This past week was an exciting one for energy efficiency. We're especially excited about Nathan Rothman's forecast in Greener Buildings that 2010 may be "The Year for a Surge in Energy Efficiency," with increased incentives for energy efficiency retrofits, as well as a surge in public consciousness of the benefits of EE thanks to the efforts of the Obama administration. And it's about time: as Rothman points out, "the USGBC estimates that greater building efficiency can meet 85 percent of future U.S. demand for energy, and a national commitment to green building has the potential to generate 2.5 million American jobs." Everybody wins.
The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy released a report, Energy Efficiency Program Options for Local Governments Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (link is to the full report, which is free, but registration is required), assessing various municipal energy efficiency programs as a guide for cities and counties hoping to follow suit. As Environmental Protection Online reports, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant included in the ARRA will dispense some $3 billion to cities and states -- "the year for a surge in energy efficiency" indeed.
The Natural Resources Defense Council's Switchboard blog enlightened us to the fact that all 50 U.S. governors have agreed to improve energy efficiency through improved building codes and decoupling utility revenues in return for federal stimulus funds, and all states have already accepted money. But this is where it gets interesting: so far only a few states have actually fulfilled their obligations.
Meanwhile, Chris Cheatham at Green Building Law Update shines some light on the complications of oversight for green stimulus funds and suggests that California may actually be running the risk of losing funds -- we can only hope that this doesn't presage further complications for energy efficiency initiatives (and not to worry, we don't think it will).
Last week we wrote about the DOE stripping its Energy Star label from a number of LG refrigerators. In a next step to what we didn't think at the time would be an ongoing battle, this past week LG decided to sue the DOE over what they contend were unclear standards for refrigerators.
Treehugger highlighted a mirror that displays your water consumption with LED lights, an interesting energy-efficiency/water-saving concept piece from designer Jin Kim. While we (most likely) won't be carrying them in our store any time soon, this type of technology is exactly what we like to see: clever, sleek, non-invasive, and effective at communicating the need to reduce our consumption of increasingly precious resources.
And speaking of sleek, German architectural firm Werner Sobek has designed an all-glass PassivHaus, seven of which have already been built across Europe. PassivHaus, for those scratching their heads, is one of the most rigorous energy efficiency standards in existence. Invented in Germany (turns out, they know how to engineer... who knew?), a PassivHaus is so well-sealed and well-insulated that it requires essentially no heating, and produces at least as much energy as it consumes (so it's also a "net zero" house). If you're not impressed yet, the all-glass house designed by Werner Sobek is actually what they're calling "Triple Zero" - a standard developed by that firm which equates to 1) Zero Energy, 2) Zero Waste, 3) Zero Emission - a net zero building taken to the 3rd dimension. Applause.
An LG OLED TV hit stores in South Korea, one of the first we've seen, which is exciting because super efficient OLED lighting promises to usher in a new wave of energy efficient technology -- from standard lighting applications to, well... TVs. The flashy LG model is priced at approximately $2500, so we'll wait until the price drops before flocking to Seoul to grab one; but its release is nonetheless a promising sign that there will be more where that came from.
Google's Dan Reicher discussed the money-saving potential of home energy monitors on NPR's Morning Edition (audio file), citing, as we often do, the fact that we often neglect to take some pretty common-sense steps to save money simply because "we lack information." We believe that home energy monitors, by providing that information, hold enormous potential to save money and energy (one of our favorites, btw, just happens to be the TED 5000 with Google Power Meter). Reicher added, with a dose of humor, that though we often say "knowledge is power, in this case knowledge is less power... Okay, send me to the punitentiary!"
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