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."