Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic said it’s participating in a $2 million federal pilot program that aims to increase energy efficiency in new buildings.
ECSU’s Institute for Sustainable Energy will work with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and Wisconsin-based Seventhwave to incentivize developers to enter into energy performance-based contracts.
ECSU will work with Eversource and United Illuminating to identify Connecticut projects.
The pilot program, called “Accelerate Performance,” aims to tie incentives to energy benchmarks measured after construction. That’s compared to the current system of comparing relative energy savings to a baseline before construction.
“The current procurement methodology for new buildings is outdated and has not kept pace with the innovations of new design concepts and technologies,” Paul Torcellini, principal engineer for commercial buildings research at NREL, said in a statement. “Accelerate Performance has the opportunity to bridge policy and practice for the next generation of new buildings.”
