Eight Universities Will Receive Supplemental Funds to Expand Student-Led Energy Assessments to Commercial Buildings

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $3.2 million in supplemental funding to expand the Industrial Assessment Centers (IACs) program. IAC programs at select universities assist small- and medium-sized manufacturers in reducing their carbon emissions and lowering energy costs, while training the next generation of energy-efficiency workers.

Under this announcement, eight current IAC universities will expand their programs to also include commercial building assessments. This latest investment in the IAC program will help remove barriers to decarbonization across the manufacturing and commercial sectors and advance the Biden Administration’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

Earlier this year, DOE announced the latest expansion of IAC universities growing the program to 37 university programs, each focused on enhancing cybersecurity, promoting resiliency planning, and providing training to manufacturers located in disadvantaged communities.

Now, DOE has selected eight of those universities to receive $100,000 per year over four years to expand their assessments to include small- to medium-sized commercial buildings. These eight universities will join nine other IACs already conducting commercial building assessments, thereby bringing the total number of Centers participating in the commercial buildings pilot to 17 (see map below). IAC personnel at the selected universities will work with community colleges and technical training programs to provide continuous learning for students and professionals while also providing assessments and recommendations to small and medium-sized commercial buildings and businesses.

The eight selected universities are:

  • The University of Utah (Salt Lake City, UT)
  • Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, OK)
  • The University of Missouri (Columbia, MO)
  • Louisiana Tech University (Ruston, LA)
  • Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) (Indianapolis, IN)
  • The University of Dayton (Dayton, OH)
  • The University of Louisville (Louisville, KY)
  • The University of North Carolina, Charlotte (Charlotte, NC)

View the Full List of IAC Commercial Building Pilots

A Map showing the IAC program locations across the country

Please submit any general comments or questions about the Industrial Assessment Center program to IACS@ee.doe.gov.

Visit the Industrial Assessment Centers website to learn more about the program or find out how to request an assessment. A collection of all publicly available assessment and recommendation data is available online in the IAC Database and the database can be searched by industry type, company size, products, and energy costs.