Guest Contributors

This post originally appeared on Switchboard, a blog by NRDC.

Industry and energy efficiency advocates have come to a major agreement, officially approved today, on updated efficiency standards for commercial air conditioners and furnaces that, once adopted, will lead to huge energy and dollar savings for more than half of the nation's nonresidential buildings.

This article was originally posted on Efficiency Vermont's blog.

I often speak with small- to mid-size business owners who are so strapped for money and time, that much-needed energy-efficiency upgrades just never happen, even though they know the potential for savings.

Here’s the thing: not making time to invest in energy upgrades will cost you over time. Take a look at the comparison below.

This post originally appeared on the ACEEE Blog.

Now that one energy efficiency bill is before the president, the real legislative work on energy efficiency begins. The Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2015 (S. 535) is three steps forward, a collection of three useful but relatively modest provisions on residential water heaters and commercial buildings. But there is a long way to go.

Originally posted on Switchboard (NRDC's blog), and authored by Jackson Morris, this post takes a magnifying glass to New York's REV Track 1 Order and lays out all of the juicy details for your reading pleasure. Big thanks to NRDC and Jackson Morris for this illuminating contribution.

There are big goings-on in the Empire State these days related to how to move to a 21stcentury electric system. And while there is much work ahead, the early results are noteworthy.

Originally posted on ACEEE's blog, this post is part one in a series where ACEEE examines the most effective roles for energy efficiency programs and market-driven solutions in scaling the deployment of energy efficiency. Thanks to Steve Nadal and ACEEE for sharing!

Thanks to Jake Marin (HVAC Program Manager) and Efficiency Vermont for contributing this especially relevant piece on burgeoning heat pump products. Heat pump technologies transfer heat much more efficiently than traditional methods and are quickly becoming a financially viable alternative. 

Thanks to Danielle Sass Byrnett and the U.S. Department of Energy for sharing this piece on their new Better Buildings Residential Program Solution Center!

Thanks to Shanna Cleveland and Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) for this piece outlining three crucial points you may not be aware of surrounding the natural gas/winter peak conversation.

Thanks to Greg Cunningham and Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) for this cogent look at the many intricacies of Natural Gas markets and big, related pipeline question marks.

Massive grid defection could happen in the near future. A speaker at New England Electricity’s 141^st Restructuring Roundtable, “The Electric Utility of the (Near?) Future; and The Promise of Storage for Renewables,” presented on the economic benefits of going off the grid, sending ripples through the packed audience that lined the walls and filled the overflowing room.