Resource Library

This fact sheet provides an overview of the US Department of Energy's brownfield development solar project in Durango, Colorado at a 40-acre uranium mill tailing disposal cell site. This resource provides a wealth of information for local governments that are interested in partnering with the federal government to develop brownfield sites in their jurisdictions.

There is a broad range of support available from the federal government for local renewable energy projects on brownfields. This guide provides a useful tool for identifying and pursuing available federal government assistance alternatives.

Build Smart DC is a public, visual record of building energy use in the District. The platform provides accountability for government and private sector spending through exposing raw daily energy usage, building performance comparisons, efficiency project efficacy tracking and simply providing a substantial and unique pool of information from which stakeholders can learn and build.

The purpose of this case study is to examine the challenges of constructing a new, single family home with a solar energy system in an official historic neighborhood in San Antonio and how those challenges were overcome. The first hyperlink displays the case study for builders wishing to install solar energy systems in historic neighborhoods. The second hyperlink provides the City of San Antonio's Guidelines for Solar Panels for Locally Designated Historic Properties.

Boston’s Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance is a component of the City’s Climate Action Plan, which aims to reduce greenhouse gases by 25% by 2020. The ordinance requires that all large and medium-sized buildings report their annual energy and water consumption data to the City of Boston using the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager tool, or an equivalent mechanism as approved by the Air Pollution Control Commission. The ordinance applies to all non-residential buildings equal to or greater than 35,000 gross square feet, residential buildings equal to or greater than 35 units or 35,000 gross square feet, and all City-owned buildings. The City of Boston will publish the results of the Energy Benchmarking Summaries annually on its website.

This webpage details the steps to take to tighten a building's envelope, which can reduce a building's heating and cooling load, improve occupant comfort, and ensure that existing heating and cooling systems can eventually be replaced with smaller and less expensive alternatives.

This comprehensive guide was developed by the National Institute of Building Sciences for exterior envelope design and construction for institutional and office buildings. It discusses the following building envelope systems in separate chapters: below grade construction; exterior walls, both structural (providing support for the building) and nonstructural (supported by the building structure); fenestration, both windows and metal/glass curtain walls; roofs, both low- and steep-slope; and atria.

The Snohomish County Public Utility District, located in Washington, provides financial incentives as well as technical assistance for non-residential buildings to save energy and reduce operating costs with additional insulation and high-performance glazing. The improvements must meet or exceed the current WA State Non Residential Energy Code (WA NREC) requirements.

Hawaii Energy's website contains an individual page containing resources and information about incentives available to commercial customers for each building system component that it offers incentives for, including building envelope upgrades, lighting, water heating, and more. Utilities can utilize a similar format to share resources with their customers.

This training module from the New York City's Department of Buildings addresses building envelope criteria for all commercial buildings and for residential buildings over three stories in height, including code compliance requirements for building envelope components such as walls, insulation, and windows, and inspection requirement. The building envelope criteria is drawn from Chapter 5 of the New York City Energy Conservation Code, whose energy efficiency standards are more stringent than that of New York State.

BPI develops standards for energy efficiency retrofit using an open, transparent, consensus-based process built on sound building science. From these standards, BPI develops professional certifications for individuals, companywide credentials for BPI Gold Star Contractors, home energy rating systems and quality assurance services that help raise the bar in home performance contracting.

In accordance with their commitment to environmental protection and sound fiscal management, Tufts University developed a policy to use energy in occupant spaces responsibly by settings standardized temperature setpoints. The attached document details the temperature policies in buildings during occupied and unoccupied hours as well as guidance.

These consumer guides published by the US Department of Energy answer frequently asked questions about solar energy systems and go into detail about the benefits, system basics, choosing a system, financial incentives, warranty, and insurance issues. Each hyperlink displays a different consumer guide.

These solar installation guidelines were developed by the State Fire Marshall's Office and are widely followed statewide at the discretion of local authorities. This 5-page excerpt contains the solar installation guidelines in regards to marking and labeling, access and pathways, and location of conductors. The source document also contains background information, suggestions for adoption, as well as sample installations.

