WASHINGTON, D.C.--(ENEWSPF)--November 30, 2010. During a live online chat at the White House earlier today, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that 24 projects are receiving a total of $21 million in technical assistance to dramatically reduce the energy used in their commercial buildings. This initiative, supported with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will connect commercial building owners and operators with multidisciplinary teams including researchers at DOE's National Laboratories and private sector building experts. The teams will design, construct, measure, and test low-energy building plans, and will help accelerate the deployment of cost-effective energy-saving measures in commercial buildings across the United States.
"These Recovery Act projects are bringing together experts from our National Laboratories and the private sector to help businesses and organizations reduce the energy they use in their facilities, saving them money on their energy bills and making them more competitive economically," said Secretary Chu. "This initiative will also demonstrate to other commercial building operators that cost-effective, energy-efficient technologies exist today that will help lower the operating and energy costs of their buildings."
Through DOE's Commercial Building Partnerships, teams comprised of private sector technical experts and personnel from National Laboratories will help guide projects to achieve 30 percent measured energy savings in existing buildings and 50 percent energy savings in new construction projects. About half of the two dozen projects focus on energy efficiency upgrades for existing buildings. The three-year projects will provide comprehensive business and technical case studies for broad publication, including actual energy performance data from the completed projects, to help spur wider adoption of energy-efficient building practices across the industry.
The projects are funded with a public/private cost-sharing agreement, where the building owners and operators contribute at least 20 percent. Building owners and operators do not receive direct funding through the project, but instead get access to state-of-the-art technical guidance to implement energy efficiency technologies throughout the design, construction, and evaluation phases of their building and retrofit projects. This technical expertise includes energy modeling and energy performance verification by laboratory researchers and private sector experts.
The selected building owners and operators benefit by learning about measures they can apply across their extensive building portfolios. The use of private sector consultants and National Laboratory experts helps ensure that the energy efficiency measures and lessons learned in the projects will be quickly adopted by the marketplace.
Three DOE National Laboratories-Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)-will manage the effort and provide technical assistance for the selected projects. The aggressive energy efficiency design goals for each project include reasonable returns on investment and must meet other business criteria established in collaboration with the partners.
Each project will receive technical assistance valued at between $200,000 and $1.2 million, depending on the scope and nature of the plan. The following is a list of the selected projects:
* Cascadia Center for Sustainable Design and Construction; The Bullitt Foundation; Seattle, Washington
* Center for Alternative, Renewable Energy, Technology and Training; Clark Atlanta University; Atlanta, Georgia
* The College of Architecture + Planning at the University of Utah; Salt Lake City, Utah
* The Defense Commissary Agency; Lackland Air Force Base; San Antonio, Texas
* Grand Valley State University; Allendale, Michigan
* Hines; Somerset, New Jersey
* The Home Depot; Rocklin, California
* Living City Block; Denver, Colorado
* The LOOP at the University of California; Mesa Lane Partners; Santa Barbara, California
* Long Beach Gas and Oil; Long Beach, California
* Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Cambridge, Massachusetts
* Oregon Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies Center; Portland, Oregon
* Shy Brothers Farm; Westport, Massachusetts
* Sierra Nevada Job Corps; Reno, Nevada
* Smart Grid Development; North Kingstown, Rhode Island
* Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Los Angeles, California
* University of California Merced; Merced, California
* University of South Carolina; Columbia, South Carolina
* U.S. Army; Fort Bragg, North Carolina
* U.S. General Services Administration; Portsmouth, New Hampshire
* U.S. General Services Administration; Region 9 locations
* U.S. General Services Administration; San Francisco
* Walmart; two locations to be determined
During the selection process, each building owner or operator submitted plans for designing a new building or upgrading existing buildings and committed to working with National Laboratories and technical experts. Project selection criteria included the likelihood of achieving significant energy savings, the probability of success, widespread deployment potential, contribution to a diverse DOE portfolio of energy-saving solutions, and the organizations' commitment to improving energy efficiency.
Learn more about Commercial Building Partnerships and other projects that are part of DOE's Building Technologies Program.
Related Stories
| Dec 27, 2011
USGBC’s Center for Green Schools releases Best of Green Schools 2011
Recipient schools and regions from across the nation - from K-12 to higher education - were recognized for a variety of sustainable, cost-cutting measures, including energy conservation, record numbers of LEED certified buildings and collaborative platforms and policies to green U.S. school infrastructure.
| Dec 21, 2011
DOE report details finance options for PV systems in schools
The report examines the two primary types of ownership models used to obtain PV installations for school administrators to use in selecting the best option for deploying solar technologies in their districts.
| Dec 21, 2011
AIA Chicago & AIA Chicago Foundation 2011 Dubin Family Young Architect Award announced
The Dubin Family Young Architect Award is bestowed annually and recognizes excellence in ability and exceptional contributions by a Chicago architect between the ages of 25 and 39.
| Dec 21, 2011
Few silver linings for construction in 2012
On the brighter side, nearly half of respondents (49.7%) said their firms were in at least “good” financial health, and four-fifths (80.2%) said their companies would at least hold steady in revenue in 2012.
| Dec 21, 2011
Hoboken Terminal restoration complete
Restoration of ferry slips, expanded service to benefit commuters.
| Dec 21, 2011
BBI key to Philly high-rise renovation
The 200,000 sf building was recently outfitted with a new HVAC system and a state-of-the-art window retrofitting system.
| Dec 20, 2011
Gluckman Mayner Architects releases design for Syracuse law building
The design reflects an organizational clarity and professional sophistication that anticipates the user experience of students, faculty, and visitors alike.
| Dec 20, 2011
Research identifies most expensive U.S. commercial real estate markets
New York City, Washington, D.C. and San Mateo, Calif., rank highest in rents.
| Dec 20, 2011
Third annual Gingerbread Build-off winners announced
Nine awards were handed out acknowledging the most unique and creative gingerbread structures completed.
| Dec 20, 2011
BCA’s Best Practices in New Construction available online
This publicly available document is applicable to most building types and distills the long list of guidelines, and longer list of tasks, into easy-to-navigate activities that represent the ideal commissioning process.
