News Updates for the Week of December 6

1. Green Building Market Grows Despite Construction Slowdown - Despite a deep economic recession, the U.S. green building market has expanded dramatically since 2008 and is projected to double its size by 2015, says a new report by New York-based McGraw-Hill Construction. The value of green construction jumped 50% from $42 billion in 2008 to $71 billion in 2010, when it represented 25% of the all new building activity, and it's expected to reach $135 billion by 2015, according to the firm's Green Outlook 2011 report. http://ecmweb.com/ezone/green-building-market-grows-20101123/?cid=nl_ezone.

2. NEMA Third-Quarter 2010 Lighting Systems Index Improves - Third-quarter 2010 performance beat the second quarter’s by 0.9% and was 5.6% ahead of third-quarter 2009’s. http://www.nlb.org/index.cfm?cdid=10452&pid=10226. 

3. Incandescent Lamp Index Declines to Record Low During Third Quarter of 2010 - NEMA’s index for incandescent lamps declined 17.2 percent for the third quarter, registering a record low reading of 46.5. The index showed a year-over-year decline of nearly 19.0 percent. Shipments of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) waned as well, with the index dipping 18.2 percent to 168.8—a level not seen since 2006. Moreover, CFL shipments decreased 12.7 percent on a year-over-year basis. http://www.nema.org/media/pr/20101202a.cfm.

4. Shipments of Metal Halide Lamps Remain Solid During the Third Quarter - Mercury vapor lamps carved out a 5.4 percent share of the HID lamp market, an increase of 1.3 percentage points over the previous quarter. Market shares for metal halide and sodium vapor HID lamps moved in opposing directions during the quarter. Metal halide lamps improved 2.8 percentage points to 63.3 percent of total shipments while the market share of sodium vapor lamps contracted to 31.3 percent—a decline of 4.1 percentage points. http://www.nema.org/media/pr/20101203b.cfm. 

5. Secretary Chu Announces Nearly $21 Million in Technical Assistance Projects to Improve Energy Use in Commercial Buildings - During a live online chat at the White House, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that 24 projects are receiving a total of $21 million in technical assistance to dramatically reduce the energy used in their commercial buildings. http://www.energy.gov/news/9838.htm. Learn more about Commercial Building Partnerships and other projects that are part of DOE's Building Technologies Program.

6. CO State Launches Green Loan Programs for Business - Businesses looking to invest in energy efficiency upgrades could benefit from two loan programs that were announced Tuesday. The Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) will oversee both programs, one aimed at retrofits and projects below $100,000, the other at retrofits and renewable energy projects above that threshold. Both are funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Interested businesses can find more information at www.chfainfo.com. 12/1 The Gazette

7. CA Energy Commission Awards Nearly $3 Million for Energy Research - Demonstrating the importance of funding innovation, the California Energy Commission on 12/3/10 approved $2,868,787 for four energy research projects including solutions for retrofitting lighting in commercial buildings. The research projects are funded by the Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program. For more information, visit www.energy.ca.gov/research.
 

8. AL Loan Program Helps Businesses Be More Energy-Efficient - Starting 12/1 /10, Alabama businesses wanting to become more energy-efficient will have an easier time finding the money to make those changes. The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs has started a $60 million revolving loan program called AlabamaSAVES (Sustainable and Verifiable Energy Savings). Alabama industrial and commercial business owners will be able to apply for 2 percent interest loans of between $250,000 and $4 million to finance energy-saving improvements to their facilities. The loans can be used to upgrade heating and air-conditioning systems, windows and doors, electrical systems, water heating systems, energy management systems, lighting and insulation. http://www.alabamasaves.com.

9. Tampa Electric Gets Florida Public Service Commission Approval to Expand Energy-Efficiency Programs and Incentives - Tampa Electric received approval from the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) to expand its current lineup of energy efficiency programs for customers. In addition to the new programs and enhancements to existing programs, $1.5 million in incentives will be offered by Tampa Electric each year for five years to help customers install renewable technologies. The new programs should be available to customers in the first quarter of 2011. The availability of these incentives is limited and will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations will be accepted online at www.tampaelectric.com. 12/1 BUSINESS WIRE

10. Lighting Fixtures - Global Strategic Business Report - This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Lighting Fixtures. Annual estimates and forecasts are provided for each region for the period 2007 through 2015. Also, a seven-year historic analysis is provided for these markets. For more information: http://www.researchandmarkets.com/product/7b103a/lighting_fixtures_global_strategic_business.

