On May 28-30, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) hosted the 2019 National Energy Codes Conference in Denver, Colorado. The event brought together codes experts from across the world (as far as New Zealand) to share best practices, learn the latest industry news, and network.
Here are a few highlights from the event:
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NASEO member Blake Shelide of the Oregon Department of Energy presented on his state’s zero energy efforts in a session called “Getting to Zero Energy: New Challenges and Opportunities for Programs and Policies.
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NASEO’s Ed Carley presented on the Disaster Recovery Reform Act. Funds are available for disaster recovery and resiliency. Reach out to Ed at ecarley@naseo.org for information on how your state can leverage this opportunity.
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Energy codes are life safety codes. Building energy codes encompass fire safety, indoor air quality, moisture management, extreme weather protection, resiliency, and work in concert with other codes. A blog post from the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project’s Christine Hurley Brinker details the specifics of why this is true.
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Former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter’s organization Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University has several tools for energy policy analysts. Track progress of energy-related legislation at the state level with the AEL Tracker. SPOT for Clean Energy provides energy policy gap analysis for each state.
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The next iteration of the International Energy Conservation Code is under development. Reach out to NASEO’s Building staff (ecarley@naseo.org and mkoewler@naseo.org) for information on how you can get involved in the code development process.
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Stay tuned for the results from DOE’s code compliance studies. DOE studied the impact of targeted training programs in several states. Results from previous report stages are posted on DOE’s Energy Codes Field Studies webpage.
Presentations from the conference will be posted on the conference website in the coming weeks.