Washington – The U.S. Department of Energy today announced 15 research and deployment partnerships to help dramatically improve the energy efficiency of American homes. These highly-qualified, multi-disciplinary teams will receive a total of up to $30 million for the initial eighteen months of the projects to deliver innovative energy efficiency strategies to the residential market and address barriers to bringing high-efficiency homes within reach for all Americans.
A total of up to $20 million per year will also be made available for the partnerships for three potential one-year extensions. These research and deployment partnerships will provide technical assistance to retrofit projects and will leverage industry expertise and funding to support DOE’s energy efficiency retrofit programs. This effort will support the Department’s Retrofit Ramp-Up Initiative, announced by Vice President Joe Biden in April, which brings communities, governments, private sector companies and non-profit organizations together to deliver energy-efficiency upgrades – or retrofits – to whole neighborhoods and cities.
“Home energy efficiency is one of the easiest, most immediate and most cost-effective ways to reduce carbon pollution and save money on energy bills, while creating new jobs,” said Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. “By developing and using tools to reduce residential energy use, we will spur economic growth here in America and help homeowners make cost-cutting improvements in their homes.”
The partnerships announced today will provide additional support to ongoing retrofit initiatives that are making cost-effective energy efficiency retrofits easily accessible to hundreds of thousands of American homes and businesses. These partnerships will research and deploy new technologies and demonstration projects, and provide systems engineering, quality assurance, and outreach for retrofit projects throughout the country.
Existing techniques and technologies in energy efficiency retrofitting – such as air-tight ducts, windows and doors, heating and cooling systems, insulation and caulking – can reduce energy use by up to 40 percent per home and cut energy bills by $40 billion annually.
The following selections were made though the DOE Building Technologies Program, which forges research partnerships across the residential building industry to develop cost-effective solutions that dramatically reduce the average energy use of housing while improving comfort and quality. To find out more, visit the Buildings Technology Program website.
To further support the broad deployment of energy efficiency building retrofits, DOE is hosting the Residential Building Energy Efficiency Meeting 2010 in Denver, Colorado from July 20-22, to present cutting-edge research results, identify key stakeholder and market transformation needs, and facilitate collaboration opportunities between conference participants. This conference is targeted to researchers, architects, contractors, manufacturers, builders, utilities, legislators, lenders, realtors, auditors, raters, installation technicians, HOA representatives, and anyone else interested in creating substantial connections with the field.
The following is a brief description of the selected teams, which will each receive between $500,000 and $2.5 million depending on their performance:
1. Advanced Residential Integrated Energy Solutions (ARIES) led by Levy Partnership, New York, NY. ARIES will focus on energy solutions for new and existing affordable housing including factory- and site-built homes. ARIES is a broad based industry team of over 50 organizations including implementers, product suppliers, and trainers. The ARIES technical team members include CDH Energy, Southern Energy Management, Syracuse University Center of Excellence, NTA, Inc.
2. Alliance for Residential Building Innovation (ARBI) led by Davis Energy Group (DEG), Davis, CA. ARBI will focus on resolving technical and market barriers to large scale implementation of innovative energy solutions for new and existing homes. Team members are effectively aligned for retrofit activities, providing considerable experience in audits, home performance contracting, marketing, and finance. Specific partners include Rocky Mountain Institute, UC Davis, Heschong Mahone Group, Green Home Solutions, and Bevilacqua-Knight.
3. Building America Retrofit Alliance (BARA) led by Building Media, Inc. (BMI) based out of Wilmington, Delaware, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) located in Newark, New Jersey. BARA will focus on innovative market delivery strategies to improve energy efficiency in our nation’s existing housing stock. This team has very unique capabilities in the areas of training and outreach. Additional team members include Steve Easley and Associates, Confluence Communications, DuPont, Louisiana State University, Enterprise Community Partners, Institute for Business and Home Safety, and Hancock Software, among others.
4. Building America Partnership for Improved Residential Construction (BA-PIRC) research team led by the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), a research institute of the University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL. BA-PIRC will focus on cost-effective efficiency solutions for new and existing homes in hot humid and marine climates. FSEC possesses extensive residential energy research facilities including the Manufactured Housing Laboratory, the Flexible Roof Facility, the Building Science Lab, the Hot Water Systems Laboratory, and the Climate-Controlled Air Conditioning Laboratory. Team members include Newport Partners (NP), Washington State University (WSU), Northwest Energy Works (N.E.W.), Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET), Building Performance Institute (BPI), WellHome, Florida Home Energy and Resources Organization (Florida H.E.R.O.), Calcs-Plus (CP) and TexEnergy Solutions.
5. Building Energy Efficient Homes for America (BEEHA) led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and the University of Florida (UF) headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska and Gainesville, Florida respectively. This team possesses impressive simulation and computing facilities, as well as building systems research laboratories. This multi-disciplinary research team will explore and deliver systems-engineered solutions for new and existing homes. Industry partners for this team include HearthStone Homes, Rezac Construction, Barry Rutenberg and Associates, G.W. Robinson Homes, Tommy Williams, and Johnson Controls.
6. Building Industry Research Alliance (BIRA) led by ConSol with headquarters in Stockton, California. BIRA’s research will focus on energy and peak reduction in homes by evaluating technologies and market delivery approaches for neighborhood-scale implementation. The research will target a diversity of homes and a variety of strategies for retrofit implementation. Team members include more than 80 research organizations and building industry partners, such as Washington State University, Arizona State University, UC Davis, General Electric, Ennovationz, Sacramento Municipal Utilities District, San Diego Gas & Electric, Arizona Public Service, Salt River Project, and Bank of America.
7. Building Science Corporation (BSC) – BSC, Somerville, MA, is a leading developer of energy systems for durable, high performance homes. With an impressive depth of capabilities in all key areas required to complete the proposed research, BSC will focus on advanced technical solutions, code barriers and market demonstrations for new and existing homes. The BSC team includes Affordable Comfort, ARES Consulting, Community and Economic Development Association of Cook County, DEAP Energy Group, National Grid, and a wide array of material suppliers and manufacturers.
