemented by a Training Webinar and a How to Guide IDEA produced a US Community Energy Development Guide to support mayors, planners, community leaders, real estate developers and economic development officials who are interested in planning more sustainable urban energy infrastructure, creating community energy master plans and implementing CHP/ District Energy systems in cities, communities and towns. IDEA has collected industry data and provided a comprehensive data set containing information on District Energy installations in the US. District energy systems are present in 49 states and theDistrict of Columbia. Of the 597 systems 55% were DE alone while the remainder was some combination of CHP, district heating, and district cooling. District energy systems that do not currently involve electric generation are strong near-term candidates for the adoption of CHP due to the magnitude of their aggregated thermal load. This data has helped inform specific and targeted initiatives including technical assistance provided by the CEAC’s for EPA’s Boiler MACT Compliance by large District Heating System boilers. These outcomes have been greatly enabled by the close coordination and collaboration with DOE CEAC leadership and with the eight regional US DOE Clean Energy Application Centers and the award’s incremental funding has allowed IDEA to leverage our resources to be an effective champion for Clean Energy.
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
Report on the First Quadrennial Technology Review (QTR)
Access to clean, affordable, secure, and reliable energy has been a cornerstone of America’s economic growth. The Nation’s systems that produce, store, transmit, and use energy are falling short of U.S. needs. Maintaining energy security, bolstering U.S. competitiveness, and mitigating the environmental impacts of energy are long-standing challenges. Governments, consumers, and the private sector have worked for decades to address these challenges, yet they remain among the Nation’s most pressing issues. President Obama has articulated broad national energy goals for reducing U.S. dependence on oil, reducing pollution, and investing in research and development (R&D) for clean-energy technologies in the United States to create jobs. These include: Reducing oil imports by one-third by 2025; Supporting the deployment of 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015; Making non-residential buildings 20% more energy efficient by 2020; Deriving 80% of America's electricity from clean-energy sources by 2035; and Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 175 by 2020 and 83% of 2050, from a 2005 baseline.
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
One Million Electric Vehicles By 2015
February 2011 status report on the steps needed to achieve President Obama's goal of putting one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.
electric vehicles↗
FINAL Report LTC-DOE DE-EE0000537
At the time of LTC’s application we were home to a small / mid-sized Wind Energy Research and Teaching Center, funded in part by We Energies, and offered the state of Wisconsin’s first Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.) Degree in Wind Energy Technology. With President Obama promising investment in wind, LTC and its partners were uniquely situated to meet the challenge through an organized career pathways approach that utilized industry drivers and occupationally verified curriculum to train the workers who “transform our energy sector.” LTC’s employer partners validated the findings of the “20% Wind Energy by 2030: Increasing Wind Energy's Contribution to U.S. Electricity Supply” report by the US Department of Energy which recognized programs like LTC’s as an “excellent beginning,” noting that many more like them are necessary to meet the challenges of the 20% Wind scenario.One of the focuses of the study was the lack of trained technicians to work on installation and maintenance of renewables (and more specifically for our grant application wind turbines). LTC’s goal, made possible with the funding provided in this grant, was to increase the number of skilled graduates to help meet this national objective. LTC was already a leader in wind for the state of Wisconsin but wanted to upscale from a single school to a statewide (and potentially regional) center for wind energy. LTC planned to leverage our facilities, curriculum, and faculty expertise to meet this goal.
17 WIND ENERGY↗
VersiCharge-SG - Smart Grid Capable Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) for Residential Applications
In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama called for one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 [1]. With large-scale Electric Vehicle (EV) or Plug-in Electric Vehicle (PEV or EV for short) or Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) penetration into the US market, there will be drastic reduction in fossil fuel consumption, thus significantly reducing our dependency on foreign oil [2-6]. There will also be significant reduction on Green House Gas (GHG) emissions and smog in the major US cities [3, 7, 8]. Similar studies have also been done other industrial counties [9]. For the fuel cost, with the home electricity rate around $0.13 per kWh, it would cost about $0.05 per mile for DC operation and $0.03 cents per mile for AC operation. But, assuming 25 miles per gallon for a typical vehicle and $4 per gallon, fossil fuel will cost $0.16 per mile [10]. The overall lifecycle cost of PEVs will be several folds lower than the existing fossil fueled vehicles. Despite the above advantages of the EVs, the current cost of EVSE is not affordable for the average consumer. Presently, the cost of installing state-of-the-art residential EVSE ranges from $1500 to $2500 [11]. Low priced EVSE technology, which is easy to install, and affordable to operate and maintain by an average consumer, is essential for the large-scale market penetration of EVs. In addition, the long-term success of this technology is contingent on the PEVs having minimal excessive load and shift impact on the grid, especially at peak times. In a report [2] published by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the exiting electric power generation infrastructure, if used at its full capacity 24 hours a day, would support up to 84% of the nation’s cars, pickup trucks and SUVs for an average daily drive of 33 miles. This mileage estimate is certainly much below what an average driver would drive his/her vehicle per day. Another report [3] by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) shows that an increased PEV penetration would