The increasing emphasis on mass customization, shortened product lifecycles, synchronized supply chains, when coupled with advances in information system, is driving most firms towards make-to-order (MTO) operations. Increasing global competition, lower profit margins, and higher customer...

If geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) are to make a significant mark in the market, we believe that it will be through energy service pricing contracts offered by retailcos. The benefits of GHPs are ideally suited to energy service pricing (ESP) contractual arrangements; however, few retailcos are...

The Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (DUF{sub 6}) Management System (DMS) is being developed as a decision tool to provide cost and risk data for evaluation of short-and long-term management strategies for depleted uranium. It can be used to assist decision makers on a programmatic or site-specific...

Analyses of alternative futures often present results for a limited set of scenarios, with little if any sensitivity analysis to identify the factors affecting the scenario results. This approach creates an artificial impression of certainty associated with the scenarios considered, and inhibits...

This report describes methods for prioritizing the risk importances of maintenances using a Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA). Approaches then are described for quantifying their reliability and risk effects. Two different PRA importance measures, minimal cutset importances and risk reduction...

Each year, the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) publishes a forecast of the domestic energy economy in the Annual Energy Outlook (AEO). During the forecast period of the AEO (currently through 2020), renewable energy technologies have typically not achieved...

Oil dependence remains a potentially serious economic and strategic problem for the United States. This report updates previous estimates of the costs of oil dependence to the U.S. economy and introduces several methodological enhancements. Estimates of the costs to the U.S. economy of the oil...

A study of advancements in power plant designs for use at geothermal resources in the low to moderate (300 to 400F) temperature range is reported. In 3 case studies, the benefits of R and D to achieve these advancements are evaluated in terms of expected increases in installed geothermal...

A financial accounting model that incorporates physical and institutional uncertainties has been developed for geothermal projects. Among the uncertainties it can handle are well depth, flow rate, fluid temperature, and permit and construction times. The outputs of the model are cumulative...

An evaluation of the existing hydrothermal energy economics related quantitative studies is provided. The objective is to present the similarities and differences in methodology and assumptions, and explain the impact of these differences on the energy price estimates. A brief summary of the...