President Obama has signed an executive order to accelerate investments in industrial energy efficiency, including combined heat and power (CHP). The executive order states that these investments can improve the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing, lower energy costs, and free up future capital for businesses to invest.
In July, the U.S. House Subcommittees on Energy and Power and Oversight and Investigations held a joint hearing to address two bills, one of which was the Smart Energy Act.
As a result of its efforts to conserve energy and resources, the Cookeville plant and its 75 employees received the A. O. Smith Chairman’s Green Star award during a special ceremony.
The city of Chicago has launched the third phase of Retrofit Chicago — the Residential Partnership. This effort brings together nonprofit groups, utility companies, and city government programs to accelerate the number of retrofits being completed in single-family homes and multi-unit apartment buildings.
Hospitals use a lot of energy to save lives. To find ways to cut the energy intensity of large hospitals as well as schools and retail buildings by half, DOE’s Commercial Buildings Program and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are working together with ASHRAE and other members of the building industry.
As the supermarket industry continues to embrace so-called ‘natural refrigerants,’ manufacturers also continue to seek improvements in energy efficiency with what they hope is easy to use equipment for service technicians. The FMI Food Retail Show was a major showcase for these developments at this year’s show in Dallas.
Florida A&M University (FAMU) has chosen Siemens to implement a $12.2 million performance contract that is expected to save the university approximately $1.2 million in equivalent guaranteed annual energy savings.
CALMAC has announced the successful installation of its IceBank® thermal energy storage tanks at McConnell Air Force Base (AFB) in Wichita, Kan. By implementing thermal energy storage, the base is able to reduce the costs associated with round-the-clock cooling and reduce peak demand charges.
Cogenra Solar®, a provider of solar cogeneration systems and renewable energy service solutions, has announced a solar cogeneration project at Southern California Gas Company’s (SoCalGas) Energy Resource Center (ERC), which demonstrates solar cogeneration’s versatility in also addressing cooling needs.
As this is being written temperatures are near 100°F here on the Illinois/Wisconsin border and a drought is in full force. The hue and cry is, “See, see, global warming! Told you it was real!” But folks from Europe were telling me that the Old World was experiencing one the coolest and wettest summers on record.