The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), invests in high-risk, high-value research, development and deployment in energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. EERE, through the Building Technologies Office (BTO) seeks to develop technologies, techniques, and tools for making buildings more energy efficient, productive, and affordable. BTO's strategic goal is to significantly improve the energy efficiency of new and existing buildings to reduce national energy demand and allow the nation to work toward greater energy independence and a cleaner environment. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is targeted specifically at research to increase energy savings and reduce consumer bills through improved compliance with building energy codes.
The first and largest topic area for this FOA is to develop and test a methodology for identifying the commercial energy code requirements that can provide the maximum cost-effective energy and cost savings through increased compliance. The methodology will be tested in selected building types and climate zones. Quantifying those savings will create the foundations of a business case for private investors, particularly utilities, to fund programs aimed at increasing compliance. The empirical data to support such an investment does not currently exist.
In general, a project will be successful if the methodology (a) provides accurate results at a cost that is affordable to states wishing to benchmark their energy code achievements and (b) it can be extrapolated to all commercial building types in all climate zones. Given state and local government limitations on funding and resources, the methodology is likely to be multi-tiered: the minimum effort required to produce valid results will be defined but a framework allowing for increasing levels of accuracy and comprehensiveness will also be developed.
Providing state and local governments and utilities with an analytical framework for assessing the impact of codes and code compliance on energy performance will allow them to make quantitatively-based funding and action decisions. This will lead to increased investment in energy code support programs which will reduce homeowner and building owner’s energy bills.
Two other topic areas included in this FOA are (1) The expansion of DOE’s residential single family energy code field methodology to low-rise multifamily buildings; and, (2) Exploration of energy code life-cycle impacts in municipal building portfolios.
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Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline:
In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the Applicant should contact the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance (exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov). The eXCHANGE helpdesk &/or the EERE eXCHANGE System Administrators (eXCHANGE@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues.
Applicants that experience issues with submissions that result in a late submission:
In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission that results in a late submission, the Applicant should contact the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance (exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov). The eXCHANGE helpdesk &/or the EERE eXCHANGE System Administrators (eXCHANGE@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues (including finalizing the submission on behalf of and with the Applicant’s concurrence). DOE will only accept late applications when the Applicant has a) encountered technical difficulties beyond their control; b) has contacted the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance, and c) has submitted the application through eXCHANGE within 24 hours of the FOA’s posted deadline.