CalEnviroScreen is a screening methodology that can be used to help identify California communities that are disproportionately burdened by multiple sources of pollution. CalEPA has used the tool to designate California communities as disadvantaged pursuant to Senate Bill 535, and updated the tool in October 2014 to include additional data along the US-Mexico border. Users may access the mapping data in an Excel spreadsheet, as a Google Earth file, or via ArcGIS database files. The attached document describe methods to identify disadvantaged communities based on CalEnviroScreen.

CalEPA's Environmental Complaint Forms allows individuals to confidentially report any observed activity, conduct, or physical evidence that they suspect to be illegal or unauthorized and threatening to impact California’s environment or the public health. Although the online form is not currently offered in languages besides English, local California governments should provide a link to the form on their website and encourage their environmental services department to publicize it as well.

Click on the links below to view the 2013 California Building Standards Code (Title 24) that addresses the current water efficiency and conservation requirements by the State of California for the residential and nonresidential sectors. California's building codes are published on a triennial basis. Page 23 of the first resource lists the requirements for residential sector. Pages 37-39 of the second resource lists the requirements for the nonresidential sector. There are additional voluntary measures that go beyond these requirements available at the California Building Standards Commission.

This website provides an overview of AB 2188, a policy that modifies specific statutes that compose the Solar Rights Act. California cities and counties must adopt an ordinance that creates a streamlined, expedited permitting process for small residential rooftop solar energy systems by September 30, 2015.

Bill language for AB 2188, a state-mandated local program that requires a city, county, or city and county to adopt, on or before September 30, 2015, an ordinance that creates an expedited, streamlined permitting and efficient inspection process for small residential rooftop solar energy systems.

California AB1092 requires that the California Building Standards Code be amended to require pre-wiring for electric vehicle charging in multi-family dwellings and non-residential places like businesses, and shopping centers. At least 3 percent of parking spaces in multi-family dwellings have the wiring to allow charging station installation, and at non-residential buildings, at least 10 percent of parking spaces should be designated for "low emitting" cars, like electric vehicles.

The purpose of this information bulletin is to clarify requirements of the State Building Standards Codes (Title 24) that pertain to solar PV installations. This bulletin can serve as a reference guide for permit applicants and enforcing agencies to clarify how state code requirements are practically applied in the local jurisdiction. It is intended to minimize permitting uncertainty and differing interpretation regarding specific code requirements for solar PV installations. This information bulletin primarily clarifies requirements pertaining to the California Building Code and the California Residential Code, since these codes in their current form require significant local interpretation. This information bulletin does not address local regulations. The first hyperlink (document length 10 pages) features general code requirements applicable to all installations. The second hyperlink (document length 6 pages) features code requirements specific to single family dwellings.

The purpose of this bulletin is to clarify requirements of the State Building Standards Codes (Title 24) that pertain to solar PV installations on one- and two-family dwellings. This bulletin can serve as a reference guide for permit applicants and enforcing agencies to clarify how state code requirements are practically applied in the local jurisdiction. The information provided is based on the 2013 California Building Code (CBC), the 2013 California Residential Code (CRC) and the California Energy Code (CEC).

In support of the state of California Renewables Portfolio Standard, the California ISO is working with participating transmission owners, the California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission, industry experts, adjacent control areas and owners/developers of renewable resources to identify integration issues and solutions for the integration of large amounts of renewable resources into the ISO Control Area. This webpage contains a summary of their work to date, including market notices, feasibility studies, and other reports.

This guidebook is intended to help customers interconnect electric generators (distributed generation) to their investor-owned electric utility Distribution System under the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved utility interconnection Rule 21, which is undergoing updates to accommodate the state's 1.3 GW energy storage mandate. This guidebook gives an overall understanding of the process of interconnection, first as an overview, then in details. Sections 1-2 give an overview of Rule 21. Sections 3-7 give the technical details for interconnecting. Section 8 covers what to do if there is a dispute with the electric utility. Section 9 contains links to further information.

A detailed description of the CPUC decision to give REC ownership to distributed generator owners.