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

On May 23, 2016, the Department of Energy (DOE) published a notice of open meeting announcing a teleconference on June 6, 2016, of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. This notice announces the cancellation of this meeting.

The Department of Energy (DOE) hereby gives notice that DOE intends to grant an exclusive license to practice the invention described and claimed in U.S. Patent Number 8,389,178 titled ``Electrochemical Energy Storage Device Based on Carbon Dioxide as Electroactive Species'' to Boron Nitride Power, LLC, having its principal place of business at Chicago, Illinois. The patent is owned by United States of America, as represented by DOE.

This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Idaho National Laboratory. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice of this meeting be announced in the Federal Register.

This notice announces receipt of and publishes a petition for waiver from Thermal Solutions Products, LLC (Thermal Solutions) seeking an exemption from specified provisions applicable to standby loss of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) test procedure for commercial water heating equipment. The waiver request pertains to Thermal Solutions' specified models of commercial instantaneous water heaters containing 10 gallons or more of water. In its petition, Thermal Solutions contends that its specified water heater models that employ tube-type heat exchangers and are designed to be flow activated cannot be accurately tested using the currently applicable DOE test procedure. Consequently, Thermal Solutions seeks to use an alternate test procedure to address certain issues involved in testing the specific basic models identified in its petition. DOE solicits comments, data, and information concerning Thermal Solutions' petition and its suggested alternate test procedure.

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.