Through the Energy to Communities (E2C) program, organizations can receive guidance from the experts at the national laboratories. This free program offers short-term technical assistance to people and organizations that have decision-making power or influence over energy choices in their communities. Expert match can inform near-term decisions or influence strategic decisions. Program participants can be from a range of organizations, including local governments, tribes, planning organizations, nonprofit organizations, universities, or nonprofit utilities.
Expert match application: https://forms.office.com/g/8yAitnuTzB
Projects
Carbondale, Illinois (Completed in 2024)
Carbondale, a city in southern Illinois, is partnering with the Village of Dowell to develop a plan coined “The Energy Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy Proposal,” aimed at providing revenue-positive energy opportunities that support recovering coal communities. The plan involves a new community energy model integrating large-scale agrivoltaics and closed-loop pumped storage hydropower. Kyle DeSomber at PNNL worked with the community on this plan.
Oakland County, Michigan (Completed in 2024)
Oakland County in Michigan needed a holistic plan to modernize their energy infrastructure by 2050. E2C expert match provided a pathway for achieving this goal through decommissioning old infrastructure, enhancing their system’s energy efficiency, deploying heat pumps to supplement the system, and transitioning their county fleets to modern vehicles. Christine Holland and Mike Brambley at PNNL worked with community stakeholders to review and define the targets for this transition and the steps to achieve them.
Final Deliverable
Winston-Salem, North Carolina (Completed in 2024)
Solar installation and integration can be a significant investment to undertake for an individual building, let alone for a neighborhood or community. An analysis of the required investment versus the potential payback is critical to the decision-making process. PNNL provided technical assistance for assessing the feasibility of solar installations in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, specific to their local climate and peak sun hours seasonally to understand the return on investment for the community. Pablo R. Mendez-Curbelo and Malcolm Moncheur de Rieudotte at PNNL worked with the community to provide this analysis.