Statewide LG EE Best Practices: Weekly Update

Here are your wEEkly updates:

Peer-to-Peer Requests

EVSE Installation
If you have any information on vendors that install EV charging stations at no charge, or on any opportunities that can help offset the cost of installation, please get in touch with me at jkim@lgc.org. This particular city is considered a disadvantaged community and is interested in full installation of 22 charging stations.

Community Based Social Marketing Methods
If you have information you can share on community based social marketing methods that a city staff can implement in his offices to help reduce energy use, please contact met at jkim@lgc.org.

​News and Opportunities

​Governor Jerry Brown Signs Major Climate Bills
Gov. Brown signed into law on Wednesday a sweeping expansion of California's GHG emissions standards, requiring the state to reduce emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.

​How Cities and Counties are Showing the Way of Climate Action
This GreenBiz article highlights Climate Leadership Awardees who reflect effective collaboration among cities and counties, which includes WRCOG, SBCCOG and LA County.​
Job Opportunity: Statewide Local Government Energy Efficiency Best Practices Coordinator
The Local Government Commission is seeking to fill the Coordinator position with a highly motivated and knowledgeable individual to support local government energy efficiency efforts throughout the state. Please feel free to contact me at jkim@lgc.org if you have any questions.

Job Opportunity: Climate and Energy Manager, University of San Diego​
This is a full-time, temporary, benefit based position with an anticipated assignment end date of 12/31/2020. Closing date: 10/2/2016.

Calendar

9/13 (San Francisco/webinar): Quarterly EM&V Stakeholder Meeting
This meeting will include:
CPUC and PA Update on EM&V Budgets and Activities
Waterfall Graphics and New Web-based Tools
Lightning Metering study update
Update on LED Lab Test
CA Comprehensive Analysis - developing an effectiveness metric for nonresidential EE programs
PG&E's Single Family Home Upgrade Program Process Evaluation
SDG&E Cannabis Agriculture Energy Demand Study Final Report
Update on Inclusion (support for disadvantaged workers) Studies

9/21 (webinar): Evaluation of Residential Behavior-Based Programs
This webinar will provide an introduction to documenting the energy savings associated with behavior-based programs and examples of how different jurisdictions are addressing behavior-based program evaluation.

10/12-10/14 (Denver): Getting to Zero National Forum
This event is dedicated to zero net energy (ZNE) buildings where attendees will share perspectives on the growth of ZNE, discuss policies driving new projects, engage in best practices for successful outcomes and collaborate on opportunities for ZNE to transform the built environment.

Resources and Reports

Cool Roofs
The Cost-Effectiveness Study for Cool Roofs FINAL Report for All Climate Zones, prepared by the California Statewide Utility Codes and Standards Program, provides information on product cost, energy savings, cost-effectiveness and urban heat island mitigation to support minimum reach code requirements for residential and nonresidential cool roofs for jurisdictions in all climate zones.

Microgrids
Presentations from the September 6th California Energy Commission Staff Workshop Microgrids - Why are Customers Choosing Microgrids and How are they Working? are now available online.

Green Banks
A new report from ACEEE reviews the progress of 10 green banks and related financing entities to understand how they are working in specific market sectors and to identify strategies and lessons learned, with a special focus on energy efficiency.

Coordinator Resources
Browse the Coordinator website for more resources on a variety of energy efficiency related topics. If there are topics that you would like to see added or further developed, please reach out to me at jkim@lgc.org.

That's all for this week!

Statewide LG EE Best Practices: Weekly Updates

Here are your wEEkly Updates:

1. First, a reminder that the Commercial Sector Subcommittee Meeting of the California Energy Efficiency Coordinating Committee is going on today! (Click here for more info.) This is an important opportunity to share feedback (or just listen in) on utility and other program administrator business plans for energy programming that are in the works now. To get direct alerts on subcommittee meetings, visit www.caeecc.org.

2. Registration is open for the ACEEE 2016 Summer Buildings Study in Pacific Grove this August. This year’s theme is “From Components to Systems, from Buildings to Communities.” To learn more or register, click here.

3. State-level EE 101 webinar: Looking to better understand state-level programs and resources for local government energy efficiency? Click here to learn more about and register for our upcoming April 19^th webinar.

4. Webinar on DSM-focused customer engagement: Greentech Media is hosting an April 21^st webinar, “Key Strategies for Driving Energy Efficiency and Customer Engagement.” The webinar may be of interest to utility partners and local governments seeking to support and leverage customer-centric demand side management (DSM) for deeper energy savings. For more information click here.

