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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced support for energy-saving commercial building projects as part of an ongoing effort by DOE to improve the energy efficiency of buildings in the United States. With money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, DOE's national laboratories will select and fund technical experts to provide technical guidance to commercial building owners and operators. The goal of this Commercial Read more

Efficiency Vermont, Vermont's statewide provider of energy efficiency services, has announced a new program promoting the replacement of T12 and HID High-Bay lighting with more efficient technology.  The newLIGHT program is being made available from April 1st to December 31st, 2010, and is offering businesses significantly enhanced rebates for upgrading their old T12 fluorescent and HID high-bay lighting systems to more efficient equipment.  T Read more

If you are in or around Washington DC on March 10th, 2010, you may want to register to attend the Great Energy Efficiency Day event being held at the Dirksen Senate Office Building.  The event is organized by the Alliance to Save Energy and promises an in-depth discussion on funding, technology and policy measures required to realize energy efficiency's full potential. Thie Great Energy Efficiency Day, which has been going on since 2004, has a Read more

There has been a flurry of media attention being given to Bloom Energy as they get ready to come out of stealth mode with their Bloom Box fuel cell technology.  Bloom Energy has been developing their fuel cell for almost a decade and has received approximately $400M in capital investment from some of Silicon Valley's biggest names. K.R. Sridhar, the company's rocket scientist founder, believes that his fuel cells will be able to power y Read more

At this years TED talks, Bill Gates unveiled his vision for the world's energy future, describing the need for "miracles" to avoid planetary catastrophe and explaining why he's backing a dramatically different type of nuclear reactor. The necessary goal? Zero carbon emissions globally by 2050. You can watch his whole talk below or visit the TED site to view other interesting talks. TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. I Read more

On February 12th, the Obama Administration announced a multi-agency initiative to spur regional economic growth while making buildings more energy efficient.  Seven federal agencies, including the Dept. of Energy, Dept. of Labor and the Small Business Administration, issued a combined Funding Opportunity Announcement of nearly $130 million over five years to create a regional research center that will develop new building efficiency technologie Read more

The National Energy Technology Lab has announced on behalf of the US Department of Energy that it is funding 17 solid state lighting projects with over $37M of American Recovery and Reinvestment funds.  The goal of the solid state lighting project is to develop advanced solid-state lighting technologies by the year 2025 that, compared to conventional lighting technologies, are much more energy efficient, longer lasting, and cost competitive by Read more

The Environmental Protection Agency has just announced the ENERGY STAR National Building Competition, the first coast-to-coast contest for commercial buildings to save energy and fight global warming. ENERGY STAR partners are being asked to nominate one or more of the facilities they own or manage from across the country for consideration. Approximately a dozen contest participants will be selected by EPA and will "work off the waste" through imp Read more

For many that keep track of the global climate debate, the next 12 days is about as exciting as it gets.  That’s because from December 7th through the 18th,  193 of the world’s nations will have their top climate and environmental ministers in Copenhagen for the 15th annual Conference of the Parties (or COP15) of the United Nations Climate Change Convention.  The goal for this year’s conference is to establish an ambitious global climate agreemen Read more

President Bush has signed into law an extension of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that will continue to provide the $1.80 per square foot tax deduction for energy efficient commercial and industrial building upgrades through December 31, 2013. This five-year extension was passed by the Senate on October 1 by a vote of 74-25 and by the House on October 3 by a vote of 263-171 as part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. The Energy Read more