An updated software tool combines energy-use evaluation with Google's 3D-modeling program to help improve building design in its early stages.
OpenStudio, a free, open-source tool introduced last year, now integrates EnergyPlus building analysis with Google SketchUp, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory announced this week.
"OpenStudio is lauded around our office as one of the most complicated plug-ins ever written for SketchUp," Christopher Cronin, Google's strategist for SketchUp, said in a statement.
While Google may see OpenStudio as a plug-in for SketchUp, OpenStudio's creators may instead see SketchUp as an add-on to its simulation program.
The NREL, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy, launched the original version of OpenStudio in April 2008. NREL reports an average of 700 OpenStudio downloads per month.
OpenStudio's first version combined a graphical tool with EnergyPlus, a software program for analyzing building energy-use that the DOE began offering in 2001. "EnergyPlus is a standalone simulation program that models whole-building energy consumption from heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, water systems and other energy flows," according to NREL.
For example, the program can simulate the sun's movement around a building at various times of day for an entire year to determine if windows have been effectively shaded.
"Our hope is that by using OpenStudio in design charrettes, users can start throwing away designs at the very beginning of a project, saying: 'This is not a good design because we're going to use too much energy," Nick Long, an NREL engineer who helped develop OpenStudio, said in a statement.
The National Renewable Energy Lab and U.S. Department of Energy have launched a mapping tool on alternative fuels and vehicles.
Employing Google Maps, TransAtlas plots geographical locations of things like specific types of fuel stations and concentrations where certain types of alternative fuel vehicles are owned in abundance.
It plots points where production facilities and other infrastructure for alternative fuel transportation exist, as well as separate icons identifying projects under development.
The comprehensive tool allows users to turn layers on and off by checking boxes in a legend. It includes alternative fuels like hydrogen, liquefied natural gas, propane, compressed natural gas, E85, biodiesel, and electric charging stations
Layers are also used to see vehicle density for flex fuel, diesel, and hybrid electric vehicles, as well as production facilities for hydrogen and ethanol.
The TransAtlas lets you ask a specific site for more detailed information by hitting the query button and then clicking on a point of interest. One click can tell you the town where an ethanol production facility is located, what capacity it's operating at, and what kind of biomass it uses.
The tool's development was sponsored by the DOE's Vehicle Technologies Program, which includes the Clean Cities initiative, a program to encourage alternative fuel development and public/private partnerships on alternative fuel projects.
National Renewable Energy Lab's map showing hydrogen production facilities in the U.S.
(Credit: Google Maps)
Rommel Noufi, one of the primary experts in copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar cells, is joining SoloPower as vice president of research.
Noufi has been a fixture in CIGS for several years as a scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He also holds the record for efficiency for CIGS cells: one of his cells can convert 19.9 percent of the sun's energy into electricity while another can convert 16.5 percent. When reporters or analysts have CIGS questions, the path in the past several years has often led to Noufi.
Efficiency has been a major headache for CIGS vendors. These solar cells are not as efficient as silicon solar cells, though they cost less. Mass-produced CIGS cells are only at around 10 percent efficiency. To compete with silicon, efficiency needs to increase.
Nouri's record-setting cells have been produced through an evaporation process. The active ingredients are placed onto a sheet of glass or metal foil in a solution. The liquid solution is then evaporated, leaving a lattice of materials that can convert sunlight into electricity.
San Jose, Calif.-based SoloPower, among others, wants to make CIGS cells with different, faster processes. SoloPower said it can electroplate the active materials onto metal foils. Perfecting these new processes, however, has not been easy and many companies have had to delay production. Nanosolar, which prints CIGS cells, is the first non-evaporation CIGS company to enter commercial production. (Global Solar, which uses evaporation, is the only other CIGS company in commercial production.)
Venture capitalists have invested over $30 million in SoloPower, which plans to build its first factory in Silicon Valley.
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