Providing Products, Services and Capabilities
Energy Program Design, Management and Implementation: Design new technical programs or initiatives and help customers manage and implement such programs. Examples include:
- Organizing a DOE program to stimulate government procurement of new energy efficient equipment (air conditioners, in this case) to enable product innovation in equipment industries.
- Developing LightRight, a multi-organizational research program on lighting design and its effects on building occupants and conducting public education on this research.
- Assisting the DOE's Federal Energy Management Program to develop and implement its Operations and Maintenance program and O&M Best Practices, A Guide to Achieving Operational Efficiency.
- Analyzing R&D and technology opportunities and assessing codes and standards requirements for energy efficiency gains in commercial buildings for the Building Technologies Program.
Technology Assessment and Economic Analysis: Conduct studies of technologies to better understand their lifecycle costs, environmental impacts and market viability. Analyses may include assessments of individual technologies, comparative analyses of alternatives, or simulations of an entire energy market. Examples include:
- Evaluating the economics of alternative hydrogen production and infrastructure in support of the Hydrogen Analysis (H2A) effort conducted by the DOE's Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Infrastructure Technologies Program.
- Analyzing comparative lifecycle costs of electric vehicles (versus conventional vehicles) and biomass fuels (versus reformulated gasoline).
Strategic and Business Planning: Conduct planning activities at various levels within the government and private sectors. Examples include:
- Developing guidance under the auspices of the Office of Planning, Budget and Analysis for the EE&RE Program Offices and its multi-year program planning.
- Designing and implementing technology roadmapping exercises for the Mexican Petroleum Institute (IMP) and the Building Technologies Program Office.
- Analyzing the R&D portfolio for EE&RE and DOE/SC as part of strategic planning and program evaluation efforts.
- Developing energy and greenhouse gas emissions scenarios as part of strategic planning initiatives in the U.S. Climate Change Technology Program.
Program Evaluation: Analyze program accomplishments and developing metrics for assessing program effectiveness. Examples include:
- Providing technology and programmatic inputs and metrics analysis for the Building Technologies Program, FEMP and WIP as part of Government Performance and Review Act work to measure energy savings and environmental impacts of these programs.
- Conducting comprehensive analyses of the measurable benefits of the technology commercialization successes and emerging technology opportunities (IMPACTS) in the EE&RE Industrial Technologies Program.
- Deploying the "balanced scorecard" approach to organizational assessment for the Energy Science and Technology Directorate within PNNL.
Policy Analysis: Analyze current and potential policies and implications that range from specific topics, e.g., commercial building energy and lighting code changes, to broad topics, e.g. government response to climate change. Additional examples include:
- Analysis of policies affecting the siting of new energy facilities.
- Assessment of the impact of codes and standards on introduction of new energy technologies.
- Analysis of acid rain mitigation strategies.
- Analysis of federal policies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from buildings.
Technical Training and Assistance: Conduct training on technical subjects. Two particular areas of focus are:
- Training on national and state energy codes and technical assistance to states during the development of state energy codes.
- Training project developers in developing countries to develop greenhouse gas reduction proposals under terms of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The safety pyramid captures the essence of incorporating safety in all aspects of the DOE Hydrogen, Fuel cells and Infrastructure Technologies Program
Hydrogen Safety: Provide leadership and technical support for the Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Infrastructure Technologies Program Office directed at enhancing the safe development, commercialization and implementation of hydrogen fuel-related technologies. Examples include:
- Providing technical support and coordination for all activities of the Hydrogen Safety Review Panel, e.g., project safety review site visits and reporting and capturing "lessons learned".
- Editing and publishing Guidance for Safety Aspects of Proposed Hydrogen Projects as a template and resource for the development of project safety plans.
- Planning, organizing and conducting the annual Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Summit focused on the sharing of safety, codes and standards information and insights between government, industry and standards development organization; publishing the Summit newsletter.
- Initiating and designing a hydrogen emergency response training program at the DOE Hazardous Materials Management and Emergency Response (HAMMER) Training Facility, Richland, WA.
Decision Tool and Database Development: Develop databases and other specialized software tools to help policymakers formulate sound decision making based on appropriate information.
- Utilizing a "user-centered collaborative prototyping" approach to develop software solutions that are more likely to meet the requirements and expectations of the client than traditional approaches. This methodology has been applied to data visualization and database tasks for DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and Office of Science.