Energy Management and Renewable Energy Newsletter

News and Updates:

Feedback Requested: North Central Texas Council of Governments Survey on Regional Energy Needs
Two Texas Based Research Projects Awarded Funding from Department of Energy
Texas State Senator-Elect Files Bill to Study the Feasibility of Expanding the State’s Renewable Energy Goal
HARC First Commercial Building in Texas to Earn Zero Energy Certification
Texas will Host the Largest Solar Project in the US
New Resource: Wastewater Energy Management Toolkit
Use EPA’s Updated Local and Tribal GHG Inventory Tools
EPA’s RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative: 2020 Tracking Matrix Now Available
American Wind Power Posts Record Third Quarter
Green Stimulus Could Create $280B in Economic Benefits

Feedback Requested: North Central Texas Council of Governments Survey on Regional Energy Needs

The North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) is requesting assistance from its member governments by gathering feedback to help identify the region’s most pressing energy management needs and prioritize the development of appropriate resources. The following survey will ask your feedback on previous energy topics and workshops and to identify energy management topics most important to your organization so that NCTCOG may continue to assist you in meeting your energy goals and management needs.

Click Here for Survey

Deadline to Submit Survey is January 8, 2021.

Two Texas Based Research Projects Awarded Funding from Department of Energy

The Solar Energy Technologies Office of the Department of Energy has announced the recipients of the SETO 2020 Small innovative Projects in Solar (SIPS) program. SIPS is a funding program that supports projects that will improve the affordability, reliability, and value of solar technologies on the U.S. grid. Two Texas Projects were selected for funding!

1. Tietronix Software of Houston Texas was awarded $300,000.
Tietronix Software will use a non-intrusive optical measurement method and collect data with a drone to measure slope, canting, and tracking errors of heliostats at varying elevation angles and temperatures. The team hopes to develop software that can be utilized on a utility scale to improve heliostat performance which will increase solar reflector efficiency of solar plants.

2. University of Texas Rio Grande Valley was awarded $240,000.
The team will work to prevent heat damage in solar absorber tubes used in high-temperature concentrating solar-thermal power systems. They hope to utilize 3-D printing technology to optimize the internal fin shapes and external surface patterns. The goal is to double the lifespan of absorber tubes compared with conventional systems and decrease the manufacturing, operations, and maintenance costs by 50%.

Click Here to Read More: Department of Energy

Texas State Senator-Elect Files Bill to Study the Feasibility of Expanding the State’s Renewable Energy Goal

About 25 percent of electric generating capacity in Texas comes from renewable sources but a Texas legislator wants to see if that could expand to 50 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050. Texas Senator-elect César Blanco, D-El Paso, introduced a bill this month that would require the Public Utility Commission to conduct a study on the feasibility of expanding the state’s renewable energy goal. The last renewable goal that Texas set was in 1999 when state regulators set a renewable energy standard of 5,000 megawatts of new renewable power by 2015 and 10,000 megawatts by 2025. Texas surpassed its 2025 target in 2009.

Read S.B. 170 Here: capitol.texas.gov

HARC First Commercial Building in Texas to Earn Zero Energy Certification

The Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) officially achieved Zero Energy status from the International Living Future Institute, which makes the HARC headquarters in The Woodlands the first commercial building in Texas to accomplish the feat. Today, 100% of HARC’s energy needs on a net annual basis are supplied by on-site renewable energy, made possible by a $136,000 Green Mountain Energy Sun Club grant that supported the purchase and installation of additional solar panels, associated inverters and hardware on the roof of HARC’s LEED® Platinum building.

Click Here to Read More

Texas will Host the Largest Solar Project in the US

Invenergy, a Chicago-based global developer and operator of green energy generation and storage, announced a 1,310-megawatt solar farm in northeastern Texas on Wednesday. It will be the largest in the US upon completion. The solar farm is currently under construction. The Samson Solar Energy Center, as it is called, will support five major consumer brands and supply power to the three Texas municipalities of Bryan, Denton, and Garland.

