Taken from EERE News
On the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that the department will invest more than $200 million over five years to expand and accelerate the development, commercialization, and use of solar and water power technologies throughout the United States. This funding underscores the administration’s commitment to foster a robust clean-energy sector in the United States—that will create American manufacturing jobs and a workforce with the required technical training to speed the implementation of cutting-edge technologies. Today’s announcement represents a down payment that will help the solar and water power industries overcome technical barriers, demonstrate new technologies, and provide support for clean energy jobs for years to come.
“Expanding the U.S. clean-energy manufacturing base is an important part of the Administration’s goals to diversify electricity supply options, increase national security, and accelerate green jobs development,” said Secretary Chu. “These investments will help strengthen American competitiveness in renewable energy and transform the U.S. into a lasting manufacturing presence in the 21st century clean-energy economy.”
Today’s investments include:
http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/progress_alerts.cfm/pa_id=322
Taken from EERE News
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that it will provide up to $30 million to fund DOE’s new Weatherization Innovation Pilot Program to accelerate innovations in whole-house weatherization technologies and services.
The program is looking to fund new projects that will deliver measurable improvements in the cost, scope, and energy savings of low-income weatherization programs across the country. The competitive funding opportunity is open to collaborative partnerships that can include the private sector, colleges or universities, utility companies, non-profit organizations, or existing weatherization providers.
DOE plans to select applications that can leverage federal funding with other private or public financial resources to grow and sustain the total funding available for low-income home weatherization. In addition, projects under the program should develop new delivery models, materials, technologies, or processes that can lead to long-term improvements in the efficiency of the weatherization market and in DOE’s Weatherization Assistance Program. These projects will be funded with fiscal year 2010 annual appropriations.
http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/progress_alerts.cfm/pa_id=320
Taken from EERE News
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced support for energy-saving commercial building projects as part of an ongoing effort by DOE to improve the energy efficiency of buildings in the United States. With money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, DOE’s national laboratories will select and fund technical experts to provide technical guidance to commercial building owners and operators. The goal of this Commercial Building Partnerships (CBP) initiative is to increase the energy efficiency of selected new and existing buildings.
DOE’s CBP initiative will foster collaborative relationships among the owners and operators of commercial buildings, researchers from DOE national laboratories and private-sector technical experts. Building owners receive technical expertise on how to design, build and maintain low-energy buildings that can reduce energy use and lower energy bills across their building portfolios. These collaborations help to move energy-saving strategies into the marketplace quickly and cost-effectively. Each of the CBP building projects will be documented in publicly available case studies that will provide detailed energy use data and best practices to other building operators across the country.
Three DOE national laboratories are managing this new effort: the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California; the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado; and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington.
Applicants can apply through the laboratories for the following two initiatives:
http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/progress_alerts.cfm/pa_id=318
April 21, 2010
Vice President Biden will today kick off five days of administration events around the 40th anniversary of Earth Day with the announcement of the selection of 25 communities for up to $452 million in Recovery Act funding to “ramp-up” energy efficiency building retrofits. Under the Department of Energy’s Retrofit Ramp-Up initiative, communities, governments, private sector companies, and non-profit organizations will work together on pioneering and innovative programs for concentrated and broad-based retrofits of neighborhoods and towns—and eventually entire states. These partnerships will support large-scale retrofits and make energy efficiency accessible to hundreds of thousands of homeowners and businesses. The models created through this program are expected to save households and businesses about a $100 million annually in utility bills, while leveraging private sector resources, to create what funding recipients estimate at about 30,000 jobs across the country during the next three years.
“For forty years, Earth Day has focused on transforming the way we use energy and reducing our dependence on fossil fuel—but this year, because of the historic clean energy investments in the Recovery Act, we’re poised to make greater strides than ever in building a nationwide clean energy economy,” said Vice President Biden. “This investment in some of the most innovative energy-efficiency projects across the country will not only help homeowners and businesses make cost-cutting retrofit improvements, but also create jobs right here in America.”
