DOE to back green planning in 13 US states with USD 5m

Oct 16, 2014 - The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award USD 5 million (EUR 3.9m) in funds to 13 states in a drive to help them develop and implement strategies for supporting renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The federal agency on Tuesday announced that some USD 2 million of the total will go to back Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and South Carolina’s state and regional energy planning efforts. The money are intended to facilitate stakeholder and interagency discussions related to the future of electric power as well as other issues. States are to focus on economic development opportunities related to the promotion of energy efficiency and renewable energy.

The other USD 3 million will be provided to Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Mexico, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. These states will use the DOE funding to advance the residential, commercial and industrial markets for energy efficiency and renewable energy. The funding focuses on six areas -- frameworks for the evaluation, measurement and verification of energy and emission reductions; financing retrofits for public facilities; promoting partnerships with local governments and other entities to eliminate potential obstacles to green investments; benchmarking building energy performance via whole-building data; and policies and programmess for distributed resources.

The State Energy Program has provided almost USD 52 million in funds to 33 US states and territories since 2010 for the introduction of plans that back projects in energy efficiency and renewable energy.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.780)

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!