by Brianna Crandall — May 20, 2016 — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $14 million in funding last week to dramatically increase the energy efficiency of the nation’s homes and buildings. These projects are expected to cut energy costs for thousands of American families and businesses, while leading to greater demand for new building products and technologies, many of which can be produced in the United States.
Through the Commercial Buildings Integration program, the Energy Department will make six awards for up to $8.4 million to nationally scale up replicable, energy-efficient solutions for small and medium office buildings, apartments, stores, restaurants, and businesses. In 2015, commercial buildings used nearly 20% of the nation’s total energy — more than half of which is consumed by small and medium buildings (under 100,000 square feet), notes the DOE.
These new partners will implement deep retrofit and workforce training programs, spur adoption of advanced energy-efficient technologies, and initiate efficiency programs for small businesses in low-income communities. The projects are expected to improve the efficiency of at least 2,600 buildings nationwide, leverage almost $17 million in partner resources, and create nearly 500 jobs.
The projects selected for funding are:
- International Center for Appropriate and Sustainable Technology (Lakewood, CO) will demonstrate a financially sustainable mechanism for retrofitting small apartment buildings that can be scaled nationally. This approach will cut energy use by 20%-30%, reduce utility bills by $3,100 a year per building, and create 200 jobs.
- City of Seattle (Seattle, WA) will reduce the city’s energy costs by $1.5 million annually by training local building operations professionals to more effectively tune up buildings to improve their efficiency.
- Institute for Market Transformation (Washington, DC) will partner with local chambers of commerce to help small business landlords and tenants improve the energy efficiency of more than 400 leased buildings.
- Association of Bay Area Governments (Oakland, CA) will perform large-scale building energy modeling analysis in nine Bay Area counties to target small businesses that will achieve the most cost-effective, deep energy retrofits.
- NextEnergy (Detroit, MI) will spur the adoption of advanced lighting control solutions in small and medium commercial buildings. The group will train 100 contractors in simplified installation methods, develop a model for streamlined utility incentives, and educate consumers.
- Lime Energy (Newark, NJ) will complete more than 1,000 retrofit projects in low-income communities in the Buffalo, Houston, Orlando, and Memphis areas. The results will create 60 jobs and generate $30 million in economic activity.
Under its Building America program, the DOE will make eight awards for up to $5.5 million for industry partners to create healthier, more comfortable homes that will save homeowners money on their utility bills. Partners will pilot several innovative approaches: low-cost construction methods; highly efficient integrated heating, cooling, and ventilation (HVAC) systems; indoor air quality (IAQ) solutions for healthier homes; and software that will remotely identify homes that can benefit most from energy efficiency retrofits. They will also demonstrate zero-energy-ready homes for the affordable housing market.
The Department notes that a major focus of the Building America program is cutting a home’s heating and cooling costs. Typically, heating and cooling account for 40% of a home’s energy consumption — the largest single energy use and more than water heating, refrigeration, and lighting combined. In 2014, U.S. homeowners spent approximately $70 billion to heat their homes and $24 billion to cool them. A list of the projects appears in the funding announcement.
