Green Building

 

A blooming industry, green building is rising with greater public demand, legislative focus, and code and standard mandates. With programs like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) becoming more popular, contractors are finding new building processes and technologies to be more efficient and environmentally minded. The below articles dive into alternative energies, energy efficiency, the smart grid, and more and include editorial from our annual special issue on the subject.

New Year’s Day brought wind-energy developers a belated holiday gift when Congress included in its fiscal-cliff budget deal a one-year extension of the production tax credit (PTC) that helps wind farms operate profitably.

Transformative change often requires major societal shifts to reach and cross the proverbial tipping point.

In the ongoing push for a cleaner and more sustainable energy society, growing popular and political support for renewables are two strong indicators of success.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), which is the coordinator of the U.S. voluntary standardization system, and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council Inc.

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More on Green Building

 
Gauging Expectations

In this column, I analyze the energy opportunities identified in previous articles from a technical, cost and payback standpoint. The goal is to develop a set of feasible energy-saving initiatives that the customer may want to undertake.

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Progress for PVs

After much technical discussion in Code-Making Panel 4 and an appeal to the NFPA Standards Council, the requirements for a new product involving photovoltaic (PV) installations was inserted into 690.11 in the 2011 National Electrical Code (NEC).

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CALCTP Arms Contractors in Fight for Efficiency, Goes National

Competitive environments breed innovation and evolution, and California, with the most stringent energy-efficiency goals of all the United States, establishes many trends.

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GSA Offers 30 Federal Buildings for Deep Energy Retrofits

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced 30 of its federal buildings, totaling nearly 17 million square feet, are participating in a challenge to achieve deep energy savings.

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Energy Department Report Details Major Potential to Increase Clean, Reliable Hydroelectric Power

The Department of Energy (DOE) released a renewable-energy resource assessment detailing the potential to develop electric power generation at existing U.S. dams that aren’t currently equipped to produce power.

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Americans Increasingly Turn to Renewables for Power Needs

Despite the rhetoric, popular sentiment and public policies favoring green power, it may be surprising to realize that alternative-energy industries are still the underdog in the transformation of how we generate and consume power.

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Army Charging up on Renewables

Major shifts in human behavior often require kickstarting by big players. When it comes to energy usage, the U.S. Army is well-positioned to create momentum.

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