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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

The Building Business Network (B-Biz): Addressing Gaps in the High-Performance Building Technology Market, Especially for Underserved Customers

Increased market intelligence and business model innovation is needed to build contractor confidence in high-performance building technologies in order to increase the speed and scale of adoption to meet the U.S. Department of Energy's building stock decarbonization goals. Although there have been important innovations in energy efficiency, affordability, and decarbonization of building technologies, consumers are not purchasing these technologies at the necessary speed and scale partially due to a gap in institutional understanding around barriers contractors face in providing and servicing these technologies. Small businesses in this market must mitigate risk around high-performance building technologies, limiting their opportunities in the market and impacting the rate of adoption. The Building Business Network (B-Biz) aims to provide high-performance building technology solutions to underserved customers by collaborating with local small businesses that provide and service high-performance building technologies in communities with the lowest rates of adoption. This research explores the current market, the importance of business models, and the opportunity to utilize small businesses to address market gaps in underserved communities.

B-Biz↗
DOE OSTI2020

Scaling Energy Efficient Retrofits for Small Commercial Apartment Buildings

With support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Building Technologies Office (BTO), the International Center for Appropriate and Sustainable Technology (ICAST) recently completed a three-year cooperative agreement to scale energy efficiency retrofits (EER) on small multifamily (MF) buildings. ICAST EER strategies ranged from low-hanging “direct install” of measures such as LED lighting, low-flow showerheads and aerators, and smart thermostats to major strategies such as HVAC replacement with high-efficiency boilers or heat pumps. As feasible, some projects also included the addition of renewable energy sources such as photo voltaic (PV) solar. When ICAST began the BTO project, it operated in two states and oversaw EER at approximately 80 MF buildings per year. With assistance from BTO, ICAST has grown significantly and now has staff in six states with MF EER projects in another seven, and performed EER on 956 MF buildings. ). ICAST was able to successfully execute this project by 1) Improving viability and efficiency of its processes, 2) Launching two new services and 3) Creating an affiliate program. For the most part, ICAST focused on a specific type of MF property: naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH), because it is a significantly underserved market within the hard-to-serve MF market. NOAHs are typically smaller properties (5 to 64 units), owned by small organizations or individual investors looking for positive cash flow. ICAST believes the NOAH market can be successfully served with a one-stop-shop approach that makes it easy, hassle-free, and cost-effective for owners to acquire green upgrades for their property(ies). With the assistance of BTO funding, ICAST successfully used the cited EER methods and strategies to scale-up its OSS approach to service a greater number of MF housing and expand into new geographies. Additionally, support from BTO helped ICAST create self-sustaining programs which will not need to rely on on-going funding.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NASA NTRS2006

NASA Helps Design the 'Cockpit of the Future'

One of the initiatives at Langley involved the research and development of a Small Aircraft Transportation System Network (SATS-Net), which was the communications infrastructure for NASA s SATS program.The primary goal of SATS-Net was to develop secure virtual travel portals for the Nation s general aviation airports and to offer an alternative to commercial air and ground transportation through general aviation. The secondary goals were to increase mobility, reduce door-to- door travel times, and provide air transportation to underserved markets at an affordable cost. One of the specific plans was to create a network of information about the 2,000-plus non-tower, non-radar airports in the Nation. This information would be accessible from a person s home, office, PDA, or local airport. This network provides real-time information and would be a "one-stop shop" portal with dynamic access to real-time Web cameras for weather conditions, flight planning information, local lodging, restaurants, and attraction information. SATS-Net would provide membership services much like that of AAA.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2021

Advanced Air Mobility and Safety Management Systems

Our current air transportation system has underserved markets, including local, regional, intraregional, and urban transportation of both people and cargo. Recent advances in aviation technology such as small highly-automated vehicles, electric aircraft, and automated air traffic are enabling business opportunities in these markets. Advanced Air Mobility, or AAM, refers to a community effort to overcome the gaps in operational rules, safety analysis, and overall acceptance, so that these new operations will be possible. For full details, please see: https://www.nasa.gov/aam As we think about how we can safely introduce these new operations, fundamental questions about how the structure of Safety Management Systems can be applied to AAM, and how that structure can be used to help us overcome the necessary technical and societal obstacles arise. Two of these questions are: • How do we tailor the requirements and desired level of monitoring and assessment to achieve safety given the breadth of possible operations and the associated risk of those operations? • How do we aid innovation by rapidly evaluating the safety of novel operations without losing associated rigor? We assume that a Safety Management System that enables these future systems will incorporate knowledge of the acceptable level of risk, and will utilize data science to automate the core monitor, assess and mitigate functions that will allow us to respond to risks and hazards in time to prevent safety incidents. In 2018, the National Academies proposed an In-Time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS) that would advance these goals. (https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24962/in-time-aviation-safety-management-challenges-and-research-for-an) The National Academies made a clear distinction between in-time systems, in which hazards could be identified and risks mitigated in time to prevent incidents, and real-time systems, since many hazards and risks do not need real-time data and analysis to detect and mitigate.