Total Companies Profiled: 746 (including Divisions/Subsidiaries - 838) 

Region/Country Players	Region/Country Players
The United States: 82	Italy: 63
Canada: 13	Spain: 30
Japan: 13	Rest of Europe: 157
Europe: 462	Asia-Pacific: 219
France: 32	Latin America: 16
Germany: 101	Africa: 16
The United Kingdom: 79	Middle East: 17

News Updates for the Week of November 1

1. Final ENERGY STAR Program Requirements -The EPA has finalized revisions to the ENERGY STAR Partner Commitments and Product Specifications to implement third-party certification requirements for ENERGY STAR qualified products. These final documents, as well as all comments received, are posted at: www.energystar.gov/testingandverification

2. DOE's CALiPER Round 11 Summary Report Published This Week - CALiPER tests a wide range of solid-state lighting products that are available on the market, and for benchmark purposes compares them with similar products that use traditional light sources. The results of each round of testing are highlighted in a Summary Report, with detailed reports going into greater depth. http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/publications/pdfs/ssl/caliper_round-11_summary.pdf

3. INTERIOR LIGHTING: LED Vs. TRADITIONAL - instructed by Stan Walerczyk, L.C., C.L.E.P. Presented in two live 2-hour online sessions. New Program Starts December 16. Numerous LED products are currently ready for use as primary light sources, and can be considered better overall than traditional technologies for many interior applications. But there are also many LED products that are not yet nearly as cost effective as comparable high performance fluorescent, halogen infrared, metal halide, and other well-established lighting options. This seminar will examine the pros and cons of the use of LED versus traditional lighting fixtures for a variety of specific indoor lighting applications. http://www.aeeprograms.com/realtime/InteriorLighting/

4. Solais iPhone App - The app provides a simple conversion tool for users to calculate the potential cost savings from replacing a traditional lamp (halogen, CMH or CFL) with a Solais LED replacement lamp (LR38, LR30LN, LR30). http://solaislighting.com/iphone_app

5.September Existing-Home Sales Show Another Strong Gain - According to the National Association of Realtors, the 10% increase in existing-home sales for September affirms that "a sales recovery has begun," although it may choppy. Existing-home sales jumped 10.0% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.53 million in September from a downwardly revised 4.12 million in August. The September figure is well below last year's rate of 5.60 million, but last year's figure was inflated by the approaching deadline of the home buyer tax credit. 10/25 HCN

6. Economists: Unemployment Won't Drop to Normal Until 2018 - The job market and the economy will improve only slightly next year, according to an Associated Press Economy Survey of 43 leading economists whose outlook for 2011 has dimmed over the past three months. In their view, shoppers and employers will stay cautious. Households will keep saving. Inflation will remain tame. And unemployment will dip only a bit from the current 9.6 percent rate to a still-high 9 percent at the end of 2011 and won't drop to a historically normal 5.5 percent to 6 percent until at least 2018. http://www.moneynews.com

7. Living Efficiently Teams Up With NASCAR Driver Leilani Münter - LivingEfficiently http://livingefficiently.org/ is a one-stop shop devoted to helping save energy and money in all the areas where you live your life: at home, at school, at work and on the go. http://ase.org/

8. Are Performance-Based Models the Future of Commercial Building Energy Codes?- by Craig DiLouie, Lighting Controls Association. Commercial building energy codes are largely prescriptive, combining mandatory requirements for lighting controls with limits on lighting loads by application. The typical lighting load metric is lighting power density (LPD) measured in watts per square foot. Code authorities are considering approaches to energy codes that are performance based instead of mainly prescriptive. In a performance-based code, the building would be designed so that it would operate within a target limit for energy consumption as the primary metric. http://www.aboutlightingcontrols.org/education/papers/2010/2010_performance-codes.shtml

9. IES Publishes Position Statement on Indoor Lighting Efficiency - The Illuminating Engineering Society has published PS-05-10 – Standards for Energy Efficient Indoor Lighting, a position statement on the subject of imposing energy standards on indoor lighting technology, such as efficacy standards for luminaires. IES “believes that technology independent approaches are the best way to provide energy reductions and to stimulate future energy savings.” http://www.ies.org/PDF/PositionStatements/PS-05-10.pdf

10.GSA Raising Energy-Efficiency Standard for New Construction - The General Services Administration is raising the bar to increase the energy efficiency of all of its new federal building construction projects. Projects must achieve LEED Gold certification, the second-highest rating from the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. Previously, federal building projects needed to be certified at the LEED Silver level, the third-highest rating, or higher. 10/29 Federal Times

11. CA Energy Audit Removed from Home Sales, for Now - A measure that would require existing California homes to undergo energy efficiency audits before they're sold will get a second look over the next three months, the Climate Action Plan Advisory Committee decided. The committee's initial recommendation was to leave the building ordinance as is and make an audit program part of the overall climate plan, which is not expected to be finished until 2012. 10/22 The Record