For one week following each TAP Webinar, which is hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy Technical Assistance Project (TAP) for state and local officials, you are invited to ask questions of the presenters, enter comments about the topic of the presentation, and share your thoughts with others. You can find copies of presentations from the July 29 Webinar in PDF format and audio files in MP3 format and background materials and reports in the TAP Webinar archive.

What JEDI models are currently available and what additional models are under development?

Eric Lantz replies:
The current suite of JEDI tools covers of six technologies: wind energy, corn-ethanol, lignocellulosic ethanol, parabolic trough concentrating solar power, combined cycle natural gas, and pulverized coal.

Models currently under development include: solar photovoltaics (residential, commercial, and utility scale) and hydropower (conventional and marine hydrokinetic).

Additional technologies may be added in the future but at this time there are no concrete plans to begin development on any additional models.

Question from Brenda Gilbert:
How can local government use JEDI, given that project specific information is usually not available from developers?

Eric Lantz replies:
You are correct in that much of this information can be difficult to acquire from developers. However, the real value of the JEDI tools is that we have done much of that research for you. The default values are derived from current industry research and contain the best available data. Applying the default values will give you an accurate picture of an “average” project.

In reality, you only need a minimal amount of information to get a first order approximation of economic impacts. Of course, the more you can tailor your results to a specific project the more likely it will be the results will directly represent that specific project. Nevertheless, you can obtain good approximations by using the default values in the JEDI models.

Dave Eikelberg comments:
It is important to perform a quantitative analysis of what type of renewable energy is most appropriate for a given area and its available resource. Without this first step, economic impacts may be based on incorrect foundational decisions.

Eric Lantz replies:
Yes: input-output models such as JEDI presume logical investment decisions. This is because input-output models are investment based, which means a larger investment will generate a greater economic impact. If an economic development impact such as jobs are the sole metric by which we evaluate a project (i.e. investor logic aside), we would want to pursue the most expensive technology available to generate the most investment. Obviously, this is not what we want as consumers. Basing decisions on a single metric results in faulty logic.

The JEDI tool presumes that projects are economically viable based on available resource, energy demand, and power and fuel prices. If any of these fundamental criteria prevents a project from coming to fruition, there will be no investment and no economic development impacts resulting from that project.

Question from Nathaniel:
Does JEDI have any information about what kind of jobs are created — i.e. long-term versus short-term jobs, skilled versus unskilled jobs?

Eric Lantz replies:
The JEDI models do not quantify the specific types of jobs that result from renewable energy projects. Therefore they do not distinguish skilled versus unskilled labor. However, you can generally assume that jobs in operations and maintenance are long-term and jobs in construction are short-term. The exception is jobs in manufacturing. In JEDI, manufacturing jobs are reported during the construction period, which means short-term jobs. Nevertheless, the nature of the manufacturing industry a single manufacturer is likely to create long-term jobs by producing equipment for multiple projects.

Question from Kristina:
You mentioned that the JEDI model is designed to run in 'state' mode, but it can also run analyses on a county and regional basis. How does one go about performing a county or regional analysis?

Eric Lantz replies:
The JEDI models are capable of running county or regional analyses, but first you must obtain the multipliers for that county or region. If you would like to obtain county or regional multipliers please contact us via email at:
jedisupport@nrel.gov.

Once you have the multipliers for your specific area of interest, you will input these data into the “User Add-in Location” tab in the Excel spreadsheet and select the appropriate My-county or My-region choice in the project location portion of the Project Data tab. In addition you will want to review and adjust the specific local share values so that they are reflective of the area you are studying.

Question from Phil:
Are turbine supply-chain impacts considered to be indirect impacts in the JEDI model?

Eric Lantz replies:
Turbine production and supply-chain impacts constitute second tier impacts in JEDI (as we here at NREL categorize them). Using more traditional economic impacts parlance, one might be tempted to consider these impacts indirect. However, our definition of the second tier impacts is somewhat broader than what a typical indirect impact would include, and in turn, our definition of first tier impacts is somewhat narrower than a typical definition of direct impact.

At the risk of further muddying the waters, the distinction between direct and indirect impacts as reported by other input-output tools is not always clear (in my opinion).

We cannot recommend forcing the traditional terms onto your JEDI results—trying to report the results from a JEDI model as direct and indirect. Our taxonomy is different and reporting the results as direct and indirect does not adequately describe results from JEDI.

We have developed this taxonomy because we feel it is most intuitive for the majority of people who use the model. If you are required to report impacts as direct or indirect, it is better to use an economic impact tool (different from JEDI) that reports results in this manner.

Question from Joseph:
The cost of the final project would include the cost of the steel. Will this cost be double counted when calculating gross output if you also add in the cost of steel from the supply chain?

Eric Lantz replies:
Some people consider output double counting because it includes the final market value of a good as well as the value of the good at various points in the supply chain. Nevertheless, output is a legitimate and widely recognized metric that economists use to measure economic activity.

If you are applying the JEDI tool and reporting its results, you will want to be sure that you adequately explain what metrics were used. In this case, output should not be construed as value-added or contributing to gross state product. As long as you are clear with the terminology and what it means, you should not encounter issues around the use of output as a metric of economic activity.