In-Time Aviation Safety Management System↗
DOE OSTI2024

B-Biz: Building Business Network

The Building Business Network (B-Biz) aims to provide high-performance building technology solutions to underserved customers by collaborating with local small businesses that provide and service high-performance building technologies in communities with the lowest rates of adoption.

BTO↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Corridor Design and Analysis for UAM Operations

The Urban Air Mobility (UAM) concept is a part of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), a joint initiative between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), NASA, and industry to develop an air transportation system that uses new electric (i.e., green) air vehicles in geographical areas previously underserved by traditional aviation. Market forecast studies predict that there will be demand for alternate modes of air transportation using electric Vertical Take-off and Landing aircraft. UAM expands transportation networks by introducing short flights to move people and goods around metropolitan areas​. UAM is expected to improve mobility for the public, decongest road traffic, reduce trip time, and decrease strain on existing public transportation networks. Various challenges exist to make the introduction of UAM operations successful in the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS). These include but are not limited to integration with existing airports and airspace, provision of air traffic services (e.g., separation), vehicle design and certification, and community acceptance. The focus of this paper is on integration of UAM operations into the NAS via introduction of new airspace structures. UAM will operate within a regulatory, operational, and technical environment that is incorporated into the NAS​. As per the UAM Concept of Operations (ConOps), the FAA retains regulatory authority and is responsible for establishing operational parameters and maintaining oversight. The FAA’s UAM ConOps describes flights at low altitudes (below 5,000 ft) with minimal disruption to established conventional aircraft traffic and limited voice interactions with the Air Traffic Control (ATC). Early stages of UAM may use existing procedures to safely integrate UAM with conventional flights. This would involve flying under Part 91 Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and using voice for communications. The initial UAM ecosystem will utilize the current infrastructure such as routes, helipads, and ATC services, where practicable. ​A NASA study explored the use of existing helicopter routes in Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) airspace for initial UAM operations with a Letter of Agreement (LOA) that included procedures to request a Class B (controlled airspace) clearance. The research showed that the chosen approach was feasible for near-term, low-demand UAM traffic, but was not scalable. The growth of operations in today’s aviation system has resulted in airspace reorganization and procedures to ensure safety and efficiency as traffic rates increase. One proposed operating innovation that can help with the scalability of UAM is establishing routes and corridors. This may look similar to the Area Navigation (RNAV) procedures used today to streamline operations into busy airports. However, instead of FAA automation systems and ATC managing the flow of traffic, some UAM concepts envision a third-party service provider performing this role as part of the Provider of Services for UAM (PSU) network. The FAA’s UAM ConOps posits that new airspace structures such as UAM corridors include the following design criteria: 1) Minimal impact on existing NAS operations, 2) no or minimal additional ATC services, 3) public interest considerations such as noise, safety, and security, and 4) customer needs. The airspace available in urban environments is limited by the height of buildings, the effect of weather including wind gusts, privacy needs, and a clearance envelope. The new airspace structure would need to be designed around large airports and urban areas where the initial market demand is likely to exist. NASA has started evaluating airspace in the Dallas Fort Worth area to design new airspace structures, keeping the first two design criteria in mind. It is assumed that there will be an on-board pilot-in-command, and the flights will operate under VFR in Visual Meteorological Conditions. Corridors will be required in controlled airspace, whereas UAM operations can fly in uncontrolled Class G and E airspace using current day rules. Keeler et. al identified factors and heuristics for development of routes for UAM operations for integration with airspace close to large airports such as Dallas Fort Worth and Dallas Love Field. This paper describes the heuristics applied to define the corridors, analyzes them with respect to legacy traffic and presents key results.

