HVAC Breaking News

Nov. 7, 2014: DOE Announces $9 Million in Funding to Improve Efficiency of Commercial Buildings

Goal Is to Achieve 20 Percent Energy Savings

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the availability of $9 million in funding to encourage investments in energy-saving technologies that can be tested and deployed in offices, shops, restaurants, hospitals, hotels, and other types of commercial buildings. The funding is intended to facilitate the implementation of market-ready solutions across the U.S. to improve commercial building energy efficiency, with a goal of demonstrating 20 percent savings or more across a variety of approaches.

Owners and occupants could cut energy waste, saving an estimated tens of billions of dollars annually, if they operated their buildings more efficiently and invested in energy-saving technologies, said DOE. Additionally, accelerating investment in efficiency upgrades could also lead to greater demand for new building products and technologies, many of which are produced and developed in the U.S.

This funding opportunity encourages building owners and occupants to demonstrate widely-applicable and self-sustaining approaches that address key challenges and make building efficiency improvements easier. Examples include:

• Green leases that help building owners and lessees save money: Equitably align the costs and benefits of efficiency investments between building owners and tenants.

• Better information for better decisions: Use DOE-developed energy modeling software to better identify and predict a building’s energy performance. The goal is to show how energy efficiency can result in lower energy bills and reduce overhead.

• Low-risk nature of financing energy efficiency projects: Assist lenders in obtaining better access to data and information resources that demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of investing in energy efficiency projects.

This funding opportunity seeks to support five to 10 projects that will increase energy savings in commercial buildings by advancing the use of tools, solutions and resources DOE has developed to help commercial building owners, managers, and professionals overcome barriers to efficiency.

Organizations are encouraged to partner on applications to enhance the overall deployment impact by leveraging current deployment channels, market orientation, and strategic relationships. DOE is interested in proposals that will impact a significant geographic and commercial buildings market sector, affect a minimum of 100 buildings, achieve at least 20 percent energy savings over 10 years, train workers, create jobs, and result in programs that will be self-sustaining after the funding period expires.

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