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Energy analysis at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) encompasses a broad range of energy analysis in support of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), NREL programs and initiatives, and the energy analysis community. Here is the latest news on energy analysis activities at NREL:
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is sponsoring its fifth Energy Analysis Forum, "Analytic Insights into Carbon Policy Design and the Implications for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy," which will be held in Golden, Colorado, on November 27-28.
The deadlines are near for both registration and making hotel reservations.
Participants at this two-day event, sponsored by NREL's Strategic Energy Analysis and Applications Center (SEAAC), will discuss critical analysis needs in the carbon-regulation arena and how they relate to energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE). These discussions will help participants identify what analysis, models, and analytic capabilities are necessary to better inform effective decision making in this sector.
The forum sessions will be a combination of presentations and group discussions, covering topics related to carbon policy — highlights include regulations and their implications, electric-sector technologies, and transportation and fuel production issues. On the second day, smaller working groups will discuss carbon regulations and policies — and identify analytic needs. The final session includes a full group discussion on new analytic insights, as well as recommendations for next steps.
For those who are interested, NREL also will provide a tour of some of the laboratory's research facilities following the sessions on the second day.
Registration information, as well as information on hotel reservations and the tour, is available in the Events section of NREL's Energy Analysis Web site.
On November 8, NREL's Strategic Energy Analysis and Applications Center (SEAAC) and DOE/EERE's Office of Planning, Budget, and Analysis (PBA) will present a seminar on sustainable energy utilities. The importance of sustainable energy services (including energy efficiency, conservation, sustainable transport, green building design, and distributed renewable energy) has become even more important with the increasing cost of conventional energy and mounting concerns about the environmental effects of continued use of fossil fuel. The Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU) offers communities of differing spatial and economic scales the opportunity to redesign their market and policy infrastructures to serve the needs of rapid sustainable energy development. In June 2007, Delaware legislated the creation of the first SEU. John Byrne, of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, will present estimates of the environmental and economic impacts of Delaware's Sustainable Energy Utility and discuss possible applications of the model in and beyond the United States.
For more information on the seminar series — including log-in and call-in information for remote access — visit the Web site.
Some of the following documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory have developed a software tool for simulation of performance, costing, and financing of both photovoltaic systems and concentrating solar power systems. The Solar Advisor Model (SAM), supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), can evaluate several types of financing (from residential to utility-scale) and a variety of technology-specific cost models. Solar technologies represented include concentrating solar power (CSP) parabolic trough systems, and photovoltaic (PV) flat-plate and concentrating technologies. The SAM Development Team recently released a new version of SAM (Version 1.3). This release adds additional weather data file support, including many international locations. For more information regarding the capabilities of the SAM software and download information, access the SAM Web site.
Note: The following three publications were all presented at the National Renewable Energy Marketing Conference on Oct. 21-24 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For more about the event, visit the Green Power Network.
Analysts Lori Bird and Marshall Kaiser recently published the report "Trends in Utility Green Pricing Programs (2006)" (PDF 786 KB). In the early 1990s, only a handful of utilities offered their customers a choice of purchasing electricity generated from renewable energy sources. Today, more than 750 utilities—or about 25% of all utilities nationally—provide their customers a "green power" option. This report presents year-end 2006 data on utility green pricing programs, and examines trends in consumer response and program implementation over time. The data in this report, which were obtained via a questionnaire distributed to utility green pricing program managers, can be used by utilities to benchmark the success of their green power programs.
Lori Bird and Elizabeth Lokey recently published the report "Interaction of Compliance and Voluntary Renewable Energy Markets" (PDF 1.1 MB). This paper examines key market interaction issues between compliance and voluntary renewable energy markets that have emerged to help support the development of renewable energy resources. It addresses each market's history, purpose, size, scope, and benefits. Several issues that arise with respect to the interplay of the markets are also discussed, such as double counting, supply and demand impacts, and whether consumers will maintain interest in making voluntary purchases if renewable portfolio standard (RPS) policies are in place.
Analysts Blair Swezey, Jørn Aabakken, and Lori Bird recently published the report "A Preliminary Examination of the Supply and Demand Balance for Renewable Electricity" (PDF 521 KB). In recent years, the demand for renewable electricity has accelerated as a consequence of state and federal policies and the growth of voluntary green power purchase markets, along with the generally improving economics of renewable energy development. This paper reports on a preliminary examination of the supply and demand balance for renewable electricity in the United States, with a focus on renewable energy projects that meet the generally accepted definition of "new" for voluntary market purposes. After estimating current supply and demand, the analysis presents projections of the supply and demand balance out to 2010 and describes a number of key market uncertainties.
The Tribal Energy Program conducted a "Tribal Energy Business Development and Financing Workshop," October 8-11 in Denver. Participants covered a wide range of topics including strategic planning, business structures, case studies, environmental compliance, legal structures, and federal funding opportunities.
On October 16-17, NREL analysts spoke at the Investors' Summit on Climate Change Opportunities in New York City, New York. The summit discussed new investment opportunities and risk strategies related to climate-related business trends, and identified and evaluated the impact of climate risk.
On October 18, NREL hosted a high-level visit from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The four-member delegation included the vice president of the CAS in Beijing, deputy director general for International Cooperation from the CAS in Beijing, director of the Shanghai CAS, and director of the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS.
On October 19, NREL hosted Swedish visitors from the consul based in Michigan. The group discussed mutual interests in biomass gasification in applications for liquid syntheses. Topics included biorefinery R&D, characterization and performance testing of biomass-derived liquid fuels for transport platforms, and advanced and hybrid-vehicle applications with biofuels.
For the latest updates on information regarding energy analysis, visit the Energy Analysis Web site.
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