“This initiative will help overcome the barriers to making energy efficiency easy and accessible to all—inconvenience, lack of information, and lack of financing,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “Block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, we will make our communities more energy efficient and help families save money. At the same time, we’ll create thousands of jobs and strengthen our economy.”
http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/progress_alerts.cfm/pa_id=317
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that Seattle City Light, Seattle’s publicly owned power utility, has been selected to lead a national effort to guide municipalities in evaluating light emitting diode (LED) street lights. The Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium will collect, analyze, and share information and lessons learned about LED street-lighting demonstrations to facilitate the adoption of this energy efficiency technology. Starting today, cities, power providers and others who invest in street and area lighting are invited to join the consortium and share their experiences through national and regional meetings, Webcasts, Web-based discussion forums, and other means. The goal is to build a repository of valuable field experience and data that will significantly accelerate the learning curve for buying and implementing high-quality, energy efficient LED street lights. This DOE effort is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/progress_alerts.cfm/pa_id=316
MPSC Press Release
April 19, 2010
Thousands of Michigan utility customers have reduced their energy usage and lowered their bills by becoming more energy efficient, since Michigan utilities began to offer their energy optimization programs last year, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) notes.
“The cheapest energy is the energy you never use,” said MPSC Chairman Orjiakor Isiogu. “That’s the idea behind the energy efficiency programs that Michigan utilities began to offer customers last summer and fall.”
In only a few months, thousands of electric and natural gas customers jumped on the energy efficiency bandwagon. For example, in 2009: Detroit Edison reported that some 9,000 customers recycled appliances; and Consumers Energy reported that 10,000 customers took advantage of rebates for installing energy efficient furnaces or HVAC systems.
Thousands of other electric and natural gas customers across Michigan made other energy efficiency improvements — from upgrading water heaters and clothes washers to switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs.
“Customers who have recycled old, inefficient appliances have, in many cases, replaced them with more efficient models or have not replaced them at all,” noted Commissioner Monica Martinez. “What’s more, these customers see an immediate reduction in their energy use, and as a result, have lower bills. In fact, simply getting rid of that extra fridge may result in cutting an electric bill by 5 to 10 percent.”
Each utility’s energy efficiency program is different, so customers are encouraged to check periodically with their utility on what’s currently available.
Low-income customers should ask their utility about energy efficiency programs available to them — such as weatherization.
To encourage even more energy efficiency, the state of Michigan recently announced appliance rebate programs designed to complement the utility programs. These programs provide rebates for appliances not covered by utility programs; reach rural areas not served by utility natural gas programs; and push the marketplace by providing rebates for appliances that exceed the ENERGY STAR standards.
In addition, Michigan companies – such as Whirlpool – benefit from sales of the energy efficient appliances.
Dishwashers, clothes washers, propane furnaces, and water heaters are a few of the covered items. More information is available at MIRebates.com (http://mirebates.com/).
“As you consider ways to improve the environment around you this Earth Day and every day, think energy efficiency first,” added Commissioner Greg White. “As Michigan becomes more energy efficient, all utility customers benefit because the need for new electric generation is delayed. Conservatively speaking, every dollar spent on a utility’s energy efficiency program yields $3 in savings. So, energy efficiency is the smartest and quickest approach to save on energy bills and to plan for Michigan’s energy future.”
Michigan residents are encouraged to take the ENERGY STAR pledge on its “Change the World” Web site: energystar.gov/changetheworld (http://www.energystar.gov/changetheworld) .
There, people have the opportunity to pledge to switch to energy efficient lighting, make improvements to their heating and cooling systems, weatherize their homes, and purchase ENERGY STAR qualified products. Pledgers should select “State of Michigan” as the organization that referred them.
April 16, 2010
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced up to $10 million over five years for two organizations to help accelerate the adoption of solar energy among local governments. The selected organizations, the International City-County Management Association (ICMA), and International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives-Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) will conduct outreach to thousands of local governments across the nation, sharing best practices for increasing solar energy use in their communities.
ICMA and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability will receive approximately $5 million each and will help provide responsive and proactive outreach to local governments to accelerate the implementation of solar technology deployment. They will reach local governments nationwide by providing a mix of educational workshops, peer-to-peer sharing opportunities, and national Web-based resources. Additionally, these two organizations will help local governments overcome technical barriers to solar energy adoption by sharing resources that have been developed through other DOE-sponsored activities, such as the Solar America Cities program.