Read More Here: Electrek.co

New Resource: Wastewater Energy Management Toolkit

The Wastewater Energy Management Toolkit is a collection of resources that enables water resource recovery facilities to learn and benefit from the work of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Better Buildings Sustainable Wastewater Infrastructure of the Future (SWIFt) Accelerator. Energy efficiency improvements in equipment, processes, and operations can result in up to 50% energy savings in water resource recovery facilities. Toolkit resources support best practices and innovative approaches successfully used by wastewater facilities to establish and implement energy management and planning.

Explore the Toolkit here.

Use EPA’s Updated Local and Tribal GHG Inventory Tools

Looking for a free way to compile a greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory for your community or tribe? Try the EPA’s newly updated Local and Tribal GHG Inventory Tools. These interactive spreadsheet-based tools calculate GHG emissions for the residential, commercial, transportation, and waste and water management sectors. You can enter data specific to your jurisdiction or use defaults.

New this year: you can now more easily account for purchased renewable energy in your inventory.

Local GHG Inventory Tool

EPA’s RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative: 2020 Tracking Matrix Now Available

Does your community have brownfield sites or landfills that might be suitable for renewable energy development? The EPA tracks hundreds of sites that can help inspire your local government’s development ideas.

The EPA’s RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative has identified current trends in renewable energy development on contaminated lands.

To date, the RE-Powering Initiative has identified 417 renewable energy installations on contaminated lands, landfills, and mine sites, with a cumulative installed capacity of 1,849.8 megawatts (MW). Approximately 68% of these installations are large-scale systems with a project capacity of 1 MW or more. The renewable energy is used to export energy onto the utility grid, offset onsite energy demands, or power cleanup of contaminated sites.

Contact Lora Strine, strine.lora@epa.gov, with any questions about the EPA’s RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative.

Visit the 2020 Tracking Matrix

American Wind Power Posts Record Third Quarter

The U.S. wind industry installed nearly 2,000 megawatts (MW) of new wind power capacity in the third quarter of 2020, setting a record for third-quarter additions and bringing total American capacity to nearly 112,000 MW, according to the newly released Wind Powers America Third Quarter 2020 Market Report. The American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA) report reveals that U.S. wind is on pace for a record year, with installations through the third quarter up 72 percent over the first nine months of 2019.

Read More Here: awea.org

Green Stimulus Could Create $280B in Economic Benefits

New research from the C40 Global Mayors Recovery Task Force suggests that investing an economic stimulus in green infrastructure could deliver faster results for economic recovery from coronavirus. The group of the mayors, representing 11 global cities including Los Angeles, New Orleans and Seattle, said investing recovery funds in the fight against climate change could create over 50 million jobs worldwide, delivering $280 billion in economic benefits from 270,000 premature deaths avoided in the next 10 years. Other groups have drawn similar conclusions about the importance of a green recovery from COVID-19. The Coalition for Urban Transitions, in partnership with the World Resources Institute (WRI) and C40 Cities, called in September for investment in a variety of areas, including in green buildings, clean mobility and renewable energy.

Read more here: UtilityDive.com

What is the Better Buildings Financing Navigator?

Developed by the US Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Initiative, the Navigator helps users explore a wide array of financing choices and identify relevant financing options for their energy projects. Through the Navigator, users can also connect to the larger Better Buildings Challenge Financial Ally community, which includes banks and lenders that are committed to making bold financial investments in efficiency and renewables and are actively pursuing new opportunities to finance projects. The Navigator is designed for anyone who wants to access financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects or learn more about the marketplace in general, including building owners, facility and energy managers, sustainability directors, executives, contractors, consultants, brokers, researchers, and other decision-makers.

Click Here to Learn More: Energy.gov

Local Government Energy Reporting- 2020 Update

Under Texas Health and Safety Code §388.005(c), all political subdivisions, state agencies and institutes of higher education in an ozone non-attainment area or an affected county are required to establish a goal to reduce electricity consumption by at least five percent each year. Each political subdivision must submit a report annually to SECO regarding the entity's progress and efforts to meet the five percent annual reduction goal. 2020 reports will not be due until February 1, 2021 and will cover calendar year 2020.  

