NASEO and the State Energy Offices in the News
Commercial Property Executive - November 9, 2011
For the past two years, a federally
funded effort has focused on assuring
that by 2030 virtually all newly
constructed commercial buildings can be
characterized as net-zero -- and all
commercial buildings 20 years later.
Notwithstanding numerous and daunting
challenges, the prospects for meeting
these deadlines are actually pretty
promising. "Four or five years ago, it
seemed like such a reach, but now it
seems to be happening faster than anyone
thought it would," observed energy
efficiency specialist Mark Frankel,
technical director with the New
Buildings Institute.
On paper at least, participants have
managed to combine building technologies
and operational strategies to devise
about as energy-efficient properties as
have ever been erected. And a few are
now advancing beyond paper, as buildings
billed as some of the world’s most
efficient commercial structures are now
under construction.
But equipping them with enough on-site
power-generation capacity for
self-sufficiency is proving trickier in
the near term, given prevailing
limitations of solar photovoltaic
energy-generation technologies. Nor does
it help that the grids themselves are
not yet ideally configured to
efficiently carry juice in both
directions.
As efforts to resolve those huge
challenges continue, teams of pros are
also devising and disseminating
solutions to some of the other key
roadblocks threatening the 2030 net-zero
goal, including developers’ sequential
rather than holistic approach to energy
efficiency strategy and their
expectation for short payback periods.
The underlying goal of all the efforts
underway today is to assure that the
highest-performing new buildings can
effectively compete in the marketplace
at their higher-than-average development
costs and ultra-efficient ongoing
operating costs, Frankel stressed.
As he and others are quick to point out,
participants in the net-zero pursuit are
making considerable progress in that
direction. Wide-varying federally funded
activities have already led to
demonstration projects that initiative
coordinator Diana Lin refers to as "zero
energy capable" buildings -- structures
that are about as energy-efficient as
can reasonably be expected but not
necessarily equipped with
energy-generation capabilities.
Lin is managing director of the National
Association of State Energy Officials,
which oversees the federally funded Zero
Energy Commercial Buildings Consortium.
The CBC's dozen-some working groups have
striven to identify all manner of
barriers hindering the march toward net
zero -- and devise corresponding
solutions. This includes not only
promoting R&D efforts toward achieving
critical technological advancements; it
also entails efforts to more effectively
commercialize available technologies
that have not achieved sufficient
penetration in the marketplace, Lin
added.
The Washington Post – October 29,
2011 (Ken Harney column)
When you apply for a mortgage to buy
a house, how often does the lender ask
detailed questions about monthly energy
costs or tell the appraiser to factor in
the energy-efficiency features of the
house when coming up with a value?
Hardly ever. That's because the big
three mortgage players —
Fannie Mae,
Freddie Mac and the
Federal Housing Administration,
which together account for more than 90%
of all loan volume — typically don't
consider energy costs in underwriting.
Yet utility bills can be larger annual
cash drains than property taxes or
insurance — key factors in standard
underwriting — and can seriously affect
a family's ability to afford a house.
A new bipartisan effort on Capitol Hill
could change all this dramatically and
for the first time put energy costs and
savings squarely into standard mortgage
underwriting equations. A bill
introduced Oct. 20 would force the three
mortgage giants to take account of
energy costs in every loan they insure,
guarantee or buy. It would also require
them to instruct appraisers to adjust
their property valuations upward when
accurate data on energy efficiency
savings are available.
Titled the SAVE (Sensible Accounting to
Value Energy) Act, the bill is jointly
sponsored by Sens.
Michael Bennet, a Democrat from
Colorado, and
Johnny Isakson, a Republican from
Georgia. Here's how it would work: Along
with the traditional principal,
interest, taxes and insurance (PITI)
calculations, estimated
energy-consumption expenses for the
house would be included as a mandatory
new underwriting factor.
For most houses that have not undergone
independent energy audits, loan officers
would be required to pull data either
from previous utility bills — in the
case of refinancings — or from a
Department of Energy survey database to
arrive at an estimated cost. This would
then be factored into the debt-to-income
ratios that lenders already use to
determine whether a borrower can afford
the monthly costs of the mortgage.
Allowable ratios probably would be
adjusted to account for the new
energy/utilities component.
For houses with significant
energy-efficiency improvements already
built in and documented with a
professional audit such as a home energy
rating system study, lenders would
instruct appraisers to calculate the net
present value of monthly energy savings
— i.e., what that stream of future
savings is worth today in terms of
market price — and adjust the final
appraised value accordingly. This higher
valuation, in turn, could be used to
justify a higher mortgage amount.
For example, Kateri Callahan, president
of the Alliance to Save Energy, a
nonprofit advocacy group and a major
supporter of the new legislation,
estimates that a typical new home that
is 30% more energy efficient than a
similar-sized average house will save
about $20,000 in utility expenses over
the life of a mortgage. Under the Bennet-Isakson
bill, appraisers would be required to
add those savings to the current market
valuation of the house. In this
instance, Callahan says, the increase in
value would be about $10,000.
Dozens of housing, energy and
environmental groups have endorsed the
new legislation including appraisers,
large home builders, the U.S. Green
Building Council, the Natural Resources
Defense Council, green-designated real
estate brokers, the Institute for Market
Transformation and the National Assn. of
State Energy Officials, among others.
EnvironmentalLeader.com – October
27, 2011
Energy efficiency financing has the
potential to jump from $20 billion to
$150 billion over the next ten years,
according to a report by Capital-E.
Energy Efficiency Financing: Models and
Strategies says that investment at
this level would save U.S. businesses
and households $200 billion a year and
create more than one million full time
jobs within a decade. Such investment
would be one of the most cost-effective
ways of reducing energy costs for
businesses and households while
improving national security and helping
to slow the impacts of climate change,
Capital-E said.
The report warns, however, that energy
efficiency financing now stands at less
than a fifth of its cost-effective
potential, even after decades of public
and private support.
Capital-E said the critical step to
close this gap is to make EE financing a
mainstream financial asset class with a
high degree of standardization,
predictability and scale. It said that
the vast majority of EE opportunities
remain unfinanced because of split
incentives, insufficient credit and
limited data, among other reasons.
