Energy Department Awards $20.3 Million For Energy Savings In Businesses And Homes
The Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the selection of 13 projects to make America’s commercial and residential buildings more energy efficient. DOE’s investment of $20.4 million will be combined with over $10 million being contributed by industry partners.
The projects, to be completed within three years, will introduce new technologies to reduce costs, lower emissions and save energy by improving today’s lighting systems, air heating and cooling equipment, windows, water heaters, appliances and other building components.
The project winners are:
Brown University, Providence, R.I.;
General Electric Global Research, Niskayuna, N.Y.;
Astronautics Corporation of America, Madison, Wisc.;
TIAX, LLC, Cambridge, Mass.; Aspen Aerogels Inc., Marlborough, Mass.;
Rockwell Scientific Company, LLC, Thousand Oaks, Calif.;
SAGE Electrochromics Inc., Faribault, Minn.;
United Technologies Corporation, East Hartford, Conn.;
Cermet Inc., Atlanta, Ga.;
Cree Lighting Company, Goleta, Calif.;
Dust Inc., Berkeley, Calif.;
Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta, Ga.;
and OSRAM Opto Semiconductors Inc., San Jose, Calif.
America’s buildings use over 30 quadrillion Btus (quads) of energy per year. A quad of energy is enough power to run all the residential refrigerators in the United States for one year. Without energy-conservation technologies energy use could reach about 40 quads by 2020.
Buildings provide ample opportunities for significant energy savings. Lighting America’s residential, industrial and commercial buildings comprises approximately 14 percent of the nation’s building energy use; heating and cooling buildings in the United States uses nearly 40 percent of the nation’s total buildings energy; windows, walls, roofs and other envelope equipment influences over 50 percent of building energy use; and improving water heating and building appliances further provides an opportunity to significantly decrease energy consumption in buildings.
