Fact sheet written for the Inventions and Innovation Program about a new composite-reinforced aluminum conductor for utility transmission and distribution. The millions of people affected by a blackout in the western US, Canada, and parts of Mexico in July 1996 had no idea the power outage was caused by overloaded transmission lines sagging low enough to touch trees. Millions of New Englanders affected by power outages during the 1997--98 winter probably weren't aware that accumulations of ice and snow on transmission lines had caused the lines to snap. Yet, these two examples illustrate the urgent need to begin upgrading this country's aging electrical-power distribution systems. A key step in this process lies in improving the weight and conductivity characteristics of utility transmission and distribution lines. Conventional conductors used for overhead transmission and distribution lines are comprised of aluminum strands of wire wrapped around a steel core. The aluminum serves as the electrical conductor, while the steel provides mechanical support. This hybrid design results in an excellent weight-to-conductivity ratio, but it also yields a heavier product, which requires stronger and more costly support structures and limits conductivity. W. Brandt Goldsworthy and Associates, Inc., of Torrance, California, is developing a new composite-reinforced …

The Technology Cooperation Agreement Pilot Project (TCAPP) was launched by several U.S. Government agencies (USAID, EPA and DOE) in August 1997 to establish a model for climate change technology cooperation with developing and transition countries. TCAPP is currently facilitating voluntary partnerships between the governments of Brazil, China, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mexico, and the Philippines, the private sector, and the donor community on a common set of actions that will advance implementation of clean energy technologies. The six participating countries have been actively engaged in shaping this initiative along with international donors and the private sector. This program helps fulfill the US obligation to support technology transfer to developing countries under Article 4.5 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. TCAPP also provides a mechanism to focus resources across international donor programs on the technology cooperation needs of developing and transition countries.

The project shown in this fact sheet uses ''break points,'' where the cost of the energy-efficient features are balanced by the reductions of other construction costs. The goal of the Building America program is to produce energy efficient, environmentally sensitive, affordable, and adaptable residences on a community scale.

Experimental and computational studies were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of an Argon Reservoir (AR). The AR is designed to prevent the ingress of air into the extraction furnace during the insertion and removal of the extraction basket, which contains Tritium Producing Burnable Absorber Rods. Computational computer code studies were performed to evaluate the AR design concept. Based on the results of this study it was concluded that the Argon reservoir would be very effective in keeping air and moisture from infiltrating into the furnace module if the reservoir was continuously supplied with make-up argon.

Provides the plan for integrating research, development, and deployment of new technologies to improve future commercial buildings in the U.S.

Provides a summary of plans for integrating research, development, and deployment for future commercial buildings in the U.S.

BestPractices Steam tip sheet about using low grade waste steam to power absorption chillers in steam systems.

BestPractices Steam tip sheet about using vapor recompression to recover low-pressure waste steam from plant-wide steam systems.

The Equal Access Initiative: HIV/AIDS Information Resources from the National Library of Medicine training is designed specifically for the National Minority AIDS Council 2010 Equal Access Initiative (EAI) Computer Grants Program awardees to provide valuable health information resources from the National Library of Medicine and other reliable sources to increase awareness of the wealth of treatment information and educational materials that are available on the Internet and to improve prevention and treatment education for their clients. These resources will also meet the needs of community-based

An in situ experimental technique is described that allows high resolution, high sensitivity determination of displacements and full-field strains during high temperature mechanical testing. The technique is used to investigate elevated temperature crack growth in SiC/Nicalon sub f composites. At 1150 degrees C, the reinforcing fibers have a higher creep susceptibility than the matrix. Fiber creep leads to relaxation of crack bridging tractions, resulting in subcritical crack growth. Differential image analysis is used to measure the crack opening displacement profile u(x) of an advancing, bridged crack. With appropriate modeling, such data can be used to determine the traction law, from which the mechanics of cracking and failure may be determined.

Wind resources in the state of Iowa show great potential for wind energy development. This fact sheet provides a brief description of the state's wind resources and the financial incentives available for the development of wind energy systems. It also provides a list of contacts for more information.

