By Dave Hewitt | Fri, March 22, 19
Hot off the press, NEEP has just released a report entitled “The Smart Energy Home: Driving Residential Building Decarbonization”. This report builds on NEEP’s multi-year effort in the smart energy homes space, and brings the role of controls more clearly into focus, outlining their importance for decarbonizing residential properties.
By Guest Contributor | Wed, July 31, 19
This blog was written by David Farnsworth and Dr. Jan Rosenow of Regulatory Assistance Project, and represents the organization's work and approach. Building Decarb Central is meant to share different perspectives on the topic of building decarbonization. This blog is part of that dialogue.
By Samantha Caputo | Sun, July 21, 19
Summer is one of my favorite times to visit Maine. With miles of white sandy beaches, quintessential New England towns, piers, lighthouses, national parks, and more, it is a great place to be. I was recently in Portland, Maine, and there was a lot of buzz about the legislative session that just closed. The amount of energy efficiency and climate legislation that was signed into public law is a breath of fresh air.
By Dave Hewitt | Fri, March 22, 19
Every city climate action plan I have ever read references moving to zero energy buildings as well as more stringent or zero energy building energy codes. These are great plan elements and certainly are “doable” things to include in a plan. That said, zero energy buildings are not all that easy to accomplish across the broader market, and they certainly won’t happen without a substantial supportive effort.
By Dave Hewitt | Fri, March 22, 19
You’ve probably seen the infamous “duck graph”, and then hopefully you’ve read “Teaching the Duck to Fly”. Well, now maybe we have the next example of zoomorphism in the energy world – the butterfly graph.
By Dave Hewitt | Fri, March 22, 19
The commercial buildings market is very complex, with wildly divergent ownership, management control, and building characteristics. Buildings range from strip malls to office towers to convention centers to big box retail stores. Ownership could be local government, merchant builders (who build and then sell), local family businesses, international corporations, and fast food franchises. Each ownership category makes decisions very differently from the others. Some commercial buildings are incredibly complex, some buildings are cookie cutter simple and repetitive.
By Dave Hewitt | Sat, February 23, 19
Thank you for taking the time to read the very first issue of Building Decarb Central.
You may be wondering where the idea for this newsletter came from, or why we’ve decided to tackle the issue of building decarbonization, so let us shed some light.
By Samantha Caputo | Tue, July 18, 17
School is out and so is the legislature! The sun is shining bright and some states’ legislatures are winding down for the season. A noticeable trend that has developed this session is the passage of bills related to energy storage. Summer is a great time for energy storage because all of the captured energy can be used to help meet summer peak demand. Let’s take a closer look at this trend.
By Samantha Caputo | Mon, May 22, 17
Public policy is in full swing this spring. Read on for a summary of the latest energy efficiency policies in the NEEP region.
By Samantha Caputo | Thu, March 16, 17
March snow turns to April showers, which leads to May flowers, right? This March, snow may be slowing some of us down in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, but that is not the case for policy developments. Public utility commissions and state legislatures are in full swing with an ample amount of advances since the last policy tracker.
The commission has been busy in New York. Take a look at these recently-issued orders related to Reforming the Energy Vision (REV):