During the past few months I have been energized by the great work happening to create the National Energy Efficiency Registry (NEER). More than 150 experts have been reviewing the NEER’s draft principles and operating rules to be released for public comment in the spring of 2017. You’re invited to learn more and get ready to add your voice!
What is the NEER?
If you haven’t heard yet, this is what all the buzz is about:
–Consider the market transformation that has been driven by Renewable Energy Credits (RECs).
–NEER will harness similar transformative power for energy efficiency by creating a transaction processing platform that allows EE Providers to document energy savings in a robust transparent manner to demonstrate progress toward energy goals and potential compliance with existing and future state and federal environmental regulations.
Read More (E4TheFuture)
The government is a lot of things. One of them is a building owner. Indeed, owning and operating facilities are two of the things it does most.
According the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), an arm of the government – at the local, state or federal level – owns about 14 percent of the commercial buildings in the United States. The breakdown is that about 4 percent of government buildings are federally owned, 24 percent are owned by the state and 72 percent are locally owned.
That’s interesting. What is even more interesting is that those buildings are far more energy efficient than non-governmental buildings, at least as of 2012. The EIA says that from 2003 to 2012 the government reduced the average energy consumption per square foot of the buildings it controlled from 105,300 Btus per square foot (Btu/sqft) to 81,200 Btu/sqft. Non-governmental commercial buildings also moved in the right direction – but not by as much. Energy intensity in these structures shrank by 12 percent, from 91,000 Btu/sqft to 80,000 Btu/sqft.
Read the full story. (Energy Manager Today)
Virginia manufacturers and industries would gain billions in benefits from better energy efficiency, while also cutting their carbon output, according to two new studies.
Jennifer Kefer, executive director of the Alliance for Industrial Efficiency, said its research found industrial energy efficiency could cut carbon emissions by 175 million tons nationwide in 2030.
“Process efficiency improvements, boiler upgrades, replacing chillers, insulation, even things as simple as lighting,” Kefer said. “Our report demonstrates very clearly that one can cut carbon while saving money.”
According to research from the Georgia Institute of Technology, industries in Virginia could save nearly $10 billion over a decade and a half
Read the full story. (Public News Service)
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the shift in American identity that we’re seeing pop off the pages of our Pulse studies. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of us who say buying/using eco-friendly products is an important part of our personal image. This shift in self-image coincides with another interesting shift, an actual shift in consumer behavior. As a researcher, I have had the privilege of spending multiple days with consumers from all walks of life from all over the country doing ethnographic research. I am always fascinated by the discrepancy between what people say they do and what they actually do. That’s why it’s so exciting that we’re seeing evidence of not just a shift in attitude but also a shift in behavior.
Behavior is the key difference this year. There is no doubt consumers’ behaviors are in the process of shifting. In this year’s Eco Pulse™ (soon to be released), we not only see that consumers’ attitudes and beliefs are strongly green, we also see consumers acting on those attitudes and beliefs. Ninety percent of our survey respondents think the average person should be taking concrete steps to reduce his or her environmental impact. Even more interesting is that consumers are putting their money where their mouths are. We are seeing indications of actual behavior change – changes in purchasing behavior based on the environmental record of manufacturers.
Read the full story. (The Shelton Group)
Meanwhile, several roundtable participants, including executives from businesses large and small that are involved in renewable energy projects, congratulated McAuliffe for his administration’s support of solar and wind energy and efforts to promote energy efficiency. Discussion focused on clean energy projects completed, underway or proposed, as well as on how utilities, state government and regulators, including legislators and the State Corporation Commission, could provide additional support for renewable energy and energy efficiency.
One sponsor of Thursday’s event was Advanced Energy Economy, a national association of businesses whose stated mission is to transform public policy to enable rapid growth of advanced energy companies. J.R. Tolbert, a vice president for Advanced Energy Economy, said before the roundtable that McAuliffe “has done more under his watch to open up our state to investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency than any other leader.”
