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| News and Events: Technical Assistance, Incentives, and Funding Opportunities: Upcoming Events and Activities: Resources and Guides:
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| TDEC Presents Clean Tennessee Energy Grants to Five Counties
TDEC recently presented grant awards to five Tennessee Counties to support various energy projects through the Clean Tennessee Energy Grants (CTEG) program. CTEG has funded more than $1.9 million for projects that will reduce air emissions, improve energy efficiency, and help communities create cost savings. Other recipients of CTEG funding can be found here. - Haywood County received $232,623 to fund LED lighting upgrades, a 50 kW solar array, and 51 new water-sourced heat pump console units across four different County facilities. The total annual savings of Haywood County’s combined energy projects is predicted to be $ 56,478.
- Union County received $38,810 to upgrade HVAC units in its County Courthouse, resulting in an energy savings of 245,940 kWh and $24,755 annually. The City of Maynardville in Union County was also awarded an additional $22,600 to fund LED lighting upgrades in its City Hall as well as the replacement of two HVAC systems.
- Hancock County’s Morristown Housing Authority was awarded $78,012 to replace existing electric furnaces with new heat pump systems in 25 Sneedville dwelling units. The upgrades are expected to result in an annual savings of $347,540 and more than 3.7 million kWh in energy.
- Cocke County received $19,095 to replace existing lighting in its County Courthouse with LEDs, resulting in a savings of $1,003 and 10,145 kWh per month.
- Bedford County was awarded $15,000 to replace fluorescent lighting in its water treatment plant with new LED lighting. This project should result in an estimated annual electricity reduction of 198,000 kWh, which will equate to roughly a $20,000 reduction in energy costs and a decrease of 139 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year.
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| Tennessee Chapter of APWA Names Lebanon Gasification Plan Top Project in the State
The City of Lebanon’s waste-to-energy gasification initiative was named the 2017 project of the year by the Tennessee Chapter of the American Public Works Association (APWA). This award recognizes a project in a Tennessee city that epitomizes outstanding planning, construction, and management. The award recognizes the City of Lebanon gasification plant, which was financed both by Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds and Clean Tennessee Energy Grant funds and was designed and built by Aries Clean Energy in 2016. It is both the first such gasification initiative in the nation as well as the largest downdraft gasifier in the world.
To transform waste into usable energy, the gasification plant takes commercial and municipal wood waste (waste previously dumped in area landfills) and blends it with sewer sludge and scrap tires to create a gasification fuel. That syngas is converted to electricity for use onsite at the City’s adjacent wastewater treatment plant. Using the syngas-produced electricity at its wastewater plant, the City of Lebanon is expected to annually save around $340,000 in electrical costs. That’s $8.5 million in savings over its twenty-five-year operating life! What’s more, the gasification plant diverts thirty-two tons of wood waste per day and four-hundred tons of scrap tires per year from local landfills. This alone will eliminate 2,500 tons of carbon emissions per year.
TDEC has previously recognized this project in the past, awarding it a Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award in the Energy and Renewable Resources category in 2017. Read more about the project and the APWA award here.
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| UT Knoxville Earns EPA Green Power Leadership Award
UT Knoxville has received a 2017 green power leadership award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The annual awards recognize America’s leading green power users for their commitment to advancing the nation’s voluntary green power market. The University is currently purchasing nearly 246 million kWh of green power annually, which is enough to meet 95% of the organization’s electricity use. Read more about the award here.
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| TSU & Vanderbilt Sign Up for Race to Zero Student Design Competition
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| ORNL Office of Science Technologies Recognized as 2017 R&D Magazine Award Finalists
This year, U.S. DOE’s national laboratories had 33 technologies chosen as 2017 R&D 100 Award Finalists. Of those 33 technologies, several were developed at ORNL. The coveted awards are presented annually in recognition of exceptional new products, processes, materials, or software that were developed throughout the world and introduced into the market in the previous year. Click here to read more on the ORNL awards.
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| TAEBC Hosts Annual Opportunities in Energy Meeting in Knoxville
On December 7, the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council (TAEBC) hosted its annual Opportunities in Energy meeting. This meeting highlights Tennessee’s many advanced energy entrepreneurship and innovation participants, and this year featured speakers from ORNL, UTK, TVA, and members of the state’s advanced energy private industry. TAEBC also highlighted several speakers representing some of the Energy Mentor Network’s participating companies, including SkyNano Technologies, Peroxygen Systems, and program graduate Solar Site Design.
