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WASHINGTON—U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced $7,921,325 for six Department of Energy-funded projects in Wisconsin. This is part of more than $76 million in funding announced nationwide from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support advanced energy-efficient building technology projects and the development of training programs for commercial building equipment technicians, building operators, and energy auditors.
The projects selected today will help make the nation’s buildings more energy efficient and cost-effective. They will also support training programs for specialists to service and operate new and existing buildings, to develop and deploy best practices resulting in fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and to establish a green workforce with technical expertise to reduce energy costs for consumers.
“These projects will help the United States lead the world in advancing energy-efficient technologies,” Secretary Chu said. “Energy-efficient commercial buildings will help our country cut its carbon emissions and energy costs while the training programs will upgrade the skills of the current workforce and attract the next generation to careers in the emerging clean-energy economy.”
The Department of Energy also released today a new video that showcases the story of Greensburg, Kan., a town devastated by a tornado in 2007, which came back to be one of the Nation’s most energy-efficient, sustainable communities. Many of the town’s government buildings use cutting-edge energy-saving technologies, such as high-efficiency windows, lighting, and heating and ventilation systems, saving local taxpayer money. Greensburg has shown that any city can reach its energy efficiency and renewable energy goals today using widely available technologies. View the video HERE to see how Greensburg was able to “build green.”
The nation’s 114 million households and more than 74 million square feet of commercial floor space account for approximately 40 percent of U.S. primary energy consumption, as well as 39 percent of carbon dioxide, 18 percent of nitrogen oxides, and 55 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions. These projects will help lower the energy demands and emissions of commercial buildings and promote a specialized, energy-efficient buildings workforce.
The projects selected today for Energy-Efficient Building Technology Projects include:
· Johnson Controls, Inc. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) – $2,000,000
This project will develop an Open Integration Framework that allows multivendor systems to interoperate seamlessly using internet protocols. Johnson Controls will create a platform for implementing new integrated control strategies and to enable additional enterprise control applications such as demand response.
· Johnson Controls, Inc. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) – $2,000,000
The objective of this project is to ensure reliable and affordable electricity by taking advantage of the significant potential to reduce demand in buildings and give building owners and occupants an automated means to respond to real time pricing signals or curtailment events to minimize their energy costs while maintaining occupant comfort and productivity. Johnson Controls will perform the necessary applied research, development, and testing to provide a communications interface using industry standard open protocols and emerging NIST standards to receive real time pricing signals from utilities or power retailers.
· Eaton Corporation (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) – $2,000,000
This team proposes to develop advanced load identification and management technologies and solutions to reduce building energy consumption by providing fine granular visibility of energy usage information and safety protection of miscellaneous electric loads (MELs) in commercial and residential buildings. The objectives of the proposed research are to: develop intelligent load modeling, identification and prediction technology that will automatically determine the type, location, energy consumption, power quality, operation status and performance status of MELs, using electric waveforms at a power outlet level; and to prototype “smart eOutlet”, an advanced power outlet / strip concept, which provides embedded load identification intelligence, low-cost power line carrier (PLC) communication, remotely-controllable relay, universal interface to building management systems, and arc fault, ground fault and surge protection.
· University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin) – $246,249
The University of Wisconsin will address two fundamental challenges that currently limit the commercial success of the Active Magnetic Regenerative Refrigeration (AMRR) cycle, a high performing non-vapor compression cooling system. This proposal will address the development of an optimal magnetocaloric material and the development of the optimal configuration for the material in the AMRR bed.
The training projects selected today include:
* University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin) – $934,712
The University of Wisconsin’s Department of Engineering Professional Development will organize and manage the Development of a Total Energy, Environment and Asset Management (TE2AM) Curriculum. The TE2AM program targets operations staff in existing commercial buildings. The primary objective of the TE2AM program is to equip building operations staff to effectively manage total building energy consumption, building environmental impacts, and total building assets/infrastructure for facilities they manage or operate. Additionally, the course will increase understanding of new approaches and encourage adoption of proven energy saving strategies.
* Milwaukee Area Technical College (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) – $740,364
The Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) will further develop existing training program for commercial energy commissioning agents and energy auditors. MATC and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) will work together to develop an integrated workforce training model, as well as collaborative curriculum. The project will also provide a career ladder for MATC graduates to continue their education at UWM, preparing students to advance to engineers and managers. The project includes installation of an intelligent lighting lab, a microturbine, and solar thermal heating devices that will provide students with hands-on experience with these new technologies.
For detailed project descriptions of award winners, visit HERE.
To learn more about advanced energy-efficient building technologies efforts at DOE, please visit the Building Technologies Program website.
