DOE To Give Money for Energy Saving

Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham has announced that the Department of Energy (DOE) will provide $17,390,442 for 187 energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in 48 states, the District of Columbia and one territory. Funding is being provided through DOE's State Energy Program Special Projects competitive grants.

"President Bush's National Energy Policy recognizes the important role states play in promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy strategies," Secretary Abraham said. "These special energy projects will help conserve energy, provide jobs, increase our national energy security and reduce the need for new electricity generating plants."

State energy offices will use these funds to improve the energy efficiency of schools, homes and other buildings; promote energy-efficient industrial technologies; and support renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal and biomass. Some projects will create opportunities for distributed energy resources.

States, territories and the District of Columbia competed for these DOE awards which provide specialized funding in addition to annual formula grants given to each state energy office. While actual award dates will vary, DOE anticipates making the awards in September.

Secretary Abraham launched the Department of Energy's Smart Energy Campaign, a public awareness campaign to educate businesses, homeowners and consumers on ways they can cut energy bills, on July 9 due to lower-than-normal natural gas stocks and higher demand for the popular energy source.

Additionally, Secretary Abraham called on state energy officials to join DOE's Smart Energy Campaign, stating, "The Bush Administration is looking for ways to lead by example in saving energy and, in particular, natural gas at our country's federal facilities. I would encourage state governments to do the same."

-- Award Category Summaries and Funding Amounts

Clean Cities (71 projects totaling $5,733,266): Funds will support the deployment of alternative fuels and alternative fuel vehicles (AFV) projects that: 1) promote acquisition of commercially available AFVs that maximize alternative fuel use, especially when those vehicles support an AFV niche market activity center or niche deployment strategy; 2) promote AFV infrastructure development; 3) promote the acquisition of AFV school buses; 4) support Clean Cities coalition activities.

Industrial Technology Program (23 projects totaling $1,995,836): Projects will broaden the impact of investments in advanced industrial technologies and practices geared toward energy savings and waste reduction through partnerships composed of state agencies, universities and local small and mid-sized manufacturing entities.

Building Codes and Standards (15 projects totaling $1,774,225): Funds support states' actions to adopt, update, implement, enforce and evaluate the effectiveness of their residential and commercial building energy codes.

Rebuild America (29 projects totaling $2,762,784): Funds support specific and measurable building and related energy-saving Rebuild America State Programs project partnerships that have defined a program and process with significant opportunity to complete building projects. The goal is for 50 percent of the partnerships to complete at least one major building renovation project by 2005.

Building America (five projects totaling $399,334): Projects will work to create building system performance packages that make new houses 40 percent to 70 percent more energy efficient, and existing houses 30 percent more energy efficient, than those built to local building code standards.

Federal Energy Management Program (six projects totaling $485,000): Projects will promote and facilitate sustainable design and construction, energy efficient operations and maintenance, distributed and renewable energy, renewable energy purchases, siting of renewable power on federal sites, and assess and implement load and energy reduction techniques.

Solar Technology Program (one project totaling $223,231): The project will determine if islanding, a condition of continued operation of a photovoltaic generation facility with local loads after the removal or disconnection of the utility service, is a reasonable concern for distributed energy resources. The utility will monitor the utility lines and perform analysis of the probability that islanding will occur.

State Wind Energy Support (six projects totaling $470,478): Projects will support state outreach and technical assistance and regional consortia on transmissions.

Distributed Energy and Electric Reliability -- Transmission Reliability, Energy Storage, and Interconnection (one project totaling $55,000): The funds support: 1) energy storage, renewable generation dispatch, and transmission stability and, 2) electrical interconnection regulatory education and outreach.

Distributed Energy and Electric Reliability -- Regional Combined Cooling Heating and Power Applications Centers (five projects totaling $1,499,756): Through targeted education and outreach programs as well as project assistance, Regional Application Centers will provide essential and appropriate applied research and development support focused on the technology transfer and deployment of advanced Combined Heat and Power (CHP) technologies.

Distributed Energy and Electric Reliability -- High Temperature Superconductivity, State Outreach Centers (three projects totaling $359,000): Projects will develop and facilitate state meetings and workshops to disseminate information on the technical, economic, environmental feasibility, and effectiveness of High Temperature Superconductivity (HTS) technologies and a systems integration approach.

Hydrogen Program -- Fuel Cell Demonstration and Coordinated Public Education Outreach (three projects totaling $300,000): Funds will support the purchase of a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell to be used at a college or university as well as public education activities to showcase the technology to the community.

Geothermal Outreach (five projects totaling $294,085): Funds will support state-based agricultural/rural outreach and information sharing in states with direct-use geothermal resources and to update the state's inventory of geothermal resources.

Biomass (nine projects totaling $556,868): Cost-shared projects will foster significant penetration of biomass-based technologies and products through: 1) outreach and information transfer to consumers, farmers, and industry; or 2) development of innovative state or local incentives to facilitate increased market penetration of bio-based products and biomass-based technologies.

Residential Deployment (five projects totaling $481,579): Funds will help develop self-sustaining energy efficiency programs for the existing home market that incorporate marketing efforts, builder training/certification, home inspections, and quality assurance of contractor work.