The 2009 stimulus package ploughed
billions into energy efficiency, but
this funding will peak by the end of
this year and disappear completely in
2013, the report said. Meanwhile
property assessed clean energy (PACE)
programs in many states have been
largely suspended for the residential
sector due to objections by the Federal
Housing finance Agency, among others.
Capital E says it has been working
closely with 30 private, public and NGO
partners to identify and co-develop the
most promising mechanisms to scale
efficiency financing over the next three
to five years. As part of the May, 2010
annual ACEEE Energy Efficiency Finance
Forum, Capital E ran a meeting of 25
leaders from banks, regulatory agencies,
project developers and industry
organizations to co-design new
mechanisms for energy efficiency
financing …
The report was developed in association
with the American Council for an
Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE),
Appraisal Institute, Citigroup, JPMorgan
Chase and the National Association of
State Energy Officials (NASEO).
Clean Energy Report – July 18, 2011
State energy and environmental
officials grappling with the
implications of EPA rules that are
dramatically reshaping the U.S.
electricity system are in agreement that
how EPA and state utility regulators
conduct energy efficiency measurement
and verification is a top issue needing
further exploration.
Measurement and verification, known as
M&V, is critical because energy
efficiency could be a key to keeping
down the costs of EPA rules, says a
source with the National Association of
State Energy Officials (NASEO), which
represents governor-designated energy
officials.
NASEO, the National Association of Clean
Air Agencies (NACAA) representing state
air programs and the National
Association of Regulatory Utility
Commissioners (NARUC) representing state
public utility commissions met June
23-24 to discuss areas of mutual
interest. Representatives from the three
groups held a kickoff meeting in
December and plan to continue meeting to
understand each others' roles, how to
best work together, and the
"cross-section of issues we work on,"
says a NARUC source.
USA Today – June 21, 2011
As Congress remains in gridlock, U.S.
states are taking the lead in energy
efficiency. New research shows 26 now
have rules that are lowering utility
bills for consumers and reducing the
need to build new power plants.
From 2004 to 2010, 24 states followed
the lead of Texas and Vermont in
adopting an Energy Efficiency Resource
Standards (EERS), which require
utilities to save a certain amount of
power each year, according to the
first progress report of states that
have had such rules for at least two
years. The policies require that the
savings outweigh the costs.
"These states are demonstrating that
energy efficiency programs deliver real
savings for utilities and ratepayers,
and it is more affordable than any
supply-side energy source," said report
author Michael Sciortino of the American
Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy,
a Washington-based research group.
The report says EERS policies are
driving energy efficiency investments
and energy cost savings to unprecedented
levels. For example, in 2009 and 2010,
it says Ohio utility customers saved $56
million in energy costs over and above
the costs to deliver the programs.
"As a comprehensive national energy
policy remains beyond the reach of
Congress, states are taking action to
show how bold energy efficiency policies
can benefit residential, commercial, and
industrial consumers," said Steven Nadel,
the group's executive director, in a
statement.
The report found that 13 of the 19
states are achieving 100% or more of
their goals, three states are reaching
more than 90%, and the three states
falling below 80% are working hard to
catch up. It expects more savings from
state EERS, since most targets increase
over the next decade.
Nadel's group also released a second
report analyzing the efforts of six
states with some of the largest and most
successful energy efficiency programs in
the United States: California,
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota,
New York and Vermont. It also looks at
the efforts of six other states with
simpler but cost-effective efforts:
Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan,
Ohio and Pennsylvania.
New York Times Online – March 23,
2011
A few years ago in central Florida,
John Santarpia had an idea. He was the
president and CEO of a credit union and
felt he needed to do something to
improve its image.
"We're a medium-sized credit union
and there's a lot of competition,"
Santarpia said. "We wanted to stand
out."
He and his colleagues had found a lot
in Lakeland, a city of about 100,000
residents, with an ice cream shop on it.
Knowing the community wouldn't be in
favor of losing the ice cream shop,
Santarpia decided to build a flagship
building for his credit union around it.
Whatever it was, he wanted to make it
green.
What resulted was the state's first
commercial net-zero-energy building.
"Financial institutions oftentimes
are hesitant to try something new," said
Tim Hoeft, a sustainable designer at
Straughn Trout Architects, which
designed the building.
The difference is that Santarpia was
interested in new technology and was
attracted by the fact that there were no
net-zero commercial buildings in Florida
yet, Hoeft said. Santarpia wanted his to
be the first.
Although it is still loosely defined,
net-zero usually means a building that
produces as much energy as is consumed.
The Department of Energy's website lists
eight net-zero-energy commercial
buildings up and running in the country.
Most are small and in mild-weather
environments. But the DOE number could
be misleading because it relies on
owners to voluntarily submit their
building's information. At the New
Buildings Institute, Technical Director
Mark Frankel estimates the real number
could be closer to 25, with about 50
more in construction.
Santarpia's building is among those
not listed by the DOE. Through the
construction and rebranding process, the
credit union's name changed from
Community First to Magnify, in part to
reflect a new, green identity. The
decision to make the building net-zero
evolved on its own. First, Santarpia and
his colleagues looked into certifying
the building under the U.S. Green
Building Council's Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design program. Once
they figured out how to do that, they
looked into putting solar panels on the
roof.
"Then we asked, 'How many solar
panels would it take to go net-zero?'"
he said.
During construction, Santarpia sought
help from local design and construction
professionals as well as the local
utility company. They ended up with a
rectangular-shaped building with just
over 4,000 square feet of space, high
ceilings and an upward-sloping roof. It
opened in August 2009.
The building combines control systems
with its "double roof" concept. Its top
layer of solar panels shades it from
direct heat gain. The space between the
roof layers, along with its slope, helps
the hot air convect, or rise and
disperse, instead of raising the
temperature in the building.
Solar panels on the roof generate
energy, although the building still
draws from the grid when it needs to.
Other energy-saving mechanisms include
using Energy Star-labeled appliances,
using equipment to shade the inside from
Florida's hot sun and applying
high-performance insulation to further
reduce solar heat gain. A utility bill
in October of last year confirmed the
net-zero claim when it found that the
building was generating more power than
it was using. Forty-five percent of the
energy produced in the panels goes back
into the grid.
One side of the credit union building
lies 3 inches from the ice cream shop,
with a window peeking into it.
Sometimes, people can buy ice cream
right there.