Wind resources in the state of Kansas show great potential for wind energy development according to the wind resource assessment conducted by the Kansas Electric Utilities Research Program, UWIG, and DOE. This fact sheet provides a brief description of the resource assessment and description of the state's new educational wind kiosk as well as its green power program and financial incentives available for the development of renewable energy technologies. A list of contacts for more information is also included.

This fact sheet provides a brief description of the wind resources in Massachusetts, the state financial incentives to develop wind systems and its net metering and green power programs. The fact sheet also provides a list of contacts for more information.

This fact sheet provides a brief description of the wind resources in New Mexico and the state's net metering and green power programs. The fact sheet also provides a list of contacts for more information.

This fact sheet contains a description of South Dakota's wind energy resources, and the state's financial incentives that support the installation of renewable energy systems. The fact sheet includes a list of contacts for those interested in obtaining more information.

Wind resources in the state of Vermont show great potential for wind energy development according to the wind resource assessment conducted by the state, its utilities, and NREL. This fact sheet provides a brief description of the resource assessment and a link to the resulting wind resource map produced by NREL. The fact sheet also provides a description of the state's net metering program, its financial incentives, and green power programs as well as a list of contacts for more information.

The presence of single atoms, e.g. dopant atoms, in sub-100 nm scale electronic devices can affect the device characteristics, such as the threshold voltage of transistors, or the sub-threshold currents. Fluctuations of the number of dopant atoms thus poses a complication for transistor scaling. In a complementary view, new opportunities emerge when novel functionality can be implemented in devices deterministically doped with single atoms. The grand price of the latter might be a large scale quantum computer, where quantum bits (qubits) are encoded e.g. in the spin states of electrons and nuclei of single dopant atoms in silicon, or in color centers in diamond. Both the possible detrimental effects of dopant fluctuations and single atom device ideas motivate the development of reliable single atom doping techniques which are the subject of this chapter. Single atom doping can be approached with top down and bottom up techniques. Top down refers to the placement of dopant atoms into a more or less structured matrix environment, like a transistor in silicon. Bottom up refers to approaches to introduce single dopant atoms during the growth of the host matrix e.g. by directed self-assembly and scanning probe assisted lithography. Bottom up approaches are discussed in …

Consumers in Arizona are showing increased interest in solar electric systems for their homes and businesses. This booklet provides basic information about buying a PV system. Photovoltaic (PV) systems are reliable, pollution free, and use a renewable source of energy-the sun. A PV system can be a substantial investment and careful planning will help ensure that you make the right decisions.

While improving their energy use in buildings and bus fleets, schools are likely to create better places for teaching and learning with better lighting, temperature control, acoustics, and air quality. Smart districts also realize benefits in student performance.

BestPractices Steam tip sheet about using a vent condenser to recover flash steam energy in steam systems.

Zion National Park Visitor Center incorporated a variety of energy-efficient features into its design to address Zion's specific needs. The design blended with the canyon's unique qualities and will save energy and operation costs at the center.

Natural, renewable resources such as vegetable oils and recycled restaurant greases can be chemically transformed into clean-burning biodiesel fuels. As its name implies, biodiesel is like diesel fuel except that it's organically produced. It's also safe for the environment, biodegradable, and produces significantly less air pollution than diesel fuel.

BestPractices Steam tip sheet about recovering low-pressure steam by flashing high-pressure condensates in plant-wide steam systems.

The development of high performance, massively parallel computers and the increasing demands of computationally challenging applications have necessitated the development of scalable solvers and preconditioners. One of the most effective ways to achieve scalability is the use of multigrid or multilevel techniques. Algebraic multigrid (AMG) is a very efficient algorithm for solving large problems on unstructured grids. While much of it can be parallelized in a straightforward way, some components of the classical algorithm, particularly the coarsening process and some of the most efficient smoothers, are highly sequential, and require new parallel approaches. This chapter presents the basic principles of AMG and gives an overview of various parallel implementations of AMG, including descriptions of parallel coarsening schemes and smoothers, some numerical results as well as references to existing software packages.