Read the full story. (Roanoke Times)
SAVING our planet from the worst effects of climate change won’t be cheap. A new report from the United Nations says that the world will need to mobilize $90 trillion in public and private capital over the next 15 years.
As a point of comparison, global gross domestic product in 2015 was $73 trillion. But there is no question that the world needs to ramp up its transition to a low-carbon, environmentally sustainable and resilient economy, and to do so rapidly. The question is, how do we pay for it, given the limited availability of government funding, particularly in developing countries?
The answer: private financing. The good news is that there is a global abundance of private capital. To unlock these riches, governments must create conditions that encourage private investment in clean technologies and sustainable development. With smart, well-designed and coordinated policies, financing models and instruments like bonds and incentive programs, countries have the potential to solve some of the planet’s most pressing environmental challenges while still maintaining economic growth.
Read the full story. (New York Times op-ed)
Energy efficiency and solar advocates have on occasion butted heads over which option should be implemented in homes and buildings first and how much should be installed before the other is considered. Here at ACEEE we believe that, like market solutions vs. energy efficiency programs, this is a false choice. Both are valuable and can, and should, work together as an integrated solution to create cleaner and cheaper energy. While energy efficiency is just as clean as solar when it comes to emissions, efficiency by itself can’t produce energy for customers looking for a clean energy option, and solar without energy efficiency can’t reach the full extent of its potential.
However, in recent years, some solar companies and some consumers have been employing a solar-first strategy in the residential sector—installing solar systems without paying much attention to energy efficiency. This strategy has been spurred in part by substantial solar tax credits, net-metering rules in place in most states, and the availability of solar financing that reduces or even eliminates the initial purchase price, replacing the up-front cost with monthly payments that extend over many years.
Read the full story. (ACEEE)
The phrase “energy efficiency” pops up all the time. Why? Because it’s a big deal. Energy efficiency is now the nation’s third-largest “electricity resource.” The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) believes this is a significant story, and we do too. Consider this: energy efficiency saves American households about $840 a year, on average.
ACEEE continues: “This paper quantifies the energy savings and other benefits from a set of energy efficiency programs and policies. We examine the combined savings from appliance and equipment efficiency standards, utility-sector energy efficiency programs, and building energy codes.”
The planet is desperate due to a lack of conservation and the overall exhaustion that has resulted from inefficient means of producing and using energy. Personal choices and technologies that improve efficiency have grown in competitiveness and adoption, though.
The ACEEE report shows that efficiency lowers pollution, and it reduces energy burdens for those most in need. It is a core strategy to halt climate change worldwide.
Read the full story. (Clean Technica)
Nest’s smart thermostats are a device for the upscale and energy-aware consumer. But they’re also a resource for grid stability — when there are enough of them out there to make a difference.
In Southern California, where the Aliso Canyon emergency is threatening to cause blackouts next summer, Nest believes it can get 50,000 of them together to help keep the lights on.
Nest’s new deal with partner Southern California Edison was announced last month as part of the utility’s rushed response to the shutdown of the Aliso Canyon natural-gas storage facility. It calls for Nest to deliver about 50 megawatts, or 1 kilowatt per home, in reliable load reduction across a stretch of Southern California grid that may run short of power during hot afternoons next summer.
This is Nest’s biggest demand response contract so far, but it’s not being built from scratch. “We’ll be tapping our existing installed base to provide immediate relief,” said Ben Bixby, energy businesses director for the Alphabet (Google)-owned company, said in an interview last week.
Read the full story. (Greentech Media)
More than three years after getting into the consumer-priced LED bulb business, Durham LED firm Cree has unveiled what it’s calling a “completely new portfolio” of bulb products.
“Cree has zigged when the industry has zagged,” Al Safarikas, Cree vice president of marketing for consumer products, said Tuesday in an interview following the product launch. He points to what he calls both “better light” and a “better warranty” associated with the new bulbs, which were developed, engineered and marketed out of Cree’s Durham headquarters.
Read the full story. (Triangle Business Journal)