Each Energy Mentor Network speaker delivered a “power pitch” talking about both the services or products they provide for the advanced energy market and how the mentorship program helped shape or expand their business. The goal of the Energy Mentor Network is to foster the growth of Tennessee advanced energy technologies and startups by connecting entrepreneurs with mentors and industry-specific expertise. The network, which is run by TAEBC in partnership with Launch Tennessee, pairs mentors with promising new companies through a structured program of panel presentations and mentoring sessions. Applications are now open for mentors and startups who want to participate in the program. For more information and to apply, click here.
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| E4TheFuture Launches Faces of EE: America's Job-Creation Powerhouse
Energy efficiency is a job-creation powerhouse, and the nonprofit E4TheFuture has recently built out the data to back up that claim. According to the E4TheFuture project, Shelby, Davidson, and Knox counties are among the highest in Tennessee for energy efficiency employment.
One aspect of the project’s focus is to “humanize” these statistics. People who work in energy efficiency are passionate about what they do. Why? Because the jobs are: - Non-partisan
- Local; cannot be outsourced
- Poised for massive growth
- Made in America using mostly U.S. materials
The mission of the new Faces of EE program is to spread the word about how important the energy efficiency industry is to America’s economy and employment, while promoting solutions that help make the energy efficiency sector even stronger. Follow and amplify @FacesOfEE on Twitter to participate in the movement. E4TheFuture has also put out a new blog on the topic, which you can read here.
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| TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE, INCENTIVES, AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
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| Women Startup Challenge - Emerging Tech
The Women Startup Challenge in Emerging Tech is one of the largest pitch competitions to showcase and fund top early-stage, women-led technology startups focused on Agriculture, Augmented Reality, Biotech, Health, Blockchain, Energy, IoT, Robotics, Space, Transportation, and/or Virtual Reality. Ten finalists will be selected to pitch their emerging tech ventures before a panel of prominent investors. The grand prize winner will receive $50,000 as a cash grant for their startup. In addition, all ten finalists will receive pitch coaching and will participate in a mentoring day with top investors and more. The Women Startup Challenge will take place at Google’s New York Campus in March 2018. Applications are due December 19, 2017. Read more about the award criteria and application process by clicking here.
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| SBIR/STTR Released Funding Opportunities in Diverse Energy Fields
U.S. DOE recently announced several advanced energy topics in its latest Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) funding opportunity. Under Phase 1, Release 2, SBIR/STTR may fund a variety of advanced energy topics, including Advanced Grid Technologies, Bioenergy, Buildings, Fuel Cells, Geothermal, Solar, Wind, Hydro, and more. Letters of Intent for Release 2 funding are due on January 8, 2018 with full applications due February 26, 2018. To view the full timeline, requirements, and topic areas of this funding opportunity, click here. You can also learn more about this funding opportunity by attending program informational webinars, which you can register for here.
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| U.S. DOE Training and Education Opportunities for Students and Faculty
U.S. DOE provides support to undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers through research and development awards at universities and at the DOE national laboratories. Here are three such opportunities, all of which are sponsored and managed by the U.S. DOE Office of Workforce Development Teachers and Scientists (WDTS), in collaboration with U.S. DOE Laboratories/Facilities. Applications for all three programs are due January 12, 2018 at 5:00 pm EST.
Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) 2018 Summer Term
The SULI program encourages undergraduate students to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers by providing research experience at U.S. DOE laboratories. Selected students participate as interns appointed at one of seventeen participating laboratories/facilities. The students will perform research under the guidance of laboratory staff scientists or engineers on projects supporting the U.S. DOE mission.
Community College Internships (CCI) 2018 Summer Term
CCI encourages community college students to enter technical careers by providing technical training opportunities at U.S. DOE national laboratories. Selected students participate as interns appointed at one of fifteen participating labs, where they will work on technologies or instrumentation projects, or at major research facilities supporting U.S. DOE’s mission, under the guidance of laboratory staff scientists or engineers.
Visiting Faculty Program (VFP) 2018 Summer Term
In order to expand the workforce vital to U.S. DOE’s core mission areas, VFP increases the research competitiveness of faculty members and their students at institutions historically underrepresented in the research community. As part of the program, selected university/college faculty members collaborate with U.S. DOE laboratory research staff on a research project of mutual interest. Faculty member participants may invite up to two students (one of which may be a graduate student) to participate in the research project.
