About the Authors

Laura J. Vimmerstedt

laura.vimmerstedt@nrel.gov

Affiliation National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Strategic Energy Analysis Center, Golden, Colorado, United States of America

Brian Bush

Affiliation National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Strategic Energy Analysis Center, Golden, Colorado, United States of America

Steve Peterson

Affiliation Peterson Group, West Lebanon, New Hampshire, United States of America

Competing Interests

Steve Peterson is affiliated to the Peterson Group, West Lebanon. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: LJV BB SP. Performed the experiments: LJV BB SP. Analyzed the data: LJV BB SP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: LJV BB SP. Wrote the paper: LJV. Contributed to model development, performed exploratory model runs, contributed to development of specifications for sensitivity analyses, identified analytic questions to address in this paper, conceptualized figures to use model runs to address the analytic questions, outlined and drafted the paper, and coordinated preparation of the manuscript for publication: LJV. Managed model development, developed batch system to perform model runs, performed sensitivity analyses, contributed and refined analytic questions to address in this paper, conceptualized and developed figures to use model runs to address the analytic questions, reviewed outline and draft versions, and supported presentation and discussion of this effort with DOE: BB. Implemented model development, contributed to development of specifications for sensitivity analyses, performed exploratory model runs, contributed to model description in text and figure, and reviewed outline and draft versions: SP.