Architecture Commons^™

Hybrid Cooling Systems For Low-Temperature Geothermal Power Production, Andrea Ashwood, Desikan Bharathan

Publications (E)

The overall objective of this investigation is to identify and evaluate methods by which the net power output of an air-cooled geothermal power plant can be enhanced during hot ambient conditions using minimal amounts of water.

Geothermal power plants that use air-cooled heat rejection systems experience a decrease in power production during hot periods of the day. This decrease in power output typically coincides with the time when utilities need power to address high air conditioning loads. Hybrid cooling options, which use both air and water, have been studied for this report to assess how they might mitigate the net …

U.S. Department Of Energy Commercial Reference Building Models Of The National Building Stock, Michael Deru, Kristin Field, Daniel Studer, Kyle Benne, Brent Griffith, Paul Torcellini, Bing Liu, Mark Halverson, Dave Winiarski, Michael Rosenberg, Mehry Yazdanian, Joe Huang, Drury Crawley

Publications (E)

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies Program has set the aggressive goal of producing marketable net-zero energy buildings by 2025. This goal will require collaboration between the DOE laboratories and the building industry. We developed standard or reference energy models for the most common commercial buildings to serve as starting points for energy efficiency research. These models represent fairly realistic buildings and typical construction practices. Fifteen commercial building types and one multifamily residential building were determined by consensus between DOE, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and represent approximately two-thirds …

Solar Ready Buildings Planning Guide, L. Lisell, T. Tetreault, A. Watson

Publications (E)

This document identifies the important aspects of building design and construction to enable installation of solar photovoltaic and heating systems at some time after the building is constructed. This document addresses photovoltaic (PV), solar hot water (ST), and solar ventilation preheat (SVP) systems.

Economic Investigation Of Community-Scale Versus Building Scale Net-Zero Energy, N. Fernandez, S. Katipamula, M. R. Brambley, T. A. Reddy

Publications (E)

The study presented in this report examines issues concerning whether achieving net-zero energy performance at the community scale provides economic and potentially overall efficiency advantages over strategies focused on individual buildings.

Rebuilding After Disaster: Going Green From The Ground Up, U.S. Department Of Energy

Publications (E)

If you’re a leader in a community that has met with disaster and must be rebuilt, this guide is for you. It’s intended to show how communities—big or small—can incorporate green principles and technologies like energy efficiency and renewable energy into their rebuilding plans. The information in this guide is based on the real-life experiences of two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) teams. One team worked with city leaders in New Orleans, Louisiana, after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and the other assisted community leaders in Greensburg, Kansas, after a devastating tornado in 2007. Although the two communities are …

Supply Curves For Rooftop Solar Pv-Generated Electricity For The United States, Paul Denholm, Robert Margolis

Publications (E)

In this report, we examine several possible methods for generating PV supply curves based exclusively on rooftop deployment. We begin by introducing a framework methodology for a basic supply curve based on estimated distribution of population and buildings, rooftop availability and orientation, and geographical variation in resource. We then discuss limitations to this basic methodology and introduce alternative supply curves that consider additional factors – changes in PV efficiency and configuration, rooftop availability, and grid limitations – while emphasizing the data and methodological limitations to each approach. The resulting curves potentially could be used as inputs to other models or …