The ice cream shop's energy
consumption isn't included in Magnify's
utility bill.
Net-zero has potential in a booming
industry
In theory, at least, there is a big
pot of money that entrepreneurs with
net-zero ambitions can draw from. Each
year, more than $600 billion is spent on
new construction and renovation of
commercial buildings, according to the
Commercial Buildings Consortium (CBC).
But adding the technology to commercial
buildings -- which use 40 percent of the
country's energy and make up 40 percent
of its greenhouse gas emissions -- is a
challenge.
Last month, President Obama announced
the Better Buildings Initiative, which
sets a target to improve commercial
buildings energy efficiency by 20
percent over the next decade.
Depending on how they're defined,
net-zero-energy buildings may take what
Obama envisions one step further.
Usually, net-zero refers to buildings
that don't use any more energy than they
produce. Once the buildings are running,
they must meet the energy rules set
before construction to stay true to the
net-zero claim.
Two reports released last month by
the CBC detail ways for new buildings to
achieve net-zero-energy status.
The CBC, an umbrella organization
that includes more than 430
organizations representing commercial
building interests, says no formal
definition exists for net-zero. Both
reports lay out a "directional goal" to
get there. One focuses on technology
barriers, while the other looks into
market barriers like building codes and
standards.
Jeffrey Harris, senior vice president
for programs at the Alliance to Save
Energy, says that the magnitude people
are talking about for net-zero is an 80
percent reduction of energy consumption
from today's levels.
A net-zero building should be
relatively thin, H-shaped, with
courtyards, high ceilings and access to
natural light, said Harris, who worked
on the reports.
Their small, one-story size gives
net-zero buildings plenty of daylight.
Mild-weather environments allow them to
ease use of air conditioning and heat.
It's also hard to put them in urban
environments because shading from nearby
buildings will affect natural lighting
….
Harris identifies three immediate
areas to help achieve net-zero:
integrated design, efficient control
systems and lifetime performance
assurances. In other words, a building's
design process must include input from
designers at all levels. Its control
systems must work together, and it needs
a system to monitor its performance.
Harris describes integrated design as
"making sure the new building's team
brings in energy efficiency teams to
take account of how changes in one
system can affect another."
Diana Lin, a program manager with the
National Association of State Energy
Officials, said the process could
include lighting designers, engineers,
contractors and other "downstream
actors."
"Oftentimes, a building owner comes
in with an idea and an architect designs
it" and it stays at that, Lin said. What
could result is an inability to
understand how a building's many
different systems work together.
Bringing all levels of designers in at
an early stage would give them a chance
to provide input. It would also help
developers understand how a building's
different systems interact, Lin said.
Energy Washington Week – February
16, 2011
The Department of Energy (DOE) is
backing efforts in Hawaii for the state
to generate 70 percent of its
electricity from renewable resources and
energy efficiency by 2030 that
proponents say could serve as a
"laboratory" for other states as they
adopt more aggressive clean energy
goals.
The Hawaii program is expected to
gain greater attention as the Obama
administration pursues its goal of
generating 80 percent of the nation's
electricity from clean energy sources by
2035, according to an official involved
in the effort.
"DOE is very much involved in what's
happening in Hawaii and has been for
several years because we were able to
let DOE know this is an opportunity for
the department to focus its resources
and resolve these real world issues in a
functioning market," says a former state
energy official now with the Hawaii
Renewable Energy Development Venture
(HREDV), which was launched in 2008 with
funding from the DOE Office of Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The
official discussed the program in an
exclusive interview with Energy
Washington Week during a Jan. 31-Feb. 3
conference in Washington, D.C., of the
National Association of State Energy
Officials (NASEO).
Extensive DOE involvement in the
state's clean-energy goals began in 2008
when DOE's Office of Electricity
Delivery & Energy Reliability (OE)
joined with the state in launching the
Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI),
the state's far-reaching effort to
generate 70 percent of its energy from
40 percent renewable energy and 30
percent energy efficiency by 2030, the
world's most aggressive goal, according
to DOE. Currently, Hawaii gets 90
percent of its energy from imported oil,
making the state's economy highly
vulnerable to rising oil prices,
according to the Hawaii state energy
office's department of business,
economic development and tourism, which
is in charge of the HCEI.
Hawaii also received $133.9 million
in federal economic stimulus money to
meet its goal of deploying more than 650
megawatts (MW) of clean-energy
electricity generation.
The lessons gleaned from the HCEI
"may allow DOE to become smarter" in
dealing with renewable energy
integration issues as the department
pursues its understanding of the impacts
from bringing 20 percent renewable
electricity or more over the next 15
years onto the grid, says the HREDV
official. In January 2010 the DOE
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
released its "Eastern Wind
Integration and Transmission Study"
that concluded shifting 20 percent or
more of the Eastern Interconnection's
electrical load to wind energy by 2024
is technically feasible, "but will
require significant expansion of the
transmission infrastructure and system
operational changes in order for it to
be realized."
TheEnergyCollective.com – December
13, 2010
Three different associations that
focus on state-based issues around clean
air and energy recently held their
inaugural meeting to share information
about how the states can ensure reliable
electricity while complying with
environmental regulations. The
participating associations were the
National Association of Clean Air
Agencies (NACAA), the National
Association of Regulatory Utility
Commissioners (NARUC), and the National
Association of State Energy Officials
(NASEO). NACAA is an organization
of air pollution control agencies in 53
states and territories and over 165
major metropolitan areas across the U.S.
NARUC is the association for state
Public Utility Commissions (PUCs), the
entities that regulate investor-owned
electricity, gas, and water utilities.
NASEO represents the governor-designated
energy officials from each state and
territory, and is focused on improving
the effectiveness of state energy
programs and policies. If these
organizations achieve their objectives
of sharing ideas and best practices,
these could be important processes that
mitigate the lack of a federal energy
policy and accelerate deployment of
Smart Grid technologies and services.
The states serve as innovation
incubators for policy and regulation,
and there are many examples of states
addressing energy and pollution
challenges well in advance of federal
action. The Smart Grid sector
knows that the cleanest energy is the
negawatt – the energy that is not used
as a result of energy efficiency.
