Commercial building owners and operators can now tap the expertise of national laboratories and private-sector technical experts to help them save money and energy across building portfolios.
The new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiative, Commercial Building Partnerships (CBP), has recruited three participating laboratories: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, owners and operators of selected projects must commit to substantial energy savings. “CBP participants will create buildings with measured energy savings of at least 50 percent for new construction and 30 percent for existing buildings,” says Paul Torcellini, group manager for commercial building research at NREL.
Publicly available case studies will describe each CBP new construction and retrofit project in detail. This documentation will make it straightforward for building owners and operators outside of the CBP initiative to benefit from the work being done.