Urban Air Mobility↗
DOE OSTI2020

The impact of policies and business models on income equity in rooftop solar adoption

Low- and moderate-income (LMI) households are less likely to adopt rooftop solar photovoltaics (PVs) than higher-income households in the United States. As the existing literature has shown, this dynamic can decelerate rooftop PV deployment and has potential energy justice implications, in light of the cost-shifting between PV and non-PV households that can occur under typical rate structures and incentive programmes. Here we show that some state policy interventions and business models have expanded PV adoption among LMI households. Additionally, we find evidence that LMI-specific financial incentives, PV leasing and property-assessed financing have increased the diffusion of PV adoption among LMI households in existing markets and have driven more installations into previously underserved low-income communities. By shifting deployment patterns, we posit that these interventions could catalyse peer effects to increase PV adoption in low-income communities even among households that do not directly benefit from the interventions.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Solar PV on U.S. Houses of Worship: Overview of Market Activity and Trends [Slides]

Rooftop solar photovoltaic systems on houses of worship can provide unique community benefits and can raise local awareness and acceptance of solar energy. Recognizing that potential, a stakeholder team selected under DOE’s Solar Energy Innovation Network is working to develop a scalable model for recruiting and installing solar PV on houses of worship in underserved communities. Berkeley Lab is providing analytical support to this stakeholder team through several work products, including this report, which provides a data-oriented overview of market activity and trends related to solar PV installations on U.S. houses of worship (HoW). Drawing on Berkeley Lab’s project-level dataset of U.S. solar PV installations, the report describes: -market size and growth trends for PV on HoW -demographic characteristics of the communities in which HoW with PV are located, including income, race and ethnicity, and educational levels -key characteristics of the PV systems installed on HoW, including system size, installed costs, prevalence of third-party ownership, and pairing with storage -characteristics of the installer network servicing PV installations on HoW The purpose of the market overview is to inform business development and policy-making efforts aimed at supporting solar adoption by HoW.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Defining Services, Functions, and Capabilities for an Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) In-time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS)

NASA’s vision for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Mission is to help emerging aviation markets to safely develop an air transportation system that moves people and cargo between places previously not served or underserved by aviation. The integration of new operational paradigms and vehicle classes in this system requires a transformation of the National Airspace System (NAS) that includes substantive changes critical for assuring safety. These changes are compelled by unique challenges posed by AAM to the safety management system (SMS). These challenges were assessed by committees of the National Academies in their reports on a vision for an In-time Aviation Safety Management System (IASMS) and a blueprint for AAM [1,2]. In their description of an IASMS, the top recommendation was development of a concept of operations (ConOps) for IASMS. This paper describes the high-priority recommendations from the National Academies for its IASMS vision and how they are addressed through a distributed system-of-systems architecture. The IASMS architecture is structured on the services, functions, and capabilities (SFCs) necessary for In-time System-wide Safety Assurance (ISSA)initially developed for urban air mobility (UAM). The paper then posits where these SFCs would reside across vehicles, airspace, or service suppliers such as Supplemental Data Service Providers (SDSPs), and how SFCs scale with increasing complexity in design and operations of AAM. SFCs are foundational building blocks for a system that targets an individual or family of risks using a Monitor-Assess-Mitigate risk paradigm for anomalies, precursors and trends. An IASMS could be conceived that uses a portfolio of SFCs for AAM in general or prioritizes SFCs for a specific domain or operation.

K Ellis↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA’s Simulation Activities for Evaluating UAM Concept of Operations

NASA’s vision for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is to help emerging aviation markets to safely develop an air transportation system that moves people and cargo between places previously not served or underserved by aviation using revolutionary new aircraft types. Urban Air Mobility (UAM), the concept of expanding transportation networks by serving short flights to transport people and goods around metropolitan areas, is part of a larger paradigm shift toward AAM, in which new technologies and business models are enabling transformational applications of aviation. In NASA’s Concept of Operations for UAM, Providers of Services for UAM (PSU) play a key role to enable safe and efficient UAM operations by sharing operational data among UAM operators. PSUs provide a pre-departure strategic conflict management service that establishes operational plans for new flights and coordinates them with all relevant operations in shared airspace. The strategic conflict management aims to minimize the need for tactical separation provision, while considering anticipated traffic demand, vertiport capacity and availability, forecasted weather, and airspace restrictions. NASA is currently preparing a new lab evaluation activity with aviation industry partners, called the X4 simulation, to demonstrate their airspace services and capabilities and test new information exchange requirements for UAM operations. This simulation activity will support NASA’s National Campaign (NC) flight tests which are planned over the next several years to guide the collective community and stakeholders through a series of scenario-based test activities that involve vehicles and airspace management services operating in a live test environment. This presentation will provide an overview of the X4 simulation, including objectives, scenarios, assumptions, system architecture, and test schedule. The X4 simulation will evaluate the interconnectivity and operational intent sharing between PSUs for multiple operators, as well as the performance of strategic conflict management.

