NNA Research: Reducing Fuel Oil Consumption in Rural Arctic Communities

NNA 研究：减少北极农村社区的燃油消耗

• 批准号: 2220615
• 负责人: Dominique Pride
• 金额: $ 300万
• 依托单位: University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2220615&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NNA; Research; Reducing; Fuel; Oil

Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) is one of NSF's 10 Big Ideas. NNA projects address convergence scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic. This Arctic research is needed to inform the economy, security and resilience of the Nation, the larger region and the globe. NNA empowers new research partnerships from local to international scales, diversifies the next generation of Arctic researchers, enhances efforts in formal and informal education, and integrates the co-production of knowledge where appropriate. This award fulfills part of that aim by addressing interactions among social systems, natural environment, and built environment in the following NNA focus areas: Arctic Residents, Data and Observation, Education, Global Impact, and Resilient Infrastructure. Across the Arctic, many remote communities have an energy-inefficient housing stock and rely on expensive, imported fuel oil for both electricity generation and space heating. Together, these factors create an exceptionally high energy cost burden for households. To reduce dependence on fuel oil, some communities in Alaska have integrated renewable energy (RE) resources into their electrical microgrids. Flexible loads, such as supplementary space heating, can buffer fluctuations in renewable electricity generation and allow utilities to generate more electricity from renewables. When excess renewably generated electricity is available, it can be sold at a discounted rate and used by consumers to charge electric thermal storage heaters (ETSH), thereby reducing heating costs. Energy efficiency must also be considered as it may be most cost-effective to reduce fuel oil consumption through a combination of energy efficiency improvements and RE capacity additions. This research investigates whether displacing fuel oil used for space heating with energy efficiency improvements and renewably generated electricity can substantially reduce households’ energy cost burden, reduce carbon emissions, and increase the RE contribution in isolated microgrids in remote Arctic communities. This research has energy justice implications for the hundreds of Arctic communities currently using fuel oil for space heating and electricity generation. This research may lead to the broader adoption of a cost-effective combination of energy-efficient homes and low-cost, renewably generated electricity for space heating, which could reduce residential sector carbon emissions and household energy cost burden.The project incorporates dimensions of the natural environment, built environment, and social systems through four components: 1) a residential heating field experiment in Kotzebue, Alaska; 2) energy system modeling; 3) economic and policy analysis; and 4) energy education. The research objectives of the project are: 1) measure the electricity and heating fuel oil consumption in treatment and control homes before and after energy efficiency improvements and ETSH are installed in the treatment homes; 2) extend an existing microgrid simulation software (MiGRIDS) to add building thermal loads and ETSH; 3) use the MiGRIDS model to optimize and value various levels of energy efficiency retrofits, ETSH, electrical energy storage, and RE; 4) develop a process that can be replicated elsewhere to optimize and value various levels of energy efficiency retrofits, ETSH, electrical energy storage, and RE; 5) collaborate with the Tribal government, local energy experts, and community members to design a survey that satisfies both the community needs and research objectives; 6) estimate reductions in energy cost burden, carbon emissions, and air pollutant emissions associated with displaced fuel oil use; 7) identify regulatory, institutional, and/or policy changes required to enable the widespread adoption of renewably generated electricity for space heating in other communities in Alaska and the circumpolar North; 8) identify how existing statewide energy policies can be adapted to be more equitable and effective; 9) collaborate with local K-8 educators and elders to create culturally responsive, place-based curriculum materials for a science unit on energy use in Arctic communities; 10) provide energy efficiency and energy auditing training to local high school students; and 11) teach Arctic Remote Energy Network Academy (ARENA) program participants how to apply the energy system model developed for this project to reduce fuel oil consumption in their own communities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

航行新北极(NNA)是NSF的十大想法之一。NNA项目解决了快速变化的北极地区汇聚的科学挑战。这项北极研究需要为国家、更大区域和全球的经济、安全和韧性提供信息。NNA增强了从地方到国际的新的研究伙伴关系，使下一代北极研究人员多样化，加强正式和非正式教育的努力，并在适当的情况下整合共同创造知识。该奖项通过在以下NNA重点领域解决社会系统、自然环境和建筑环境之间的相互作用来实现这一目标的一部分：北极居民、数据和观测、教育、全球影响和弹性基础设施。在整个北极地区，许多偏远社区的住房能源效率低下，发电和取暖都依赖昂贵的进口燃料油。这些因素加在一起，给家庭造成了异常高的能源成本负担。为了减少对燃料油的依赖，阿拉斯加的一些社区将可再生能源(RE)资源整合到他们的微电网中。灵活的负荷，如辅助供暖，可以缓冲可再生能源发电的波动，并允许公用事业公司利用可再生能源产生更多电力。当有多余的可再生发电时，可以折扣价出售，供消费者为蓄热式电热水器(ETSH)充电，从而降低供暖成本。还必须考虑能源效率，因为通过提高能源效率和增加可再生能源能力相结合来减少燃料油消耗可能是最具成本效益的。这项研究调查了通过提高能效和可再生发电来取代用于空间取暖的燃料油是否可以大幅降低家庭的能源成本负担，减少碳排放，并增加偏远北极社区孤立微电网的可再生能源贡献。这项研究对目前使用燃料油供暖和发电的数百个北极社区具有能源正义意义。这项研究可能会导致更广泛地采用节能住宅和低成本、可再生能源发电的空间采暖组合，从而减少住宅部门的碳排放和家庭能源成本负担。该项目通过四个组成部分结合了自然环境、建成环境和社会系统的维度：1)阿拉斯加Kotzebue的住宅供暖现场试验；2)能源系统建模；3)经济和政策分析；以及4)能源教育。该项目的研究目标是：1)测量治疗和控制室在安装能效改进和ETSH之前和之后的电力和取暖燃料油消耗；2)扩展现有的微电网模拟软件(MiGRDS)以增加建筑物热负荷和ETSH；3)使用MiGRDS模型优化和评估不同级别的能效改造、ETSH、电能存储和RE；4)开发一个可以在其他地方复制的过程，以优化和评估各种级别的能效改造、ETSH、电能储存和RE；5)与部落政府、当地能源专家和社区成员合作，设计一项既满足社区需求又满足研究目标的调查；6)估计与替代燃料油使用相关的能源成本负担、碳排放和空气污染物排放的减少；7)确定需要进行的监管、制度和/或政策变化，以使阿拉斯加和环北极地区的其他社区能够广泛采用可再生发电供暖；8)确定如何调整现有的全州能源政策，使其更加公平和有效；9)与当地K-8教育工作者和长辈合作，为北极社区的能源使用科学单元创建符合文化要求的、以地点为基础的课程材料；10)为当地高中生提供能源效率和能源审计培训；以及11)教北极远程能源网络学院(ARENA)项目参与者如何应用为该项目开发的能源系统模型，以减少他们所在社区的燃油消耗。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。