Building Codes Assistance Project

On September 9, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency David Rodgers announced awards for approximately $6.6 million in competitive-selected grants for innovative state-level energy efficiency and renewable energy policies and projects. The DOE supported, state-led projects will focus on building utility scale energy capacity from renewables and demand reduction, as well as advanced building energy codes. Rodgers made the announcements while addressing the National Association for State Energy Officials Annual Meeting.

DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) selected six state-led projects valued at $2.6 million (DOE Share) to develop advance building codes. Grants will assist states in developing and implementing plans that will achieve model building codes representing a 30 percent improvement over ASHRAE 90.1-2004 and/or the 2006 IECC. Along with the financial assistance, DOE will be supporting these states with ongoing technical assistance. The DOE investment in advanced codes will leverage project cost share totaling $2.3 million.

The following six projects were selected for funding:

• California will build the California Building Energy Efficiency Standards Learning Management System, an online system developed in partnership with Building Media Incorporated, to educate building department professionals to enforce the 2008 Title 24 Building Energy Efficiency Standards and the next Standards update ($500,000).

• Florida seeks to advance commercial and residential Energy Code to a level at least 30 percent better than current standards. The grant will support a combination of administrative, legislative, compliance tool development, and training tasks ($495,708).

• Massachusetts will work with other states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions to develop and implement plans to upgrade, implement and enforce building energy codes that are a 30 percent improvement over ASHRAE 90.1-2004 and/or the 2006 IECC ($500,000).

• Nebraska will seek to increase the state's economic and energy freedom and to become a national leader in energy efficiency and energy building code initiatives. This will be done by adopting a commercial building energy code that is 30 percent beyond the building and lighting requirements set forth in ASHRAE 90.1-2004 and IECC 2006 ($303,065).

• North Carolina will update its state energy code during the 2009 to 2010 time period. The grant will support organization and management of a stakeholder process to review and support changes to the state energy code in order to make future buildings more energy efficient. The State will also develop mechanisms to determine the level of code enforcement and to identify the main problem areas for code enforcement officials, building designers, and building contractors ($499,190).

• Washington will update its state energy code to an efficiency level that is a 30 percent improvement over ASHRAE 90.1-2004 and/or the 2006 IECC in the 2009 code revision process by providing code implementation support. This will include development and revision of materials to implement the 2009 changes and training and support to the building community to ensure success in code implementation ($300,000).

For more details, please view the DOE press release, or visit DOE's State Energy Program website.

For code status information, please consult the appropriate BCAP Code Status page.