Energy and Air Quality Policy Integration

Tools by Topic

Power Profiler

This tool can be used to evaluate the environmental benefits of choosing cleaner sources of energy. The Power Profiler is a Web-based tool that allows users to evaluate the air pollution and greenhouse gas impact of their electricity choices. It is particularly useful with the advent of electric customer choice, which allows many electricity customers to choose the source of their power. Using only a ZIP code, the tool generates a report describing the characteristics of one’s electricity use.

http://www.epa.gov/powerprofiler

Emissions & Generation Resource Integrated Database (eGRID)

eGRID is a comprehensive source of data on the environmental characteristics of all domestic electric power generation. It contains data on emissions and resource mix for virtually every power plant and company that generates electricity in the United States. eGRID also provides numerous search options, including features of individual power plants, generating companies, states, and regions of the power grid. The current version contains U.S. power plant emissions totals for 1996 through 2000, and for 2004.

http://www.epa.gov/egrid

U.S. EPA Report, “Clean Energy-Environment Guide to Action: Policies, Best Practices, and Action Steps for States”

The Guide to Action is a first-of-its-kind compendium that details the experience states have had with 16 cost-effective clean energy policies and strategies in meeting state energy, environmental, and economic objectives. EPA developed the Guide to Action to help states learn from each other as they develop their own clean energy programs and policies. The Guide to Action is part of a package of planning, policy, technical, analytical, and information resources EPA provides to help members of its Clean Energy-Environment State Partnership and other state and local governments establish and implement sound Clean Energy-Environment State Action Plans.

http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-programs/state-and-local/state-best-practices.html

EPA Guidance Documents on Integrating Energy and Environmental Programs

Under EPA policy and guidance, states can incorporate EE/RE measures into their State Implementation Plan (SIP) for air quality, provided certain criteria are met. The EPA guidance documents on this Web site describe the criteria for EE/RE measures and how states can meet them. These materials provide state and local energy and air quality officials with information on how to incorporate EE/RE measures into air quality plans, or as a set-aside under cap-and-trade programs.

http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-programs/state-and-local/guidance.html

Mitigation Impact Screening Tool (MIST)

MIST is an easy-to-use software tool that estimates the impacts of urban heat island mitigation strategies on urban air temperatures, ozone, and energy consumption. The cooling strategies assessed include increasing urban albedo (reflectance), increasing urban vegetative cover, or a combination of both. Alternatively, users can evaluate how a particular temperature change will impact ozone concentrations and energy use. The basic steps involved in running MIST are: 1) select the city to model; 2) define the mitigation strategy to test; and 3) estimate impacts on meteorology, air quality, and energy.

Availability: Currently in peer review. Contact Niko Dietsch 202-343-9299

The Clean Air and Climate Protection Software (CACPS)

CACPS is a Windows-based software tool that allows states and localities to analyze the impact of various air pollution control scenarios on traditional air pollutants and greenhouse gases (GHGs). The tool is divided into government and community modules, with each type allowing users to supply data on electricity and fuel-use reductions to analyze GHGs and air pollution impacts. For the community module, CACPS is subdivided into residential, industrial, commercial, transportation, and waste sectors. In the government module, sectors include: buildings, vehicle fleet, employee commute, streetlights, water/sewage, and waste.

http://www.4cleanair.org/InnovationDetails.asp?innoid=1
For a copy of the software send an e-mail to 4clnair@4cleanair.org with “CACP Software” in the subject line.

NREL PVWatts

Developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), PVWatts calculates electrical energy produced by a grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system. This tool enables non-experts to quickly obtain performance estimates for grid-connected PV systems within the United States. Two versions of PVWatts are currently available to users: Version 1 uses hourly Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) weather data and a PV performance model based on Sandia National Laboratories' PVFORM to estimate monthly and annual AC energy production (kWh) and cost savings for a crystalline silicon PV system; and Version 2 provides the same output as the Version 1, but also incorporates NREL's 40 km resolution solar resource data to permit site-specific calculations.

http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/codes_algs/PVWATTS/

E-Calc

E-Calc is a Web-based calculator, allowing government and Building Industry users to design and evaluate a wide range of projects for energy savings and emissions reduction potential. This tracking tool was developed by Texas A&M University’s Energy Systems Laboratory in response to legislative incentives to quantify emissions reductions from building energy savings and distributed renewable technology. E-Calc evaluates residential, commercial, retail, and municipal buildings energy and emissions savings, as well as savings from renewables like solar heating, solar PV, and wind power.

http://ecalc.tamu.edu/

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