Department of Energy Grant

Overview of the DOE Grant

US Department of Energy
Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy
Building Technologies Office

Project Period: July 15, 2015 – July 14, 2018

Project Goals

Realize a 20% aggregate energy savings across more than 200 buildings in the Greater Charlotte region.
Utilize smart city initiatives to create scalable, replicable models for the reduction of energy, water, and waste across a wide spectrum of unreached or under-reached markets.
Develop and implement a comprehensive behavioral change component to ensure sustainability improvements persist beyond the period of the project.

Building Sectors

Commercial, Real Estate, & Hospitality;
Higher Education;
Healthcare; and
Retail

Impact of Project

By enabling building energy-use reductions in the Greater Charlotte Area, Envision Charlotte will:

Reduce the cost of doing business in Charlotte, resulting in the creation of greater economic development and environmental benefits;
Serve as a replicable model for other urban business cores; and
Capitalize on current momentum to realize our mission to make Uptown Charlotte the most sustainable urban core in the nation.

Project Components

Data Foundation & Energy Roundtable

UNC Charlotte SIBS leads student teams through a two tiered approach that first identifies operational energy savings opportunities and then identifies capital improvements that improve energy performance and increase property value for participating buildings.

Data Foundation

The first tier of the project approach will focus on adapting DOE-produced tools and training modules to use existing data streams to achieve operational savings. Initially, student teams involved in an innovative new degree program at UNCC will travel to participating buildings and use DOE’s Building Retuning Toolkit and ECAM+ to determine operational savings potentials in each building.

Following this effort, Building Retuning Training, a major component of the Better Buildings Workforce effort, will be offered to each of the buildings in a manner targeted to the specific findings in each individual building. This effort will involve generalized online training courses and targeted on-site visits.

This multi-level approach (initial investigation by students followed by targeted training designed to implement the savings potential) will bolster the skills of existing workforce and develop new talent. Students involved in the degree program will also benchmark building performance across the entire portfolio using tools such as the Building Energy Asset Score and the Buildings Performance Database. Given the demonstrated potential of Building Retuning, it is imagined that this effort will be able to achieve much of the desired 20% energy savings.

Energy Roundtable

In this second tier of effort, UNC Charlotte faculty and industry partners will lead student teams through an ASHRAE Level-2 audit. The goal is to identify retrofit opportunities that remain available after operational savings have been achieved. Envision Charlotte and SIBS have already started to develop this effort using DOE’s Advanced Energy Retrofit Guidelines (AERG).

The Energy Roundtable is intended to integrate the AERG and the Building Performance Database to better inform retrofit opportunities and provide an objective source of information to building owners and tenants. The Energy Roundtable program has been piloted to great success from the perspective of building owners, who also value their role in offering an educational service to the students involved. Once opportunities are discovered, Envision Charlotte will help owners identify potential vendors and service providers by leveraging its existing network as identified in the project’s list of Information & Technology Providers referenced as part of the project’s Feasibility section. During this activity, students will also be expected to learn energy-modeling tools provided by DOE, such as Energy Plus coupled with Open Studio.

Envision Energy Roundtable

Building Re-Tuning Training

UNC Charlotte offers a training course intended to help building operations staff learn how to operate buildings more efficiently, reduce operating cost and provide energy savings – based on materials developed by The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
The training course is offered for two general categories of buildings:

° Large buildings with building automation systems (BAS), and
° Small to Medium-sized buildings without BAS

Building Re-Tuning Training

Comprehensive Behavioral Change Program

Envision Charlotte’s brand-new ECO Network offers a vehicle for broad sustainability messaging and engagement around community-wide campaigns focused on smart and sustainable behavior.
To learn more and join the ECO Network, visit the ECO Network Page.

Opportunities for your Building to Get Involved

If you are interested in the Data Foundation-Energy Roundtable and/or the Building Re-Tuning Training, please complete and submit the form below. Thank you!

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Project Members

UNCC Charlotte SIBS

As the project’s technical lead, Dr. Rob Cox and Dr. Ben Futrell of UNC Charlotte’s Sustainably Integrated Buildings and Sites (SIBS) are leading the Data Foundation & Energy Roundtable and the Building Re-Tuning Training.

Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES)

The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) is supporting Envision Charlotte in developing and launching a community-wide program called the ECO Network. The Network will offer Charlotte locals a suite of sustainability-focused activities, educational opportunities and events.
C2ES is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization promoting strong policy and action to address our energy and climate challenges. Learn more at www.c2es.org.

Charlotte City Center Partners

Charlotte Center City Partners is the education & outreach lead on the project and will coordinate communications to local partners including Center City residents and employees, media outlets, and other local partners.

Charlotte Center City Partners envisions and implements strategies and actions to drive the economic, social and cultural development of Charlotte’s Center City. The organization’s vision is to help create a viable, livable, memorable, and sustainable Center City with modern infrastructure, a tapestry of unique neighborhoods, and a diversity of thriving businesses. For complete information about Charlotte Center City Partners, visit www.charlottecentercity.org.

City of Charlotte

The City of Charlotte has created the new Smart Cities Council comprised of community leaders with a diverse set of backgrounds and professional affiliations, including non-profit, industry/utility, information technology, municipal, and education.

Charlotte’s Smart Cities Council will use its leadership to foster and publicize a Smart Cities ecosystem in the Greater Charlotte area that uses information and communication technology to enhance its livability, workability, and sustainability.

Get involved as a Vendor / Partner

If you are interested in becoming a vendor or partner for our DOE Project, please complete and submit the form below. Thank you!