significantly increase pressure on the peak generation, if no controlled charging strategy was put in place. Investigations from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) show that in many regions, additional power generation facilities must be put in place and operate in evening times to recharge the EVs [12]. By all accounts, large PEV penetration will bring to the power grid enormous challenges due to the excessive and stochastic demand, and can entirely change the peak time distribution and behavior, perhaps, into a bi-modal distribution capable of exhausting primary, secondary and even reserves (spinning or non-spinning). To minimize the infrastructure upgrade costs and risks to the grid, and to ensure that power quality and reliability remain within the set standards, the demand for EV plug-ins must then be controlled and coordinated locally and at regional levels. Novel control techniques must be devised to allow for close collaboration between neighboring plug-in requestors, between neighboring communities, and between these and more central power authorities. The concept of electric drive vehicle is not new. The development of electric vehicle has been around since 19th century [13]. But due to a number of reasons and practical limitations at the time, including lower cost of gasoline compared to electricity, excessive refueling times, and abundance of gasoline, the automobile industry embraced gasoline-powered vehicles worldwide [13]. With the global warming, ever reducing reservoirs of fossil oil around the world and increasing political pressure to reduce the national dependency on foreign oil, the last decade of the 20th century witnessed major technological breakthroughs in Alternative Fueled Vehicle (AFV) technologies, including electric vehicles. With GHG emissions and carbon footprint in the minds of many more consumers and politicians, the first decade of the 21stCentury witnessed more breakthroughs with some real life experimentation and sporadic deployment of these technologies [14]. By many accounts, the second decade of the 21st Century is expected to be the time when mass volume production and popular usage of these AFV technologies, especially EV, will materialize. The current DOE request for proposals recognizes the need for major technological changes to ensure that the above national goal is realizable. Two major challenges have been identified: (1) major reduction in the cost of ownership of EVSEs, and (2) managing additional EV loads in the power grid while maintaining power quality, reliability, and affordability. We note that the two challenges are closely linked – A holistic approach to true lifecycle cost of EVSE ownership will certainly include any taxes and surcharges that can be put in place for major potential investments in the grid, and higher electricity charges in case of more frequent and longer peak periods. From a societal perspective, this cost could also include the lost GDP (computed on a local basis) and revenue for businesses at local and regional levels when the grid is no longer capable of meeting the demand and unexpected outages occur. A typical end-point electrical distribution system delivers power to a residential EVSE from the neighborhood distribution pole, as shown in Fig.1. This pole has a transformer (neighboring step-down transformer) that steps down the utility medium voltage to dual 120VAC single phase (also called 240VAC split phase). This voltage is fed through a meter into the residential load control center. The load control center consists of branch circuit breakers and distributes the power supply within various areas of the residential unit. One of the branch circuits from the load control center feeds EV charging station for the unit. An electric vehicle charger is plugged into the socket of the EV charging station and other end of this charger is connected to the vehicle during charging. Figure 1 illustrates a typical configuration of the power grid. The left side of the figure shows the power grid from the power generation to the neighboring step-down transformer, while the right side of the figure shows multiple EVs with the respective charging stations. The typical step-down transformer has an upper limit representing the maximum load that can be requested from these neighboring houses altogether (typically 24 kW). In case the total load increases beyond the supported limit, the protection system (e.g. a circuit breaker) attached to the step-down transformer gets activated automatically.
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
Redefining the U.S. Agenda for Nuclear Disarmament, Analysis and Reflections
With Lewis Dunn’s paper on nuclear disarmament diplomacy, we are inaugurating a new monograph series under the auspices of the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The series will explore complex emerging challenges in the emerging security environment as they bear on issues of deterrence, assurance, and strategic stability. Our goal is to explore these issues deeply enough to provide significant new understanding that is technically informed and policy relevant. Our premise is that thoughtful students of international security affairs continue to value such in-depth analysis as a way to help make sense of the large flow of data and opinion that reaches all of us on a daily basis. Our ambition is to generate four to six such papers per year on especially salient topics. The views expressed in these papers are those of the author and should not be attributed to the Center, the Laboratory, or the U.S. government. This inaugural paper addresses one of the key questions facing national leadership seven to eight years after President Obama’s April 2009 remarks in Prague and his commitment to take practical steps towards the long-term goal of the elimination of nuclear weapons. In the interim, some important steps have been taken. But there have also been many disappointments. The new presidential administration will face a security landscape quite different from that of eight years ago and must reassess U.S. priorities and approaches. As Lewis Dunn argues, some will be tempted to walk away entirely from the disarmament agenda, while others will advocate even more forcefully for unilateral U.S. steps to further reduce the role and number of nuclear weapons in its posture. Dr. Dunn sets out his own vision of how to adapt and carry forward the disarmament agenda, in a manner informed by developments in the security environment that point to a continuing role for nuclear deterrence. The result is both fresh and compelling.
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