News

New Energy and Environmental Justice Data Added to the SLOPE Platform

State and Local Planning for Energy (SLOPE) Platform screenshot.

The State and Local Planning for Energy (SLOPE) Platform provides a free, easy-to-use one-stop shop for clean energy planning data. New data added to SLOPE illustrates the social vulnerability and average energy burden (i.e., the percentage of household income spent on energy costs) of communities down to the census-tract level. Additional new data provides the average energy bill savings that low-to-moderate income households would gain from an energy efficiency retrofit for a selected state or county.

Together and in tandem with other SLOPE data, these additions can help states and local governments understand inequities within their jurisdiction and ensure that disadvantaged communities benefit from clean energy projects.

SLOPE can now help answer questions such as:

  • On average, what percentage of their annual income do households in my jurisdiction spend on energy to power their homes and vehicles?
  • How much could low-to-moderate income residents in my community save on their energy bills from an energy efficiency retrofit? 
  • Which regions within my jurisdiction are most vulnerable in terms of socioeconomic status or housing and transportation conditions? 

Visit the SLOPE website to check out the platform's new energy and environmental justice data.

New Solar Funding Opportunity to Improve Community Energy Resilience

The Solar Energy Technologies Office announced $25 million in funding to improve community energy resilience. The Renewables Advancing Community Energy Resilience (RACER) funding opportunity will fund projects that enable communities to utilize solar and solar-plus-storage to prevent disruptions in power and to rapidly restore electricity if it goes down. Diverse teams of universities, federally funded research and development centers, nonprofits, community-based organizations, utilities, state agencies, local governments, and solar developers are encouraged to apply.

Mandatory concept papers are due May 27, 2022, at 5 p.m. ET.

Read more about this opportunity and learn how to apply by visiting the Solar Energy Technology Office's RACER webpage.

A New Report from the State Energy Program's Workforce Development Initiative Forecasts Clean Energy Jobs

The new report, State-Level Employment Projections for Four Clean Energy Technologies in 2025 and 2030, published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), provides a simple and transparent method to estimate the size of the workforce needed to support modeled deployments for energy efficiency in buildings, stationary battery energy storage, solar photovoltaics, and land-based wind in 2025 and 2030. The estimates provided in the report are for a business-as-usual and a more accelerated deployment scenario. The report also includes fact sheets for all 50 states.

DOE Plans to Release $13 Million to Support Community Geothermal Projects

To help reduce household energy costs and fossil fuel dependence for communities across the country, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) intends to issue the Community Geothermal Heating and Cooling Design and Deployment Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA).

Geothermal district heating and cooling systems use geothermal energy to provide climate control to buildings, including residences and businesses, through an underground distribution network. Such systems are relatively common outside the United States, but have a comparably small presence domestically. The intended FOA will support coalitions with community, workforce, design/analysis, and deployment expertise to implement such systems.

For more information, read the full Notice of Intent.

WINDExchange Publishes New 100-Meter Wind Resource Maps

The Wind Energy Technologies Office's WINDExchange initiative released new wind resource maps to help accurately define, measure, and forecast the nation's land-based and offshore wind resources. New land-based maps are now available for Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming. WINDExchange will continue to add new resource maps throughout the year, so stay tuned!

For more resources to help with your wind energy planning, visit the Wind Exchange website.

Two New Studies Focus on Environmental and Social Implications of Wind Energy

Recent research from two national laboratories explore the environmental and social implications that wind energy planning and development may have in the United States.

In a recent paper, NREL researchers provided an in-depth look at the interactions wind energy technology has with various landscapes. The study used spatial analysis of U.S. wind power facilities deployed over the past two decades to understand the impact the evolving technologies have on land use requirements. Read more and download the paper on NREL's website.

To learn more about a community's willingness to host wind projects, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) researchers examined the perceived fairness of the planning process at two different state-led wind farm projects. The study utilized various data to generate recommendations to improve community perceptions of and involvement in the planning process. Read more and download the paper on LBNL's website.

New Building Emissions Calculator Now Available from the ENERGY STAR Program

Energy star portfolio manager logo.

Calculate your building's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager Building Emissions Calculator. With this powerful tool, you can estimate your building's GHG emissions, support GHG emissions inventories, evaluate emissions under local building performance standards, and forecast the impact of changes in building efficiency and energy procurement.

Events

eProject eXpress: User eXperience Webinar

June 13, 2022, 1–2 p.m. ET

eProject eXpress

Interested in learning what it's really like to use eProject eXpress (ePX) and how it would benefit your organization?

DOE and LBNL are hosting a free, one-hour webinar featuring Reid Conway (North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality) and Nick Polier (Virginia Department of Energy) who will walk through their experience with ePX and the value ePX has added to their state ESPC programs.

DOE and LBNL released eProject eXpress (ePX), a streamlined tool to help state and local governments implement energy savings performance contracts (ESPC) and reap the benefits of energy efficiency. ePX unlocks new capabilities to meet the unique data management and reporting needs of the municipal and state governments, universities and colleges, schools, and hospitals market. Using ePX can significantly reduce customers' costs and staff time associated with tracking project data and contract agreements and clearly demonstrate the success of energy efficiency programs.

Register for the June 13, 2022, ePX webinar.

In addition to the upcoming training, a recording of the ePX launch event is available on the Better Buildings Solution Center website.

State and Local Leaders in the News

Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Helps Low-Income Households, Especially in Rural Areas

Thanks to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), thousands of low-income Virginia households now have the opportunity to break out of a cycle of paying high energy bills caused by inefficiency. RGGI funds are now available to make the repairs needed so otherwise-deferred applicants can qualify for the federally funded Weatherization Assistance Program.

Minneapolis Jobs Program Aims to Grow and Diversify Clean Energy Workforce

Minneapolis' Green Career Exploratory Program, launched in the early days of the pandemic, offers various incentives to help residents and businesses pay for solar, energy efficiency, pollution cleanup, and other projects, with larger incentives in environmental justice neighborhoods. The city's goal of annually attracting around 50 students for solar training was achieved in both 2020 and 2021 and will continue to try to connect diverse communities with opportunities in clean energy through training.