by Jbs050710 c3 — May 14, 2010—A new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiative, Commercial Building Partnerships (CBP), allows commercial building owners and operators to tap the expertise of national laboratories and private-sector technical experts to help them save money and energy across their building portfolios.
The Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are managing the process, which is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Owners and operators of planned new and retrofit buildings must commit to substantial energy savings in the selected projects. “CBP participants will create buildings with measured energy savings of at least 50 percent for new construction and 30 percent for existing buildings,” said Paul Torcellini, group manager for commercial building research at NREL.
The three participating DOE laboratories have released a call for projects for commercial building owners and operators and a request for proposals from technical experts. Both are due by May 14, 2010.
To reach an even wider audience, publicly available case studies will describe each CBP new construction and retrofit project in detail. This documentation will make it straightforward for building owners and operators outside of the CBP initiative to benefit from the work.