5. Tools for PACE standards adoption: As the market for PACE financing as grown hot, many local governments have been working to adopt local standards for PACE financing firms that wish to operate in their jurisdiction. The Bay Area Regional Energy Network (BayREN) has released an Agreement template: click here for more information.

6. Increasing Home Value through Energy Upgrades: More interesting findings this week on energy improvements in buildings increasing building values – this time, specifically in residential. Click here for more information.

7. EE leaders in business: Click here to read about Ford’s renovations of its existing campus in Dearborn that will make it a state-of-the-art, water- and energy-efficient facility complete with a living machine and driverless cars.

8. Using data to plan holistically: Cities like San Jose are deploying data solutions to holistically understand their buildings and achieve energy efficiency and air quality goals. Click here for coverage on data use from Environmental Leader.

9. Green historic preservation requirements: ASHRAE is working on an update to their Guideline 34P, or Energy Guideline for Historic Buildings – with comment periods upcoming. Learn more in this Energy Manager Today article.

10. Resources for going beyond code: cool roofs: the CEC and the Utilities Statewide Codes and Standards teams have been working on some new resources to help local governments efficiently implement reach codes. One of them, a cool roofs cost effectiveness study for all climate zones, is now available. Learn more and review the study here.

11. Resilient Communities training: The Resilient Communities Initiative will be holding a special training, Engaging Communities for Effective Problem Solving, for local government officials tasked with protecting public welfare June 6^th. Click here for more information.

12. Job announcement: San Diego International Airport seeks a highly-motivated professional to join its Environmental Affairs Department as a Senior Environmental Specialist! Learn more here.

13. Job announcement: MCE is hiring a Legal Counsel! Learn more here.

14. Recruit a CivicSpark fellow: Looking for capacity at the local level for energy, water, and sustainability projects? If you missed the webinars on how to apply for the CivicSpark AmeriCorps program, you can review a recording online.

As always, you can keep track of relevant events by connecting to the EE Events Calendar, and find more resources being added daily on the EECoordinator website.

That’s all for this week!

It's the economy; Energy efficiency gains big believers

Bill Clinton said it best: "It's the economy, stupid."

The former president reiterated his economy comment in a piece in Newsweek, offering energy efficiency measures as several of 14 ways to jump start the U.S. economy and create jobs.

He's hardly the first. The corporate sector, utilities and governments are swapping out old lighting and inefficient energy-hungry systems like crazy. Why? It saves money.

This rapid embrace of energy efficiency over the past couple years has a lot to do with money. IBM says it's saved $50 million since 2008 through energy saving and conservation measures. "Bottom line; it pays dividends," the company said in a statement.

Converts are signing up in droves. Wal-Mart, an early believer in sustainability, played a big part in expanding the movement's reach. For instance, the retailer has provided more than 100,000 of its global suppliers with a sustainability survey and encourages them to embrace energy efficiency policies.

Utilities also are playing a major part, especially in California where representatives work one-on-one with clients to install retrofits and save money and kilowatt hours. While they are somewhat inspired by financial incentive, most of these reps have become some of the best educated on how to adopt energy-saving measures for the least amount of money.

Efficiency-aware utilities are hardly limited to the Sunshine State. On the north side of the continent, Yukon Electrical Co. and Yukon Energy launched an innovative program with Ottawa, Ontario-based One Change, a nonprofit that encourages people to adopt environmentally friendly behaviors, including energy efficiency.

One Change is helping the utilities get feedback from residents in far-flung places like Carmacks, Teslin and Dawson about what conservation measures they think will work in their communities, said Sara Haskill, the organization's marketing manager. Many of the communities in the program "are quite isolated and have limited resources. Yukon is also not hooked up to the North American grid."

But people who live in these harsh lands know better than most what works and what doesn't. When it's 50 below, a poorly insulated house requires three and four times what a super-insulated house needs in terms of heat. Northerners also tend to be quite careful (one mistake and you're a human Popsicle) and imaginative.

"We are definitely looking forward to hearing what the people in Yukon have to say," Haskill says. "We are expecting some innovative thoughts. Stay tuned to our web site/twitter/facebook in the coming months."

Who knows? The next big idea that creates 100,000 jobs might come from a Canadian in Old Crow.

In the meantime, here are some more traditional measures:

1. Lighting. Go with compact fluorescents, T8s or even T5s, using digital ballasts. Install occupancy sensors. Try LEDs. Their price is dropping. I bought my first bulb last week.