Through the Solar America Cities program, a partnership effort with 25 U.S. cities, the Department of Energy has developed solar energy outreach materials including case studies with lessons learned, a compilation of best practices titled “Solar Powering Your Community: A Guide for Local Governments,” and other resources that cities across the nation can utilize. A key tenet of the Solar America Cities program is the ability to replicate successes by sharing best practices among cities.
This effort highlights DOE’s commitment to help local governments accelerate widespread adoption of solar energy, which will reduce global climate change, strengthen America’s energy independence, and support the transition to a clean energy economy. Through collaborative outreach strategies, DOE aims to empower cities across the nation to broadly integrate solar energy into their communities.
http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/progress_alerts.cfm/pa_id=315
The Dow Chemical Company announced on February 3 that it has picked Midland, Michigan, as the site for the first full-scale production facility for its Dow Powerhouse solar shingle, if the company obtains sufficient local, state, and federal funding. That became more likely on February 25, when the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) awarded $61.3 million in tax credits over 15 years to Dow for a variety of projects, including the manufacturing plant. The proposed facility will produce solar shingles that can be integrated into rooftops with standard asphalt shingles. The devices employ low-cost, thin-film solar modules made from copper indium gallium diselenide, or CIGS. The CIGS materials are deposited on a flexible stainless steel substrate by Global Solar Energy, which recently confirmed that its solar modules can convert 13.2% of the sunlight hitting them into electricity, setting a record for thin-film, flexible solar modules. Dow forms the shingles by encasing the modules in a proprietary plastic. The company is already manufacturing solar shingles in a small-scale market development plant in Midland, thanks to a DOE grant of $20 million awarded in 2007 under the Solar America Initiative Pathways Program. The full-scale plant could be operational by 2014, bringing more than 1,200 jobs to the area.
http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/states/news_detail.cfm/news_id=15837
Prepared by John Sarver of the Michigan DELEG.
2010 Michigan Wind Energy Conference will be held in Detroit at Cobo Hall on April 20-21. Workshop tracks will include Building a Wind Farm, Small Wind, Siting, Finance, Manufacturing, Community Wind, and Policy. If you’re interested in any aspect of wind energy, don’t miss it. www.glrea.org
ARRA (American Recovery & Reinvestment Act) federal funding opportunities can be found at http://www.michiganadvantage.org/Recovery/Opportunities/Default.aspx and www.michigan.gov/energyoffice.
MI Earth Day Fest will be held April 23rd-25th in downtown Rochester. With an anticipated audience of 100,000, it will easily be Michigan’s largest earth day celebration, and one of the largest in the country. The festival will highlight what’s working in our communities and showcase leadership in green business, government and non-profit programs. The event will offer 200+ green and wellness exhibits, top-notch presentations, lively music & entertainment, organic food and drink, kids’ crafts & activities, a portable farm, free massage and wellness activities, door prizes and samples, networking, and more. Special activities include a parade (Sat 10am), a 5K trail run (Sun 10am) and an evening-hours Party for the Planet (Fri & Sat 7-11pm). A Preview Party will be held on Earth Day (7-9pm), where comedian Dave Coulier will act as emcee, and several dignitaries, including DELEG Deputy Director Andy Levin, will speak. And, MI Earth Day Award recipients, including Green Lodging Michigan certified Royal Park Hotel, will be honored. Dr. Kevin Danaher, founder of Global Exchange and the Green Festivals, will be on-hand to offer both public presentations and a community leader roundtable. Admission is free and open to the public. www.miearthday.com
2010 Michigan Energy Conference will be held at Ferris State University on
April 7-8. The conference will consist of one day of focused workshops and one day of technical breakout sessions. Sessions will cover energy policy, building efficiencies, renewable energy, transportation and energy distribution. www.ferris.edu/energy
West Michigan Chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers (WMAEE) will hold its next meeting at the Big Rapids Holiday Inn on April 7, 5 to 6:30 pm. Presentation will be on MI PA 295 – State of Michigan Energy Optimization Energy Incentive Program. http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=199971
The Michigan Great Lakes Wind Council, a 29-member advisory body appointed by Governor Granholm to recommend policies for offshore wind energy development, is hosting 3 public meetings to get input. The first meeting was held in Bay City on March 25. Future meetings will be in Escanaba on April 14 and Muskegon on May 4. The Council issued a report in September 2009 with criteria for identifying the least and most favorable areas for offshore development. For example, the most favorable areas must be at least six miles offshore and avoid shipping lanes, sensitive fish and wildlife habitats, etc. The five largest most favorable areas are located in southern Lake Michigan near Berrien County, northern Lake Michigan near Delta and Mackinac Counties, outer Saginaw Bay, and Lake Huron near Sanilac County. In addition, the council has provided input on a proposed legislative framework for the siting and regulation of offshore wind energy systems. www.michiganglowcouncil.org.
