Community Energy Tools and Resources
From Open Energy Information
The Community Energy Tools and Resources wiki provides access to articles about tools and resources for community energy planning and transformation. These tools were selected for inclusion in the wiki by a variety of subject matter experts at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). For the purposes of this wiki, communities are defined as entities such as towns, cities, counties, multiple-city/county regions, and tribes.
This page is designed to help you search for articles about community energy tools, which include case studies/examples, lessons learned/best practices, guides/manuals, publications, templates, datasets, modeling tools, and online calculators.
Phases and Steps of Community Energy Planning and Transformation
Developing and achieving community energy goals is a process. That process is ultimately up to the community. Through their experience working with communities, NREL subject matter experts identified some common phases and steps in the community energy planning and transformation process (see below). Some tools in the Community Energy Tools and Resources wiki may inform a certain phase of planning and transformation, while others may apply to numerous phases and steps.
Click the arrow to the right of each phase for a brief description and the steps involved. Search for tools related to particular phases or topic areas by clicking the checkboxes to the left of the phase or topic are you're interested in. Applicable tools will appear in the box to the right. You can narrow your search by selecting multiple phases or topic areas.
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The planning phase includes these steps:
- Create a vision
- Bring the right people together
The goal of this phase is to:
- Create a vision for the community’s energy transformation that has been informed by the feedback of all key stakeholders.
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The assessment phase includes these steps:
- Determine an energy baseline
- Evaluate options
- Develop goals
- Prepare the plan document
- Get feedback on the plan
The goals of this phase are to:
- Determine the community’s energy baseline and use it to evaluate all of its options for energy transformation
- Establish specific, measureable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for energy transformation
- Ensure the goals are reviewed by key stakeholders and put into a plan for action.
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The implementation phase includes these steps:
- Develop, finance, and implement projects
- Create early successes
- Evaluate effectiveness and revise as needed
The goals of this phase are to:
- Implement energy projects, especially those that can build support for ongoing and future projects
- Measure the progress and effectiveness of the plan and its projects to determine if goals are being met.
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Topic Areas
The topics below describe specific subjects that may need to be addressed as part of a community’s energy planning and transformation process. Click the arrow to the right of each topic area for a brief description.
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Development of policies and strategies that impact community energy use and human behavior are as important as technical solutions. Good energy policies support energy projects. Policies can be tailored to identify human behaviors that result in greater energy efficiency.
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A community’s energy choices can have significant impact on economic development. Decreased energy costs can enhance business competitiveness through increased profitability. Energy-related products and services may represent new business opportunities. Lower energy costs for consumers may make money available for savings and investment or to spend on other products and services. Energy decisions can also make doing business and living in a community simply more attractive.
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Energy efficiency involves implementing technologies or policies that reduce the energy required to provide a particular service. Energy efficiency measures can be broken down by end use within multiple sectors of a community, including: buildings, vehicles, industrial/process efficiency, infrastructure, central plan, combined heat and power, and utility.
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Buildings, whether publically or privately owned, offer communities opportunities to reduce energy use and use renewable energy technologies. Residential, commercial, and industrial buildings; schools, hospitals, and laboratories comprise a short list of building types.
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Transportation includes a comprehensive infrastructure that serves all modes of transportation from pedestrians and bicyclists to mass transit riders and automobile drivers. Transportation management options include:
- Reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT)
- Improving vehicle efficiency with advanced technologies
- Improving drive-cycle efficiency through traffic management or driver training
- Increasing utilization of alternative fuels such as electricity or natural gas.
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Water conservation is the efficient use of raw or treated water sources to reduce the quantity consumed. The importance of water conservation stems from pressures on this limited resource from population growth, climate change, and increasing ecosystem, industrial and agricultural demands. The importance of water and energy efficiency is becoming increasingly important.
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Renewable energy sources include:
- Biomass (biomass combustion, biomass gasification, biomass pyrolysis, biofuels, landfill gas, waste to energy, and anaerobic digestion)
- Geothermal
- Ground source heat pumps
- Water power
- Solar (solar hot water, concentrating solar power, solar ventilation preheat, and solar PV)
- Wind
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Hydrogen (like electricity) can store energy and deliver it in a usable form. It can be produced using a variety of domestic resources. Hydrogen can be used in fuel cells to provide heat and/or electricity in a wide range of applications such as transportation, stationary power stations (e.g., commercial and residential buildings), and portable power.
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Grid Assessment and Integration
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Grid assessment and integration address the logistics of tying power generated by renewable energy installations to the electrical grid. Renewable energy systems can operate without any connection to the electrical grid, but grid integration allows communities to power multiple buildings across the community from a single renewable energy installation. Any excess electricity produced is fed back into the grid and may be purchased by the utility. When renewable resources are unavailable, electricity from the grid meets demand, eliminating the need for electricity storage devices.
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Non-renewable energy sources, which include coal, natural gas, oil, and nuclear, are a component of most communities’ energy baselines and will remain so. For resource, technical, or economic reasons, the efficient use of non-renewable energy, and its integration with renewable energy systems, is an essential consideration for communities engaging in the strategic energy transformation and planning process.
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To examine activities and operations in the context of their impact on global climate change, communities can incorporate greenhouse gas (GHG) measurement and management as a strategic priority into their energy visions. Greenhouse gas emissions result from a variety of activities that may take place in a community, such as energy production, vehicles and transportation systems, industrial processes, and landfills. Since fossil fuel combustion is a major source of GHGs, reducing energy consumption also cuts emissions.
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For many communities, participating in carbon offset or green power purchase programs can play a role in meeting community energy goals. Green power markets, green pricing programs, renewable energy certificates (RECs), and carbon offsets are some of the program mechanisms available to communities.
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