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US : DOE plans $346 million for building energy efficiency programs
Posted on | July 2, 2009 | No Comments
Energy Secretary Steven Chu has pointed to buildings as a key target for saving energy. On Monday, the Department of Energy backed him up with about $346 million in stimulus package funding.
The 81 million or so buildings in the United States use about two-fifths of the country’s energy, more than manufacturing or transportation, the DOE says. About three-quarters were built before 1979, making them ripe for efficiency retrofits.
In the future, the DOE would like to see buildings built and operated as an “integrated system” with energy efficiency at the forefront, from design to day-to-day maintenance. Large savings can be make using smarter software for controlling building HVAC, lighting and other energy-using systems. A host of energy services companies, or ESCOs, provide such services, and startups are coming up with both new technologies and new business models to improve on their offerings.