By Elisa Wood
January 28, 2010 - Not once, but twice
President Obama mentioned the importance of energy efficiency in
his state of the union address January 27. His support for the
resource is no surprise; his administration has channeled $20
billion toward energy savings programs. Obama made clear that going
into his second year his support will not waver.
"I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming
scientific evidence on climate change. But here's the thing -
even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for
energy-efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for
our future -- because the nation that leads the clean energy
economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And
America must be that nation," he said.
For many years, efficiency was the poor sister of the energy
world. So continued support from the highest office comes as
extraordinarily good news to the range of businesses that provide
energy savings services and products - from appliance manufacturers
to energy efficiency service companies to the new entrants - smart
grid and information technology companies.
But when an industry receives this much incentive
money, it inevitably comes under increased scrutiny. Is the
taxpayer and the ratepayer getting bang for the buck?
Fortunately, a lot of work is underway to bring to buildings the
kind of miles per gallon measure we now have in the auto industry.
How many people know how well or poorly their homes and businesses
use energy?
To find out, innovations are being developed in use of data
loggers and other devices that measure actual energy output of
equipment and other parameters. Another interesting approach is use
of benchmarking and disclosure mandates to determine building
performance.
The goal of such programs is give consumers and businesses
information about building performance to trigger "market-based
competition to own, operate, lease, finance, design and build the
most energy-efficient buildings," says the Institute for Market
Transformation.
The Washington, D.C.-based efficiency group describes on its
website several cities and states already using benchmarking and
disclosure:
- The New York City Council requires building energy rating and
disclosure, periodic energy audits and retro-commissioning. It also
mandates building-wide lighting upgrades and the installation of
submeters and compliance with a new city energy code.
- Washington, D.C. mandates annual energy performance rating
and disclosure for commercial buildings. The district publishes
building energy performance data on a public online database.
- Utilities in California must provide data for use in ENERGY
STAR benchmarking. Commercial building owners must
disclose ENERGY STAR benchmark data to prospective
tenants, buyers and lenders.
- Austin, Texas requires commercial building energy rating and
disclosure, mandatory energy audits for homes and mandatory
audits plus retrofits (in some cases) for apartment
buildings.
- Washington state has a building energy rating and
disclosure mandate similar to California's. The city of Seattle has
its own benchmarking requirement.
- On the federal level, the House and Senate climate bills would
create a national building label. In addition, the Department
of Energy has a new National Building Rating Program to create a
label for homes.
Stay tuned for increased city, state and federal activity in
measuring and monitoring energy efficiency as activity expands.
More details are available at: http://www.imt.org/
Visit Elisa Wood at http://www.realenergywriters.com/ and pick up
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