Presentation about fuel cell backup power technology validation activities at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

This presentation library summarizes findings of NREL's Renewable Electricity Futures study, published in June 2012. RE Futures investigated the challenges and impacts of achieving very high renewable electricity generation levels in the contiguous United States by 2050. It is being presented at the Utility Variable-Generation Integration Group Fall Technical Workshop on October 24, 2012.

Building energy analysis is often time-intensive, error-prone, and non-reproducible. Entire energy analyses can be scripted end-to-end using the OpenStudio Ruby API. Common tasks within an analysis can be automated using OpenStudio Measures. Graphical user interfaces (GUI's) and component libraries reduce time, decrease errors, and improve repeatability in energy modeling.

Overview of photovoltaics role with passive solar houses.

This presentation library summarizes findings of NREL's Renewable Electricity Futures study, published in June 2012. RE Futures investigated the challenges and impacts of achieving very high renewable electricity generation levels in the contiguous United States by 2050.

Presentation on NREL's e-Ca test.

To sustain the commercial success of photovoltaic (PV) technology it is vital to know how power output decreases with time. Unfortunately, it can take years to accurately measure the long-term degradation of new products, but past experience on older products can provide a basis for prediction of degradation rates of new products. An extensive search resulted in more than 2000 reported degradation rates with more than 1100 reported rates that include some or all IV parameters. In this presentation we discuss how the details of the degradation data give clues about the degradation mechanisms and how they depend on technology and climate zones as well as how they affect current and voltage differently. The largest contributor to maximum power decline for crystalline Si technologies is short circuit current (or maximum current) degradation and to a lesser degree loss in fill factor. Thin-film technologies are characterized by a much higher contribution from fill factor particularly for humid climates. Crystalline Si technologies in hot & humid climates also display a higher probability to show a mixture of losses (not just short circuit current losses) compared to other climates. The distribution for the module I-V parameters (electrical mismatch) was found to change with …

With balance-of-system (BOS) costs contributing up to 70% of the installed capital cost, it is fundamental to understanding the BOS costs for offshore wind projects as well as potential cost trends for larger offshore turbines. NREL developed a BOS model using project cost estimates developed by GL Garrad Hassan. Aspects of BOS covered include engineering and permitting, ports and staging, transportation and installation, vessels, foundations, and electrical. The data introduce new scaling relationships for each BOS component to estimate cost as a function of turbine parameters and size, project parameters and size, and soil type. Based on the new BOS model, an analysis to understand the non‐turbine costs has been conducted. This analysis establishes a more robust baseline cost estimate, identifies the largest cost components of offshore wind project BOS, and explores the sensitivity of the levelized cost of energy to permutations in each BOS cost element. This presentation shows results from the model that illustrates the potential impact of turbine size and project size on the cost of energy from U.S. offshore wind plants.

Presentation on innovative indirect evaporative cooling technology developed by Coolerado Corporation given at the Rocky Mountain Chapter ASHRAE conference in April 2012.

Analysis discussing the cost models and supply chains of various PV technologies.