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| UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES
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| Energy Services Coalition Chapter Meeting
The Energy Services Coalition (ESC) is a public-private partnership promoting the benefits of, providing education on, and serving as an advocate for the widespread use of energy performance contracting in public and private facilities across the United States. The next meeting of the ESC Tennessee Chapter will take place on Monday, December 11 at 12:30 pm in Nashville. Click here for more information. If you are interested in learning more about the Tennessee effort, contact the ESC at info@energyservicescoalition.org. You can also visit and "like" the Tennessee ESC Chapter Facebook to get involved.
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| Webinar: Blue Light and LED Street Lighting
The “blue light” content of LED outdoor lighting has received much public attention over the last year and a half. Like all broad-spectrum or “white” light sources, LEDs have higher levels of blue—or more precisely, short-wavelength content—than sodium vapor technology, which is the current dominant light source used in street and area lighting. Issues have been raised with regard to potential biological and other impacts of this short wavelength content. This webinar, hosted by Bruce Kinzey of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, will touch on the complexities involved, clarify that the issues under discussion are not unique to LED, and will attempt to put the associated risks into an appropriate context. Join the webinar on Monday, December 11 from 2:00 to 3:00 pm EST.
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| TDEC Webinar on Community Involvement: Blooming Where You're Planted
The TDEC Office of Policy and Sustainable Practices is pleased to announce that it is hosting a free webinar on Wednesday, December 13 at 1:00 p.m. CST. This webinar will focus on new ways to engage your communities with the help of your employees. Topics for this webinar will include the "Nobody Trashes Tennessee Campaign," Keep Tennessee Beautiful (KTnB), and industry partners' experiences with community outreach. To register, click here.
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| Register for the 4th Annual Tennessee Renewable Energy and Economic Development Council Conference
The 4th Annual Tennessee Renewable Energy and Economic Development Council (TREEDC) Conference will take place on December 14-15 at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville. This year’s conference will highlight a wide variety of renewable energy technologies, case studies, and financial opportunities, and will encourage dialogue for networking and fellowship among supporters of these technologies in Tennessee and across the region. Key highlights include: - Panels on both urban and rural renewable energy programs
- Keynote speaker Matt Beasley, President of TenneSEIA, on "The Future of Solar"
- An update on the Volkswagen Diesel Settlement by the TDEC Office of Energy Programs
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| Webinar on Smart Curtailment: A Global Perspective
On January 17, 2018 at 11:00 am EST, the International Energy Agency’s Wind Task 34 (also known as WREN: Working Together to Resolve Environmental Effects of Wind Energy) will host a webinar on smart curtailment on wind farms, or ways to shut down turbines even when wind is available for strategic purpose or grid response. This webinar series supports WREN's goal to facilitate international collaboration that advances global understanding of environmental effects of offshore and land-based wind energy development. To learn more about the speakers and to register for the webinar, click here.
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| ACEEE Releases New Multimedia Project, "People Who Save Energy
At least 2.2 million Americans work some or all of their time on the development or implementation of energy-efficient technologies and services, according to a 2017 Energy Employment report by U.S. DOE. To highlight this diverse and growing workforce, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released a multimedia project, People Who Save Energy, that tells the stories of some of these workers so that readers can learn how and why these individuals chose to work in energy efficiency.
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| U.S. DOE's Better Buildings Initiative - Monthly Top 10 Solutions List
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| Find Energy Data for Your City with U.S. DOE's State and Local Energy Data Website
Search your city or zip code in the City Energy Profiles on the State and Local Energy Data (SLED) website to find energy data for your city, including information on what energy sources make up your electricity, what percent of vehicles use alternative fuels, and how much energy is used by different types of buildings and industries. U.S. DOE has compiled this data and more for 23,400+ cities across the United States! City policy makers can use this data to help plan and implement energy efficiency and renewable energy projects and to make strategic energy decisions. You can also access this and even more energy resources for cities, including ten new case studies, through the Cities Leading through Energy Analysis and Planning (Cities-LEAP) project.
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| Report: Using Intelligent Efficiency to Collect and Analyze Non-Energy Benefits Information
A new ACEEE report explores how new technologies and Big Data can be used to analyze energy efficiency program benefits. These technologies reduce the time and expense of a robust cost-benefit analysis to determine a program's non-energy benefits (NEBs), and thus can attract additional program funding. By making energy efficiency more attractive, they can help boost energy savings for individuals, utilities, and society.
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