The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to solicit feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders on issues related to the proposed modification to the accounting of renewable energy (RE) source energy. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) proposes to replace the “fossil-fuel equivalency” approach with the alternative “captured energy” approach described below. This would impact the site-to-source ratios used in analyses that inform EERE reports, standards, and evaluations. This methodological choice is important as renewable generation continues to grow and accounts for more significant portions of the nation’s electricity production. This is solely a Request for Information and not a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). EERE is not accepting applications, and no financial assistance is being provided. Please see the full RFI DE-FOA-0001512 “Accounting Conventions for Non-Combustible Renewable Energy” in the DOCUMENTS section below.
EERE seeks feedback on using an alternative methodology for calculating source energy from non-combustible renewable resources in analysis that informs EERE products, reports, and standards – such as the Home Energy Score. The current “fossil-fuel equivalency” approach uses the equivalent average heat rate of fossil fuels to convert renewable electricity to source energy (approximately 9,500 BTU/kWh), while the proposed “captured energy” approach would use the heat content of electricity (3,412 BTU/kWh). This proposed change would better represent the lack of fuels used in generating renewable electricity, and would result in a slightly lower site-to-source ratio than the current approach.
Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to EERE.Analysis@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm (ET) on March 14, 2016. Responses must be provided as attachments to an email. It is recommended that attachments with file sizes exceeding 25MB be compressed (i.e., zipped) to ensure message delivery. Responses must be provided as a Microsoft Word (.docx) attachment to the email, and no more than 20 pages in length, 12 point font, 1 inch margins. Only electronic responses will be accepted.
Please identify your answers by responding to a specific question or topic if applicable. Respondents may answer as many or as few questions as they wish.
EERE will not respond to individual submissions or publish publicly a compendium of responses. A response to this RFI will not be viewed as a binding commitment to develop or pursue the project or ideas discussed.
Respondents are requested to provide the following information at the start of their response to this RFI:
Company / institution name;
Company / institution contact;
Contact's address, phone number, and e-mail address.
Please see the full RFI DE-FOA-0001512 document in the DOCUMENTS section below.