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Clean Cities Coalitions 2018 Activity Report
12/27/2019
Clean Cities coalition activities resulted in an energy use impact (EUI) of over 1 billion gasoline-gallons equivalent (GGE), comprised of net alternative fuels used and energy savings from efficiency projects, in 2018. Participation in vehicle and infrastructure development projects remained strong, as did alternative fuel use and resulting overall EUI. Clean Cities coalition activities reduce emissions as they impact energy use. Coalition-reported activities prevented 5 million carbon dioxide-equivalent tons of emissions (only greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions are reported here; criteria pollutants and other emissions are not included in this report). Coalitions were successful in securing project grant awards from numerous (non-DOE) outside sources. For other Federal, State, and local agencies and private sector foundations, see funding section on page 25. The 84 project grant awards in 2018 generated $251 million in funds from coalition members and project partners along with $1.9 million in DOE grant funds. Coalitions also collected $1.1 million in stakeholder dues and $2.9 million in operational funds from host organizations. In macro terms, this supplemental funding represents nearly a 7:1 leveraging of the $37.8 million that was included in the VTO Technology Integration budget in Fiscal Year 2018. Clean Cities coordinators spent nearly 121,000 hours pursuing their coalitions' goals in 2018. The average coordinator is quite experienced and has held his or her position for at least eight years. Coordinators logged more than 3,805 outreach, education, and training activities in 2018, which reached an estimated 35 million people.
Authors: Singer, M.; Johnson, C.
Current State of Nitrogen Oxide Emissions from In-Use Heavy-Duty Diesel Vehicles in the United States
11/25/2019
This report assesses the real-world nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions behavior of heavy-duty diesel vehicles in the United States, measured using portable emissions measurement systems (PEMS). This assessment is based on 160 PEMS tests from engines certified to 0.2 grams per brake horsepower-hour (g/bhp-hr) of NOx. The tests include data from eight manufacturers and 26 unique engine families certified between 2010 and 2016. Second-by-second data was analyzed to compare against the compliance evaluation results and to assess the impact of vehicle speed, vehicle type, and manufacturer on real-world NOx emissions.
Authors: Badshah, H.; Posada, F.; Muncrief, R.
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This copyrighted publication can be accessed on The International Council on Clean Transportation's website.
Clean Cities Coalitions 2017 Activity Report
5/14/2019
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) national network of Clean Cities Coalitions advance the nation's economic, environmental, and energy security by supporting local actions to promote the use of domestic fuels within transportation. The nearly 100 Clean Cities coalitions, whose territory covers 80% of the U.S. population, bring together stakeholders in the public and private sectors to use alternative and renewable fuels, idle-reduction (IR) measures, fuel economy improvements, and new transportation technologies as they emerge. To ensure success, coalitions leverage a robust set of expert resources and tools provided by national laboratories and DOE. Each year, Clean Cities coordinators submit annual reports of their activities and accomplishments for the previous calendar year. Data and information are submitted via an online tool that is maintained as part of the Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Coordinators submit a range of data that characterize the membership, funding, projects, and activities of their coalitions. They also submit data about sales of alternative fuels; use of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs); IR initiatives; fuel economy improvement activities; and programs to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT). NREL analyzes the submitted data to determine how broadly energy use in the U.S. has shifted due to coalition activities, which are summarized in this report.
Authors: Johnson, C.; Singer, M.
MOVES Activity Updates Using Fleet DNA Data: Interim Report
1/16/2019
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator (MOVES) is a publicly available tool used by researchers and policy makers to help understand motor vehicle emission sources at national, county, and project levels. However, estimates of heavy-duty activity (MOVES2014), have been identified as areas needing improvement. The start activities in MOVES2014 are calculated using a limited data set, prompting the concern that inventory values are not representative. In addition, MOVES2014 is believed to underestimate heavy-duty activity that is not captured in the current drive cycles used to represent on-network activity. For example, MOVES2014 does not account for work-day idling activity that takes place on off-network roads, such as at a distribution center while the truck is queuing or during loading and unloading. Under the guidance and expertise of the EPA, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has leveraged its extensive Fleet DNA database of heavy-duty vehicles to reinforce the data set behind the next-generation MOVES model and enhance idle activity and start fractions using six heavy-duty vehicle classes. The data available in Fleet DNA from 420 conventional, diesel powered vehicles provided over 120,000 hours of operation. Start fraction, soak fraction, and idle fraction by hour of the day were derived for each source type, state, and vocation, and results were provided in the form of .CSV files representing MOVES table inputs. This midterm report details these results providing graphical analysis and context for the start, soak, and idle distributions.
Authors: Kotz, A.; Kelly, K.
Clean Cities Coalitions 2016 Activity Report
10/10/2018
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) national network of Clean Cities Coalitions advance the nation's economic, environmental, and energy security by supporting local actions to promote the use of domestic fuels within transportation. The nearly 100 Clean Cities coalitions, whose territory covers 80% of the U.S. population, bring together stakeholders in the public and private sectors to use alternative and renewable fuels, idle-reduction (IR) measures, fuel economy improvements, and new transportation technologies as they emerge. To ensure success, coalitions leverage a robust set of expert resources and tools provided by national laboratories and DOE. Each year, Clean Cities coordinators submit annual reports of their activities and accomplishments for the previous calendar year. Data and information are submitted via an online tool that is maintained as part of the Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Coordinators submit a range of data that characterize the membership, funding, projects, and activities of their coalitions. They also submit data about sales of alternative fuels; use of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs); IR initiatives; fuel economy improvement activities; and programs to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT). NREL analyzes the submitted data to determine how broadly energy use in the U.S. has shifted due to coalition activities, which are summarized in this report.
