Energy efficiency doesn’t often make front-page news, but behind the scenes, this resource is steadily transforming energy markets — although the changes can be difficult to track.
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) documented the progress states have made on efficiency measures in its latest State Scorecard.
“In the absence of a national uniform energy standard…state policies are often the key drivers in spurring investment in efficiency,” said Weston Berg, ACEEE research analyst and Scorecard lead author.
In this year’s ranking, Massachusetts edged ahead of California to reclaim its first-place position — posting the state’s highest-ever efficiency savings of 3 percent of sales. The state’s Green Communities Act of 2008 continues to be a strong driver, as well as the $15 million Affordable Access to Clean and Efficient Energy Initiative and other affordable housing grant programs.
Read more (Green Tech Media)
Customer engagement. It’s the phrase du jour in the utility industry. But few agree on exactly what it means.
That’s because it could mean many different things. And perhaps that’s not such a bad thing — as long as it results in a more efficient, dynamic, customer-centric system. That’s the hope, anyway. Or the hype.
In this year’s GTM Squared survey on mastering the utility sales cycle, we saw a noticeable increase in the emphasis on customer engagement among utilities. In two areas — where utilities plan to invest and where utilities…
Read more (Green Tech Media)
Green construction is rapidly gaining traction among both single family and multifamily home builders, according to new research published in the Green Multifamily and Single Family Homes 2017 SmartMarket Brief.
The latest in a series of studies conducted by Dodge Data & Analytics in partnership with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the study shows that green homes are continuing to gain market share.
At least one third of single family and multifamily builders who were surveyed said that green building is a significant portion of their overall activity (more than 60 percent of their portfolio). By 2022, this number should increase to nearly one half in both the single family and multifamily sectors. Within this group, nearly 30 percent of multifamily builders fall into the category of “dedicated” green builders (more than 90 percent of their portfolio). On the single family side, the percentage of “dedicated” green builders is nearly 20 percent, but that share is expected to grow sizably by 2022.
Read more (PR Newswire)
Virginia tied for 29th in the 2017 State Scorecard, rising four places from the position it held in 2016 and becoming one of this year’s most improved states. The state scored 15.5 points out of a possible 50, 2.5 points more than last year. Virginia has shown a commitment to saving energy through an array of state-led initiatives. However the state has significant room
to strengthen efficiency programs and policies in the utility sector. To guarantee energy and cost savings for businesses and residents, the state could make its 10% electricity savings target mandatory and offer performance incentives to utilities achieving higher levels of electricity and natural gas savings. Virginia could also work to streamline the process by which utilities evaluate, measure, and verify energy savings which may help utilities to develop efficiency programs with more comprehensive measures. To keep costs low for all Virginia consumers, utilities could design programs that better meet the needs of large customers. Beyond the utility sector, the
state could incentivize CHP deployment to deepen energy savings, reduce bills for homes and businesses, and support local economic development.
Read more (ACEEE)
To mitigate climate change, cities need to target buildings—the “mother lode” of greenhouse gas emissions, as New York Mayor Bill De Blasio called them last week.
At a news conference, he announced a pathbreaking proposal to set stricter energy efficiency standards in the city’s aging buildings—and to fine building owners who don’t comply with the codes.
Other cities may need to crack down, too, if they are to meet their climate goals. Across the U.S., cities have pledged to reduce emissions, with some (like New York) aiming ambitiously for 80 percent reductions by 2050.
“If you’re a city that’s concerned about climate change, you have to focus on buildings, because that’s where the carbon is,” says Cliff Majersik, executive director of the Institute for Market Transformation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit focused on climate and energy.
Read more (Inside Climate News)
What role can energy efficiency play in meeting the U.S. share of global climate goals? This question has been asked in many forums and models, and the answers are always consistent: smarter use of energy in buildings, transportation, and industry is the single largest, cheapest and lowest impact pathway to net-zero climate pollution. But a new NRDC report highlights just how important its role is to this clean energy transition.