Urban Air Mobility, Simulation, Advanced Air Mobil↗
DOE OSTI2024

Solar Prize Round 5 Software Track: Abbreviated Final Technical Report

Solar Prize Round 5 launched two simultaneous tracks, the Hardware Track and the Software Track, to introduce software innovations into the Solar Prize for the first time. The primary goal of the prize is to accelerate the development, validation, and commercialization of innovative solar software solutions that will increase the competitiveness of the U.S. solar industry. This is accomplished with three escalating challenges, called the Ready!, Set!, and Go! Contests, where teams work to develop their concept from idea to potentially marketable product in less than one year. Competitors also have the option to compete in a Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Contest, which recognizes solutions that enable underserved communities in the United States to overcome systemic solar barriers and share equitably in the societal benefits of solar deployment. The Prize concluded by awarding 2 final winners the Go! Contest prize and a 3rd winner to the JEDI Contest prize in the Software Track, after competing in the prize for a year and demonstrating their success through each phase.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Final Technical Report for Solar Prize Round 6

Solar Prize Round 6 had the primary goal to accelerate the development, validation, and commercialization of innovative solar software solutions that will increase the competitiveness of the U.S. solar industry. This is accomplished with three escalating challenges, called the Ready!, Set!, and Go! Contests, where teams work to develop their concept from idea to potentially marketable product in less than one year. Competitors also have the option to compete in a Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Contest, which recognizes solutions that enable underserved communities in the United States to overcome systemic solar barriers and share equitably in the societal benefits of solar deployment. The Prize concluded by awarding 2 final winners the Go! Contest prize and 1 of those same winners the Go! Contest JEDI prize after competing in the prize for a year and demonstrating their success through each phase.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Refueling Infrastructure Deployment in Low-Income and Non-Urban Communities

The U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization identifies the need to invest in infrastructure supporting low- and zero-emission vehicles, especially in low-income and overburdened communities, to eliminate nearly all greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector by 2050. The alternative fuel vehicle refueling property tax credit (26 U.S. Code § 30C) includes eligibility criteria intended to encourage investment in underserved communities based on the economic characteristics or urban character of the census tract in which the fueling infrastructure is installed. Eligible census tracts are those that qualify for the New Markets Tax Credit or that are not located within urban areas as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. This study quantifies how many fueling-related amenities are currently located in census tracts that qualify and do not qualify for the 30C tax credit based on IRS Notice 2024-20. For existing electric vehicle charging stations, 51% of Level 2 and 60% of Direct Current Fast Charging public stations are located in eligible census tracts. 73% of natural gas, propane, and hydrogen fueling stations are in qualifying census tracts and 75% of biodiesel and renewable fuel stations are in qualifying census tracts. This compares with 73% of existing gas stations in eligible census tracts. For deploying the refueling infrastructure to satisfy future demand, this study shows that truck stops (94%), commercial truck stops (92%), and Federal Highway alternative fuel corridors (89%) are predominantly located in eligible locations. Additionally, significant percentages of the population (62%), light-duty vehicle registrations (64%), and medium- and heavy-duty vehicle registrations (68%) fall within eligible areas.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Future of Energy Efficiency for U.S. Buildings - Drivers and Market Scenarios

This paper identifies likely drivers of building efficiency over the next ten years and expectations for how efficiency markets may evolve over this period. To prepare these predictions, we conducted an extensive literature review, interviewed 22 experts, reviewed legislation and executive orders in 12 states, and implemented a detailed questionnaire completed by 41 efficiency practitioners. The two most important drivers revealed by our research are (1) public policies and regulations, particularly those associated with climate change mitigation and adaptation and (2) the cost of energy relative to the cost of delivering efficiency. Other important drivers are technology changes, economic conditions, social priorities, and industry (including utility) business practices for increasing the uptake of efficiency in buildings. Our research indicates that efficiency markets will increasingly focus on supporting building decarbonization and enabling demand flexibility through the use of controls in grid-interactive efficient buildings and communities. Efficiency improvements for specific technologies (e.g., heat pumps, controls, and windows) and technological advances not specific to energy technologies (e.g., interoperability, artificial intelligence, and universal internet access) will improve the efficacy of efficiency measures and actions. Marketing of efficient products and services will increasingly focus on grid services, decarbonization, non-energy benefits for consumers, and integration with other distributed energy resources (DERs). We anticipate increased investment in disadvantaged and historically underserved communities, recognizing the social, health, and safety benefits of efficient energy usage and remediating historical biases. Lastly, we predict that while state and local government actions will vary, jurisdictions will increase their efficiency goals overall.

