New National Green Building Programs

The Obama Administration announced in mid February a multi-agency program to initiate economic growth based on energy-efficient green building development that will help continue to fuel the green revolution in the U.S.  Seven federal agencies issued a combined Funding Opportunity Announcement of up to $129.7 million over five years to create a regional research center that will foster new building efficiency technologies and deployment strategies.

The agencies will collaborate to leverage funding and resources to promote regional growth through an Energy Regional Innovation Cluster (E-RIC) that is based on an Energy Innovation Hub focused on developing new technologies to improve the design of energy-efficient building systems.  This Energy Innovation Hub, one of three proposed by the Administration and funded by Congress in the FY10 budget, will be composed of a multi-disciplinary teams of researchers focused on solving primary R&D challenges in the field.

Similar to the clean energy and green building partnership agreements that President Obama signed with China and India, the E-RIC will target new technologies and share best practices with the public and private sectors.  The E-RIC chosen under the funding opportunity will be based at a university, national laboratory, non-profit organization, or private firm, partnering closely with local or state government officials and applying the knowledge base of local architects, builders, consultants and manufacturers.  This program is designed to develop a regional economy that could support other businesses that address the full production lifecycle for building technologies; thus leading to spin-off green jobs. 

At the consumer level, President Obama announced an efficiency plan last week, denoted as Home Star, and informally known as "cash for caulkers," which would require Congressional approval. It is intended to incentivize many types of energy-efficient upgrades for homes, creating construction and manufacturing jobs across the country.

Consumers would be eligible for between $1,000 and $1,500 for simple home upgrades such as insulation, duct sealing, water heaters, air conditioning units, windows, roofing and doors. In addition, homeowners willing to complete more comprehensive energy retrofits would be eligible for a $3,000 rebate, if the efficiency measures lead to a 20 percent energy savings. Homeowners, who could achieve even higher energy reductions,  may receive up to $8,000, depending on a sliding scale.

On average, a home energy audit and retrofit costs $5,000 to $8,000; it generally shaves 20-40 percent off the monthly energy bills. In any case, this program is significantly less elaborate than the Recovery through Retrofit program announced in the fall and originally scheduled for formal release in February, which would offer special finance packages to homeowners for not only these types of retrofits- but renewable energy systems as well. 

Federal grants in lieu of tax credits for renewable energy projects under section 1603 of the Recovery Act are undergoing pressure and being threatened by legislation in Congress at this time due to the fact that this portion of the stimulus has primarily subsidized products made overseas, and these imports would only be accentuated by a carbon emissions regulations system, unless there is a shift towards significantly more domestic manufacturing. This may be a contentious issue for other federal green energy programs moving forward.

"Photo credit- www.reuters.com : Emerging national green retrofit programs"