Authors: Johnson, C.; Singer, M.
Characterization of PTO and Idle Behavior for Utility Vehicles
9/28/2017
This report presents the results of analyses performed on utility vehicle data composed primarily of aerial lift bucket trucks sampled from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Fleet DNA database to characterize power takeoff (PTO) and idle operating behavior for utility trucks. Two major data sources were examined in this study: a 75-vehicle sample of Odyne electric PTO (ePTO)-equipped vehicles drawn from multiple fleets spread across the United States and 10 conventional PTO-equipped Pacific Gas and Electric fleet vehicles operating in California. Novel data mining approaches were developed to identify PTO and idle operating states for each of the datasets using telematics and controller area network/onboard diagnostics data channels. These methods were applied to the individual datasets and aggregated to develop utilization curves and distributions describing PTO and idle behavior in both absolute and relative operating terms. This report also includes background information on the source vehicles, development of the analysis methodology, and conclusions regarding the study's findings.
Authors: Konan, A.; Duran, A.; Kelly, K.; Miller, E.; Prohaska, R.
The Development of Vocational Vehicle Drive Cycles and Segmentation
9/12/2017
Under a collaborative interagency agreement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S Department of Energy (DOE), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) performed a series of in-depth analyses to characterize the on-road driving behavior including distributions of vehicle speed, idle time, accelerations and decelerations, and other driving metrics of medium- and heavy-duty vocational vehicles operating within the United States. As part of this effort, NREL researchers segmented U.S. medium- and heavy-duty vocational vehicle driving characteristics into three distinct operating groups or clusters using real world drive cycle data collected at 1 Hz and stored in NREL's Fleet DNA database. The Fleet DNA database contains millions of miles of historical real-world drive cycle data captured from medium- and heavy vehicles operating across the United States. The data encompass data from existing DOE activities as well as contributions from valued industry stakeholder participants. For this project, data captured from 913 unique vehicles comprising 16,250 days of operation were drawn from the Fleet DNA database and examined. The Fleet DNA data used as a source for this analysis has been collected from a total of 30 unique fleets/data providers operating across 22 unique geographic locations spread across the United States. This includes locations with topology ranging from the foothills of Denver, Colorado, to the flats of Miami, Florida. The range of fleets, geographic locations, and total number of vehicles analyzed ensures results that include the influence of these factors. While no analysis will be perfect without unlimited resources and data, it is the researchers understanding that the Fleet DNA database is the largest and most thorough publicly accessible vocational vehicle usage database currently in operation. This report includes an introduction to the Fleet DNA database and the data contained within, a presentation of the results of the statistical analysis performed by NREL, review of the logistic model developed to predict cluster membership, and a discussion and detailed summary of the development of the vocational drive cycle weights and representative transient drive cycles for testing and simulation. Additional discussion of known limitations and potential future work are also included in the report content.
Authors: Duran, A.; Phillips, C.; Konan, A.; Kelly, K.
Idling Reduction for Emergency Vehicles - A Case Study
7/1/2017
This fact sheet summarizes the findings in a study that investigated the adoption of idling reduction technologies by nine emergency-vehicle fleets, including police, ambulance, and fire engines and trucks.
Authors: Gaines, L.
2016 Vehicle Technologies Market Report
6/23/2017
The 2016 Vehicle Technologies Market Report is the eighth edition of this report, which details the major trends in U.S. light-duty vehicle and medium/heavy truck markets as well as the underlying trends that caused them. This report is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO), and, in accord with its mission, pays special attention to the progress of high-efficiency and alternative-fuel technologies.
Authors: Davis, S.C.; Williams, S.E.; Boundy, R.G.; Moore, S.
Work Truck Idling Reduction
3/9/2017
Hybrid utility trucks, with auxiliary power sources for on-board equipment, significantly reduce unnecessary idling resulting in fuel costs savings, less engine wear, and reduction in noise and emissions.
Gas-Saving Tips
2/28/2017
This fact sheet for consumers describes a few simple tips to help obtain the best possible fuel economy from vehicles and to reduce fuel costs.
Clean Cities 2015 Annual Metrics Report
12/28/2016
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Clean Cities program advances the nation's economic, environmental, and energy security by supporting local actions to cut petroleum use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in transportation. A national network of nearly 100 Clean Cities coalitions, whose territory covers 80% of the U.S. population, brings together stakeholders in the public and private sectors to deploy alternative and renewable fuels, idle-reduction (IR) measures, fuel economy improvements, and new transportation technologies as they emerge. Each year, DOE asks Clean Cities coordinators to submit annual reports of their activities and accomplishments for the previous calendar year. Progress reports and information are submitted online as a function of the Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Coordinators report a range of information that characterizes the membership, funding, projects, and activities of their coalitions. They also document activities in their region related to the development of refueling/charging infrastructure, sales of alternative fuels; deployment of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs); idle reduction initiatives; fuel economy improvement activities; and programs to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT). NREL analyzes the data and translates them into petroleum-use and GHG emission reduction impacts, which are summarized in this report.
Authors: Johnson, C.; Singer, M.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Clean Cities Project Awards
10/3/2016
Each Clean Cities project award under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included a diverse group of stakeholders who worked together to lay the foundation for their communities to adopt alternative fuels and petroleum reduction strategies. This document provides a snapshot of the impact of each project and highlights the partners and Clean Cities coalitions who helped transform local and regional transportation markets through 25 projects impacting 45 states.
Authors: Kelly, K.