2. Insulation. Load up. HGTV's Mike Holmes tells his viewers to go overkill, R-40 in ceilings or more. Weatherize. I insulated my floor last winter. California home didn't have a thing. Reduces cooling costs, too.

3. HVAC. Yeah, it's expensive, but newer and more efficient air conditioning units or furnaces pay for themselves. Seal up existing duct work or add new stuff.

4. Electric motors. In this category, I'm thinking pumps and other items that draw a lot of power. Go with premium efficiency or variable frequency drive.

5. Roofs. Paint 'em white. Go with a cool roof if you can afford it. The savings payback works. Clinton offers up this one as well.

Speaking of Clinton, he's got a couple more in his Newsweek piece.

6. Copy the Empire State Building. The iconic structure is the epitome of energy efficiency these days after a costly makeover by its owners. The building now stands as a monument of how to successfully retrofit structures erected far before we came up with the concept of greenhouse gas or net-zero.

7. Utilities. Get them in on the energy efficiency retrofit action, Clinton says. "You wouldn’t even need banks if states required the electric companies to let consumers finance this work through utility savings."

And diversify. Waste Management, the company that hauls trash for many of the nation's population, is no stranger to clean energy. Waste Management pioneered landfill gas technology 20 years ago and recently cranked up renewable energy generation power plants McMinnville, Ore. and Arlington, Wash.

"These projects show Waste Management's increasing focus on green technologies that extract value from waste," said Paul Burns, a company official in Pacific Northwest, in a statement. It's efficient.

Analysts often advise clients to institute efficiency measures first. Then, they say, there's the option of adding renewable energy.

But I'll wait for the advice from the folks of Old Crow, via One Change. Last I checked on the web cam there was some work going on down from the John Tizya Center. The community is northeast of my old stomping grounds in Fairbanks, Alaska in the Yukon on the Peel River. People who live there are no doubt efficient, and tough.

Photo: Screen grab from the Old Crow, Yukon Territories web cam.

Who Knew Postal Service Could Be Model Of Green

Anyone who thinks energy efficiency isn't worth the cost should study the example of the U.S. Postal Service.

The federal agency figured it would cut energy bills at a New York City processing center by $30,000 per year. Instead, the new green roof and other energy-saving measures whacked off a whopping $1 million.

Installing the green roof, changing 1,600 windows and other upgrades slashed energy consumption 40% per month. The crown jewel of the project, the green roof, covers nearly 2.5 acres. Nearly 90% of the original roof was recycled and used during the remodeling. The new roof is project to last 50 years, twice as long as the original covering.


The New York City building is pursuing LEED certification, following post offices in Denver, CO. and Southampton, N.Y., and processing centers in Greenville, S.C., and Troy, MI.

As a result, the Postal Service is more than two thirds of the way to achieving its goal of 30% energy reduction by 2015.


The San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization is a nonprofit dedicated to improving our region's quality of life by increasing its production and use of clean and alternative energy. The SJVCEO works with cities and counties and public and private organizations to demonstrate the benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy throughout the eight-county region of the San Joaquin Valley

(photo by Sigal Ben-Shmuel/EKLA)

Federal Govt Is Cool - At Least On Rooftops

The federal Department of Energy and possibly other federal agencies will build cool roofs on their structures as part of a plan to reduce energy bills and slash greenhouse gas emissions.

The agency said cool roofs will be installed on new or replacement roofs whenever it makes economic sense. Already, the National Nuclear Security Administration - a separate agency within the DOE - has installed more than 2 million square feet of cool and white roofs across the country, saving an estimated $500,000 per year in energy costs.

The NNSA has reduced heating and cooling costs an estimated 70% annually through cool roofs and more insulation. Expectations call for $10 million in savings over a decade.

This summer, the DOE plans to begin reroofing a total of 350,000 square feet at its headquarters in Washington D.C. and national labs in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Upton, N.Y.

A recent study by the DOE's own Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that cool roofs and cool pavements can trim the demand for air conditioning, decrease temperatures for entire cities and potentially cancel the heating effect of up to two years of carbon dioxide emissions.

The DOE is encouraging fellow federal agencies to follow suit. While not using cool roofs, the Federal Bureau of Prisons is installing solar power, geothermal and biomass heating systems at two facilities.

The San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization is a nonprofit dedicated to improving our region's quality of life by increasing its production and use of clean and alternative energy. The SJVCEO works with cities and counties and public and private organizations to demonstrate the benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy throughout the eight-county region of the
central San Joaquin Valley

(Graphic by simcoolroofcoating.com)