Schiller, Steven R↗
DOE OSTI2021

Advancing Solar Innovation for Low and Moderate-Income Households (Final Technical Report)

The overarching goal of this project was to deepen the understanding of the social and economic aspects of solar adoption, with a specific eye towards any pathways or barriers that could be identified that directly impact low and moderate-income households. Specific objectives included (1) identifying and assessing significant non-economic barriers that complicate the ability of LMI households to adopt and benefit from solar, even under scenarios with low economic barriers; (2) assessing the differential ability of groups to benefit from solar adoption based on their ability to invest in different solar innovations; (3) explaining why some LMI communities nonetheless experience significantly higher rates of solar adoption and benefit than others; (4) developing a methodological model for generating data addressing key issues to the project; and (5) designing and developing an interactive web portal that aggregates existing datasets, provides researchers trend analysis capabilities, standardizes project protocols for other states and communities; provides the opportunities for researchers using the same protocol in other communities to upload their results; and engages with the general public by providing them the ability to upload their own perspectives and stories of solar technology adoption. Through a common framework for conducting semi-structured field interviews. In partnership with cooperative extension services, in conjunction with survey research and the aggregation of existing solar adoption datasets, this study has identified that currently ,there is a strong values alignment and knowledge access challenge that continues to affect solar adoption. Participants in this study – many of whom are either low or moderate-income and/or live in underserved rural communities do not believe solar is an option where they live or believe solar is appropriate for their lifestyle. This perception challenge is further exacerbated by the absolute dearth of adopters in most communities and a total lack of local marketing for solar energy. What marketing that does exist is geared towards audiences other than those in the participant's community, reinforcing a perception that 22% of survey respondents (n = 1,551) have: that solar energy is not meant for them and their community. Overcoming these serious human challenges pertaining to knowledge and marketing are critical to reducing the customer acquisition costs incurred amongst LMI communities and especially those in rural America where the opportunities solar provides to increase local energy resilience, security, all while engaging in personal stewardship of the planet could align with local values. Community-Based Social Marketing, built in partnership with community leaders and geared towards meeting local visions of ideal life, is a near term opportunity to bridge the gap between local priorities and national market and policy imperatives for solar while moving towards the administration's goals for renewable energy as part of a just and equitable decarbonization program. The tools and methods developed for this study can serve as a template for identifying other specific local challenges for solar adoption in other state, and provide the opportunity for a common data framework for understanding system-wide trends and barriers to achieving uptake of residential solar in communities that may, ultimately, benefit the most from the technology.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

A Hot‐Swappable, Fault‐Tolerant, Modular Power Converter System for Solar Photovoltaic Plants

