Read the full story and listen to the podcast episode from U.S. DOE.
The craft brewing industry accounts for almost a quarter of the $100 billion U.S. beer market. In this episode, the folks at Deschutes Brewery in Oregon take us through the energy-consuming process of making beer and how the Department of Energy’s Better Plants Program benefits the breweries through reducing energy and water costs.
Read the full story at Environment + Energy Leader.
Star Refrigeration is releasing an app that will help temperature-controlled storage facilities compare their energy use across the industry to help them find their most efficient use of power.
Since 2018, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Energy has partnered with the Smart Energy Design Assistance Center (SEDAC) and the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) to help municipalities reduce energy and costs for water and wastewater treatment. Funded by the Illinois EPA through a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, no-cost energy efficiency opportunity usage assessments are provided to publicly owned water and wastewater treatment facilities by SEDAC and ISTC. Since the program began, total recommendations made by ISTC and SEDAC, if fully implemented, represent a savings of 39.7 million kWh, a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions at 32,590 metric tons of CO2 equivalent, and 3 million dollars total cost savings.
SEDAC’s fall webinar series will help water and wastewater plants to learn about new technologies and strategies to save energy and improve operations.
Introduction to the Illinois EPA Public Water Infrastructure Energy Efficiency Program for Water Treatment Plants
Introduction to Aeration & Energy in Wastewater Treatment
Oxygen Transfer Efficiency: Diffusers and Aerators
Register for upcoming webinars and view recordings of past events on the SEDAC website.
With assistance provided through the Public Water Infrastructure Plant Efficiency Program, the City of Henry Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW) replaced their existing lagoon aeration system with Micro Bubble Diffusion (MBD) technology, resulting in significant energy cost savings and a reduction in the dissolved solids present in their treatment lagoons.
Read the full story at Environmental Factor.
NIEHS efforts to store research samples more sustainably helped the National Institutes of Health (NIH) win the Top Government Organization Award in the 2021 International Freezer Challenge for the second year in a row. The Freezer Challenge is a cold storage competition for laboratories, and it is run by My Green Lab and the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories, both of which are nonprofit organizations.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced nearly $54 million for 10 new projects led by DOE’s National Laboratories to increase energy efficiency in microelectronics design and production. Microelectronics are critical to nearly all modern technology, including smartphones, medical equipment, power plant and electricity grids, and automobiles. Advanced microelectronics hold the potential to power innovative solutions to challenges in clean energy, climate, and national security.
“Thanks to microelectronics, technologies that used to swallow entire buildings now fit in the palms of our hands — and now they are supporting climate solutions in electricity, transportation, and renewable energy. DOE’s world-class scientists are stepping up to reduce the carbon footprint of micro technologies used by billions of people around the world to secure our clean energy future, increase American competitiveness, and lead on climate action and innovation.”
Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm.
Miniaturization of microelectronic devices has spawned a digital revolution in recent decades, resulting in smaller and more powerful devices, like phones and computers, which has improved convenience and advanced scientific advancement and innovation. That continual shrinking, commonly known as Moore’s Law, is now facing technological and economic obstacles. As devices have shrunk in size, the energy required for their production has not been reduced at the same pace. Significant investments in R&D are now required to increase energy efficiency and create more sustainable technology systems that can carry the field into the future.
The projects, led by diverse groups of researchers at DOE National Labs and experts in academia and industry, will aim to increase energy efficiency and functionality while stimulating US-based innovation as the foundation for future domestic technology development and manufacturing. These projects are “co-design” microelectronics projects, involving multi-disciplinary collaboration that takes into account the interdependencies among materials, physics, architectures, and software.
Projects will explore:
Projects were chosen based on peer review under the DOE National Laboratory Announcement “Microelectronics Co-Design Research.” Total funding is $54 million for projects lasting up to three years, with $18 million in Fiscal Year 2021 dollars and outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations. A list of awards can be found here.
Read the full story from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s software suite, AutoBEM, creates a digital twin of the nation’s 129 million buildings, providing an energy model that can help utilities and owners make informed decisions on how to best improve energy efficiency.
Community choice aggregators (CCAs) are local government entities that competitively procure electric generation service on behalf of their residents as an alternative to the incumbent utility. Although cities and counties often engage in aggregation in response to climate goals, most CCAs nationwide are not yet engaging in energy efficiency, although some initiatives are underway. This report provides an early view of the landscape of energy efficiency deployment in CCAs throughout the United States, examining challenges and strategies that CCAs face in implementing energy efficiency and the potential role for CCAs in energy efficiency deployment.
Read the full story at Energy News Network.
Analyses suggest investment in the energy efficiency sector could let a larger share of money stay in communities vs. natural gas operations.
