Nova Analysis: Holistically Valuing the Contributions of Residential Efficiency, Solar and Storage

A broad suite of performance metrics is required to provide a holistic picture of how energy efficiency (EE) and distributed energy resource (DER) upgrades affect each stakeholder, and how their value varies by home. This report quantifies the relative and combined value of EE and DER investments within the residential, single-family home sector. The new workflow developed combines multiple tools from both the buildings and the solar plus storage domain to enable this analysis from the perspective of multiple stakeholders. This allows simulations to be performed for residential buildings to be modeled anywhere in the country with any efficiency features, …

Better Buildings Workforce Accelerator: District of Columbia Sustainable Energy Utility

From 2020 to 2023, the District of Columbia Sustainable Energy Utility (DCSEU) participated as a partner in the Better Buildings Workforce Accelerator (BBWA). The BBWA is a Department of Energy initiative seeking to raise the level of building science and energy efficiency knowledge in the nation’s building related workforce. Through the BBWA, DOE engaged industry partners in activities that build interest and awareness, streamline pathways, and improve skills for people pursuing green building careers.…

Building Efficiency, Electrification, and Distributed Solar PV Bill Savings Under Time-Based Retail Rate Designs

Building energy technologies and distributed generation, including energy efficiency (EE), distributed solar PV (DPV), and building electrification, are critical to meeting decarbonization goals. Rate design may play an important role in determining the customer economics of adopting these technologies, but it is unclear whether – and to what extent – current rate design trends support or impede progress toward these goals. In this study, they answer these questions by quantifying the range of residential customer bill impacts of EE, DPV, and building electrification investments under current and emerging time-based retail electricity rate designs (i.e., time-of-use, event-based pricing, coincident demand charges, …

Attack Surface of Wind Energy Technologies in the United States

Low-cost, reliable electrical energy production from wind relies upon automation and control systems, arguably more so than traditional thermal generation. These same systems, however, can serve as the target of adversaries’ cyber-attacks. Idaho National Laboratory (INL), at the request of the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE’s) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO), evaluated a generalized wind plant architecture to understand the classes of potential threat actors and the vectors that could enable a cyber-attack. This evaluation explores the attack surface of a representative wind plant, identifying …

The 100 Innovators Leading the Global Energy Transition 2024

The global energy transition can only succeed through innovation. From technology adoption to sustainability strategy to new operating models, innovative thinking will unlock transition success. In this report, Reuters Events examines 100 disruptors and change-makers demonstrating transition excellence, including forward-thinking strategy, novel technology integration, and digital transformation. …

Better Buildings Workforce Accelerator: National Association of State Energy Officials

From 2020 to 2023, the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) participated as a partner in the Better Buildings Workforce Accelerator. (BBWA). The BBWA is a Department of Energy initiative seeking to raise the level of building science and energy efficiency knowledge in the nation’s building-related workforce. Through the BBWA, DOE engaged industry partners in activities that build interest and awareness, streamline pathways, and improve skills for people pursuing green building careers.…

Improving the Efficiency of NRC Power Reactor Licensing

Nuclear energy can play a vital role in helping the US—and the globe—meet mid-century climate goals. But any such role for nuclear depends on overcoming the significant if under-appreciated challenges posed by the current nuclear licensing process in the US. Put simply, getting a new nuclear project licensed is time-consuming and expensive. This report focuses on a singular element of the licensing process that has drawn particular scrutiny for the resources it demands: the so-called mandatory hearing.

Dating to a 1957 amendment to the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) of 1954, the mandatory hearing was put in place during the early …

Practical Approaches To Embed Energy and Environmental Justice Into DOE Technology Portfolios

This document is intended to be a resource for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office and other interested science and technology offices within DOE seeking to incorporate energy and environmental justice (EEJ) into their programs and portfolios. It provides background information on EEJ principles; how those principles apply to foundational research and technology development through deployment and commercialization; and tangible and immediate steps that can be taken to infuse EEJ into ongoing programmatic efforts.…

Artificial Intelligence, Energy and the Economy

The release of ChatGPT on Nov. 30, 2022, sparked a global conversation about the future of computing. By January 2023, this large language model had 100 million users—a number that rose to 173 million by April 2023. Created and released by the company OpenAI, ChatGPT gave the broader public its first direct access to the computational power of artificial intelligence (AI) and its ability to provide human-like text generation with highly accurate contextual understanding.

These advances in AI and machine learning from ChatGPT and other AI models like Google’s Bard, Meta’s LLaMA and other open-source models could fundamentally alter the …

Key Trends of Energy Providers: The Latest Global Research

A global survey by ESG found that nearly three-quarters of energy providers plan to implement AI/machine learning solutions to achieve operational efficiency and meet customer demands while combating macro market forces such as rising costs and rigorous regulations. This insight is part of a broader story of the rapidly evolving energy industry, and how energy executives are rising to meet the moment.

This survey report uncovers energy providers’ top challenges and the solutions to address them, including:

Concerns about regulation, rising costs, and supply chain constraints Optimism about analytics and forecasting tools to power informed decision-making How a clear market