Monthly Archives: May 2011

2011 ENERGY STAR National Building Competition

Teams from 245 buildings across the nation are in a head-to-head battle to see who can reduce their energy the most. From this field, a small group of top-performing finalists will compete to be the country’s top energy saver–and winner … Continue reading

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Cool Metal Roofing Coalition

The CMRC is closely monitoring proposed changes to the 2011 revision cycle of Title 24 in California. The utilities in the state are proposing to change the definition of cool roofing to a product with minimum solar reflectance of 0.70.  … Continue reading

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Cool Roof Rating Council

At the recent CRRC Technical Committee meeting there were three presentations on the development of predictive aged solar reflectance formulae for different types of roof products. The equations are based on CRRC directory data of initial and aged solar reflectance … Continue reading

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Unirac now offers installers mobile apps

Albuquerque-based Unirac now offers installers mobile apps for its aluminum and steel mounts for photovoltaic (PV) solar arrays. The free products are available for users of Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch but could be developed for Google’s Android and … Continue reading

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Solar shingles

United Solar Ovonic LLC has introduced PowerShingle, an integrated PV system into asphalt shingle roofing. It is expected to be commercially available in mid 2011.  The product contains  193 mm wide strips of conventional roofing material with laminated 143 mm … Continue reading

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Federal mandates for buildings to meet green standards

Federal mandates for buildings to meet green standards are challenging with the budget constraints at all levels of government.  Only seven of twenty agencies graded by the Office of Management and Budget met the 2010 green mandates to have a … Continue reading

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Dow Chemical Company announcement

The Dow Chemical Company announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will fund key lab research as part of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between Dow and DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to accelerate the adoption … Continue reading

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New DOE Goal

The DOE is initiating a new effort to reduce solar costs and stimulate international competition.  The department will spend $27 million on projects aimed at reducing costs up to 75%.  The projects will advance the development, commercialization and manufacturing of … Continue reading

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ASHRAE claims that the 2010 version of standard 90.1 can save more than 30%

ASHRAE claims that the 2010 version of standard 90.1 can save more than 30% in energy costs, compared to the 2004 standard.  Analysis performed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL) found that the updated 2010 version of 90.1 Energy Standard … Continue reading

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