P1.8
Application of NASA spaceborne observations and models for informing management and policy decision making in the energy sector
Richard S. Eckman, NASA/LaRC, Hampton, VA; and P. W. Stackhouse
The NASA Applied Sciences Program Energy Management Program Element partners with domestic and international governmental organizations, universities, and private agencies to improve their decisions and assessments which impact the energy sector. These improvements are enabled by leveraging the knowledge generated from research resulting from spacecraft observations and model predictions conducted by NASA and providing these as inputs to the decision support and scenario assessment tools used by partner organizations. The Energy Management Program Element, one of twelve societal benefit areas of the Applied Sciences Program, focuses its efforts to provide for improved decisions and assessments in the areas of renewable energy, energy efficiency, biofuels, climate change impacts, space weather impacts, and supply and load forecasting.
The goals of the Energy Management Program are closely aligned with national interagency initiatives (e.g., U.S. Climate Change Science and Technology Programs) and respond to international program tasks such as the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) 2007-2009 Work Plan for the energy societal benefit area.
The approach of the Energy Management Program Element is to develop information pathways from NASA spacecraft observations and Earth system modeling to decision support tools (DST) supporting energy demand and availability for industry and government entities. These entities require historical, near-real time, and forecasted environmental observations as inputs to their DSTs for management decisions and to conduct scenario assessments for policy. NASA works with its partners to identify the physical quantities provided by NASA observations and model predictions resulting from Earth science research, which are specifically selected, derived, and formatted to meet the needs of the partner's DST.
We describe recent accomplishments in developing prototype datasets derived from NASA-sponsored measurements and models for enhancing the utility of energy sector DSTs. These include an updated release of the Surface Meteorology and Solar Energy (SSE) dataset and its continuing support of the Natural Resources Canada's RETScreen and the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory's HOMER DSTs for renewable energy project feasibility studies. These datasets also contribute to an International Energy Agency (IEA) task, "Solar Resource Knowledge Management," to provide standardization of solar resource products for better data reliability and availability, and improved spatial and temporal coverage. Leveraging on the IEA task activities, we report on a recent GEO near-term demonstration task for improving the dissemination of solar energy data to developing countries for resource assessments, conducted in collaboration with several European partner agencies.
In the energy efficiency area, enhanced sustainable and energy efficient buildings prototypes are presented. These prototypes are being used for architectural applications and have proved useful in the engagement of professional societies such as the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) for use in upcoming revisions to their design manuals.
The continued development of data sets and methodologies for Energy Market forecasting for use in the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's MiniCAM integrated assessment model is described. MiniCAM model simulations have provided key inputs to the formulation of the U.S. Climate Change Technology Program's Strategic Plan.
Recent results from a bioenergy rapid prototype experiment to demonstrate the viability of using 1-degree resolution regional-to-global meteorological and solar radiation data products from NASA satellite and modeling analysis are described. These data are used as inputs to two crop yield models for optimizing agriculture production, including bio-fuels and carbon sequestration.
A systems engineering approach is employed to assess the improvement of the partner's decision making process resulting from the use of NASA research products. We describe the Program's benchmarking process as it is applied to energy sector DSTs.
Poster Session 1, Policy and Socio-Economic Research Posters
Wednesday, 23 January 2008, 2:30 PM-4:00 PM, Exhibit Hall B
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