Setting the Table for Building Decarbonization

Recently five collaborating Regional Energy Efficiency Organizations (REEOs) - NEEP, MEEA, SPEER, SWEEP and SEEA - published a white paper entitled, “Multifamily Energy Efficiency Retrofits: Barriers and Opportunities for Deep Energy Savings.” The paper, supported by a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, is a comprehensive exploration of the barriers and opportunities to increasing energy…

Are you looking for something to warm your bones in the middle of another chilly winter season? I’ve got just the thing for you - cold climate air-source heat pumps (ASHPs)! Thanks to collaborative contributions from stakeholders across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, a newly-published NEEP report titled Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Air-Source Heat Pumps Market Strategies Report 2016 Update presents…

It is with mixed emotions that I write this blog to bid adieu to one of the hallmarks of energy efficiency, residential lighting. While homes across the region and nation still have inefficient lighting technologies installed, the market transformation path for this measure is all but inevitable, and the need for NEEP’s continued thought leadership has ended. When We First Met I’ve managed the…

Picture yourself as an energy manager for a large portfolio of buildings. You are responsible for monitoring and reducing energy consumption in these buildings to reduce energy costs. You have just learned that you will be responsible for achieving a 20% energy reduction portfolio-wide over the next 5 years. Excited to dig in to this work, you decide to request the utility bills for all of the…

Working in the field of energy efficiency, there are days when it’s hard to see or feel the exact impact of our work. Last week was different, though. It was a great reminder that the work we do matters and that we are making a big impact, especially in learning environments.   Last week I had the opportunity to tour the Discovery Elementary School, a Zero Energy school located in Arlington…

As utility regulators contemplate major infrastructure investments to keep pace with pockets of growing peak demand throughout the region, less costly non-wires alternatives (NWA) solutions are looking all the more attractive in transmission and distribution system planning — especially given the potential for dramatically lower price tags for ratepayers. Showcased as a key component of the New…

Rhode Island has long been a leader in the field of energy efficiency policies, consistently landing in one of the top five positions on ACEEE’s scorecard in recent years. Looking through National Grid’s proposed 2017 Energy Efficiency Program Plan, we’ve pulled out three distinct components that we believe program administrators in other states may look towards in the near future, and…

Last month’s annual meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) was notable for several reasons. In the days leading up to the meeting, NARUC released a final version of its Distributed Energy Resource Rate Design and Compensation Manual, and at the meeting members elected a new President, who happens to be from the NEEP region. Yet, from an energy…

Yes, it’s already mid-December; that time of year best known for office holiday parties, well-deserved vacation time, and — perhaps most importantly — the big push to make end-of-year deadlines. Just in case the holiday season has you either with your head in the clouds or your nose to the grindstone, you can read on for a summary of the latest on energy efficiency policies in…

Here’s a hypothetical situation (perhaps a strictly hypothetical one if you’re a millennial like me): Imagine you want to buy a home. You know you want A bedrooms, B baths, and about C square feet (which is just enough room for yourself and D, plus E and F, and maybe a guest, G). You have your heart set on features H, I, and J in your kitchen and living room. And to ensure that getting to…