Resource Library

HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing has created an energy performance contracting (EPC) program to encourage energy efficiency within the public housing stock. HUD offers EPC training for small PHAs, to teach them about the basics of energy performance contracting and the benefits of the program to the PHAs. HUD is piloting an EPC-EZ program to simplify the process. In addition, innovative small PHAs are creating consortia to pool their human and technical resources and to create a larger total building stock to be financially attractive to ESCOs.

GreenStreet offers financing options that can help you invest in energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy systems for your business or home

This fact sheet provides an overview of how sales tax incentives may be structured and factors local governments can consider in sales tax design. It also provides Appendices with a summary map and detailed table of statewide incentives. It covers incentives for both residential and non‐residential projects.

Cities are leading the movement to redesign and reinvest in our streets as cherished public spaces for people, as well as critical arteries for traffic. This planning guide from the National Association of Transportation Officials (NACO) provides key principles of city street design for residents, pedestrians, bicyclists, small and large businesses in urban communities. In 2014, the California Department of Transportation endorsed NACO's Urban Street Design Guide as well as its Urban Bikeway Design Guide.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority's Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit Program enabled property developers, building owners, and building tenants to receive tax credits equal to up to 100% of qualified capital investments made within a designated Urban Transit Hub area. Though the program is now expired, information about the program requirements can be viewed on the EDA's web site. Cities can work with local economic development authorities to craft smaller-scale programs to attract employers and residential property developers to transit hubs.

The USDA's Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) provides financial assistance to agricultural producers and rural small businesses in rural America to purchase, install, and construct renewable energy systems, including wind energy systems, bioenergy, solar, and more. More information about REAP's two core programs, the Renewable Energy System and Energy Efficiency Improvement Guaranteed Loan and Grant Program and the Energy Audit and Renewable Energy Development Assistance Grant Program, as well as program contacts can be found on the USDA's REAP web page.

This report describes actual experiences from field installations of occupancy sensor controlled light-emitting diode (LED) lighting at two parking structures and two parking lots. It is intended to bring rissues into focus for those considering the use of occupancy sensor based control systems in their own applications. Ultimately, care must be taken in the design, selection, and commissioning/optimization of a sensor-controlled lighting installation, or else the only guaranteed result may be its cost.

This guidebook is aimed at professionals and politicians, without a background in public sector procurement, to understand how they can expand their capabilities to tackle the problems they are facing in securing environmental improvements. It also aims to provide an understanding of vehicle emission reduction possibilities for procurement officers. Acknowledging that the first principle of sustainable vehicle procurement is whether it needs to be purchased or leased in the first place, this guidance assumes that this requirement has been considered and provides information relevant once the decision to procure has been taken.

Building owners’ ability to access their utility data in an electronic format and easily transfer this data into analysis tools is an important factor contributing to the success of efforts to enhance building energy efficiency through benchmarking. This report commissioned by the Energy Efficient Buildings Hub explains how local utilities can improve data access to facilitate benchmarking.

Southern California Edison's innovative commercial solar lease program needs 100–150 commercial building rooftops to meet its ambitious goals. Visit the source link below to access the program webpage for more information about the program's list of specific requirements, or click the hyperlink to download a printout of the program requirements.

This handbook (25 pages) provides the utility’s perspective on utility managed community solar program development and is a resource for government officials, regulators, community organizers, solar energy advocates, non-profits and interested citizens who want to support or educate their local utility in implementing a new or improving an existing community solar project. It describes the major design elements the utility needs to address during program development and provides suggestions for how to constructively engage with the utility and support program implementation from a well-informed perspective. The handbook includes an Appendix (8 pages) listing installed community solar projects across the U.S. with high level descriptions and links to more information.

A useful addition to the existing communication between utilities and local governments would be for local jurisdictions that issue electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) installation permits to notify utilities when permits have been issued. As part of a standardized permitting application and checklist, include a check box that permits the local agency to share EVSE information with the local utility, and establish a process for efficiently sharing that information with the local utility. While permit information itself is already a matter of public record, this will provide the timely information utilities need to promptly and effectively accommodate for the additional electric load that chargers present.

A guide for local governments that gives an overview of the best practices for Interconnection Standards. Page 83 addresses eligible customers for interconnection.

OpenEI has compiled a map of data accessibility for residential and commercial utility customers across the United States to determine if the local utility provides sufficient data access to perform benchmarking or evaluate the effectiveness of demand response and energy efficiency measures. As more utilities provide information, the utility boundaries will be automatically colored and the overall map will become more complete. Users can search for their utility to see their electricity data access options.

This U.S. Department of Energy fact sheet offers an overview of utility incentive program categories and definition, and highlights their importance in generating energy savings for ratepayers.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District's residential solar loan program provides 100% financing to customers who install solar energy systems. This fact sheet gives an overview of the program and details about the financing offer.

This brochure provides information on a "behind the meter" solar loan program for the utility's business, non-profit, and government customers. The loan is repaid with Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs) and the maximum loan amount is based on how much energy they system is expected to produce over the term of the loan.

The Orlando Utilities Commission, in cooperation with the Orlando Federal Credit Union, provides its customers with low-interest loans for solar energy systems. The first hyperlink displays the program's loan information packet and the second hyperlink provides a program overview.

This case study explores the key factors, tools and partnerships that led to the rapid, successful solar reuse of this 6MW green remediation and utility-scale solar project. This resource is intended to assist companies, local governments, communities, utilities and regulators interested in supporting utility-scale PV solar development opportunities on contaminated lands.

For communities desiring to organize a community solar project, the local electric utility is a good place to start. In most utility-sponsored projects, utility customers participate by contributing either an up-front or ongoing payment to support a solar project. In exchange, customers receive a payment or credit on their electric bills. This resource provides an overview of how the utility-sponsored community solar model works and offers several case studies.

Resilient power expresses a simple concept: it is the ability to provide needed power, independent of the grid. Because our electric grids are vulnerable to storms and other disasters, the ability to generate electricity to power critical facilities and infrastructure should the grid go down is paramount in emergency planning. This paper outlines the dangers that power outages can pose to the most vulnerable populations, the failures of traditional backup power sources, and the opportunities to develop distributed energy systems with clean and dependable energy technologies.

Over the last two decades, traditional integrated resource planning (IRP) has proven to be a valuable tool for evaluating the tradeoffs between supply-side generation and demand-side efficiency resources. However, there has been increasing focus on the incorporation of renewable, distributed, and demand-side resources into utility planning, which requires new methodologies to assess the value of these resources, taking into account operational performance, power quality, and costs and benefits of the distribution system in comparison with conventional fossil fuel souces. This report discusses the Rocky Mountain Institute's Energy Resource Investment Strategy (ERIS) methodology and documents the details of workshops presented to Hawaiian Electric Company and its subsidiary utilities.

This 5 page case study explains the design, development, implementation and basic math behind Austin Energy’s VOS. It also examines how replicable the tariff could be for state and local governments looking to encourage solar energy development.

California Policy on Virtual Net Metering

California has passed two bills addressing virtual net metering. The hyperlink below is a snapshot of the DSIRE website that gives an overview of California's virtual net metering policy.