Transportation Network

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and its partners will create a network architecture that approaches sustainable transportation as a dynamic system of travelers and decision points, rather than one of vehicles and roads, in order to create personalized energy-saving opportunities. The project will use currently available demographic and transportation data from an urban U.S. city as a test bed for energy reduction.

Researchers with the Georgia Tech Research Corporation will combine real-time analysis of transportation network data with distributed simulation modeling to provide drivers with information and incentives to reduce energy consumption. The team’s system model will use three sources of data to simulate the transportation network of the Atlanta metro area.

United Technologies Research Center will assess the feasibility of using CMC technologies and immersive systems to reduce business travel and its associated energy and emissions. Currently, every roundtrip trans-Atlantic flight emits enough carbon dioxide to melt 30 square feet of Arctic sea ice. This technology (if successful) will displace air travel. The team’s SCOTTIE system will identify the types of travel best suited for replacement by CMC technologies and quantify the minimum CMC system performance needed to satisfy users' communication objectives.

Utah State University (USU) will develop a technoeconomic analysis to assess the feasibility and environmental and economic impacts of various electric roadway technologies. This project will aggregate, synthesize, and link previously isolated data sets to form a high-resolution, comprehensive assessment of electric roadways at the regional scale. Localized grid and road construction cost estimates are being considered.