Efficiency Improvements - Smarter Windows, Skyscrapers and the New Efficiency Research Hub

Electrochromic Windows – An Efficiency Breakthrough that's now Commercially Available

Smarter windows have officially arrived.  A company called Sage Electrochromic just won a $72 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to produce its SageGlass® product. “SageGlass® allows natural light in while controlling unwanted solar heat and glare and can be used in building windows, skylights, and curtain walls,” according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Website (Source: www.energy.gov, March 5). (Image Credit: www.buildinggreen.com/)

The windows include several thin layers of metal oxide materials that can remain opaque or darken with the influence of a weak electrical current. This special ability allows for the windows to adjust to the amount of light and heat that’s incoming, which in turn cuts down on energy loss through the windows. The rough figure of energy waste through conventional windows is around 30% depending on the building, so the installation of these windows alone could mean significant energy cost savings. For more details about how this exciting new window technology works, please visit the Sage Electrochromic technical information page here.

 

A Local Non-Profit’s Success with an Iconic Building’s Retrofit

To follow-up on my article about this project when it launched in July of 2009, the Rocky Mountain Institute’s eight-month joint venture to study and recommend efficiency retrofitting for the Empire State Building in Manhattan recently came to a close The venture, a project of the Clinton Climate Institute, Johnson Controls, Jones Lang LaSalle and Colorado-based non-profit the Rocky Mountain Institute, managed to find 38% in energy efficiency savings across the building for an annual cost savings of $4.4 million (Sources:
www.esbsustainability.com/,  greensource.construction.com, March 3). 

All of the recommended measures had to meet strict cost-effectiveness standards and both the project's results and methodology are posted online at www.esbsustainability.com. Among the recommended efficiency measures were the installation of digital demand controls (9% savings), an office layout technique called “tenant daylighting” (6%), switching from constant air volume units to variable air volume ones (5%), retrofitting the building’s chiller plant (5%), window glazing (5%) and several others (Source: www.esbsustainability.com). To learn more about the project, please visit http://www.esbsustainability.com/ and take a peek at both the interactive tools section and their comprehensive reports.  (Image Credit:  www.esbsustainability.com/)


The Energy Regional Innovation Cluster – Efficiency Solutions for Every Project Scale 

Seven federal agencies recently announced that they will ban together to contribute $129.7 million over the next five years to create an energy efficiency research center aimed at solving issues that range from efficiency basics to mass implementation on a commercial scale (Source: www.energy.gov, February 12). The official Department of Energy release goes on to re-iterate that nearly 40% of the energy consumption and carbon emissions in the United States comes from buildings and that the program will also focus on job creation. This new “hub” will be a unique mixture of energy efficiency experts and will be called the Energy Regional Innovation Cluster (E-RIC). The principal goals of this lab will be to combine the efforts of the public and private sectors to tackle large- and small-scale efficiency issues to guide better solutions through to the marketplace at a faster rate. (Image Credit:  www.life.com/)

Such a lab will be a very exciting and unprecedented way to join the research strengths of both the government and the private sector and allow them to work together on problems of all scales to develop solutions that could have a huge impact on efficiency innovations over the next few years. The new lab’s location has yet to be determined, but will likely be at a university, an existing DOE laboratory, at a non-profit or within a private company. Other funding providers include the U.S. Department of Commerce (up to $5.5 million between three DOC programs) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (Source: www.energy.gov, February 12).

An Olympic Efficiency Feat

In the first such development during an Olympic Games, the energy consumption at several venues at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver is being monitored live. The monitoring services, provided by a local company named Pulse Energy, covers structures in the athlete’s villages, the snowmaking equipment, the Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre and other facilities (Source: EnergyEfficiencynews.com, February 18). All of the energy use figures for the participating facilities are available online at this link: http://www.venueenergytracker.com/. The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee also implemented sweeping energy efficiency measures in these buildings that netted a reported energy savings of 66,000 kWh in just the first three days of the Games.  (Photo Credit:  http://www.venueenergytracker.com/).  

The Venue Energy Tracker website also provides details about how each venue was constructed or improved with energy efficiency in mind. It’s interesting to read about the various challenges that these large, world-class venues presented on the efficiency front and to see the creative solutions put in place to combat those challenges. The Richmond Olympic Oval, for example, features a roof made from recycled Pine beetle-kill trees and uses waste heat energy from ice-making for other purposes in the building, including hot water and heating/cooling systems (Source:  Vancouver2010.com).  To see a complete listing of sustainability initiatives tied in with the 2010 Games - everything from greener ticket practices to LEED Certified facilities - please click here to visit the Vancouver 2010 sustainability home page.  (Photo Credit:  http://www.venueenergytracker.com/)

In addition to the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee's efficiency efforts for the 2010 games, the city of London is preparing broad energy efficiency initiatives for the 2012 Games as well.  The London Olympic Organizing Committee’s goal is to reduce the carbon emissions from the Games by 50% as compared to previous Games (those that did not attempt to curb energy use or carbon emissions).  For more information on the 2012 Games and energy efficiency, please click here.  I specifically recommend reading about the Energy Centre, a sustainable energy power center that London is preparing for the 2012 Olympic Games which features a biomass boiler fueled by wood chips as one of many efforts to reduce carbon emissions (Source:  London2012.com).  (Photo Credit:  http://www.london2012.com/)