Residential:

The Northwest ENERGY STAR® Homes program has entered its fifth year and has made significant progress toward achieving its 2008 goal of a 9% market share. Quadrant Homes in Washington signed on to the program in February and is estimating it will build 1,400 Northwest ENERGY STAR homes during the year. It also will build the homes to the federal tax credit level, so their energy savings will exceed Northwest ENERGY STAR levels.

The NEEA Northwest ENERGY STAR Homes team continues to work with the verification network to ensure third-party verification companies are of value to the building community and can grow their businesses profitably. Along with providing business development and management skill training, the team continues to emphasize technical training so that verifiers can train and monitor their subcontractors such as HVAC contractors and insulation installers.

To reach home buying consumers, the Northwest ENERGY STAR Homes program is partnering with utilities and builders again in 2008 to increase consumer awareness through advertising and realtor training.  Key markets are targeted in each of the four states for consumer advertising. Realtor training will be increased in 2008 with continuing education credits being offered in all states for realtors completing the ENERGY STAR realtor training class.

NEEA will continue to track compact florescent lighting (CFL) sales data this year and in 2009 to monitor the CFL market. More than 18 million bulbs were sold in the region in 2007, an 83% increase over 2006. NEEA, in partnership with utilities, surpassed sales objectives in both years and exceeded the market transformation goal of achieving 10.8 million CFLs per year by 2009. However, market transformation is not yet complete in the market. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 phases out the use of inefficient incandescent light bulbs, and calls for bulbs to use about 20% to 30% less energy by 2014.

Commercial:

Check out the new BetterBricks web site. It contains tools and resources, such as the Building Operations Toolkit, tailored to the commercial market. The site showcases case studies and lists education and training opportunities. The Building Operations Toolkit includes a HVAC diagnostic tool and enhanced O&M checklists for building operators.

BetterBricks continues to expand its work with hospitals and clinics in the region in implementing Strategic Energy Management Plans (SEMP). Participants include the Legacy Health System, which approved a Strategic Resource Management Plan that includes a three-year ramp up to a 30% reduction in energy use in its facilities and the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle that is nearing completion of a SEMP. Supporting this work, the BetterBricks integrated design labs have 13 projects underway in the healthcare niche in addition to their other projects related to schools, office buildings and grocery stores.

A recent listing of Northwest LEED rated projects showed that the BetterBricks Integrated Design labs worked directly on about one-third of all LEED projects.

The Portland Metropolitan Association of Building Owners and Managers (BOMA) named NEEA “Partner of the Year” at its annual meeting February 6. The award recognizes NEEA’s work in supporting energy efficiency training for its members. NEEA sponsored the BOMA Energy Efficiency Program (BEEP) training in Portland in 2007 and will sponsor more training in 2008. The Portland BOMA chapter has more than 400 members.

BOMA Seattle and Portland also has opened competition for the 2008 Office Energy Crackdown and Showdown respectively– the search for the Portland and Seattle office properties that are leading the way in energy efficiency.

Industrial: 

About 30 individuals from food processing plants across the region were honored January 15 at the 2007 Champions of Continuous Energy Improvement luncheon held in Portland. The award is sponsored by NEEA’s industrial initiative, the Northwest Food Processors Association, northwest electric utilities, the Bonneville Power Administration and Energy Trust of Oregon. 

“This is a group of highly motivated people who are working to make their companies more efficient, profitable and globally competitive,” said Sergio Dias, senior manager of NEEA’s industrial sector and master of ceremony at the event. “Continuous Energy Improvement is about creating organizational change and helping everyone in a company think about how easy it is to waste energy when we don’t make a conscious decision to use it efficiently.”

Also attending were the winners’ energy sponsor and utility partner.

For more information visit IEA.

Utilities:

Phase I of NEEA’s Distribution Efficiency Initiative (DEI) initiative is complete.  The project showed that "operating a utility distribution system in the lower half of the acceptable voltage range (120-114 volts) saves energy, reduces demand, and reduces reactive power requirements without negatively impacting the customer.  A summary is available on nwalliance.org or on our contractor’s website.