The performance metrics of the state-of-the-art commercial solar inverters, such as system cost, operation and maintenance (O&M) cost, service life, reliability, maintainability, and power density are much lower than the target metrics needed to achieve SunShot’s 2030 levelized cost of energy (LCOE) goals. To overcome the shortcomings of the existing solar inverters, this project proposed a novel Hot-Swappable, Fault-Tolerant, Modular Power Converter (HSFT-MPC) concept for solar photovoltaic (PV) plants and proved the concept through the design, fabrication, and laboratory test validation of a single-phase HSFT-MPC prototype. The HSFT-MPC has the following distinct advantages over the state-of-the-art: 1) elimination of harmonic/ electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter in the inverter stage due to the novel topology, 2) lower system cost and higher power density due to the modular design, elimination of harmonic/EMI filter, and lower cooling requirement, 3) higher efficiency due to lower switching frequencies, 4) higher reliability and longer (50 years) service life due to simpler cooling and fault tolerance capability, 5) easier installation, lower O&M cost, and improved maintainability due to the modular design and hot-swappable power electronic building blocks (PEBBs), and 6) improved manufacturability due to the modular design. This project developed a single-phase HSFT-MPC prototype with 25kW nominal output power, 2.4kV, 60Hz nominal AC output, lower than 5% AC output voltage total harmonic distortion, over 5 kW/L inverter power density, and 99.4% inverter peak efficiency, being tolerant to failure of single and multiple PEBBs, and capable of hot swapping of the failed PEBB(s). The HSFT-MPC enables uninterruptable operation of the solar PV plant when failure of single or multiple PEBBs or PV modules occurs. Compared with the existing solar inverters in the market, the HSFT-MPC is expected to reduce the inverter failure-caused downtime and energy losses of solar PV plants by more than 60% and 50%, respectively. Project findings have been presented at major conferences in the field and published in peer-reviewed papers, which added new knowledge to the field of power electronics for solar PV systems. A minicourse on Solar PV Systems was developed for outreach activities. The minicourse will help attract young individuals to the renewable energy profession which has a significant talent shortage. The HSFT-MPC is expected to overcome all of the shortcomings of the state-of-the-art solar inverters in terms of cost, efficiency, service life, reliability, maintainability, and manufacturability targets needed to achieve SunShot’s 2030 LCOE goals. Therefore, the proposed HSFT-MPC concept has the great potential to disrupt the current solar inverter market. This project created a pathway towards industry adoption of the HSFT-MPC to help achieve 50-year service life solar PV systems. Since the solar PV plants using the HSFT-MPC will feature with higher reliability, longer service life, and easier maintenance, they are particularly useful for the rural areas with underserved populations that demand reliable and affordable clean electricity. The outcomes of the project have the strong potential to address national needs in the field of renewable energy to reduce CO 2 emissions from the electricity sector, reduce imports of energy from foreign sources, and improve energy security, efficiency, and sustainability. Since electricity is used in almost all of society’s sectors, the outcomes of the project will benefit various sectors of society and economy.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS2022

Digital Flight: A New Cooperative Operating Mode to Complement VFR and IFR

Digital Flight is a proposed new operating mode for all airspace users, complementing and adding to the existing operating modes of visual and instrument flight rules (VFR and IFR) and providing for cooperative integration in controlled airspace. Under new regulations (Digital Flight Rules, DFR) that set requirements for its sustained use, qualified operators employ Digital Flight to enhance their airspace access and operational flexibility in all visibility conditions and eventually all airspace classes without requiring segregation from incumbent operations. Enabled by connected digital information and technologies, Digital Flight operators employ cooperative practices and self-separation to ensure flight path safety in lieu of visual procedures or receiving separation services from Air Traffic Control. Its distributed structure and automated functions enable traffic densities and operational tempos not achievable with the existing operating modes. Various ongoing and emerging industry initiatives for enabling new entrants (e.g., unmanned aircraft systems, urban air taxis) and enhanced use of underserved airspace (e.g., ultra-high altitude), are pursuing various alternative operating modes with significant similarities, creating a unique and time-limited opportunity for harmonization and convergence. Digital Flight is proposed to serve that harmonizing role, creating a common new paradigm for airspace operations. Such convergence would not only bring together these emerging market segments but will also bolster the existing operators with access to this new operating mode and its advantages. Digital Flight provides an opportunity to focus regulatory development and benefit the aviation industry. This paper describes Digital Flight in sufficient detail to initiate community engagement and deliberation on a common new operating mode. It describes the essential elements, principal capabilities, and operational integration of DFR in shared airspace. It describes the value proposition from multiple perspectives and presents initial thoughts on the path forward.

Digital flight↗
DOE OSTI2022

A comparison of building system parameters between affordable and market-rate housing in New York City

Low-income households in the United States experience higher than average energy burdens (defined as the proportion of household income spent on energy utilities), and many of these households struggle to simultaneously pay for rent, energy, and basic household necessities. The analysis presented here in this study examines whether the underlying characteristics of buildings and their energy systems could contribute to this disparity for affordable housing residents in New York City. It combines an energy audit dataset of 7,328 multifamily buildings with a database of properties receiving local, state, or federal housing subsidies. The results of this analysis indicate that the building-level installed equipment in large (greater than 50,000 square feet) affordable housing buildings in New York City is more efficient than that in market-rate buildings, but this trend largely disappears when considering overall building characteristics, such as location, size, or age. Significant differences in the types of systems installed in affordable and market-rate housing are also observed, as well as the types of energy efficiency recommendations made by energy auditors. However, these latter data were not normalized by building system characteristics, as that analysis is much more difficult to interpret for categorical data such as heating system type. These findings indicate that retrofit policies and building performance standards focused on affordable housing will likely need to account for underlying differences in building characteristics between affordable and market-rate housing to achieve intended impacts.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