DE-FOA-0001385: SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE THE ENERGY EFFICIENCY OF U.S. SMALL AND MEDIUM COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS

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Through this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), Department of Energy (DOE) seeks to fund the scale-up of promising solutions to the market barriers that hinder the growth of energy efficiency in the small and medium commercial buildings and tenant spaces. The objective of this funding is to build a path for market-ready solutions to be used at scale across the United States (US) to improve commercial building energy efficiency. According to the US Energy Information Agency, in 2014, 18 Quadrillion Btu was used in commercial buildings, about 19% of total national energy use. Small commercial buildings (under 50,000 square feet in gross floor area) account for more than 40% of the energy used in the commercial sector. Commercial buildings can be made much more efficient using a variety of cost effective efficiency improvements while creating jobs and building a stronger economy. However, well-documented informational, structural, and market barriers, such as split incentives, asymmetrical or inadequate information, higher first costs and high investment hurdle rates, impede the adoption of more energy efficient technologies and practices. These barriers are particularly pernicious in the small and medium size commercial buildings (between 50,000 and 100,000 square feet in gross floor area) that this FOA addresses. The mission of the US Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office (BTO) is to help meet DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and Administration targets to improve energy efficiency in commercial and residential buildings, with a near-term goal of 20% savings by 2020 and 50% by 2030. The Commercial Building Integration (CBI) program plays an important role in meeting the Building Technologies Office goals; it is charged with increasing voluntary adoption of energy efficient technologies and practices in commercial buildings, serving as a critical “market stimulation” link between BTO’s Emerging Technologies and Codes and Standards programs. In order for CBI to help meet BTO, EERE and DOE energy efficiency goals for commercial buildings, the program continues to invest in the development of new resources, tools, and solutions designed to help overcome the aforementioned barriers to energy efficiency. These resources are available on the CBI program website at http://energy.gov/eere/buildings/commercial-buildings-integration. The full FOA is posted on the EERE eXCHANGE website at https://eere-exchange.energy.gov. Applications must be submitted through the EERE eXCHANGE website to be considered for award. The applicant must first register and create an account on the EERE eXCHANGE website. A User Guide for the EERE eXCHANGE can be found on the EERE website https://eere- exchange.energy.gov/Manuals.aspx after logging in to the system. Information on where to submit questions regarding the content of the announcement and where to submit questions regarding submission of applications is found in the full FOA posted on the EERE eXCHANGE website.

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