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This project supports the Solar America Initiative by: (1) providing a consistent framework for analyzing and comparing power system costs and performance across the range of solar technologies and markets, PV, solar heat systems, CSP, residential, commercial and utility markets; (2) developing and validating performance models to enable accurate calculation of levelized cost of energy (LCOE); (3) providing a consistent modeling platform for all TPP's; and (4) supporting implementation and usage of cost models.

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Presentation prepared for the 2008 National Hydrogen Association Conference that describes the spring 2008 results for DOE's Fuel Cell Vehicle Learning Demonstration.

The conclusions of this report are: (1) intrinsic donor-type defects In{sub Cu}, Ga{sub Cu}, and V{sub Se}, and their complexes with V{sub Cu} cause metastability, but also act to limit V{sub OC}; (2) growth conditions which minimize these defects (Cu-rich/Se-rich) are very different from those currently used; and (3) overcoming V{sub OC} limitation requires to address other issues and trade-offs.

The project description is: (1) it supports crosscutting activities, e.g. advanced optical materials, that aren't tied to a single CSP technology and (2) it supports the 'incubation' of new concepts in preliminary stages of investigation.

Study of stability issues of TCOs for thin-film PV, including degradation of optical, electrical, and structural properties of TCOs in damp heat and required encapsulation to prevent moisture egress.

ZnO is a promising material for short wave-length opto-electronic devices such as UV lasers and LEDs due to its large exciton binding energy and low material cost. ZnO can be doped easily n-type, but the realization of stable p-type ZnO is rather difficult. Using first-principles band structure methods the authors address what causes the p-type doping difficulty in ZnO and how to overcome the p-type doping difficulty in ZnO.

This project supports the Solar America Initiative by carrying out work on target topics identified for Photovoltaic Systems: (1) Improving cell and module efficiency of thin film Cu(In,Ga)Se2 materials; (2) Implementing the Science and Technology Facility (S&TF) and the Process Development and Integration Laboratory (PDIL) to facilitate laboratory/industry interaction in developing PV manufacturing technologies; (3) Addressing industrial issues in materials and manufacturing processes with the objective to lower the cost of PV power; (4) Providing technology transfer efforts to accelerate transition of thin film PV technology to market and deployment; (5) Assisting R&D efforts to asses and improve reliability and stability of thin film PV products; and (6) Assist the SAI TPPs in technical matters related to CIGS PV technology.

The area of transcriptomics analysis is among the more established in computational biology, having evolved in both technology and experimental design. Transcriptomics has a strong impetus to develop sophisticated computational methods due to the large amounts of available whole-genome datasets for many species and because of powerful applications in regulatory network reconstruction as well as elucidation and modeling of cellular transcriptional responses. While gene expression microarray data can be noisy and comparisons across experiments challenging, there are a number of sophisticated methods that aid in arriving at statistically and biologically significant conclusions. As such, computational transcriptomics analysis can provide guidance for analysis of results from newer experimental technologies. More recently, search methods have been developed to identify modules of genes, which exhibit coherent expression patterns in only a subset of experimental conditions. The latest advances in these methods allow to integrate multiple data types anddatasets, both experimental and computational, within a single statistical framework accounting for data confidence and relevance to specific biological questions. Such frameworks provide a unified environment for the exploration of specific biological hypothesis and for the discovery of coherent data patterns along with the evidence supporting them.

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Presentation covers new content available on the Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicle Data Center regarding diesel vehicles, diesel exhaust fluid, and selective catalytic reduction technologies.

Presentation covers diesel exhaust fluid resources on the Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center.

The Primary objectives: to provide a broad range of analytical support to the Solar Program; and to anticipate and respond to the rapidly evolving analytical needs of the Solar Program. Three broad types of analysis are being carried out under this project including: (1) Market analysis: Developing a PV market penetration model--the SolarDS model--and other tools, in order to gain insight into the factors influencing market penetration of PV technology in U.S. markets. (2) Value analysis: Providing inputs to, support for, and review of the annual GPRA benefits analysis. Also developing methods and tools for improving the quantification of the benefits and cost of solar technologies. (3) Policy analysis: Defining and carrying out analysis that meets the needs of the Solar Energy Technologies Program in a timely fashion, for example evaluating the potential role of solar in the energy economy in the long-term.

Presentation on the results from the DOE fuel cell bus evaluation given at the Transportation Research Board's 87th annual meeting, January 14, 2008.

This presentation on solar technologies and sustainability was given at the 17th Annual Rocky Mountain Land-Use Institute (RMLUI) Land-Use Conference.

The developed model used is to provide a better understanding and help answer engineering questions about improving the design, operational strategy, management, and safety of cells.

Nonuniform battery physics can cause unexpected performance and life degradations in lithium-ion batteries; a three-dimensional cell performance model was developed by integrating an electrode-scale submodel using a multiscale modeling scheme.

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The project description is R and D activities at NREL and Sandia aimed at lowering the delivered energy cost of parabolic trough collector systems and FOA awards to support industry in trought development. The primary objectives are: (1) support development of near-term parabolic trought technology for central station power generation; (2) support development of next-generation trought fields; and (3) support expansion of US trough industry. The major FY08 activities were: (1) improving reflector optics; (2) reducing receiver heat loss (including improved receiver coating and mitigating hydrogen accumulation); (3) measuring collector optical efficiency; (4) optimizing plant performance and reducing cost; (5) reducing plant water consumption; and (6) directly supporting industry needs, including FOA support.

The overview of changes in protein levels or states in response to a growth condition, stress, mutation or metabolic engineering is invaluable in understanding the physiology of a microbial system. The lipid profile of the cell is similarly a valuable diagnostic of the cellular response and health, especially in context of survival in a fluctuating environment. To obtain comprehensive cellular models, post-transcriptional cell wide surveys at the levels of proteins and lipids are required. Both these fields have been greatly bolstered by the development of high throughput methods using mass spectrometry. Multiple strategies now exist for the identification of proteins, and numerous workflows to quantify protein abundance have also been developed. Cellular profiling such as these allows us to assess the potential of a microbial system for environmental applications such as bioremediation and bio-energy.