13th Sustainable Business Conference of Michigan: Creating Connections: Revitalizing Michigan will be held April 28-30th at the Grand Traverse Resort. The hosts this year are Northwest Michigan Sustainable Business Forum & Grand Traverse Resort with assistance from West, Southwest, & Southeast Michigan sustainable business forums. The focus of this conference is to highlight and learn from Michigan sustainable businesses – manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism. www.nwmsbf.org
Detroit Edison is looking for several businesses and educational institutions with large rooftops or ground area to host solar energy installations. The utility is starting another aspect of its pilot SolarCurrents program that calls for photovoltaic systems installed on customer rooftops or property to generate 15 MW of electricity. Detroit Edison plans to invest more than $100 million in the program, which requires customers to participate for 20 years. The solar energy systems will be owned, installed, operated and maintained by the utility. In return, customers will get an annual credit on their energy bill based on the system size, as well as a one-time, upfront construction payment to cover any inconvenience during installation. The utility is accepting applications until April 29. Interested participants should own a facility with 15,000 square feet of unobstructed roof in good condition or a similarly sized area on the ground. www.dteenergy.com/solar
Padnos Iron & Metal Co in Holland. is now operating one of the largest solar energy installations in Michigan, 636 panels and 150 kW. As part of Consumers Energy’s Experimental Advanced Renewable Program, the power company will buy back the generated power for 12 years at a preferred rate. After that, power will be fed directly into the building’s use. The Padnos company’s $1.27 million investment should be paid back in eight or nine years.
ASHRAE has published ANSI/ASHRAE/USGBC/IES Standard 189.1, Standard for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings. Published January 22, the standard is intended to be adopted into local codes. It covers site sustainability, water-use efficiency, energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality and the building’s impact on the atmosphere, materials and resources. The energy efficiency goal of Standard 189.1 is to provide significant energy reduction over that in ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007.
http://bcap-ocean.org/category/topics/ashrae-standard-1891
Worldwide Tour of Renewable Energy Applications on Islands will be supported by an anonymous benefactor. Planned tour sites will include Lime Island (MI), Fox Island (Maine), Samso (Denmark), El Hierro (Spain), Fiji, and Maui & Hawaii. First twenty persons who contact me at sarverj@michigan.gov will receive a free trip.
Ford Motor Co. will save $1.2 million and cut its carbon output by 16,000 to 25,000 metric tons annually by powering down laptops and desktop computers when not in use. Under a new program called PC Power Management, the power settings on Windows laptops and desktop computers are centrally controlled to reduce energy waste and optimize software updates. A managed shutdown of computer systems not in use, especially overnight and on weekends, further reduces energy use.
$24,950 Bioenergy Feasibility Study grant has been awarded to Michigan State University Extension by Bureau of Energy Systems. This grant will explore the feasibility of growing, harvesting and utilizing bioenergy crops on nontraditional croplands, including Michigan roadways, vacant urban lots and State owned tracts of land. For more information, contact Charles Gould gouldm@msu.edu
31st Annual Telly Awards, a national program recognizing outstanding achievement in the TV, commercial and video industry, has a bronze award for the July 2009 episode of “Michigan’s Energy Future Today” hosted by DELEG Deputy Director Liesl Clark. This episode featured advances in solar energy.
Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association (GLREA) has announced that the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi will be the site for the 5th annual Michigan Energy Fair, taking place June 25th – 27th. www.glrea.org
April Fools if you think you’re getting a free worldwide tour! However, if you’re a potential anonymous benefactor send me a note. Energy Tidbits is free and is prepared by John Sarver, Michigan Dept. of Energy, Labor, & Economic Growth. To subscribe, contact sarverj@michigan.gov. Previous copies can be found at www.michigan.gov/energyoffice under Publications.