Consider the success of the aggressive
energy efficiency standards for
buildings and appliances enacted in the
state of California – annual electricity
consumption in California has remained
steady at 7,000 kWh per capita while
electricity consumption has risen on
average to 12,000 kWh per capita in the
rest of the USA. Other states have
taken notice, and over half of them have
now adopted or plan to adopt energy
efficiency standards to save energy,
avoid buildouts of new generation
facilities, and reduce utility bills for
their constituents.
While some politicians proclaim that
cap and trade markets are dreadful
theories (ignoring the immensely
successful SO2 cap and trade program to
address
acid rain), the Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)
launched in 2009 in 10 Northeast and
Mid-Atlantic states as the first
mandatory, auction-based program to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the
U.S. The participating states are
Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and
Vermont. Each state has an
emissions budget, and allowance prices
are uniform across the region, with a
common objective to reduce CO2 emissions
from the power sector by 10 percent by
2018. At least 25 percent of the
auction revenues must be used to promote
low carbon-energy development and offer
other consumer benefits. Some
states are using auction revenues to
resolve budget shortfalls.
Now that Proposition 23 has been
shellacked, the California Air Resources
Board is also moving forward to
implement a cap-and-trade program in
2012 based on Assembly Bill 32 (AB32).
If the proceeds from this cap and trade
program would be disbursed to all
California citizens – an idea known as
cap and dividend, that would make the
program hugely popular, and a laboratory
experiment that would get the attention
of many other states.
State &
Local Energy Report – Fall 2010
The
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
of 2009 (ARRA) gave a significant boost
to the State Energy Program (SEP), the
primary source of federal funding for
state energy programs that provides
resources directly to the states for
allocation by them for energy efficiency
and renewable energy. The 30-year-old
program, funded at $3.1 billion under
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,
is cost-shared by States…. The states
are providing an additional $4.7 billion
in cost-share, or leverage, from state
sources and private sector partners. In
short, each dollar of federal ARRA SEP
funding is matched with $1.52 of state
and private funds, for a total program
impact of $8.8 billion.
By fall
2010, states had committed
three-quarters of the funding to worthy
projects. Awardees must spend the
funding by April 2012. With thousands of
aging state and local facilities overdue
for energy upgrades, states have many
more projects than the SEP dollars will
cover.
As a
result, hundreds of projects in 56
states and territories that were at a
standstill because of lack of funding
are now surging forward. Most of these
stimulus dollars target energy upgrades
at state facilities, including
hospitals, office buildings, prisons,
universities, and schools. The rest of
the funds are slated for homes and
commercial buildings, as well as local
government facilities.
With all
this activity over the past year, we
wanted to learn more about the most
exciting state-level energy projects
that the stimulus dollars have
jump-started.
We
canvassed state energy officials, and
although we realize any such list is
subjective, we made our picks for the
top ten projects to profile below.
These
ten projects stand out as exemplifying
two themes we saw emerging: leveraging
federal with private funds, and adapting
flexibly to local infrastructure for
maximum impact.
First,
many of these SEP projects are using
federal start-up dollars to leverage
private investment and create revolving
credit funds that will help to spur
energy efficiency reinvestment long
after the ARRA funding expires.
Second,
these projects show that America works
best when the states and territories do
operate as laboratories, tailoring
programs to address specific local needs
and conditions — from photovoltaic
systems for commercial buildings in
American Samoa to insulation for homes
in Louisiana.
Some programs offer rebates to lower
the initial costs, as in Minnesota’s
Project ReEnergize. Others use the funds
to establish a revolving loan fund to
lower interest rates dramatically for
retrofits, such as the Green Bank of
Kentucky. This diversity of approaches
driven by local knowledge and innovation
makes this round of stimulus funding so
powerful in its impact. This
government-driven investment will
unleash billions of dollars of
private-sector investment in building
robust clean energy capacity while
saving energy costs and creating good
local jobs.
National Public Radio – October 23,
2010
This
year was supposed to be the year when
the U.S. government redesigned the
energy economy and took a bite out of
global warming. But Congress had no
appetite for complicated legislation
that might raise energy prices.
So now
comes “cash for caulkers.” Call it
“energy reform lite” — part of a string
of more modest measures designed to
reduce our hunger for energy without a
top-down overhaul of energy use in the
country.
Known
officially as
Homestar, cash for caulkers would
put up to $6 billion of federal money
into the hands of homeowners and
contractors who make homes more
energy-efficient. That’s if Congress
decides to pass it….
The
Murdochs are willing to pay for an
overhaul [of their home] because it will
lower their bills. But if Homestar
happens, the federal government could
subsidize the work with as much as
$8,000 for a single home. It would also
subsidize a less rigorous and less
expensive overhaul called Silver Star.
Some
states, like New York, already pay
homeowners for retrofits. So did
President Obama’s stimulus plan last
year. But Jeff Genzer of the National
Association of State Energy Officials
says the stimulus money was mostly for
low-income families. Homestar is for all
homeowners.
“And
it’s really targeted to getting the
money in the hands of underemployed
building contractors,” Genzer says.
Indeed, Homestar advocates claim that
the $6 billion could create 160,000 new
jobs in the flagging building sector.
Genzer
adds that small-scale-efficiency
programs are cheaper than building new
nuclear plants or big wind farms. And
homes are a fat target for savings —
buildings use 40 percent of the
country’s energy….
The House of Representatives has
passed a Homestar bill, and it’s now
being considered in the Senate.
State &
Local Energy Report – Summer 2010
On Earth
Day 2010, a dedicated group of 8- and
9-year-old students at South Shore
Public Charter School in Norwell,
Massachusetts, learned they had been
chosen America’s Greenest School,
beating out 550 other schools. The
children erupted in a happy frenzy.
Their entry, a mock-newscast and tour of
the school’s numerous green initiatives,
landed them first prize in a contest
with over a million ballots cast for the
top 10 projects.
When the
award was announced in her classroom, “I
actually heard the cheers from all
around the school,” said teacher Sarah
Roberts. The school will receive a
hybrid bus from the contest sponsor, IC
Bus, as well as a $20,000 green audit to
improve the school building, $3,000 in
scholarships and a concert by the
contest’s official band, The Maine.
IC Bus
will deliver one of its new plug-in
hybrid electric school buses, valued at
$200,000. The new bus uses an induction
electric motor, lithium ion batteries
and power-management software to improve
fuel economy by up to 65% and reduce
greenhouse gases by up than a third.