New, comprehensive modeling by NRDC and Energy + Environmental Economics (E3) outlines a cost-effective pathway to a climate-safe future that relies on today’s proven clean energy solutions. The big news here is not just that we can do it. It’s how. The report breaks new ground by combining more aggressive—but achievable—assumptions on the potential to scale up energy efficiency, renewable energy, and clean, efficient electrification, with complex energy system modeling tools that the most sophisticated Department of Energy and private sector analyses employ.
Read More (NRDC)
For the first time in history, half of the world’s population lives in cities. Cities hold economic weight, inspire a sense of belonging and loyalty (just ask a Red Sox fan), and are hubs for innovation and investment. And increasingly, cities are focusing on what can be done at the local level to promote clean, healthy, and prosperous communities and stepping up to the plate with commitments like America’s Pledge to meet Paris climate goals in the absence of a firm federal commitment. Through these bold acts, cities are making possible more ambitious action at the state and national level.
City-focused climate funds, which finance projects in a city that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increase resiliency, can provide positive environmental, economic, and health impacts. Such funds, including New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation(NYCEEC), The Atmospheric Fund (TAF) in Toronto, the London Green Fund (LGF), and Sustainable Melbourne Fund (SMF), have been able to create a substantial impact relative to the monies they have deployed by focusing on delivering value beyond access to capital alone. Other cities are joining the trend: in 2018, the City of Boston plans to launch Renew Boston Trust, which aims to use a market-based, self-funding model to increase energy efficiency investments and climate resiliency in its commercial and municipal buildings, nonprofit institutions, and multi-family properties.
Click here to read more.
Julie Michals is the Director of Clean Energy Valuation at E4TheFuture. In this role, her focus is on initiatives that improve approaches to measuring and evaluating clean energy program implementation. Prior to joining E4TheFuture, she spent 14 years with Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships, most recently as director of the Regional Evaluation, Measurement and Verification Forum.
Click here to read an interview with her conducted by “Home Energy Magazine.”
One August afternoon, a few MEEAites embarked on a recon mission to gather data on smart devices in two major retailers of home appliances. Sadly, the budget didn’t approve our (Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance) request for black turtlenecks and spy gear, so we had to make do with business casual.
Our goal was to get a general idea of what type of technology comes with today’s appliances that are commonly available to the public. As MEEA sets out to not only understand, but also influence on the world of intelligent efficiency, we have recently found ourselves arriving at the same question that starts at the consumer: What do customers experience today when buying new home appliances?
Not content to be armchair EE professionals, we walked into the first store, and my co-worker immediately blew our cover by telling a salesperson that we were looking for connected devices. We quickly learned, though, that “connected” isn’t a request that salesmen are hoping for, and a store associate quickly figured out that we didn’t need help and walked swiftly in the opposite direction. See ya. Left on our own, we embraced the opportunity and completely surveyed the appliance section and photographed any sign of an appliance being smart, connected, energy efficient, advanced…you get the picture.
After visiting two stores, we learned a few lessons to share.
Click here to read more.
U.S. commercial buildings could cut energy use by 29 percent on average by taking full advantage of controls technology and implementing a few other base energy-efficiency measures, according to a new study from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Commercial buildings account for 20 percent of U.S. energy use and produce 50 percent or more of a city’s greenhouse gas emissions (75 percent in New York). If we want “smart cities” to be more than just a catchy phrase, this is an opportunity we must seize.
The trouble is, the opportunity has been sitting there for a very long time. The Clinton Foundation announced a multibillion-dollar initiative to cut urban energy in 2007, on the same day the National Academy of Sciences, along with the scientific academies of 12 other countries, called on world leaders to address global warming by increasing energy efficiency. And yet, building energy use has risen over the past five years in even the most efficiency-conscious cities, based on an analysis of American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy data. What gives?
Part of the problem is flat-out lack of action. The other part is the persistent problem of performance drift — buildings and building systems should be highly efficient, but performance deteriorates rapidly or never matches the model. Culprits such as ineffective controls and a mismatch between design assumptions and building occupant behaviors get a lot of (deserved) scrutiny. But to really solve the problem, we need to rethink the metrics we use to measure energy design for smart buildings.
Click here to read more.
