Fulfilling the promise of the Paris Agreement: The role of efficiency and renewable energy

Renewable energy, energy policy, energy efficiency, buildings The rapid large-scale deployment of efficiency and renewable energy technologies is crucial to meeting the goals of the COP21 agreement. Key to achieving this is transitioning to zero-carbon cities comprised of highly efficient buildings powered by renewable electricity. This presentation will survey the current efficiency and renewable energy research underway at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory with special attention paid to zero-carbon buildings and the challenges of developing a renewable energy electric grid

2008 Solar Annual Review Meeting, Session: Parabolic Troughs

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

Small-Scale Geothermal Power Plant Field Verification Projects

In the spring of 2000, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory issued a Request for Proposal for the construction of small-scale (300 kilowatt [kW] to 1 megawatt [MW]) geothermal power plants in the western United States. Five projects were selected for funding. Of these five, subcontracts have been completed for three, and preliminary design work is being conducted. The three projects currently under contract represent a variety of concepts and locations: a 1-MW evaporatively enhanced, air-cooled binary-cycle plant in Nevada; a 1-MW water-cooled Kalina-cycle plant in New Mexico; and a 750-kW low-temperature flash plant in Utah. All three also incorporate direct heating: onion dehydration, heating for a fish hatchery, and greenhouse heating, respectively. These projects are expected to begin operation between April 2002 and September 2003. In each case, detailed data on performance and costs will be taken over a 3-year period

LCA of Parabolic Trough CSP: Materials Inventory and Embodied GHG Emissions from Two-Tank Indirect and Thermocline Thermal Storage

In the United States, concentrating solar power (CSP) is one of the most promising renewable energy (RE) technologies for reduction of electric sector greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and for rapid capacity expansion. It is also one of the most price-competitive RE technologies, thanks in large measure to decades of field experience and consistent improvements in design. One of the key design features that makes CSP more attractive than many other RE technologies, like solar photovoltaics and wind, is the potential for including relatively low-cost and efficient thermal energy storage (TES), which can smooth the daily fluctuation of electricity production and extend its duration into the evening peak hours or longer. Because operational environmental burdens are typically small for RE technologies, life cycle assessment (LCA) is recognized as the most appropriate analytical approach for determining their environmental impacts of these technologies, including CSP. An LCA accounts for impacts from all stages in the development, operation, and decommissioning of a CSP plant, including such upstream stages as the extraction of raw materials used in system components, manufacturing of those components, and construction of the plant. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is undertaking an LCA of modern CSP plants, starting with those of parabolic trough design

Hybrid Wet/Dry Cooling for Power Plants

This presentation includes an overview of cooling options, an analysis of evaporative enhancement of air-cooled geothermal power plants, field measurements at a geothermal plant, a preliminary analysis of trough plant, and improvements to air-cooled condensers