“The
plug-in hybrid kind of gives you all the
benefits of the electric vehicle as well
as the reliability of both systems added
on to one another,” says Ewan Pritchard,
program manager of the Advanced
Transportation Energy Center (ATEC) at
North Carolina State University and
a consultant for the nonprofit research
group Advanced Energy, where in 2002 he
launched a program looking into the
potential of the plug-in hybrid electric
school bus. “What we have here is not
only the first plug-in hybrid electric
school bus in the world. We have the
first commercially available plug-in
hybrid in the world.”
School
buses transport some 26 million school
children each school day in the United
States. The vast majority run on diesel
fuel, annually using more than 300
gallons of diesel per child passenger.
The emission of particulate pollutants
from diesel engines has long been a
known source of poor air quality.
Exposure is particularly dangerous for
children because they breathe in 50%
more air per body weight than do adults.
Along with many states, the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) has long investigated how to
reduce children’s exposure to diesel
fumes during trips and from bus idling….
In 2001,
the Coalition for Clean Air and the
Natural Resources Defense Council
released some startling research. Based
on careful monitoring of school bus
fleets in California, researchers
concluded that a child riding inside of
a diesel school bus may be exposed to as
much as four times the level of toxic
diesel exhaust as someone riding in a
car ahead of it. Around the same time,
Advanced Energy’s Pritchard began to
investigate the feasibility of bringing
plug-in hybrid technology to the school
bus market….
The
Hybrid Electric School Bus (HESB)
project also evaluated the buses’
technical and economic feasibility. They
produced a basic design for the buses
and examined the economics of the buses
from a school district’s perspective.
Advanced Energy then formed a buyers’
consortium to guide the manufacture of
the buses, identify funding for the
buses and serve as the initial
purchasers of the first generation of
the hybrid buses. The consortium
included school districts in 12 states
who agreed to rigorous performance
monitoring on the buses….
By
mid-2005, Advanced Energy’s HESB team
had amassed sufficient technical and
economic information to submit a
cost-sharing application to the
State Technology Advancement
Collaborative (STAC), a pilot
program to spark energy-related
innovation by leveraging expertise and
funding across state lines. STAC was
funded by the U.S. Department of Energy
and administered by the
National Association of State Energy
Officials (NASEO) and
Association of State Energy Research and
Technology Transfer Institutions (ASERTTI)
between 2002 and 2007.
Area
Development Site & Facility Planning –
June/July 2010
State
Energy Programs
Southern
states are growing green jobs by
investing in State Energy Programs (SEPs)
funded by the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA). While the
energy portion of the act grants $61.3
billion to dozens of initiatives, Brian
Henderson, Southeast regional
coordinator for the National Association
of State Energy Officials (NASEO), says
about $3.4 billion specifically funds
state energy programs. Each state energy
office’s piece of the pie depended on
grant proposals approved by the federal
government.
“This is
a huge opportunity for states to make a
significant impact on expanding their
energy efficiency bases,” Henderson
says. “They hope to get the [stimulus]
funds out quickly. Some will use [the
money] mostly for energy retrofit jobs.
Others will focus more on economic
development efforts to attract
manufacturers of energy-related
products.”
Stateline.org – August 13,
2010
North Shore Community College,
located outside Boston, joined the
glitzy side of the green-building trend
last November when it broke ground on
the first state-owned "zero net energy"
building in Massachusetts. The
58,000-square foot health and student
center, with geothermal heating and
cooling and solar panels on the roof,
will produce more than enough power to
cover its energy needs. But a less
glamorous project also is underway at
North Shore, one that is arguably more
crucial to the college's
energy-efficiency goals despite its lack
of shiny newness. In existing buildings
all over campus, the college is
switching to compact fluorescent light
bulbs, installing new thermostats and
chillers and moving from electric heat
to natural gas. These and other changes
will cost $3.6 million but are expected
to reduce North Shore's utility bill by
32 percent and save the state close to
$400,000 per year.
Massachusetts is embarking on a
campaign to upgrade the energy
efficiency of buildings at dozens of
facilities across the state. The
retrofits are partly funded with federal
stimulus dollars, as well as financing
from the sale of state bonds that will
be paid back from the energy savings.
"The Commonwealth is slated to
invest more in energy efficiency at its
own facilities over the next four years
than it has in the past two decades,"
says Energy and Environmental Affairs
Secretary Ian Bowles. In all,
Massachusetts estimates it will save $22
million in energy costs annually, with a
$6 million cut in utility bills coming
in the first 12 months.
The American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 boosted a
35-year-old Department of Energy grant
fund called the State Energy Program,
adding $3.2 billion on top of regular
annual funding of about $500 million
that goes to states for energy
efficiency and alternative energy
projects.
As a result, Massachusetts,
Arizona, Kentucky and other states are
moving ahead on hundreds of projects
that were at a standstill because of
lack of funding. A majority of the
stimulus dollars are going toward energy
upgrades at state facilities, including
hospitals, office buildings, prisons,
universities and schools. The rest are
slated for homes and commercial
buildings, as well as local government
facilities.
In many cases, states are using
stimulus money to leverage private
investment and create revolving credit
funds designed to pay for efficiency
projects for years to come. With a final
deadline of September 2012, states
already have committed most of the money
and state officials say they have many
more worthy projects than the stimulus
will pay for.
That's because thousands of
aging state and local facilities are
overdue for energy retrofits. It's also
because work-starved contractors are
ready to commit their own money to
jump-start projects, knowing that the
retrofits generate enough savings for
their initial investments to be paid
back within three to ten years.
"In Arizona, we were the only
game in town," says Jim Arwood, who
until recently headed the Arizona Energy
Office. "There was no shortage of
projects and plenty of companies were
ready to do the work and put their own
money into the pot."
The
cheapest fuel
Arizona has focused a lot of
its work on K-12 schools. Using more
than $12 million in stimulus grants, the
Arizona Energy Office selected 167
schools for energy-efficiency upgrades.
The state provides 30 percent of the
project costs ---up to $1 million per
school district ---leaving the remaining
70 percent to be paid by the schools.
The schools, in turn, have been able to
use the stimulus dollars as a down
payment, and have been successful at
attracting private contractors to pay
for the improvements and let the schools
pay them back over time with the money
saved on energy bills.
