DOE Issues Landmark Funding for Innovative Retrofit Ramp-Up

On Earth Day, Vice President Biden announced the U.S. DOE's Retrofit Ramp-Up initiative, awarding significant grants to cities and states to make buildings more efficient. The funding will be used in groundbreaking public-private partnerships to retrofit broad swaths of communities-and eventually entire states.

The Northeast is a major winner of funding, with $90 million in grants going to the following:

• Camden, New Jersey: $5 million
• Lowell, Massachusetts: $5 million
• State of Maine: $30 million
• State of New Hampshire: $10 million
• New York State Research and Development Authority: $40 million

NEEP congratulates the recipients on this exciting opportunity!

State Legislative Round-Up

April's here, and with it comes a shower of efficiency-related bills as many Northeast states close out their legislative sessions. Below is an overview of what states are considering:

• New Hampshire is considering a comprehensive review of its energy efficiency programs by the Public Utilities Commission as the basis for changes to its energy policy. SB 323 was introduced by Senator Martha Fuller-Clark.

• Financing: States are poised to create new financing programs that can provide capital to homes and businesses for energy efficiency projects. These include:
  • Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE)- Maine (enacted), Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York
  • Utility & On-Bill Financing- Connecticut, New Hampshire, and New York
  • Revolving Loan Funds- Rhode Island (held for study)

• TV Efficiency Standards: Northeast states look to follow in California's path by creating minimum energy efficiency standards for televisions.
  • Connecticut and Massachusetts, and Maryland (failed in committee)

• Building Energy Disclosure: New policies would require disclosure and benchmarking of energy use in residential, commercial, and public buildings.
  • Public & Commercial Buildings Disclosure: Maryland (failed in committee)
  • Time of Sale Energy Disclosure: New York

• Energy Standards for Public Buildings: These measures would set minimum standards for energy efficiency and green construction for public projects.
  • Energy Efficiency Standards for Public Buildings: New Hampshire and Rhode Island (held for study)
  • LEED for Public Schools: New Jersey

• Workforce Development: States are seeking to coordinate green jobs workforce and training programs.
  • Rhode Island (held for study) and Connecticut

Maine's Energy Saving Goals: A Steep Climb Ahead

• Reducing electric and natural gas consumption by 30 percent by 2020

• Reducing oil heat by 20 percent by 2020

• Weatherizing all homes and 50 percent of businesses by 2030

• Capturing all-cost effective energy efficiency resources for electric and natural gas ratepayers

The Trust is charged with integrating and coordinating policy direction, program administration, and funding of the state's energy efficiency programs. The Board has approved the first Triennial Plan, covering 2011 to 2013, which begins with a modest investment of $188 million and would meet approximately 6.6 percent of the 2020 savings goals (click on the graph above). The plan must now be approved by the Maine Public Utilities Commission.

More Northeast States Move towards 2009 Building Energy Conservation Code

Driven by commitments under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), states in the Northeast have been acting to update their building energy codes to meet the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) 2009 edition. NEEP staff have been involved in both recommending changes for updates to state codes and facilitating trainings to improve state compliance. The following states recently worked on energy code updates:

• New York: New York's State Fire Prevention and Building Code Council endorsed a move to update their energy code to IECC 2009. The legislature must now adopt the change before it becomes effective.
• Rhode Island: Rhode Island held a public hearing on the adoption of the 2009 International building codes, including IECC 2009. The updated IECC will become effective in Rhode Island in July. The state has also started it review of a "Green Code" for construction. One of the documents that will be reviewed is the new International Green Construction Code, now being developed by the International Code Council.
• Vermont: Vermont held its second public hearing on adoption of a new updated Energy Code which will be based on IECC 2009. Much discussion centered on Vermont's lack of a residential building code for 1 & 2 family dwellings. No final decision on the code is imminent.

See NEEP's Building Energy Codes "Activities" site for a complete overview of code activity within the region.

Appliance Standards: DOE Adopts NEEP Recommendations for Water Heater Efficiency

NEEP and our partners succeeded in convincing the U.S. Department of Energy to strengthen proposed standards for water heaters, with the final rule issued on March 31 reflecting suggestions made in our public comments. The rulemaking, which included direct water heaters as well as pool heaters, will significantly improve energy efficiency for the most common sizes of water heaters. It will also require additional measures for high-capacity units. Those 55 gallons or more will require a level of efficiency currently only found in models with condensing heaters on the gas side and heat pump water heaters on the electric side.

The standards, which are effective in April 2015 for residential water heaters and April 2013 for residential direct heating equipment and pool heaters, will greatly speed the availability of these next generation technologies in the mass market. Combined with the other products in the rulemaking, the policy will save 2.85 Quads over 30 years. To put this into perspective, the U.S. uses a total of about 100 Quads of energy in a year across all sectors.

New version of Mass. Collaborative for High Performance Schools (MA-CHPS) released

The 2009 Edition of the Massachusetts CHPS Criteria was released this month, and serves as a protocol for building green, energy efficient schools in Massachusetts. Eighteen schools have already been built to MA-CHPS standards, and nineteen more schools have projects registered with CHPS. The updates to the protocol were based, in part, on lessons learned from a recent post-occupancy study of the state's green schools completed with funding from the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust (MRET).

Updates to the protocol include requiring all schools to comply with the Massachusetts Stretch Building Energy Code, which pushes schools to achieve 20 percent greater efficiency than base code. NEEP is partnering with National CHPS and the Massachusetts School Building Authority to develop training for design teams that will be utilizing MA-CHPS on future projects. Read more about MA-CHPS, and learn about NEEP's High Performance Schools and Public Buildings project here.

Northeast CHPS Operations and Maintenance Guide unveiled

NEEP introduces a comprehensive O&M guide developed by local stakeholders for use in any existing school facility, regardless of age. School districts can use this guide to adopt green, healthy, and energy efficient policies and practices in their buildings. The guide is comprised of eleven chapters of strategies ranging from how to maintain waterless urinals to selecting healthy nontoxic materials. Read more online.