Department of Energy June 1, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Wind and Water Power Technologies Office (``WWPTO'') within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) intends to hold a meeting to seek input on its draft wind energy environmental research strategy on June 24, 2016 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Boulder, Colorado at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (``NREL'') National Wind Technology Center (``NWTC''). At this meeting, the WWPTO will seek input on wind energy near-term and long-term environmental research priorities needed to help enable the sustainable development of wind energy technologies in the United States.

On February 25, 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR), in which it proposed to establish test procedures for portable air conditioners (ACs) to determine capacities and energy efficiency metrics for portable ACs. On November 27, 2015, DOE published a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNOPR) to revise the proposal by modifying the cooling and heating mode test requirements, introducing the seasonally adjusted cooling capacity (SACC) and a revised combined energy efficiency ratio (CEER), and clarifying several aspects of test setup. The proposed test procedure serves as the basis for this action. DOE is issuing a final rule to establish a new test procedure for portable ACs in a new appendix. The new test procedure in appendix CC will be used to determine the SACC and CEER for portable ACs that are subject to the adopted test procedure. The test procedure is based on industry standards, with several modifications to ensure the test procedure is representative of typical use and to improve accuracy and repeatability while minimizing test burden.