Arizona leveraged a $12 million
stimulus investment by attracting an
additional $32 million in private and
local funds for the schools work. The
school retrofits ---scheduled for
completion before students go back to
school this fall ---will have an average
payback time of eight years.
Energy-efficiency projects are
among the best leveraged uses of federal
money because they attract private
investment and result in immediate
reductions in states' utility bills. For
every federal dollar spent, states
report $10 in non-federal investments
and $7.22 in savings on energy bills,
according to the U.S. Department of
Energy.
In the United States, public,
commercial and residential buildings
cost about $393 billion to heat, cool
and light each year. That's 42 percent
of all U.S. energy consumption, with
transportation and manufacturing making
up the rest. According to the American
Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy,
at least one-third of those costs
---more than $131 billion ---could be
saved by making low-tech, low-cost
building improvements such as installing
energy-efficient boilers, insulating and
caulking air leaks and upgrading
thermostats.
In Massachusetts, where winters
are harsh and electricity rates are
among the highest in the country,
buildings account for 54 percent of
total energy consumption, making
energy-efficiency upgrades an even more
attractive option. "As we build a
vibrant economy in Massachusetts, energy
efficiency needs to be our 'first fuel'
---what we rely on to meet energy demand
before considering new power
generation," Democratic Governor Deval
Patrick said when announcing a recent
round of stimulus-funded initiatives.
Patrick was referring to the
fact that saving a unit of energy using
common energy-efficiency methods is far
cheaper than generating the same amount
of power using any method. On average,
energy efficiency upgrades cost 2 cents
per kilowatt hour saved, compared to 4
to 8 cents to generate a kilowatt hour
using nuclear power or fossil fuels and
as much as 17 cents per kilowatt hour
for solar power production.
Maintaining momentum
Even in states where generating
power is cheap, however, the stimulus
funds are making an impact. In Kentucky,
for example, plentiful coal makes power
cheaper than just about anywhere else in
the country, encouraging Kentuckians to
consume more energy than most Americans.
Still, energy efficiency has become a
state priority because it means more
jobs and lower greenhouse gasses.
Democratic Governor Steve
Beshear dedicated $14 million in
stimulus funds to a financing program
for energy-efficiency upgrades in public
buildings. He called it The Green Bank
of Kentucky. Beshear also set a goal of
reducing statewide energy demand by 25
percent by 2025.
The first loan went to the
state Department of Education for
upgrades to the Kentucky School for the
Blind, Kentucky School for the Deaf and
the Future Farmers of America Leadership
Training Center. The Green Bank lends
money at 3.25 percent interest, compared
to a prevailing rate of about 5.1
percent, allowing it to fund a bigger
number of projects than would otherwise
be possible.
In Massachusetts, work is
scheduled to begin in the next few
months at North Shore Community College,
as are similar projects at Massasoit
Community College, University of
Massachusetts Dartmouth, 17 trial court
buildings, and the headquarters and
training academy of the Massachusetts
State Police. By the end of this year,
officials expect the savings from those
retrofits to start piling up.
Chuck Guinn, Northeast regional
coordinator for the National Association
of State Energy Officials, says the work
going on now represents a rare
opportunity for states. "The federal
government gets excited about energy
efficiency about every 20 years,
especially when oil prices are high,"
Guinn says. "Then politicians tend to
drop the idea."
Guinn hopes that states will be
able to keep up the momentum. "States
have a number of interests in energy
efficiency," he says. "It cuts their
utility bills, improves the environment
and it is low risk. The savings are
guaranteed by the contractors. But the
biggest draw is job creation."
States News Service – April 23, 2010
"State energy loan funds in 31
states have more than $750 million in
capital available for businesses,
consumers and state and local government
agencies that make energy efficiency
improvements or renewable energy
investments in their facilities or
homes.
"Federal stimulus money seeded
many of these loan funds in the interest
of spurring jobs and energy-saving
investments. Before the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
was enacted, 10 states and territories
had state energy loan funds.
"Most of these are revolving
funds, which means the capital is
invested, paid back and then continually
reinvested. The effectiveness of
revolving state energy loan funds is
well demonstrated.
"The Texas LoanSTAR Fund has
been operating for more than 20 years,
making 202 loans totaling $283 million
as of year-end 2009.
"The 10 states and territories
that had loan funds in place prior to
the federal stimulus have made more than
$1 billion in loans, collectively, since
their inception.
"These funds have been seeded
with capital from a variety of sources,
including oil overcharge funds. Recent
national funding through the federal
stimulus is channeled through the U.S.
State Energy Program.”
National Public Radio – April 20,
2010
"The early results of the
federal government's $300 million cash
for appliances program evoke the fable
the tortoise and the hare.
"Cash for appliances is
designed to lure people to buy Energy
Star appliances that use less
electricity, and each state came up with
its own rebate program. While some sold
out in hours or days, others are still
offering rebates months after they
launched.
"A dozen programs are launching
this week to coincide with Earth Day,
but the programs that launched earlier
this year show that the public responded
very differently, depending on the size
of the rebates and what appliances
qualify.
Running Out Of Rebates
"Iowa's program offered such
large refunds that the state and
retailers warned residents that the
program might not last long. But no one
imagined that the response would be so
great that it would crash a website —
and rebates would sell out in the first
day….
"But some states, such as New
York, offered less generous rewards, and
rebates still are available.
"Frank Murray, president and
CEO of the New York State Energy
Research and Development Authority, says
his program is putting more energy
efficient appliances into homes. He says
it also gives a big boost to stores,
many of which reported being able to
hire when many companies still are
passing out pink slips.
"Three dozen states will launch
programs in March and April to
distribute almost $300 million in
rebates to consumers buying
energy-efficient appliances.
"The federally funded programs,
similar to the cash-for-clunkers auto
rebate program last year, are intended
to improve energy efficiency and
stimulate the economy. Rebates differ by
state and appliance.”
State & Local Energy Report – March
2010
From an interview with Phil
Giudice, Chair of NASEO and
Commissioner, Massachusetts Department
of Energy Resources:
Where do you see the biggest
potential for energy savings in the
coming years?
