Supporting the Obama Administration’s goal to reduce carbon emissions and protect the environment, the Energy Department is pursuing a suite of initiatives to strengthen federal energy management through increased focus on measurement of energy use in federal buildings and energy efficient building design.  Principal among the efforts is the Department’s issuance of a final rule that requires verified energy and water performance for new and retrofitted federal buildings that are certified by private sector green building certification systems.  The rule, which goes into effect Nov. 13, ensures that in cases where agencies choose to use green building certification systems to meet federal sustainability and energy standards, they must choose a system that verifies enhanced energy and water efficiency.  By requiring re-assessments at least every four years, the rule will ensure energy and water savings continue well beyond the initial building opening or retrofit.  System requirements for the verification of energy and...

The Energy Department today announced nearly $8 million to support research and development of the next generation of heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) technologies. The R&D will focus on developing regionally appropriate HVAC solutions that would offer significant potential energy savings for new and existing buildings, and on developing innovative approaches that could replace current vapor compression HVAC technologies and their use of refrigerants that harm the global environment.  Currently, HVAC systems account for the largest proportion of energy used in buildings, consuming almost 14 quadrillion British thermal units (quads) of primary energy annually—or nearly 30% of all energy used in commercial and residential buildings.  Developing non-vapor-compression HVAC systems could potentially lead to an estimated 40% primary energy savings over current technologies. In addition to focusing on improving the efficiency of technologies using established ratings as measured by the Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) and/or the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating (SEER),...

Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Forrestal Building 1000 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20585 Original link

The Energy Department announced the 2014 winners of the National Geothermal Student Competition and the Geothermal Case Study Challenge last week at an industry gathering in Portland, Oregon. These competitions challenged college and university students to develop professional business solutions for public outreach as well as case studies that could help industry more accurately pinpoint geothermal resources in subsurface areas across the United States. The winning student teams—from Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nevada and Colorado School of Mines in Denver, Colorado—demonstrated exceptional rigor in their research and useful interpretation of technical geothermal concepts. Geothermal energy is an important part of the Obama Administration's all-of-the-above energy strategy, supplying American homes and businesses with clean, renewable power around the clock. National Geothermal Student Competition The theme of this year's National Geothermal Student Competition, GeoEnergy Is Beautiful, encouraged teams to focus on a non-technical deployment barrier: communicating the benefits of geothermal energy....