To assist local governments in achieving the five percent reduction goal and required reporting, NCTCOG developed a whitepaper to help resolve frequent challenges and highlight best practices.  The “Texas’ Mandated Local Government Energy Reduction Goal: Challenges and Best Practices” whitepaper can be accessed from the Local Government Energy Reporting Toolkit on Conserve North Texas. A webinar presenting this whitepaper and other key reporting tips will be provided.
 
Due to some modifications, the 2020 reporting form will be released in the coming weeks. For updates on the Local Government Energy Report and program, visit SECOs Local Government Energy Reporting webpage. 

Date: Tuesday, January 12th, 2021
Time: 2:00 pm CST
Registration: Here

Virtual Wind Wildlife Research Meeting

The National Wind Coordinating Collaborative’s (NWCC’s) 13th biennial Wind Wildlife Research Meeting provides a forum for wind-wildlife stakeholders—wind energy developers, academics, research biologists, environmental consultants, non-governmental organizations, and officials from local, state, and federal governmental agencies—to share the latest scientific findings related to addressing impacts to wildlife from wind energy. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) provides support for developing the meeting proceedings. Proceedings from previous research meetings are available on the NWCC website.

Date: December 1 - 4, 2020
Time: 11:00 am CST
Registration: Here

Energy Efficiency and Climate Policy Forum

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) research has found that energy efficiency can halve U.S. energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. With growing interest in policies to address global climate change, as well as a new Congress and a new presidential term set to begin in January 2021, ACEEE will be hosting the Energy Efficiency and Climate Policy Forum to discuss key steps and policies that will help the United States get on the 50% reduction pathway.

Date: Thursday, December 3rd, 2020
Time: 9:00 am CST
Registration: Here

Behavior, Energy, and Climate Change Virtual Conference

Now in its 14th year, the Behavior Energy and Climate Change conference brings together social scientists, practitioners, utilities, academics, governments, businesses, and non-profits to share and disseminate best practices and research to encourage behavior change for energy and carbon reduction. Come present your work and learn from others about innovative methods, practices and technologies, how to evaluate these programs, understand why individuals and groups change, and make these transitions in fair and equitable ways.

Date: December 7 - 10, 2020
Time: 11:00 am - 4:00 pm CST
Registration: Here

Fall BOC 1001 (A) Class: Energy Efficient Operations
of a Building HVAC Systems

Building Operator Certification is a national workforce training and certification program offering facilities personnel the job skills and knowledge to improve the energy performance of their buildings. NOTE: This class is the first in a series of eight classes; all classes are required. For more information download the Building Operator Certification Level 1 Flyer. To learn more about the BOC certification process and new alignment with ISO 17024, please visit the BOC Program page.

Date: December 8th, 2020
Time: 8:30 am CST
Registration: Here

Electric School Bus Webinar Series

Please join DFW Clean Cities for parts two and three of this three-part webinar series on electric school buses, organized by key stakeholders across Texas. Fleet Managers, Energy & Facility Managers, and Directors of Transportation working for school districts are encouraged to attend all three webinars to learn about electric school buses from manufacturers and other experts.

Part 2
Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Time: 10:00 am CST
Registration: Here

Part 3
Date: Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Time: 10:00 am CST
Registration: Here

Developing and Prioritizing Resilience Solutions within the Technical Resilience Navigator (TRN)

This training will focus on understanding key concepts of identifying resilience solutions that address resilience gaps at your site. The training will demonstrate how the TRN models and prioritizes resilience solutions based on risk reduction and other site-determined criteria. The training will include interactive exercises and a demonstration on the updated TRN web tool, helping attendees learn how the TRN could be used to enhance the energy and water resilience at their site. It is recommended that users have already created a TRN user account prior to this training.

Date: Wednesday, January 18th, 2021
Time: 12:30 - 2:30pm CST
Registration: Here