"In Massachusetts, which has been doing
energy efficiency programs continuously
for decades, some of them recognized as
some of the best programs in the country
over that time, we still in the past
were only touching something like 10,000
or 15,000 homes a year. We had a mandate
that only prescribed a relatively
limited amount of money for these
programs and we tried to get the most
savings we could from those programs.
Our new legislative mandate is to spend
whatever makes sense economically on
energy efficiency, which vastly expands
the opportunity to put money towards
these programs.
"As we know, it isn’t one simple fix. It
isn’t just rolling out more compact
fluorescent lights. It is hundreds and
hundreds of different measures that are
building-specific, site-specific and
situation-specific that need to be
addressed on as holistic a basis as we
possibly can.
"We’re going to be moving much more
aggressively forward with continuous
commissioning and commercial buildings
to ensure that these are actually
operating as required.
"There’s enormous opportunities across
the board that we need to be moving on.
Some of the phenomenal savings we’ve
achieved, such as with appliances like
refrigerators that have gotten much more
efficient, will eventually flatten out.
We won’t necessarily see the same level
of gains across the board on these
appliances that we’ve seen in the past.
"Cogeneration and combined heat and
power is one tool that I think will be
very helpful in institutions and
buildings with high thermal loads. In
Massachusetts we have a lot of programs
and we will be expanding to make that
happen. With decoupling and the fact
that companies are not so adverse to
losing load through these efficiency
programs, I think we’re going to be able
to help them come aboard and be valuable
proponents of these programs."
USA Today – February 23, 2010
"Three dozen states will launch
programs in March and April to
distribute almost $300 million in
rebates to consumers buying
energy-efficient appliances.
"The federally funded programs, similar
to the cash-for-clunkers auto rebate
program last year, are intended to
improve energy efficiency and stimulate
the economy. Rebates differ by state and
appliance.
"Eight states launched programs this
month, including New York, which offered
$50 to $75 rebates on refrigerators,
washers and freezers. On opening
weekend, "There were people waiting
outside every store to get started,"
says Doug Moore, president of appliances
for Sears, which opened early to meet
demand.
"New York's $18.7 million program was
set to expire Sunday but was extended
because millions remained. ‘It's been a
boon to consumers and retailers,’ says
Francis Murray, CEO of the New York
State Energy and Research Development
Authority."
The Washington Post – November 7,
2009
"If the New Deal was focused on
building new things -- schools,
courthouses, libraries -- then the
stimulus is to a great degree focused on
retrofitting what's already there. The
$25 billion for energy efficiency, which
is the same amount as is being spent on
roads and bridges, is split roughly
equally among programs for homes for
low-income workers, federal buildings,
public housing, military facilities and
initiatives by local and state
governments.
"Buildings account for 40 percent of
the country's energy usage and are
responsible for 40 percent of its carbon
emissions, more than industry or
transportation. Reducing buildings'
energy demands, Energy Secretary Steven
Chu says, is not just low-hanging fruit
-- it is "fruit on the ground."
Homeowners can cut their energy bills by
a third. And the work cannot be
outsourced, making "green jobs" the
centerpiece of Obama's job-growth
strategy.
"But hurdles have sprung up left and
right, resulting in little insulating
work getting done before the onset of
cold weather. Officials in charge of the
spending have become entangled in
bureaucratic disputes over federal wage
requirements, historic preservation
rules and environmental regulations ….
"To speed the energy-efficiency
grants for local governments, the Energy
Department assigned 70 employees in a
basement room the task of reviewing its
2,200 [state and local] applications.
Some cities and counties have been able
to move more quickly with specific
projects, such as replacing lighting in
parking garages or buying new
air-conditioning systems.
"But many are using a big slice of
their grants to commission audits of
their energy usage and develop plans for
how to proceed, which the federal
government encourages. Loudoun County is
waiting for the results of a $250,000
study before deciding how to use the
rest of its $2.3 million grant. "It's
long-range visioning that's done to help
the board envision where it'll go with
energy efficiency," said John Sandy,
deputy county administrator.
"The General Services Administration,
meanwhile, has awarded big contracts for
its federal building projects. But much
of the work has yet to start as the
agency and contractors review their
plans, said Bob Peck, the commissioner
of public buildings.
"Is it possible or reasonable to
think that the stimulus package could
have moved faster moving into winter? I
don't know," he said. "But if you step
back a couple feet and say, 'where do we
need to be in five years,' then the
steps we're taking now are exactly
right."
The Wall Street Journal – October
22, 2009
"States are backing
big energy-efficiency programs, spurred
by the belief that they could hold down
heating and electricity bills, as well
as cut greenhouse-gas emissions.
"The programs,
usually funded by surcharges on utility
bills, help customers weatherize their
homes and install new lighting systems,
among other things. Total annual
spending on the efficiency programs is
expected to rise from $3.1 billion in
2008 to $7.5 billion to $12.4 billion by
2020, according to a study released this
month by the Lawrence Berkeley National
Lab ….
"While it is
difficult to measure precisely how much
energy has been saved with
energy-efficient technologies, consumer
demand has fallen in the past two years,
the first reductions in consecutive
years since the end of World War II. The
recession may explain part of that
decline.
"The third-annual
scorecard from the American Council for
an Energy-Efficient Economy, a
30-year-old nonprofit advocacy group,
was released Wednesday. The scorecard
looked at six measures, including
spending by utilities on
energy-efficiency programs, state
transportation policies, state building
codes and appliance efficiency
standards. It used 2007 data, the last
year for which complete data are
available from all states.
"The states with the
strongest programs, according to a
scorecard released Wednesday, are
California, Massachusetts, Connecticut,
Oregon, New York, Vermont, Washington,
Minnesota, Rhode Island and Maine …."
The Wall Street Journal – October
19, 2009
"Iowa has become the
second-largest producer of wind power in
the U.S., and some credit an aggressive
and supportive role played by local
government.
"That support is seen
in numerous ways: Wind-energy producers
and equipment makers enjoy state tax
breaks, and projects of 25 megawatts or
smaller don't need to be certified by
the utilities board. In addition,
producers know ahead of time that they
will be able to recover their costs from
customers, which makes them more likely
to invest. Iowa counties, meanwhile,
appreciate the revenue and the jobs that
wind farms produce, and have few zoning
regulations for wind turbines ….
"Transmission is the
big challenge," says Roya Stanley,
director of the Iowa Office of Energy
Independence. "While we still have some
room on the grid in the state, it will
be critical to have agreement regionally
for further transmission build-out."
Foster Natural Gas Report – October
9, 2009
"At the
National Organization of State Energy
Officials (NASEO) 2009 Winter Fuels
Outlook Conference on 10/6/09, the
Energy Information Administration (EIA)
unveiled its monthly Short-Term Energy
Outlook (STEO) and annual Winter Fuels
Outlook, and predicted, among other
things, that residential expenditures
for heating this winter would be 8%
lower, on average. Households using
natural gas and propane for their heat
will see the largest decrease in
expenditures, at 12% and 14%,
respectively, while winter heating costs
for electricity and heating oil will
only decline by 2%.
"Richard
Newell, EIA's Administrator, told FNGR
and other reporters that the lower
heating costs could be attributed to
lower-than-expected fuels prices this
winter compared to last, higher
inventories of all heating fuels, and
slightly milder winter weather predicted
for many areas of the U.S. Alone,
residential natural gas prices are
expected to be 11% lower this winter …."
Power Market Today – September 16,
2009
"Speaking at the annual meeting of
the National Association of State Energy
Officials in Annapolis, MD … Cathy Zoi,
Assistant Secretary in DOE's Office of
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy,
said [that $454 million in funding
announced that day by DOE for a national
energy efficiency ‘retrofit ramp-up']
will help communities take advantage of
‘a moment requiring mobilization on a
massive scale' to effect America's clean
energy transformation …."
TheAutoChannel.com – September 9,
2009
"Imagine
yourself zipping around a famous Indy
Racing League oval, or on a road course
circuit, with an experienced, pro driver
behind the wheel for a thrilling
high-speed ride in an Indy-style, bio
ethanol-fueled, two-seater race car ….
"That's
just one of the tempting prizes in the
Drive Smarter Challenge video contest (http://drivesmarterchallenge.org/contest).
All you have to do is create a fun,
two-minute video by the September 20
11:59 pm EDT deadline illustrating one
or more of the Drive Smarter Challenge
campaign's fuel efficiency driving and
vehicle maintenance road trip tips (http://drivesmarterchallenge.org/money-saving-tips/Default.aspx)
….
"The 17
Drive Smarter Challenge campaign
partners include … the National
Association of State Energy Officials
…."
The Wall Street Journal – August 24,
2009
"Energy-efficient mortgages have been
around for years, but many lenders have
been reluctant to offer them, since they
involve much more paperwork and other
complications than regular mortgages.
For the lenders, ‘it's the same amount
of profit for more work,' says Mark
Wolfe, director of the Energy Programs
Consortium, a joint venture of four
national organizations that represent
local and state energy programs and
policy directors."
Inside Energy – August 17, 2009
"In an acknowledgment of the
vulnerability of U.S. energy supplies,
the administration last week said it
would distribute $38 million in economic
stimulus funding to help states prepare
for emergencies that disrupt energy
supplies, such as electric grid
blackouts and hurricanes ….
"Specifically, the money went through
the National Association of State Energy
Officials [and three other
organizations] …."
Telecommunications Online – July 17,
2009
"In its effort to build broad support
for development of America's smart grid,
the GridWise Alliance today announced
new agreements – in the form of
Memoranda of Understanding – with three
major national organizations – the
Alliance to Save Energy, the National
Association of State Energy Officials
and the Working Group for Investment in
Reliable and Economic Electric Systems
….
"David Terry, the Executive Director
of NASEO, said, ‘We are thrilled that
the state energy offices can become more
engaged with the GridWise Alliance. This
partnership can provide unique resources
to both groups to the benefit of all
members.'"
Energy Washington Week – July 15,
2009
"Calling themselves ‘an unlikely
coalition,' members of energy efficiency
organizations, electric utilities, the
building industry and other groups spoke
out last week in favor of ambitious new
building codes for energy efficiency
that are included in proposed
legislation.
"The Building Energy Efficient Codes
Network says its major goals are new
laws springing from provisions in energy
bills that mandate that all new
commercial and residential buildings
have 30% improvement in energy
efficiency by next year, and a 50%
improvement by 2030. The provisions are
included in the American Clean Energy
and Security Act passed last week by the
House, a well as the Senate Energy and
Natural Resources Committee's American
Clean Energy Leadership Act ….
"BEECN members announcing the
initiative included … the National
Association of State Energy Officials."
Transmission & Distribution World –
June 30, 2009
"The U.S. Department of Energy has
approved 16 State Energy Program
spending plans authorized as part of the
federal economic stimulus package signed
into law in February. With the approval
of these plans, 16 of the nation's State
Energy Offices are receiving $508
million, representing 50% of full
program funding. Remaining funding will
come as states implement their programs
and deliver results …
"DOE continues to review State Energy
Program spending plans from 39 other
states and U.S. territories. Action on
the plans is expected by the end of
July.
"These energy stimulus plans fulfill
state obligations under the federal
State Energy Program, one of a number of
stimulus-funded programs operated by the
56 State and Territory Energy Offices.
Total stimulus funding for the State
Energy Program is $3.1 billion.
"The State Energy Program is a key
part of the Obama Administration's
national strategy to support green job
growth, while making an historic
investment in economically viable clean
energy projects."
American City & County – May 15,
2009
"More than $1 billion in American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
funds for energy efficiency projects
will begin flowing to state
governments in the next few weeks,
according to the Alexandria, Va.-based
National Association of State Energy
Officials (NASEO). The remainder of
the $16 billion in ARRA funds for clean
energy and energy efficiency projects
will be distributed at an accelerated
pace over coming months as the U.S.
Department of Energy reviews and
approves more detailed funding plans
from applicants.
"ARRA includes $5 billion for the
Weatherization Assistance Program, which
helps low-income people make energy
upgrades to their homes; $3.2 billion
for the Energy Efficiency and
Conservation Block Grant (EECBG)
Program, which will fund local
government and state projects; $3.1
billion for the State Energy Program,
which funds energy efficiency, renewable
energy and alternative transportation
projects; and $300 million for State
Energy Offices to deliver rebates to
consumers who purchase Energy Star-rated
appliances. State Energy Offices will
manage $3.8 billion of the State Energy
Program, EECBG and Energy Star rebate
money." |